iPhone versus the elements

The ZN5 cameraphone designed and manufactured by Motorola is today’s best 5 Mp cameraphone, offering an extreme quality camera, integrated Wi-Fi and a standard 3.5 mm audio out, all in bundle sold for a very attractive price. The American corporation was the last to enter the big megapixel race, but their joint effort with Kodak resulted in an immensely successful market debut, proved by amazingly high sales in China.

A review article touching on every aspect of this model is available on our site. This article deals only with things important for the phone’s physical endurance. It is an important point that the camera sticks out above the casing surface, the handset making no flat slab, hence increasing the vulnerability. The unprotected audio out is another thing likely to raise some doubts. On the other fronts, the first impression was that the model has few weaknesses.

The onboard MicroUSB slot is protected with a flap; a fine grill covers the speakers. The keyboard enjoys the benefit of a solid rubber coating tightly bordering on each individual button. The buttons themselves are of the conventional mechanical type, which stands for an increased endurance compared to sensor buttons. ZN5 actively makes use of metal – for instance, it is the material used for the back panel, side pieces and the frontal framing. The handset gives a monolith feel.

The model is remarkable for being the first Kodak-associated mobile gadget in the cameraphone segment. A separate article touching on the hardware stuffed inside the ZN5 is arriving shortly. Our test prove the superiority of this camera to any analog by Nokia, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson (as long as only the photo aspect is in question, the videos turn out of a below average quality). Also, ZN5 is the first non-smart gadget to carry a Wi-Fi module, which is an important advantage offering a fast and easy upload for your photos directly to your blog. The closest competitive products N79 and W902 are released on a later date and have higher prices.

On the eve of the official release of the ZN5 on the Russian market we decided to carry out a comprehensive crash test to expose this product’s strength and weaknesses when pitted against the severe Russian climate. Certain tests are meant to emulate typical things that often happen to a mobile phone by inadvertence. The torture list goes as follows:

• Low temperature (freezing chamber, 12 hours, -20 degrees of Celcius)
• Falling from an ear (1.6 m) and pocket (1 m) height
• Sand and dust exposure (dust bag, 5 minutes)
• Extreme vibration (washing machine, 500 rounds per minute, 5 minutes)
• Beer (15 seconds) and water (10 seconds) dipping
• Pressure (Lexus RX350 car)

Our test sample of ZN5 had been in private use for about three months prior to falling into our hands, so it had an experience facing the merciless elements. To do ZN5 justice, its looks didn’t suffer from that much. The visible wearing was limited to a few worn spots on the rubber-like coating, the metal parts looking shiny new. Many other phones would have the metal pieces covered in small scratches, dents and chips. In this case we see how a handset benefits from an ultimate quality of materials. The tradition was carried on to the leading E8 model, making an extremely strong side of the series. This helps Motorola to maintain the product quality on a considerable level, yet not as high as in the days of RAZR, but still beating Sony Ericsson (who aren’t having an easy time right away, either)

Frost

As you probably know, Russia is a country where some 9 months out of the 12 are, mildly speaking, a bit too cold. It’s hard to believe when you’ve got temps between +20 C and +30 C outdoors, but on the threshold of fall we were determined to see how well ZN5 would fight against the cold. Going on vacation somewhere in the Alps is another chance for your ZN5 to catch or cold (or not? you will see later), so this test is an actual thing anyway.

Exposed to a blistering cold, a phone is going to suffer from a number of factors. The battery is its weakest spots, which can normally function at temperatures above -10 C. Lower temperatures may bring about serious trouble ranging between temporary malfunction to irreparable damage. Freezing also drains the battery charge by shrinking its maximum capacity. The screen is often affected by a color palette corruption and an increase in inertness. The camera is probably the one thing you shouldn’t worry about – we never registered any accounts of serious camera damage from cold.

