Motorola ZN4 Adds Outside Touch-Screen to Stop 'Butt' Calls

The ZN4 is going for $150 after rebate.

Motorola put an interesting cover on a new touch-screen phone, a cover that itself acts like a second touch-screen. The outside cover of the Krave ZN4 is designed to protect the dial pad from accidental calls, an awkward moment that most of us have experienced with today's modern phones.

A friend of mind says it's his "butt calling" when a handset in his rear pocket randomly dials my number.

So Moto has something with the outside screen that flips to cover a similarly sized inside screen. It also makes the phone look all the more like a Star Trek communicator.

The outer cover relays certain touches on through to the main screen, which can still be seen below. That preserves instant access to many functions we might want on an outside screen. They include GPS navigation, video, photos, and music.

Sascha Segan at PCMag likes the innovation but says the software appears uninspired among today's touch-screen phones:

Here's the problem: The bar for touch-screen phones has been raised considerably recently. With the iPhone, the LG Dare, the Samsung Instinct, the T-Mobile G1, and the BlackBerry Storm out there, just having a touch screen isn't enough anymore.

But seems to me Motorola has a potential winner. It doesn't need to have the best software at the front end if it stops calls from originating at the rear end.