Today marked the launch of Motorola’s ZINE ZN5, a device that is more than a mobile phone with a camera function; it is a hybrid between a camera and a phone. The concept of a camera phone has been around for a while, but the ZINE ZN5 looks very promising and should not be ignored.

The phone was co-developed with Kodak, to ensure the quality of the camera component. The camera has a fast autofocus lens and a xenon flash bulb. These optical components imprint the image to a 5.0 megapixel sensor. It sports a built-in Xenon flash, and is optimized for low-light conditions. The phone is fitted with Kodak-developed imaging software to ensure imaging and post-processing quality, and it even has a Wi-Fi link that among other things allows you to very easily upload, copy or publish your photos elsewhere, with emphasis and shortcuts to the online Kodak Gallery site and the –T-Mobile MyAlbum site.

One of the nice features about the ZN5 is its feel. It has a quick-acting active lends cover, which when opened starts the camera, it has dedicated keys on the keypad for viewing, deleting and sending photos, making it much more handy to perform photo-related functions. There are no bothersome menus to wade through in order to set, say, the flash which is accessible with a couple of nudges to the phone’s d-pad. T-Mobile is also throwing in 50 free prints from the Kodak Gallery for new ZN5 buyers.

The ZN5 is not all camera though, as it actually makes a pretty decent phone. It works on the four worldwide GSM/EDGE frequency bands, thus offering good roaming support. It has the Motorola CrystalTalk voice enhancement software, and has all your basic phone features like SMS, MMS, personal email, and additionally, support for T-Mobile’s automatic contact backup system.

The phone has a 2.4 inch Liquid Crystal Display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, and 350 MB of built-in memory. This can be increased to 4GB with the addition of a memory card.

The Motorola ZINE ZN5 is currently available for purchase on the T-mobile website. Its price is $99.9 with a two-year contract, after mail-in and instant rebates.

Motorola has been steadily losing ground after the popularity of its flagship handset, the Razr, died down. It’s not going down without a fight, and we shall see if the honestly quite interesting combinations of concepts the company is putting out with products like the ZINE ZN5 and the Android Social Smartphone. It’s definitely showing, at long last, a spirit of adaptation to the changing conditions of the market today, which it’s going to need if this, one of the classic big players of the mobile handset market, is going to survive.