We had a feeling we'd get a mixed bag of reviews as soon as we first saw the Motorola Krave ZN4 -- it's one of those love it or hate it type things, you know? In some cases, reviewers chose to focus on the positives, noting that it was cute, unique, a good music player and a phone that would last and last without a recharge. Another batch of critics couldn't hold back the whip, pointing out that it lacked WiFi, packed a lackluster browser, included yawn-worthy software and offered a keyboard that was "straight-up awkward." As expected, overall ratings hovered between just below average to just above average, and it seems this phone will be exactly what you make it out to be. Moto fans will likely have plenty to cheer about, but those without a dog in the fight may want to give the writeups below a more thorough glance before dropping $149.99 and agreeing to a super-sized 2-year commitment.

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Looks like it's been pulled, but AndroidGuys claims that job site Coroflot had been listing a "career opportunity" over at good ol' Moto for a Senior Staff Interaction Designer. What does that mean in layman's terms? Beyond fiddling with UIs, we can't say for sure -- but the listing goes on to mention that the lucky hire will working on (among other things) "new Android Social Networking SmartPhone." It's no secret that Motorola's beefing up its Android staff in preparation to launch some actual hardware, but it is kinda interesting to hear them phrase it as a "social networking" device. In all likelihood, that's little more than a catchphrase for a hip-looking QWERTY device these days, but if that means they're funneling tens upon tens of people into the best mobile MySpace app the world has ever seen, we're going to lose our sanity.

[Via IntoMobile]

Color us as unsurprised as ever, but Motorola's unique, if not fancy, Krave ZN4 just got official. The touchscreen-based flip phone is launching today on Verizon Wireless, bringing with it two layers of touch -- one on the interactive clear flip outside and another with the full 2.8-inch touchscreen inside. You'll also find support for V CAST Mobile TV, V CAST Video, V CAST Music with Rhapsody and VZ Navigator, not to mention the 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, HTML browser and visual voicemail capabilities. It's in stores today for a buck fifty after signing away your cellular soul for two years and waiting ages for a $50 mail-in rebate to arrive in your mailbox.

Here on the right coast of the US of A, it's not quite October 14th. That factoid aside, someone has still managed to acquire one of Motorola's peculiar (in a good way) Krave ZN4s from Verizon a few days in advance of its official release date. The touchscreen-heavy flip phone looks mighty impressive in the enviable photos waiting in the read link, and early impressions from the lucky owner assert that call quality is "very good," texting on it is a breeze and the touch response in general is quite satisfactory. For those of you passing this off as a gimmick before, see if you're still feeling the same way after having a look at the in the wild shots.

[Via phoneArena]

No need to defog your spectacles, what you just read there in the headline is the truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola's nearly archaic (in cellphone years, anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling handset in the United States. Of course, it helps that it's highly subsidized on practically every carrier from coast to coast, but we're still a little stunned that it's selling this well nearly 2.5 years after Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest of the top five isn't nearly as shocking, with Apple's iPhone snagging the silver, RIM's BlackBerry Curve grabbing the bronze, LG's Chocolate at number four and the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the original RAZR still selling so well, one would think Motorola could just tweak it slightly and issue a second iteration for even more windfall profits. Er, wait.

Not that Motorola's Q11 comes as any big surprise, but it's nice to see the Windows Mobile 6.1-packin' smartphone get all official on us. Now boasting its very own dedicated page on Moto's website, the Q11 comes to us with quad-band GPRS / EDGE (no 3G, for whatever reason), a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, 64MB of RAM, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1, a 320 x 240 resolution display, integrated GPS and a multimedia player with support for all sorts of file formats. You can also expect up to 450 minutes of talk time and up to 195 hours in standby, but you won't be able to wrap your paws around it until December. As for carriers and pricing? Patience, friends, patience.

[Via UnwiredView]

Save from an occasional drop, we try our damndest to keep our precious phones out of harm's way, which is why torture tests like Smape's of the ZN5 are so painful to watch. This particular "survival guide" (their term, not ours) is pretty extreme, too, starting with a cushy stay in the freezer but progressing to a brutal tumble in a 500 RPM dryer, a thorough sandblasting, a sound crushing courtesy of a luxury SUV, and the obligatory dip in a hearty, delicious ale. The whole thing reads like a what's-what of things not to do with your phone, but hey, better their ZN5 than yours -- and we're sure it was a blast to actually perform some of these "tests."

[Thanks, Max]

If you've been dying for the full rundown on Motorola's upcoming low-end VU204 flip for Verizon -- well, first of all, bless your heart. Secondly, here you are. Key features include a VGA cam, Bluetooth, GPS, 220 x 176 primary and 96 x 80 secondary displays, and styling that'll make passers-by think you opted for the pricier VU30. After rebate and a signature on the dotted line, it'll run $29.99 ($199.99 commitment-free) when it launches on October 14.

