Review: Motorola RIZR Z10

Motorola Z10 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The Motorola RIZR Z10 is Motorola's flagship 3G smartphone. This is a phone that offers many good features, such as a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, high quality video calling, an excellent media player, high speed data access via HSDPA, and third party Symbian applications. It's a slimline smartphone with a good looking "kick" design slide. But it isn't the easiest or most reliable phone available.

Review: June 2008. Updated September 2008.

The Motorola RIZR Z10 is an updated version of the RIZR Z8, making it Motorola's flagship 3G smartphone. Like the Z8, the Z10 is a slide-design phone that's very light for a 3G smartphone. It looks fantastic with its "kick" design slide. The slide kicks out when opened, giving the phone the appearance and ergonomic benefits of a clamshell when opened. The screen is superb with 16 million colours and a clear and bright display. The keypad is slightly cramped however, and may be a problem to use if you have very large fingers.

Motorola's advertising guys are really pushing the camera and video recording features of the Z10. This seems to be overdone, and draws attention to the fact that Motorola actually lags other manufacturers when it comes to imaging. This is certainly Motorola's best imaging phone to date, with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and a video camera capable of recording at 30 frames per second. The camera takes good pictures, but it's not in the same league as the top-end phones from other manufacturers, e.g. the Sony Ericsson K850i, Nokia N95, Samsung G800 or LG Viewty. A second VGA camera enables high quality video calling on a 3G network.

The Z10 is well equipped for music, with a media player that supports MP3, AAC, AAC+ & AAC Enhanced formats in high quality stereo. The music player handles playlists and shuffles, and can synchronise with your PC via high-speed Bluetooth or USB 2.0. There is support for a wireless Bluetooth stereo headset (not supplied) or a conventional stereo headset. The Z10 can store plenty of songs too when fitted with a microSD memory card. The Z10 can take the new 4 GB cards, which provides enough storage for 1,000 tracks.

Connectivity is via Bluetooth or USB. The Z10 can handle fast downloads too. On a 2G network, the Z10 can connect using EDGE at up to 236.8 kbps. On a 3G network, HSDPA enables downloads of up to 3.6 Mbps - comparable with home broadband. An Opera web browser is supplied, with full mobile HTML support and the phone can handle email too. The phone is quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) so is usable worldwide.

The Z10 is a smartphone, so it supports third-party Symbian applications. These can be used to customise your phone and turn it into a mini-laptop. However, Symbian systems lack the simplicity, speed and robustness of a simple phone interface. The Z10 exhibits the usual Symbian problems, such as slow menus, freezing or shutting down. It's also a harder user interface to get to grips with.

In summary, the Z10 is a powerful device with a lot of good features, but it isn't our first choice of smartphone, and we don't expect it to be a massive seller.

Features of the Motorola RIZR Z10 / MOTORIZR Z10 include:

• 3G Symbian smartphone
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, LED flash and 8x digital zoom
• Video camera (30 frames/second)
• 3G video calling (using second VGA camera)
• Display: TFT, 16 million colours, 320 x 240 pixels (2.2 inches)
• Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC Enhanced formats)
• Hands-Free Speaker Phone
• Speaker independent name dialling / voice commands
• Speed dialling
• Messaging: SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
• Pre-loaded games
• Caller ID with image
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0
• Memory: 45 Mbytes plus MicroSD card (expandable to 4 Gbytes)
• Opera HTML web browser
• Data: GPRS Class 10, EDGE, HSPDA (3.6 Mbps)
• Quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) plus 3G (WCDMA 2100)
• Size: 51 x 109 x 16.5 mm
• Weight: 115g
• Talktime: up to 5 hours (3G)
• Battery standby: up to 16 days

Motorola RIZR Z10 Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 28 reviews:

