Motorola Z9 is not quite a new handset, in the way that leaked images and details about it first appeared in the summer of 2007. The phone was announced to be released at the beginning of 2008, but until now there is no sign of it.

However, the phone just passed through FCC and it seems like it will pretty soon hit the US market. Most probably via AT&T, since it even has an AT&T browser key, but we can't be sure until more details surface.

Although in a way Motorola Z9 is the successor of RIZR Z8, a handset that Softpedia reviewed about a month ago, its form factor is a bit more conservative. While Z8 has a banana-shaped design, the Z9 is what we'd call a normal slider phone. Which doesn't mean that it looks bad, not at all.

According to the rumored specs of Motorola Z9, the handset packs a 262k colors TFT display with a 240 x 320 pixels resolution, A-GPS, email and Internet capabilities, Instant Messaging, Video player, Music player with MP3 and AAC support, Java MIDP 2.0, microSD card support and a 2 Megapixel camera with flash, digital zoom and video recording. Also, there's quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS connectivity, together with GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA. Nothing official, though, so any of the above mentioned specs could be missing in the real Z9. Or other ones, more evolved, can appear - that would be a good thing, of course.

There are no details about when exactly the Z9 will be launched, but this could happen during CTIA Wireless (1 - 3 April 2008). Motorola apparently plans to have a strong presence there, with several new handsets, including a high-end phone made in collaboration with Kodak. We only have a few more weeks to wait.