If you recall, Motorola's 5-megapixel ZN5 was slated for release last month, and sure enough, some units are starting to slip out -- enough units, in fact, that we now have ourselves a video unboxing out there somewhere. The packaging seems... dare we say, awfully ordinary for a phone that rests at the top of Moto's featurephone pyramid, especially considering Kodak's much-ballyhooed involvement, TV-out, WiFi, and a ModeShift morphing keypad. S'pose it's just the contents we really care about anyway, though, right? Follow the break for the full video.

[Thanks, CrossBow]

We're calling it -- the closest thing we yanks have to a MING is gracing Verizon on October 14 for $149.99 on a two-year contract after $50 rebate. Full retail for the Krave ZN4 will run $349.99, for those so inclined. Entertain yourself with a little press photography in the meantime, won't you?

It goes without saying that any company hooked up with Android's patron saint -- the Open Handset Alliance -- has at least a passing interest in actually doing something with Android, and in Motorola's case, we're going to go out on a limb here and say that, you know, in all likelihood, they were fixin' to drop an Android build onto a phone or two at some point down the road. Indeed, BetaNews has received a brief, largely unhelpful statement from Moto saying that it "look[s] forward to delivering great products in partnership with Google and the Open Handset Alliance community," which -- in light of the recent Android hiring frenzy alleged on Moto's campus -- is about the minimum amount of disclosure a company could make shy of saying nothing at all. While it probably stings from their perspective to see HTC get all the glory for the first Google-ified phone out of the gate, let's hope (for their sake, if nothing else) that this stealth-mode, take-our-time philosophy leads to some killer material out of Schaumburg down the road.

[Via Talk Android]

Ruggedized handsets are all the rage at the moment, and T-Mobile's the latest carrier to bow to the trend with the MOTOACTV W450 from (who else?) Motorola. Moto's advertising the colorful flip by saying that it's ready for "the great outdoors or the corporate jungle" thanks to a rubberized coating, chin bar for clipping the thing to your carabiner as you're rappelling some sheer cliff in Tasmania, and Mayo Clinic's In Touch software built-in for learning how to treat your life-threatening injuries when you fall off. It's got a 1.3-megapixel camera, quadband EDGE, stereo Bluetooth, and microSD expansion up to 2GB -- not massive, but probably enough for a jog, unless you're some insane endurance runner. Look for the W450 today in your choice of alpine white / canary yellow or black slate / mandarin.

A reasonably attractive pair of phones that have been in the wings for a while now on Verizon are finally hitting next week -- October 6, to be exact. The Motorola VU30 Rapture is the first of the pair, a glossy flip set to do battle with Sprint's VE20 featuring a 2-megapixel camera, touch-sensitive external display (Verizon calls it "vanishing"), GPS, and EV-DO for $179.99 on a two-year contract or $299.99 with no Hancock required. Next, we have the Samsung u650 Sway, a silvery slider coming in at 0.47 inches thick and a feature list eerily reminiscent of the VU30's, right down to the 2-megapixel cam -- though EV-DO is strangely missing, as far as we can tell. Where they got the name "Sway" for a slider, though, is beyond us. Look for this one to run $119.99 on a two-year, $239.99 contract-free.

That Q11 can't be far off now that Moto's starting to send it through labs for regulatory approval, and ClubeCelular seems to have gotten the inside line on the latest Q as it happened through Brazil's hurdles. Unfortunately, a quick glance at the rumored specs (and a few glances at the unglamorous shots Moto sent with the phone's labwork) leave us scratching our heads as to why anyone would want this over a Q9: quadband EDGE, stereo Bluetooth, WiFi, miniSD expansion, a 2.5mm (yes, 2.5mm) headphone jack, and a 3-megapixel camera with flash. Besides the cam, we're not seeing what the draw is -- and we're particularly bewildered as to why Moto would think it was cool to leave 3G out these days, so we're hoping that particular spec magically materializes by the time the phone floats north (and no, Motorola, just because RIM thinks it can get away with leaving out 3G doesn't mean you should, too).

[Thanks, eloy]

Last we'd heard, Verizon had wanted to get this puppy out the door before the month was over, and one corner that you just can't cut no matter how hard you try is FCC approval. Fortunately, little formality's been cleared up for the Moto VU30 -- and while there could very well be other hardware / software / production issues holding up its release for all we know, we can at least say with confidence that they can't toss the blame over to the feds. It's got a 2-megapixel cam, EV-DO, stereo Bluetooth, and one of those trick external touchscreens Motorola's really been into as of late, so it'll be a decent midrange option once it drops.

[Via Phone Scoop]