Reviewed by taz from UK on 31st May 2009
one of the greatest phones, it has it all and the screen is fantastic and the camera is way better then my old samsung d900
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Reviewed by Stace from England on 23rd May 2009
The phone is a great phone!!! I am empressed wiv the features such as the 3.2 mega pixals and camera flash. It's way better than any other phone i've had lol I recommend it to any one to buy it cos its 100% good for downloading music off the mobile internet. Its a good phone.
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Reviewed by trimtop from uk on 27th Feb 2009
great phone few months old no problems at all.
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Reviewed by lezzer from uk on 10th Feb 2009
had this fone for about a month its brill got it on a payg upgrade cost me £60 loads stuff on it.looks great,quality reception loads of storage with 1gb sd card all in all excellent fone. not even had a problem with battery life
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Reviewed by Taz from UK on 8th Feb 2009
It is one of the worst phone i ever uses. Camera say 3.2 MP but quality is much inferior then Nokia N73 , sony K800i and even samsung d900i (we cant even compare with 5 MP phones), Music Player doesnot play most of MP3 (it only pley under 128bits), we cant even open/see images which has been taken by 4 mp or above camera/phones on it. can not view any pdf or word file/docs, most of the games are not supported. Will have to spend 20 to 30 pounds to load any good Media Player so can watch movies/vedieo . As in rthis phone we got Mobiclip pl;ayer download which can only play Brownie collection movie given in memorycard, aslo can see any youtube vedio. In short it is good phone if you dont want to use any application and just want phone to receive call,
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Reviewed by Dr. Phone from United Kingdom on 5th Feb 2009
This phone is average... i was looking for a new phone on eBay as you do, this one "looked like" it had it all. however looks can be deciving. the Kick slide makes the phone look great but the performance is shocking. it freezes all the time and turns itself off. however the screeen quality and onboard movie maker is great if yoou ski/snowboard/skate or blade, cause you can uplaod your movies/pics straight to facebook/myspace.
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Reviewed by Richard Brook from Wales on 3rd Feb 2009
I think its really good. Very well made, though the keys are a bit fiddly and you need to have small fingers for texting! Not keen on the symbian operating sytstem as i find you think you've exited applications but they are still running. It doesnt seem clear how to exit them. You find later on that you havent got any memory to take a picture and you have to free it up by switching it on and off. I have tried Nokias before which had the same operating system. I just dont think its very friendly. It takes a bit of getting used to but I think its great!
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Reviewed by Iky from UK on 25th Jan 2009
I wasn't to keen when i first saw the Z10, it is quite wide comapred to the previous k1 i had. it has some cool applications but the phone is a lil slow when it comes to accessing the applications, camera quality is good, but not as good if comapred with sony's. The design is appealing, love the big screen. texting is quite difficult at first. one down side is, i cnt seem to change my soft keys. i gt the phone from o2, that is dissapointing!! overall good phone, i wouldnt reccomend it for those who want something simple, phone will take time to get used to!!
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Reviewed by michaelfaescotland from uk on 12th Jan 2009
i bought this fone a week ago. its gr8 except 4 the music player. wen i used my other headfones with an adaptor, the sound was terrible and grainy (the 1s u get with the fone r gud tho, i jst prefer earbud headfones) and these were ipod headfone, so it wasnt them. thts the only othr bad fing except the fone rebootin and constantly bein slow. its a gr8 lukin fone with a fantastic video player and it cam support 32gb mem cards. i dont kno if il hav this fone 4 long as music is wat i luk 4 in fones. hope this helps x x x
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Reviewed by Andy from England on 4th Jan 2009
Battery length is shocking had it for 6 months now and doesn;t last a day. Had it sent back to o2 because wouldn't allow me to write a text message keeps exiting the program. It constantly restarts or freezers i would say at least once a week now.
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Reviewed by david from england on 28th Dec 2008
i bought this phone recently from o2 at the bargain price of £70.00 reduced from £146.48. what can i say..at the end of the day anybody who has ever owned a motorola phone knows they are intially not the simplest or easiest of phones to get to grips with, and this is no different.the menu system first seems very complicated but after a while it becomes second nature.it night not have a lot of internal memory but the fact you can increase with micro sd card is more than enough for me. the camera whilst not matching some of sony ericcsons efforts is still rather good and the speaker quality is also excellent. build quality is quite robust and it feels it weighing more than some other phones on the market. i have had no issues with freezing screens etc and battery life is excellent. plus it kinda looks good with the shape contoured to your face when u receive or make calls. all in all few little niggles but an excellent effort.
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Reviewed by Jim from jamica on 29th Nov 2008
it is great. it is great. why don't yous lot like it. looks well buff. gooooooooooood phone
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Reviewed by Heather from NorthernIreland on 22nd Nov 2008