As long as we haven’t got any snow in the streets so far, we emulated the harsh conditions by placing the phone in a common freezer. The testing period was set to twelve hours. The temperature was around – 20 C, more or less accurately maintained by the simple home appliance. At the beginning of the second hour, white frost covered the casing surface in plenty. The liquid crystals powering the screens were slowed down, as the refresh rate was dropping and the picture became visibly inert. Save for this thing, the rest of the functions still worked the way they were supposed to, that is the phone didn’t had any problems dialing and receiving, etc. The battery charge didn’t go down by a single percent! After two more hours, the screen inertness came to be even worse, artifacts sprouted about the screen and all sorts of nasty things started happening to the picture. We were even guessing permanent camera damage, since the image grew blurry; but after a five minutes’ thaw everything was reverted back to the norm. The camera lens of ZN5 sticks out enough to pose no problem if you’re about to give it a good rub to remove moisture or white frost.

The worst thing that came out from the trial by frost was a fully discharged battery. Still there was a wisp of charge left, so a spell of Arctic winter won’t deprive you of the communication entirely: the remaining charge was enough to stay able to receive and make calls for some time. The conventional mechanical keyboard kept working even in the deep frozen state. The buttons are big enough to provide a comfortable operation to a gloved hand.

During a thaw amidst a snowy winter, the air moisture is often high; the half-molten snow rapidly turns into blobs of water as it touches your skin, so your hands quickly get covered in moisture. That’s why we did an extra test, holding a melting ice cube over the ZN5 so the water dripped right on it. Moreover, after being removed from the freezer, it quickly became covered in dew from the melting hoarfrost, which was a good emulation of use in frosty weather and temperature jumps. This provocation caused no malfunction, the only damage from low temperature being the rapid (yet not total) battery charge drain.

Falling

Falling stands among the most common causes of damage and malfunction. A dive out of your pocket down to the carpet is probably the mildest case, imagine your phone slipping from between your hand and your ear and going all the way down culminating in a smash on the concrete flow. We dropped the ZN5 from the average heights of 1.6 m (average human height minus the few centimeters to match the ear position) and 1 m – the assumed pocket height. Statistically, the biggest damage from such occasions is done to the casing; the battery would often escape the battery bay because of the impact. Often, the battery bay lock ends up broken. The rest of the parts generally stay intact.

As expected, the back panel and the battery were easily detached on impact. The rubber insert at the bottom was badly scratched. The metal parts suffered no perceptible damage, though. The keyboard and protective glass didn’t suffer any damage either, to our surprise. The overall functionality was fully preserved.

Extreme vibration

This test emulated multiple bumps and jumps on a hard surface at a small amplitude. We used a washing machine set to work in the wringing mode. The phone was being executed for fifteen minutes at a 500 rounds per minute rate. Of course we didn’t fill the machine with water. In order not to miss anything which might have gone missing from the device over the course of the test, we put the phone in a plastic bag prior to the beginning.

ZN5 was up to no heroic deeds during this test, and ended up torn apart into pieces. The battery bay cover and the battery itself jumped away from their places, but the rest of the casing parts and all the screws stayed in their rightful places, save for one rubber slot gag which was slightly damaged. The casing itself was subject to a mild deformation, but not to an extent where normal phone operation was impossible. The visible damage was only seen on the side edges, and the back panel didn’t even get a single scratch; neither did the mineralized screen glass (which is normally found with the more expensive models like Sony Ericsson W902)

Sand and dust

A phone’s ability to resist the dust intrusion isn’t an aspect of primary importance, but neither is it a matter we could afford omitting in our survey. In addition to exposing the ZN5 to dust, we also did a sand test. This was meant to emulate a handset’s falling into the beach sand when you’re on vacation. We employed a vacuum cleaner to shower the handset with sand and dust over a period of fifteen minutes. The handset was placed inside the dust bag during the test.

The test revealed the model’s vulnerability to the intrusion of small particles. In our video you can see how the handset bleeds with sand as it is taken out of the dust bag. Surprisingly, this didn’t affect the functionality at all… save for some nasty dust getting behind the screen glass and corrupting the screen image.

