If we had a dime for every time someone tried to “redefine the mobile imaging experience,” we’d all be shooting with Hasselblads from the back of Ferraris…there’s just a new “this time we mean it!” camera phone unveiled every six months. But this week in New York and Beijing, Kodak and Motorola both threw their weight behind a new collaborative device they say is “built to shoot” as much as it is “built to talk.” The Motozine ZN5, a new 5 megapixel camera phone, shows off the latest engineering breakthroughs from both manufacturers, from Motorola’s “CrystalTalk” technology to Kodak’s “Perfect Touch” in-camera editing fixes.
The ZN5, which will likely be called the “Zine”, is the first in a new line of Moto phones that will emphasize spontaneity. The brand promise is that users will have “the freedom to share pop culture, on their terms.” If their terms are bluetooth/wireless enabled and microSD card-ready, new users will be in luck by the end of this year, when the phone is released in the U.S. (price and carrier still to-be-determined).
If consumers were hoping for a super-fast way to upload all the hot shots they’ll be able to capture on the ZN5, though, they may be disappointed. The new multi-media device is not 3G yet, but instead, set up to run with quad band EDGE. Still, with its on-board editing, picture quality and many connectivity options, the ZN5 does look to be one of the first camera phones which could alleviate the need for picture-sharers to use their laptops at all.
What do you think about this product? Talk about it in the Dealerscope forums.
