Motorola's presents The Next Big Thing in Cellphones with its new Krave ZN4 touchscreen phone, available starting today from Verizon for $150 (with a two-year deal plus rebate, of course). Krave's claim to fame: a clear flip front cover that's also touch-sensitive. In other words, touch the protective plastic top, which Motorola calls a "touch cover," and the actual LCD screen beneath reacts as if it's just been touched. It's all quite Criss Angel-y.
The issues don't stop there. Hit the Continue jump for more hands-on impressions, including which of the Krave's features got me to nearly throw the phone into a brick wall.
More on the plastic cover: It's completely in the way when using the QWERTY keypad. When the cover is open (the only way to use the keypad), there's no way to comfortably hold the phone and tap keys with your left thumb. This physical hindrance completely obliterates the advantage gained by splaying out the roomy haptic-enabled keyboard across the Krave's extra-long 2.8-inch screen.Finally, the standard Verizon cellphone operating system simply doesn't stretch far enough to encompass the Krave's touch capabilities. In fact, Krave's failure rests solely at the feet of Verizon, not Motorola. With its new technology, Krave should have been a showcase. Instead, Krave exemplifies the unreasonable power carriers have over manufacturers — curtailing their ability to truly innovate and deliver a consumer-friendly cellphone that can compete with iPhone.
