Motorola ZN5 VS Nokia 6220 Classic

Judging a book by its cover
We found the ZN5 a little kooky on first glance. That’s a polite way of saying we thought it was a bit ugly. But we warmed to some of its quirks as time went on.

The 6220 Classic, however, is never going to win any beauty pageants but it does look, well, like a phone, which is a good start.

Both handsets, however, have their shortcomings when it comes to design. While Motorola has tried to push the envelope (we’d argue it pushed it so far it fell off the Royal Mail van and landed somewhere uncouth), the end result is a little funky. Nokia would do well to reside in its non-stone throwing glasshouse on this aspect too with its plasticky casing and less-than-appealing controls.

Similarly, both handsets’ keyboard layouts could have been better thought out and made life easier for users without frequent accidental button pushing. And, quite frankly, there’s nothing more awkward than accidental button pushing, particularly on a drunken night out.

When it comes to practicalities of using the phone, the 6220 Classic wins hands down, largely due to the fact that the camera sticking out the back of the ZN5 makes things awkward.

The ZN5 and the 6220 Classic are both lightweights too. Motorola’s 114g isn’t exactly heavy but it looks like a proper plumpling when you compare it, hand in hand, to Nokia’s 90g svelteness.

Wot no Wi-Fi?
We’ve never made a mobile phone, but we think it’s fair to say, if we did, said handset would definitely include Wi-Fi connectivity as standard. With an increasingly, er mobile, mobile user base, we’ve come to expect Wi-Fi on our handsets so that we can roam freely from hotspot to hotspot, cheaply consuming data and uploading photos to Facebook et al to our hearts’ content. Not including it just makes people angry.

Granted, we’ve knocked the ZN5 for its ‘out there’ style choices and disco-like controls, but at least it supports Wi-Fi. Why Nokia chose to omit this from the 6220 Classic, we’ll never know. And while we’re sure we will – in time – forgive this massive negative, it’s something we won’t forget. Nor will users, no doubt.

On the connectivity plus side, the 6220 Classic does offer up to 3.6Mbps HSDPA, which delivers a smooth and fast web browsing experience with the usual S60 suspects in terms of zooming and viewing full or partial pages. While ZN5 users, quite frankly, aren’t so lucky.

The 6220 Classic leaves the ZN5 eating its dust when it comes to SatNav, bundling a three-month free trial and pretty good voice guidance on the menu to boot. Our review unit froze occasionally while launching Nokia maps using the side control, but we’re hoping that was a unit-specific glitch rather than a universal problem with this model.

Music to our ears
Sound quality music-wise was good on both Motorola and Nokia’s handsets in our clash of the titans. But, if you want to use your own nifty headphones with the 6220 Classic, you’ll need to find a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. Not so, however, with the ZN5, which boasts a 3.5mm jack as standard, which gets the thumbs up from us.  

The ZN5 also has space for some 3,000-odd images and could probably fit in quite a lot of songs thanks to 350MB onboard memory and support for up to 4GB in microSD storage. Nokia’s offering has 256MB and up to 120MB of Flash or user data memory respectively and is expandable through microSD cards up to another 8GB. It does also boast the support of the Nokia Music Store, from which users can get a wealth of additional tunes to feed their musical appetite.

Both the ZN5 and the 6220 Classic pack in 5-megapixel cameras with some pretty nifty features. However, Motorola’s partnership with Kodak gives it a slight edge in this respect.

Verdict
The 6220 Classic has a plain Jane exterior that results in a wow when you explore the features set inside. While the ZN5’s uniqueness is a little too overwhelming, meaning that, no matter what it’s got in terms of brains, you never really fully appreciate it as you’re still surprised by it’s looks. It’s a tale of innovation versus erring on the side of caution and, in this case, the latter has won - much to the 6220 Classic’s glory and the ZN5’s remorse.