With everyone’s eyes directed to the flashy touch screen phones, like the iPhone, the LG Dare, Sprint’s Instinct and the Blackberry Storm, one little touch screen phone seemed to have slipped under the radar. The Motorola Krave ZN4, though, is by far one of the best touch screen phones that has been released so far.
The Krave is unpretentious in a way that that the Dare, Instinct and Storm are not. No, it does not come close to besting the iPhone as the best touch screen phone out there, but the Krave offers new and unique capabilities and has one of the better touch screens in the market.
What sets the Krave apart, and confuses some at first glance, is that it combines the flip phone with the touch screen. The Krave has a clear cover that, in order to text message, access the internet or e-mails or talk on the phone, flips open like a normal flip phone would. However, when closed, users can touch through the cover to access new text messages or music, V Cast TV, photos or VZ Navigator; a helpful and compact way to use the Krave’s four main amenities. There is a “lock” switch on the side of the phone as well so that the touch buttons do not accidentally get pressed when the phone is put in a purse or pocket.
Though using the phone’s inner touch pad when it is locked causes some issues with the accuracy of the touch pad, the Krave has one of the best touch screens in the market. While it is not as accurate as the iPhone, the touch screen on the Krave buzzes back at the user whenever they touch the screen so they can tell whether the tap was registered or not. This comes in especially handy when using the key pad, which is a regular keypad when held vertically or a QWERTY keypad when held horizontally.
Similarly, the browser is one of the easier to use because of its own unique quirk: instead of just tapping on the link that the user wants to access and hoping that the phone registers the right one (one of the major problems with the Dare), the Krave has a pointer that lines up with the proper link, and the user clicks on the pointer to guarantee accuracy. There is no need for zooming in to try to click the appropriate tiny link with this helpful addition.
The inner menu is easy to navigate. By contrast to when the Krave is closed, the four main icons when it is opened are for messages, the dial pad, the full menu, and contacts. After clicking either the “Menu” button or just the bottom half of the touch screen, a full menu opens up, offering a full array of options from Bluetooth and Media Center to Tools and Settings. All access points in the phone can be reached via this menu.
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