Motorola ZN5 vs Nokia N82: Battle of the 5 megapixel camera phones

With the announcement of Motorola’s first 5.0 megapixel camera phone, the ZN5 powered by Kodak imaging, the showdown with Nokia’s 5.0 megapixel N82 was destined to happen.  IT168 was lucky enough to have both devices on hand and give them a full evaluation complete with images and feature breakdowns.  With auto-focus, Xenon flash and ISO800 high speed input, the Motorola ZN5 proved to be more than a competitor and in many cases took pictures with superior clarity.  In the end the Nokia N82 featured superior color management and greater detail in low light situations. 

(Nokia N82 Sample Shot)

While the ZN5 did excellent in landscape and outdoor settings, the weakest area of the Motorola ZN5 became obvious on the upclose pictures with the Xenon flash.  The Motorola ZN5 was prone to excessive exposure while the N82 was able to perform like a standard digital camera.  As you can see from the picture below, the lower left corner of the picture loses all detail due to excessive light from the Xenon flash.  Although the N82 also has a Xenon flash, Nokia has had much longer to refine the settings.

(Motorola ZN5 sample shot)

While the Motorola ZN5 did not beat out the long standing 5.0 megapixel ‘ace’ in Nokia’s hip pocket, the ZN5 was impressive.  In daylight settings and outdoor scenery, the ZN5 was able to take sharper pictures with better color than the N82, but in all other situations the N82 took better photos.  The big thing to keep in mind is that the actual production models of the ZN5 should see some fine tuning and perform even better.  If Motorola is able to stick around in the phone game long enough, with some help from Kodak they might be able to pull off an upset in the next generation of camera phones.

[Via: IT168]