Review: Motorola's RAZR2-like Z9 Slider

Motorola Z9

Motorola Z9

Motorola Z9

Motorola Z9

Motorola Z9

Introduction

Motorola's latest attempt at stopping their market share from vanishing into thin air is the Z9, a slim slider handset making waves on AT&T's high-speed HSDPA network. I tested everything I could with this maroon-colored handset, to see if it stand a chance of saving a sinking ship.

Physical Aspects

The Motorola Z9 is a large handset, measuring 114mm x 54mm x 14mm (4.5" x 2.1" x 0.5"). It feels very wide in your hand, and the 140g (4.9oz) gives a noticable heft. The body is built very solid, with no creaks or sounds when in use. The slide is also very solid, though a bit springy, with no wobble. All in all, the handset's feel is very nice.

There's no shortage of buttons on the Motorola Z9, with a traditional numberpad hiding beneath the slide. The top half of the handset features a 5-way d-pad, left and right softkeys, end and send keys, a dedicated internet key, and a back button. The left side of the handset is where you'll find the volume rocker and a user-configurable shortcut key called the 'smart' key.

The right side of the Z9 features only the camera button and microUSB port, with a small and flimsy cover. There are no connections on the bottom of the device, and the top only offers a lanyard loop. The back of the camera houses a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a speaker opening along the bottom.

The main display is a completely beautiful 2.4" QVGA display that is very bright and easy to read, even in sunlight, surprisingly. The buttons, both on the top of the device and the keypad, are simply labels on the keymat, with a very small button indicating where to press. Typing by feel is slightly awkward, due to this odd layout, but in use the system works surprisingly well. The handset also gives a small vibration each time you press a button, which I found really helped give a positive experience.