Loading ...REVIEW: Motorola ZN200 and W388
HERE’s something for the fashion-addict but budget-conscious users.
Motorola has a range of phone models that cater to a broad market spectrum but it is primarily known for its ROKR and RAZR models nowadays because of their fashion-minded designs and solid construction.
Motorola can also be credited for making the first “flip phone” the StarTAC way back in the mid-90s. From then on, Motorola has been leveraging on fashionable design but sometimes sacrificing functionality.
While it has been chased after by Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson in many of the segments that it once dominated over, Motorola is still holding on its own in the entry-level phone space by extensively introducing a host of models that are just about dirt cheap as any other brand. Some of these phones can be bought for no less than P4,000. Though it is being closely followed by other brands, such as Sony Ericsson, Motorola still dominates the “super entry-level” phone category.
Among the cheapest of the cheap are Motorola’s ZN200 and the W388, which cost between P3,500 and P7,000. The W388 in particular is one of Motorola’s cheapest while the mid-level ZN200 is a several steps behind the MOTOSLVR series.
W388 for the classy masses
The W388 is simply a consumer entry-level phone. While some of the other mobile brands still hark about making phones that are cheap with good design, the W388 is already successful in that department. The phone is particularly small, at just about 109 millimeters in length and 14 millimeters in thickness. It also weighs barely 100 grams.
Motorola’s music-orientation is also evident on the W388 as there are readily available music buttons. The upper left button has a musical note icon that when pressed, leads the user to the music segment of the phone. The four-way keypad also controls the music segment of the phone as it has the forward, back, volume, play/pause buttons that are used when playing music. The use of the four-way button as a music controller is nothing new but the W388 executes it pretty well.
Music and other files can also be stored in its shared 7.5 megabyte internal memory but it can be expanded with a microSD card up to 2 gigabytes, thereby expanding content-saving capabilities. However, this device can only play music files. No video can run on it.
Because it is targeted at basic users, the W388’s graphical user interface has only but the barest of bare essentials. It has the standard calculator, alarm clock, stopwatch and SMS messaging.
Internet access is also available on the W388, by way of an integrated Internet browser and a Google client but because of the limited screen size, low resolution (128 kb by 160 kb), and the lack of a 3G platform (it only uses GSM and although it claims to be HTML-ready its EDGE capabilities are very limited) makes it less of a useful Internet-ready phone.
Still, the W388 boasts of Motorola’s CrystalTalk sound feature, which allows for clearer sounds when making calls or listening to music.
This device also has a 2-megapixel camera. The camera control interface does not do much with photos. But having a camera seems a nifty add-on to an otherwise very basic mobile phone.
ZN200: For the budget conscious but a bit fancier
If not the W388, a user may try something a bit better looking with slightly better graphics and applications. The ZN200 is one such device. One of the few Motorola slider models, the ZN200 is still considered an entry-level phone due to some downgraded features, notably its Internet capabilities.
For one, the ZN200 is almost the same size as the W388 but is noticeably heavier at 115 grams. Of course, it becomes longer when the keypad is fully exposed from underneath the device. The button and alphanumeric keypad layout is very minimalist; the keypad is actually integrated into one plastic part but it is not difficult to access the numbers. Even the call/power and left/right menu buttons are integrated into a similar manner.
Unlike the W388 which relies on the filename of the MP3 music file to help identify it, the ZN200 uses the file’s ID3 tag, which separates the song’s title, the musician, the album and the genre. This is helpful when navigating through thousands of music files.
The ZN200 also has an integrated 2-megapixel camera, which can be used for video recording. The ZN200 can zoom eight times than the W388’s 4 times zoom but the quality is quite degraded and since the ZN200 doesn’t have an image stabilizer, photo taking or video recording at the maximum zoom can be wobbly if not downright difficult.
Nevertheless, the 220×176 pixel resolution LCD screen is better, allowing for sharper photo and video viewing. Because the phone has EDGE connectivity, the ZN200 can view HTML and WAP sites better but still with limited features.
Surprisingly, the ZN200 can only accommodate microSD cards of up to 2 Gb. This is despite some older generation of entry-level multimedia phones that are able to accommodate at least 4 Gb. Fewer new phones that accommodate microSD cards are using less than 4 Gb of capacity. On the other hand, it has a 30 megabyte internal memory which stores quite a number of short videos and medium-quality photos.
One nifty feature of the ZN200 is an incoming message indicator on top of the screen. When a message (either SMS or if email is set up on the phone) is received, an image of an envelope lights up. This is useful for users who put their phones in their chest pocket and when phones are on silent mode and without the vibrating feature.
On the other hand, the ZN200 has some speed issues. Trying to access files on the microSD card is slow. A fraction of a second from the time a button is pressed to the time the screen refreshes is already noticeable. Even when typing a message, the screen would put in the letter pressed after a small fraction of a second. While it is not exactly a major concern, this slow reaction time could be a bit annoying for users.
Battery life
As mentioned earlier, the Motorola ZN200 and W388 are entry-level phones with limited functionalities. Because these models do not have large LCD screens and have basic applications installed, battery life for both phones is better than other models in the same class. Both phones use 810 milliampere-hour (mAh) batteries. On standby mode, both phones can last from three to four days. Even when used for calls, both phones can last for at least 48 hours on one full charge. Charging also takes less than one hour. This is appealing for users who are always on the go and do not have time for charging an electronic device.
Verdict
Motorola has successfully introduced entry-level phones that cater to fashion addicts with a very limited budget. There are kinks on both phones, notably on their graphical user interface, small expandable memory capacity, and slow reaction time, but at least they still look good. For now, Motorola is finding its way into the hands of the many Filipinos who like to look good without spending so much.
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