Motorola ZN300 Review: First Impressions

I bought this phone mainly as a music player, and I was looking for something with enough storage to dump my gigabytes of music on.

Packaging: I always hated those huge ass phone boxes and packaging, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see the phone come in a small cubish box exactly bigger than my fist. As environmentally friendly as it gets.

Size and build: The phone is somewhat heavy and thick by today's standards (107g), but the build quality is top notch. The phone's slider is spring loaded and very smooth. Its face and keypad are glossy black and a real fingerprint magnet. The back is brushed aluminum, giving the whole phone a very futuristic design.

Audio player: The 3.5mm jack is a huge plus, and very conveniently located at the top left. However, this phone must be built for half-deaf people -- the headphone jack is LOUD. With my in-ear headphones, I had to lower the volume down to 1 and it still felt loud in a quiet room. I'm going to see if updating the firmware will fix it (I can't be the ONLY person with the phone who doesn't like the cheapo bundled headset, which are still quite load at vol. 1 out of 7). The music player is basic as hell (no EQ) and sound quality is on par with the iPod.

Camera: Despite being marketed as a camera phone, I have to say the photo quality is pretty crap. 3.1 megapixels is pretty mediocre by today's 2-digit mpx standards. I haven't tried the video but I wouldn't expect it to be any better.

Interface: The menus are pretty straightforward, and there are options to make all parts of the phone easily accessible (you can even tweak the main menu icon order). A very user friendly phone.

Verdict: As an overall package, I'd say it's not bad. After all, it's only HK$1380 (US$178). Granted, there's really nothing amazing or stellar about the phone, except for the big storage space.

Pros:
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Up to 32GB external
- Cheap price
- Stylish design
- Screen quality

Cons:
- Phone's face and keypad are fingerprint magnets
- Camera quality
- A tad bulky
- Nothing out of the ordinary.