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Review: MOTOROKR Z6

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The Z6 is the first phone destined for American shores running Motorola Java-Linux OS. We first previewed this last year when the ROKR E2 launched with it in Asia. The Java-Linux OS (or JUIX, as it was known during development) has a more modern look to it, and makes several usability improvements over Motorola's previous OS, which is well into its autumn years.

Motorola has kept many elements from its previous OS in Java-Linux, including customizable home-screen shortcuts on the D-pad that can be displayed as icons in the center of the home screen.

New to the home screen is an options menu on the left soft key that gives you quick access to a variety of commonly used functions such as starting a new text message or changing the ringer profile. Curiously absent are shortcuts seen in earlier prototypes of the OS such as turning Bluetooth on and off.

The rest of the menus and navigation are very close to the latest version of Motorola's older OS seen on phones such as the RAZR V3xx. This includes the often-present back label for the right soft key despite a hard key just beneath confusingly labeled back as well. Further confusing the situation, the right soft key takes you to the next step in a few commonly used tasks such as composing a text message.

Speed is much improved in the new OS - menus are snappy and applications launch quickly.

home screen

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