The Motorola RIZR Z3's 2-megapixel camera may not be the best on the market but it does feature a 8x digital zoom and lots of other useful features.

Unlike the RAZR and KRZR the RIZR does feature a flash as well as the Auto-timed capture option. It also allows you to change the exposure lighting and style of your image.

It's Effects option also allows you to transfprm your image by making it blank and white or sepia coloured.

The Motorola RIZR Z3 is the latest handset from the RAZR family, a collection of mobile phones that has often been accused of putting style before function. However, with millions of RAZR handsets being sold all over the world it seems that that consumers have silenced the critics, at least for now.

The RIZR Z3 really only has one major difference to its predecessors in that it is a slider phone, rather then the increasingly popular KRZR and RAZR V3i flip phones. Apart from the difference in design, the RIZR’s specification and interface is almost identical to that of the KRZR. Measuring up at 16mm thick, the RIZR is stylish enough for the biggest poser but also maintains a level of usability that some of the skinnier phones often lack.

The main advantage of the RIZR’s sliding functionality is that users are able to access the majority of the handset's features while the phone is shut. The 5-way navigation key sits in the centre of the phone while the voice commands and camera buttons are all easily accessible on the side of the RIZR.

Functions on the 2-megapixel camera are simple to use but the phone fails to feature some applications popular with mobile phone photographers, including a panoramic setting or BestPic. However, pictures are clear and the addition of a flash builds on progress made with the RAZR and KRZR.

The RIZR slides open easily with the help of a spring mechanism, the keypad instantly glows blue and the 176x220-pixel screen lights up showing the handset's navigation key shortcuts, which help speed up access to favourite features. The MP3 player on the RIZR can store up to 1000 tracks once the 20MB of internal memory is beefed up with a 1GB microSD memory card. The lack of radio is a disappointment, and one has to wonder why Motorola are still not providing what is to many a very basic necessity on a modern mobile phone.

Despite ticking all the boxes in terms of features, the RIZR lacks the wow factor that made the KRZR so popular, but despite this criticism the RIZR is a great little handset best suited for those looking to dip their toe in the ocean that is Motorola.

Motorola RIZR Z3 technical specifications.

Sending emails

Having set up your email account you can now check your Internet email inbox and send and receive messages on your phone without having to be near a PC.

To send emails:

• From the standby screen press Menu (The [–] button).
• Highlight Messages and press Select (Figure 1).

• Select New Message (Figure 2) and scroll down to New Email. Press Select (Figure 3).

• Type in your message. When you are finished press OK.
• A window will appear saying “To:”. Enter the email address of the person you are sending the email to. If the email address is in your phonebook, select Ph.Book and find it in there. Then press OK.
• Now scroll down to enter: additional Cc and Bcc addresses; the subject of the email; and select any attachments like pictures or videos.
• When you are ready, press Send. (Figure 4)
  

Receiving emails

You can set up your Motorola KRZR to automatically check for new messages at regular intervals. On the Email Msg Setup screen (Figure 5) (Where you entered the account details), highlight Check new msgs (Figure 6), press Change and choose how often you want your phone to check for new emails (Figure 7).

When people send emails to your Motorola KRZR, you will receive a pop-up screen saying New Message. Press Read to open the message.

You can send and receive emails from your POP3 accounts (e.g. your web email accounts) on your Motorola KRZR, meaning you don’t have to log in on a PC to keep in touch with people.

First of all, check with your email provider to see if your account is compatible. Most Internet email providers use POP3 accounts.

Some webmail suppliers offer POP3 access but while Gmail offers POP3 for free, Hotmail users only get it as part with an account upgrade. Yahoo Mail users must upgrade to its premium service to use POP3 email, although at the moment yahoo.co.uk (not yahoo.com) users can still activate POP3 for free by logging in to the email service and selecting Options.

Before setting up your email account on your Motorola KRZR, make sure you have the following email settings to hand:

Email address/Username - Usually the part before the '@' in your address, but can be the whole address. Ask your email provider if you are unsure
Password - Your email password
Incoming (POP3) server - If it's not in the table below, your email provider will be able to supply this. You'll usually find their details on their website
Outgoing (SMTP) server - This depends on which mobile phone network you use. See the table below for details.

Note: your email provider's POP3 settings will also contain details of the Outgoing (SMTP) server. You will NOT need this to set up email on your mobile.

To configure your email account on your Motorola KRZR, take the following steps:

• On the Menu screen highlight Messages. Click Select (Figure 1).
• Scroll down to Email Msgs and click Options (Figure 2).
• Scroll down to Setup (Figure 3) and choose Email Msg Setup (Figure 4).
• Select Account settings (Figure 5) and then [New Entry], then enter your email provider’s details.
• Under Account Name enter a title for your email account, e.g. Yahoo or Gmail.
• Under Name, enter your name as you want it to appear on the emails (Figure 6).
• Under User ID and Password enter your account’s log-in details.
• Highlight Return address and enter your email address.
• Highlight Web Session and choose your mobile Internet provider.
• Highlight Sending Host and enter your account’s Outgoing SMTP server address of your mobile network (See below). The Sending port should read 25. If not, change it and click Done (Figure 7).
• Highlight Receiving Host and enter the POP3 server name for your email provider (See below) and click Done. Then make sure that Receiving port reads 110. Then click Done (Figure 8).
• You're now ready to send and receive emails on your mobile phone.