The problem was easily fixed without calling on a service center. We simply hooked the glass from above and extracted applying some force. After cleaning the screen and the glass we used a small portion of an instant glue to stick it back in the place, preventing any further reoccurrences of such trouble.

The speakers suffered little harm from the dust and only took a firm shake to get cleaned. The audio out didn't choke with the dust either, cleaned by the same primitive means. A harder shake did away with the remnants of sand. The model proved to be very practical in this sense.

Pressure

This method of testing is, doubtlessly, the meanest and cruelest thing one could ever do to a cell phone. This time we used a Lexus RX350 to produce a deadly physical impact. Regarding the impressive weight of the car, we ran over the handset with only one wheel. During the test, the screen of the handset was facing the ground to spare the whole construction a bit.

The pressure was strong enough to smash the mineral glass into pieces. The sharp fragments caused further damage to the screen matrix itself, disrupting the pixel greed. The camera lens guard also ended up beyond repair. The bulging piece effectively turned into the spot of maximum pressure, explaining the heavy damage deal to the upper part of the screen.

Beer and Water

The trial by liquid was probably the most severe of them all. As usual, we picked beer for an aggressive agent. After having a dip in the beer, the smartphone was rinsed with water. We weren’t too picky about the beer – just took a bottle of an inexpensive popular brand.

The choice was based on a very simple logics – beer is a popular drink and is probably second in likeness to get spilt over your sell phone after water and water-based drinks like tea or coffee. Larger quantities of beer increase the chance of such a misfortune, due to the obvious effect of alcohol on a human being’s coordination of movements. As for water, the danger ranges from letting the handset fall in a puddle to a cup of coffee getting toppled over your smartphone resting on the desktop. The consequences may vary wildly. Some handsets can be revived after a thirty minutes’ diving session while others pass away after a few seconds of direct contact with liquid.

ZN5 couldn’t bear the torture longer than a couple of seconds, after which the screen was powered down but the keyboard backlight went on. Rinsing with water resulted in no positive response. After having been being left on a radiator and dried overnight, the gadget returned back to life. The only remnant of the previous day’s tragedy were the smears across the screen. The device displayed a normal functionality.

Smape’s reliability rating

Motorola once again proved their status as a manufacturer of very reliable handsets (we wouldn’t expect less from Pentagon’s official supplied). ZN5 wasn’t designed to be a tough phone, recommended for use outside extreme environments; even with that taken in mind, the gadget was able to survive through some of the harshest trial.

Most Motorola phones have been noted to be especially vulnerable to liquids, and it takes a while for a Motorola handset to dry up. Leaving one exposed to low temperatures is likely to end up with all of the battery charge completely drained. The weakest spot from the mechanical point of view is the bulging part of the camera – you wouldn’t want to apply any serious force to that spot.

The high quality of the metal panels is especially remarkable. The metal pieces are completely invulnerable to wearing and scratching. The keyboard is also worthy of attention – it easily fends off frost, liquids and dust. The mineral glass protecting the screen keeps the frail TFT matrix out of the harm’s way (unless the source of danger is car weighing a few tons)

Reliability score

Deep Freezing	4 / 5
Falling	4 /5
Extreme Vibration	5/ 5
Sand and Dust	4 / 5
Pressure	3/ 5
Beer and Water	3 / 5
Final Score	23 / 30

Today Motorola ZN5 ranks as one of the most durable cameraphones in its class. Considering the powerful camera and the overall balance of features we’d say you will never get disappointed having bought this handset, especially when you see the price tag. This fall, the model has good chances for occupying one of the top lines in the sales chart, attracting numerous questions concerning its reliability. We hope this article contains answers to the most of them.

Stay with us and learn which phones, smartphones and PDAs survived all the way through our crash test lab. As for ZN5, we are going to publish a detailed hardware review that will become available shortly.

Author: Dmitry Ryabinin, ryabinin@corp.mail.ru

SMAPE.com

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