Motorola Z - an even slimmer RAZR
Motorola have revealed the Motorola Z, a new phone in the RAZR family. Aimed initially as a new Korean phone, the Motorola Z will be exported across the globe over the coming year. So what can we expect from the new handset? Well, slimness, obviously. Motorola claim the new Z will be 14.8mm thick (the original RAZR is 14.5mm), and will come packed with a 2.2 inch screen, 1.3 megapixel camera and an MP3 player, all squashed into its tiny slider form factor. And the reason for using the letter ‘Z’ in the name? Well, according to Choi Yoon-ho, head of the consumer experience design team at Motorola, “Z was chosen because it is the last letter of the alphabet.” Er, right…! Not for Motorola the long arbitrary-lettered names used by other manufacturers then (Samsung SPH-V8400 anyone?!)
Some industry analysts remain unimpressed by the new Motorola Z though. Read why after the jump.
[Source: Hankooki Times, via Engadget]
The new Motorola Z slim phone
The new Motorola Z is being sold in Korea first as it was developed by Motorola’s design centre in Seoul, and so is very much pitched at the super-technological Korean market. Slimphones are all the rage in Korea right now, and it was the RAZR that began that trend. Seems only natural that the new evolution of the RAZR should begin life in Korea, therefore, before finding its way across the rest of the globe.
However, its success in Korea is not certain. Hankooki Times reports an unnamed analyst as saying:
“My first impression was that the Z is fit for foreigners’ big hands, not for Korea’s smaller ones. Its size is almost similar to that of the RAZR. But, the latter is okay here since it is a clamshell-type phone but a slider is different…It remains to be seen whether tech-savvy Koreans will snap up the new phone as they did for the RAZR.”
I take his point about Koreans loving features, and the Z is a bit short on them. If nothing else, the Motorola Z should show whether slimphones were a transient trend or one that’s here to stay. But as a big-handed foreigner, I say “Ouch!” I’d write more in outrage, but obviously my big stubby fingers can’t work my keyboard properly!