To be taken to our Internet Settings page click here

You can also store pages as Web Shortcuts. These are like your Favourites on your PC’s web browser. To bookmark a page you want to save when browsing the mobile Internet (Figure 1):

• Select Options and scroll down to Add To Bookmarks (Figure 2) and click Done (Figure 3).
• Alternatively scroll down to Web Shortcuts (Figure 4) and select New (Figure 5)
• Enter a name for the shortcut and the web address. Then press Done (Figure 6).
• The page will be saved as a Bookmark.

One you can connect to the mobile Internet, you can surf the web just like on a PC. From here you can visit your operator’s home page, access other mobile Internet pages, or check Internet email accounts, e.g. on Yahoo or Google’s mobile Internet pages.

To open the Internet browser on the Motorola KRZR:

• From the Menu screen highlight WebAccess and click Select (Figure 1).
• Select Browser (Figure 2) and a box saying ‘Launching Browser’ will indicate it is connecting to the mobile Internet (Figure 3).

Instead of going to your operator’s home page, you can choose to go to different mobile Internet sites. If you know the website address:

• From the Menu screen highlight WebAccess and click Select .
• Scroll down to Go To URL and click Select (Figure 4).
• Alternatively, when browsing the mobile Internet, press Options and select Go To URL.
• Enter the mobile Internet address (Figure 5) you want to go to then click OK.

The Motorola KRZR can connect you to the mobile Internet over a GPRS network, letting you access your mobile operator’s mobile Internet sites to get the latest news and gossip, or download new ringtones, themes and games. From here you can also access web email accounts and search the mobile Internet for content, just like you would do on a PC.

Setting up GPRS Web Access

Your Motorola KRZR might already come with pre-loaded settings for your mobile operator’s data services so you can connect to the mobile Internet. This is a mobile phone version of the normal Internet on your PC at home or work. Many of the same websites are available on mobile phones, but are designed specifically for the smaller screens. To select your preferred mobile Internet account:

• From the Menu screen, highlight WebAccess and click Select (Figure 1).
• Scroll down to Web Sessions and click Select (Figure 2).
• Scroll down the list to select the mobile Internet service you want – e.g. O2 Post Pay, Orange GPRS WAP, T-Mobile, Virgin or Vodafone (Figure 3).
• Press Options and select Set Default.
• Press Exit and then scroll up to Browser. The web browser will automatically open, connecting you to your operator’s mobile Internet site (Figure 4).
• Now, when you select WebAccess on the standby screen, then select Browser, you will automatically connect to the mobile Internet.

Alternatively, you can create your own account to connect to your operator’s mobile Internet service. To do this you must first get the settings from your mobile operator (They can be found on mobile operators’ websites), then:

• From the Menu screen, highlight WebAccess and click Select.
• Scroll down to Web Sessions and click Select.
• Scroll down the list to the bottom and select [New Entry] (Figure 5).
• Then enter the settings for your mobile Internet service (Figure 6).

Ringer IDs

These are individual ringtones set to specific Phonebook entries to help you more easily identify who is calling you.

To activate Ringer IDs:

• Go to Settings (Figure 1) and select Ring Styles (Figure 2).
• Select [Style] Detail and press Change (Figure 3).
• Scroll down to Ringer IDs and press Change to turn them on (Figure 4).

To set a Ringer ID for a Phonebook entry:

• On the Menu screen, select Phonebook (Figure 5).
• Highlight the entry you want to edit and press Options (Figure 6).
• Select Edit Contact (Figure 7) and scroll down to Ringer ID and press Change (Figure 8).
• Then scroll down to the sound file you want to assign to that contact and press Select (Figure 9).

Picture IDs

The Motorola RIZR also lets you assign pictures or photos to Phonebook entries, which will be visible on the external display when that person calls you.

To setup Picture ID:

• On the Menu screen select Phonebook.
• Scroll down to the entry you want to edit and press Options.
• Select Edit Contact then scroll down to Picture and press Change (Figure 10).
• Choose the picture you want to assign and press Select (Figure 11).

Phonebook Categories

You can also assign your Phonebook entries to specific categories; Business, Personal, General or VIP. To do this:

• On the Menu screen select Phonebook and then scroll down to the entry you want to add to a category.
• Then press Options and choose Edit Contact.
• Select Category (Figure 12) then select a category name to assign to the Phonebook entry (Figure 13).