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>> Hi! I'm Kent German, senior editor here at cnet.com.
Today, we'll take at the first at the Motorola Rizr Z8. It's a phone from Motorola service.
This is the third Rizr we've checked out. It's different from the other Rizrs and is a little bigger, has a lot more features and very interesting design that we haven't seen on cellphone before. This phone is only available and locked in the United States. It's not with a carrier and I doubt we'll probably see it with one either.
Like the other Rizrs, this is a slider phone, but as it says it is a little bigger, a little taller, a little fatter, a little wider as well, but unlike the other Rizr phones when you slide it up you actually see that the phone bends like this. So, this is definitely unique. So, you can see the bends here. It does mean that the phone has a little different construction as far as sliding up and down. The phone does have two cameras actually. There's one here on the back, but when you have the phone up you can take self portraits using the camera right here.
A little different design too is there is a -- The battery compartment is right here. This panel actually comes off and you can change your SIM card there, so usually we see those behind the battery.
On this side, there is a dedicated camera lens and the mini USB port. While on this side, there's the micro SD slot, a volume rocker and the Motorola smart key.
One thing that I noticed that I wanted to show you is where a micro SD slot is and the mini USB port, they do kind of jut out just a little bit, but just a little bit from the angle of the phone. So, when I was using the phone against my ear, my finger was constantly rubbing this area.
The navigation controls, unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with.
The thing that I'd like -- I found these buttons just a little cramped. They are ridges between these navigation buttons, but kinda hard to get my finger in there and press accurately.
Keypad bumps were still mostly well-designed. I like the navigation buttons here. They do kinda have to give a solid press to get them to work. I would like it if they had a little more -- just a little more give to them.
Over on the side of the phone.
It has a media player or play music, has a megapixel camera, has blue tooth, so all those high-end features.
It is equipped only for European 3G networks right now and they don't have a model for North America, US or Canada that'll work with the 3G networks here, so I just want you to be aware of that.
Overall, though, interesting phone of high features, although, the designs could use some new tweaks.
I'm Kent German.
This is Motorola Rizr Z8.
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