Motorola ZN300

Expected Q1 2009
9th March 2009

The Motorola ZN300 is a quad-band GSM slider phone with a 3.1 megapixel camera packaged up in a glossy case that manages to avoid looking too much like Motorolas of old.

We guess that the "ZN" designation means that this is a camera phone, and the 3.1 megapixel sensor comes with a flash, but it's a fixed focus affair only. Video capture rate is quoted as 15 frames per second, but there's no mention of resolution which is never a good sign.

You can upload videos directly to YouTube, but the lack of 3G or WiFi will possibly make this a pretty miserable experience. You can also interface directly with Myspace, Facebook and Photobucket, so if you use one of these services and you don't mind waiting for the phone to upload stuff then it might be worth considering.

The display is a 240 x 320 pixel panel, about 2.1" in size. The Motorola ZN300 supports stereo Bluetooth, USB 2.0, microSD expandable memory and comes with a pretty comprehensive media player.

It really all comes down to price - the Motorola ZN300 might be an attractive phone if it is priced cheaply enough, but Motorola have not given any guidance on how much the phone will cost when it is launched, probably during March. From Motorola's point of view, the ZN300 is not the phone that will lift their sales and profit margin above their current disastrous levels. We keep hoping that Motorola will come up with something more engaging than this.. and waiting.. and waiting..