Motorola RIZR 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 User 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 40 reviews:
Reviewed by Laktel from France on 9th May 2011
This phone is like a portable computer! Very good cameras, great quality
sound, can do lots of stuff. BAD STUFF: -No Radio; -Freezes and restarts
sometimes if you overload the memory; -Motorola Support is very bad.
Rating: 
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Reviewed by moto from usa on 22nd Mar 2010
just junk, dont buy just freezes up, its rubish
Rating:  Reply
Reviewed by DvBorr from UK on 12th Feb 2010
A very dissapointing phone, very clever and snazzy design, the scren
is excellent and film playback very good when it doesn't freeze that
is! Battery life very poor, and texting is awful, very stiff keys when
entering numbers or texting. This phone is very slow software wise,
and is nowhere near as easy to use as a Nokia or Samsung. I would not
get another one if it were free.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Taki from Algeria on 14th Dec 2009
i was going to buy this phone today (2nd hand)not anymore after reading
reviews ,the same negative reviews from this site and 4 others ! even
at the shop this morning while trying it ,i witnessed some:1-we tried
a charged battery from a z3 and it saids low battery.2-keypad .3-very
slow.4-memory card issues(it detected it but can't find the files in
it) i miss my old n73 :(
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by jonesylar from UK on 3rd Oct 2009
Agree with all the negative reviews here! If you are even tempted to
buy this Z10 second hand, don't. You need fingertips like needles (and
the power of jackhammers) to text, the battery life is atrocious, and
the whole package is a sham. Motorola used to make such brilliant phones,
low-priced right through to expensive ones. What's gone wrong?!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Uri from Spain on 30th Sep 2009
What a piece of... The sync soft keeps killing my PC and have to restart
it un safe mode. The phone keeps crashing or freezing evry two weeks
or so,I bearly use cam or anything special of it. Can't wait to get
another one!!!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Ellie from England on 28th Sep 2009
the phone is usless.. ive had it for two months and its suddenly told
me 'sms send failed' why .. i do not know.. ive tried everything, tried
sorting it by going through the pointless hard work menu but thats not
much help. and the motorola websites are pointless and are no help.
the keypad on this phone is stiff and awkward to, and its very slow.
if any1 else knows why it wnt let me send messages all of a sudden then
please HEELLPP! Ive got no luck trying there website!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by hassan from united kingdom on 19th
Sep 2009
this phone has really bad video and sound quality. buy an lg viewty,
much better
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by holly from england on 3rd Sep 2009
This is the worst phone i have ever had! battery life is no good, have
to charge it every night and it still doesnt last a full day. Keeps
cutting out when talking to people. Crashes quite often and usually
have to keep removing the battery in order to switch it back on again.
is very slow once you have took a few pictures and have to keep deleting
my inbox and transfering stuff to my pc in order for it to run at a
bareable rate. had it for nearly 18 months now and still not entirely
sure how most of the stuff on this phone works. it is very confusing.
was also very disappointed with the editing software that is supposed
to be on there, but wasnt really expecting much from a phone anyway.
in conclusion do not buy this phone! it is a waste of time and money.
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by emma from england on 25th Aug 2009
This phone is quite good when you first look at it but then comes the
promblems like it is really hard to get a wallpaper and the features
are not very good. Also my phone has crashed lots of times and it is
not just my phone because a lot of my friends have this phone and theres
has crashed. I would not recomend this phone and i am sending it back
and getting a different phone
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Matthew from UK on 16th Aug 2009
this phone is awful!!!! battery life is pathetic!!!! DON'T BUY IT!!!!!
and i hate the big lumps that they have at the bottom of most motorola
phones!!!!! terrible phone!!!!! terrible brand!!!!! don't buy the phone!!!!
Rating: Reply
Reviewed by Stephen from UK on 3rd Jul 2009
Had 3 replacements now. Still a useless phone. Cant wait to get rid.
Motorola customer service is useless. Dont be fooled the phone has never
worked. I defy anyone to find it for sale at any shop. No-one will sell
it because they all know it will be returned within the week.
Rating: Reply
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
Rating:
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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.
Rating:
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Reviewed by trimtop from uk on 27th Feb 2009
great phone few months old no problems at all.
Rating:
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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
Rating:
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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,
Rating: Reply
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.
Rating: 
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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!
Rating:
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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!!
Rating: 
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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
Rating:
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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.
Rating: Reply
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.
Rating:
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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
Rating:
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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
Rating: Reply
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.
Rating: Reply
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
Rating:
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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.
Rating: Reply
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 !
Rating:
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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..
Rating:
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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?
:(
Rating:
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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!!
Rating: Reply
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!
Rating:
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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.
Rating:
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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... :(
Rating:
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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
Rating:
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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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