This is the worst phone I have ever had! From day 1 the phone has given trouble. It "crashes" with no warning, unable to transfer contacts to Garmin Sat nav for hands free calling. The phone has been sent back several times to get fixed. My Network provider O2 offers no solutions and refuses to change phone which is most annoying when I have been customer for 6 years. So basically this phone is riddled with "gremlins" DO NOT BUY
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Reviewed by Matt from england on 15th Aug 2008
I would consider avoiding this phone as it is a poor excuse for a phone. i got this phone on a two year contract which i expected it to last, unfortunatly i am on my second broken phone after just two weeks.
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Reviewed by jacki from england on 3rd Aug 2008
Being a long time Motorola user -upgraded to this phone - after two faulty hand sets I have given up. The phone itself looks great but the key pad is too small to text and became a pain.( Where the bottom of phone curves the bottom keys are too close - im a female with quite small fingers so any one with larger hands - dont even go there!) The menus are far too complicted, just to get to the simplest of operations there were too many sub menus to go through. The user guide didnt match up to the actual phone menus which was bizarre. AVOID
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Reviewed by Stephen Mc from England on 17th Jul 2008
Realy want to like it but it's less than a month old and has an annoying memory card error if you set the camera to the best photo level. Some minor problems with menu items not working and now the battery looks like it may be knackered and not charging. Was this tested before it was released? Very disappointed.
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Reviewed by Ian Mcginnigle from England on 13th Jul 2008
Just got the z10. In a few words, NOT VERY GOOD ! Cramped keypad, freezes when it feels like, no selection of ringtones or message alert tones. No repeat message alert, beeps only once. I had a rzr flip phone before and it has been so user friendly and a great phone. Sending it back to O2. Motorola Z10 ???? Naaaaaah! Disappointing, look elsewhere !
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Reviewed by ed from england on 11th Jul 2008
good
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Reviewed by Craig C from U.K on 9th Jul 2008
Classy finish and an excellent camera.. Texting can be tricky as the keys are not very raised. The menu is so diffent to any other phone i have used and took me a long time to change ringtones ect.. I think this is going to be a love/hate relationship with the Z10..
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Reviewed by Linda Still from Scotland on 22nd Jun 2008
I always buy Motorola as I love the suggestive texting which remembers the whole sentence which I got with my Z3 so when Z10 came on the go I couldn't wait to get it. Wish I didn't bother now, the phone has such a long list of bad points I hate it. 1. I can't set my texts to vibrate only. 2. Predictive and suggestive text rarely works. 3. Battery life, pants! 4. I hate the way it leaves a list of your last contacts on texting. 5. 2 second delay for each menu. 6. Doesn't return to home page after a function, you have to press back sometimes as much as five times. 7. Buttons are hard to press making texting difficult. I am sure the phone has some goods points but with as many bad points as these it certainly wasn't worth the money I paid for it. Also the issue of battery life keeps coming up again and again so why does Motorola not listen? :(
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Reviewed by chris from england on 21st Jun 2008
im really annoyed with my z1o!!! only had it 5 mins and it keeps freezing... not opening applications.. randomly exiting applications!! awful phone i am so dissapointed!!
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Reviewed by Felicity Daly from England on 10th Jun 2008
I work in the Carphone Warehouse and I have only experienced 1 person wanting this phone. I think the design's funky but apart from that, it's like any other Motorola phone... rubbish!
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Reviewed by Matt Chang from China on 5th Jun 2008
Hello, this phone looks ok, but same old reliability issues as with many motorola phones.
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Reviewed by Lee Fry from UK on 4th Jun 2008
Lovely phone, had a few issues with it on first day getting a wallpaper to stay etc, but since after the 2nd reboot all is good. Camera is brilliant as is the flash! Good sound quality, and not one crash yet! Just wish the reminder alter for unread txt messages worked... :(
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Reviewed by Andy from England on 4th Jun 2008
I loved the design of this phone but was extremely disappointed with the software.Here is my list of bad points: 1. The phone doesn't lock when you shut the slider 2. The phone says 'unlocked' when you try and lock it with the slider closed 3. I have to keep putting predictive texting on all my messages as it always reverts back to the original settings 4. It doesn't automatically put a capital letter after a full stop when messaging. Again this has to be done manually 5. It takes at least 2 seconds for the screen to appear when the slider is opened There are some good points but the bad ones far outweigh them. Sorry - sent back after 2 hours. Going to wait for the new Sony Ericsson C902
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Reviewed by dominic from england on 30th May 2008
This is fantastic. Camera is ammence,music player is good quality and so is everything else. RECOMMEND THIS PHONE. Mine is pay as you go!!!
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Reviewed by joe bayer from england on 29th May 2008
its a grate phone aND IT BENDS
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Reviewed by rob from uk on 27th May 2008
In a nutshell: To complicated and reliability i poor. I warn you away.
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