Motorola sharpens its star RAZR

For me, the best new feature is the Z8’s canted body when opened.  Not only does the keypad slide out from the bottom — but it actually bends the bottom of the phone to get it closer to your mouth. It’s a very, very clever design.

The Z8 is being shipped with "The Bourne Identity" movie pre-loaded on a 512MB microSD card, along with the ROKR S9 stereo Bluetooth headset. It will be awhile before we get to see the Z8 for sale from an American cellular carrier.

Speaking of ROKR (pronounced “rocker” — not Roker as in the Today Show’s Al Roker) there’s a new model in that line too. The ROKR Z6 is designed to be a cell phone and a great portable music playback device. 

With dedicated music keys on the outside, high speed USB 2.0 connectivity, microUSB card support (up to 2GB cards now – 4GB cards later this year) and stereo Bluetooth capability, the ROKR is aimed squarely at Apple’s upcoming iPhone. We'll have to wait and see before conmmenting further.

The Z6 is slated to roll out in Europe and Asia later this year. We may see it here in the U.S. too — although Motorola didn't specify.

New Q

Motorola The improved Motorola Q smartphone features a new keyboard outside and much faster insides.

Finally, Motorola’s smartphone, the Q gets a high-speed boost as well. Based on the newly improved Windows Mobile 6 operating system, the new Moto Q8 (GSM/EDGE) and Q9 (HSDPA) join the original CMDA Q. The company has sold nearly one million Q phones to date — and hopes to sell a lot more with the addition of new models that work in countries other than the U.S. 

The star of the line will definitely be the 3G Q9 with its sleek new form factor, dual processor lightning-fast wireless capabilities and improved QWERTY keyboard.  In Moto’s demonstration, it looks like it’s capable of downloads and Web surfing at lightning speeds.

In a quick, hands-on comparison, the new Q9 was slightly longer than my current favorite Windows Mobile smartphone, T Mobile’s Dash. They were very closely matched width and depth-wise.  No mention was made of the new Q's battery life. The original CDMA Q was a battery hog.  But, GSM phones usually provide better battery life.

The new Q9 is available in Italy this week; I’m hoping when we’ll see them for sale in the U.S. sometime this year.

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