The Motorola Z6, variously marketed under the ROKR or RIZR monikers, is a 2G slider-style

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

from

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

introduced in January 2007 and released on July 7, 2007 as a successor to the original Motorola Rizr (Z3). While cosmetically identical, the ROKR Z6 is internally different and Motorola's new version of the embedded

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

-based operating system,

MOTOMAGX MotoMagx (stylized ''MOTOMAGX'') is a former Linux kernel-based mobile operating system developed and launched in 2007 by Motorola to run on their mid-to-high-end mobile phones. The system was based on MontaVista's Mobilinux. Originally intended ...

. The ROKR Z6m is a

CDMA Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communicatio ...

variant that runs on

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

's own software.

Features

It also supports stereo

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

technology (

A2DP In order to use Bluetooth, a device must be compatible with the subset of Bluetooth ''profiles'' (often called services or functions) necessary to use the desired services. A Bluetooth profile is a specification regarding an aspect of Bluetooth-b ...

) and features a 2-megapixel digital camera. The Z6 also supports synchronisation with

Windows Media Player 11 Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

, allowing playlists and audio to be transferred to the phone's internal memory, which can in turn be transferred onto a compatible microSD memory card. 2 inch QVGA display, 2.5mm stereo jack, Stereo Bluetooth, microSD slot and multimedia player for music and videos.

Z6w

The Motorola Z6w, also known as MOTO Z6w, was introduced at 2008's

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...

. It is a slightly modified version of the Motorola ROKR Z6 (GSM), but features an improved user interface and

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

. The phone was available to carriers in the first half of 2008.

ROKR Z6m

The Z6m is the

version of the Rokr Z6. The Rokr Z6m features 1x

EV-DO Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 ( IS-2000) standard which ...

data and comes with an integrated music player, 3.5 mm headset jack, stereo

, a 512 MB

MicroSD Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary hardware, proprietary, non-volatile memory, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of port ...

card in its respective slot, a key lock switch, and a 2-

megapixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a Raster graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

digital camera. The phone supports up to 2 GB of removable storage. Unlike the Z6, the Z6m does not run

MotoMagx MotoMagx (stylized ''MOTOMAGX'') is a former Linux kernel-based mobile operating system developed and launched in 2007 by Motorola to run on their mid-to-high-end mobile phones. The system was based on MontaVista's Mobilinux. Originally intended ...

but instead runs on a

Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW, also known as Brew MP or Qualcomm BREW) is an obsolete application development platform created by Qualcomm, originally for code division multiple access (CDMA) mobile phones, featuring third-party a ...

(BREW) platform.

U.S. Cellular United States Cellular Corporation (doing business as UScellular and formerly known as U.S. Cellular) is an American mobile network operator. Its stock is publicly traded, but Telephone and Data Systems Inc. owns a controlling stake (83% econo ...

was the first carrier to release the Rokr Z6m on October 14, 2007, alongside their Napster-to-Go service's launch.

RIZR Z6tv

September 2007 saw the release of the Rizr Z6tv, a

exclusive phone for the US and was one of the first Verizon devices to come with its

MediaFLO MediaFLO was a technology developed by Qualcomm for transmitting audio, video and data to portable devices such as mobile phones and personal televisions, used for mobile television. Qualcomm operated a mobile pay television service, FLO TV, from ...

-based V CAST Mobile TV application pre-loaded, which allowed users to play popular American TV shows.

Technical information

When connected to a computer via USB and the connection type is set to "Modem/COM", the phone acts like a USB serial peripheral, allowing Motorola Phone AT Commands to be sent. In this mode, sending "AT+MODE=8" will put the phone into a different state, in which it no longer accepts AT commands but its P2K05 functionality is accessible.

RIZR/MOTO Z6c

The Rizr Z6c, also known as the Moto Z6c, was introduced in December 2007 offered by

. Designed to be a "world phone", it operates on both

CDMA2000 CDMA2000 (also known as C2K or IMT Multi‑Carrier (IMT‑MC)) is a family of 3G mobile technology standards for sending voice, data, and signaling data between mobile phones and cell sites. It is developed by 3GPP2 as a backwards-compatib ...

and

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

networks. It was along with the

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

8830 World Edition the only two phones offered by Verizon Wireless that will work outside of North America. Unlike the BlackBerry, the Z6c features no GSM data protocols, rendering it usable only as a cell phone with

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

capability whilst on the GSM network.

Z6cx

Motorola also manufactured a similar version to the Z6c for Verizon Wireless, known as the Z6cx, which omits the camera and is targeted at environments where

camera phones A camera phone is a mobile phone that is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with a color c ...

are not allowed.

References

{{Motorola Motorola mobile phones