All About Symbian - Symbian, Nokia and S60 unwrapped.
Gallery: Motorola RIZR Z8
Published by Rafe Blandford at 13:31 UTC, February 14th 2007
Summary:
Motorola's re-entry into the Symbian phone world. The Z8 has a quniue form factor - a modified slider - which has earned it the nick name the bannana phone. Its also the first non-touch screen UIQ phone. Other impressive details include the bundled software - Shozu and Sky by Mobile (UK users can access Sky channels).
These photos are from 3GSM 2007.
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Home screen musicYou can see and control the currently playing music via the Home screen. -
Kick-flipThe Z8 has a unique kick flip design. The slider appears to break in order to give a banana shape that better fits to the profile of a human face. -
RIZR Z8 KeysI think the control keys may be the weakest part of the design. This is not to say they are bad, but they may take users a while to get use too. -
Application Launcher -
Thin PhoneThe Z8 is not the thinnest phone in the world, but it is still very trim. -
Opera BrowserThe Opera Browser is on board. This is a big improvement over the Openwave Browser than Motorola usually uses in their phones. -
Z8 in handThe Z8 is a small device, and very pocketable. It bears no relation, whatsoever, to Motorola early Symbian efforts - the monstrous A series (A920, A925 and A1000). -
Z8 Application LauncherThe Z8 uses the standard UIQ application launcher. Here you can see it operating in list mode. -
Z8 KeypadThe Z8 keyboard is reasonably roomy, and with the kick-flip is more accessible than standard slider keyboards. -
Kick flip 2 -
Home screenQuick access to the most common functions is provided by the Home screen. -
Volume buttonsThe volume buttons control sound levels in phone calls and multimedia applications. -
Camera capture button and USBThere is a dedicated camera capture button on the side of the device. It is next to the USB port used for PC connectivity and sync. -
Camera Mode -
Z8 icon viewThis is the launcher in icon view. This becomes a lot more usable on a softkey device as it is the quickest way to launch applications. (Rather than scrolling down a list). -
Z8 Open -
Z8 UI Part 2In its current form the Z8 allows you to arrange applications and folders in the launcher as you please. This is in contrast to the Sony Ericsson UIQ phones which do not allow you to change the positions of the default applications. -
Move apps with freedom -
Z8 User InterfaceThe Z8 uses UIQ 3.1 as its interface. In the demo it was impressively quick. The softkey interface works very well with UIQ 3 despite it origin as a touchscreen UI. -
Z8 frontend UIMotorola have made a customised home screen for the Z8. It clearly draws on the ancestry of Sendo's Now! screen. It allows you to carry out common tasks extremely quickly. It is customisable via a control panel applet. -
Z8 CameraThe Z8 features a 2 megapxiel camera - nothing special, but should be good enough for most people. It will also capture video a QVGA resolutions. -
Agenda with categoriesPIM power users will be pleased to see that Agenda includes support for categories. -
UIQ ApplicationsAll the applications that you would expect are present. Here is the Agenda showing a week view.
