Motorola ROKR E8 Review

             While contemplating what phone model to buy, my dead phone suddenly resurrected itself as if telling me “Hey, I am not dead yet. Don’t buy a new phone. Please don’t discard me.”I gave my Motorola A768 another chance. After a week, faith meddled. I lost my phone. I left it in a cab on my way to work. It gave me a solid three years of satisfying performance. Thankfully, I was able to get my old number back. What pisses me are the comprehensive contacts that went away with my phone. The birthdates, home and email addressess, and IDs. Sure, my scandalous videos and pictures worry me, but I can always make them in just a matter of time, can’t I?

 

        I have always been a Motorola user so it isn’t surprising that I bought a Motorola ROKR E8.  

 

The 3 faces of E8 - camera,phone,music player

 

          This general specifications table is from www.gsmarena.com. There is also a good bunch of comments there. 

Size

Dimensions

115 x 53 x 10.6 mm, 60 cc

Weight

100 g

Display

Type

TFT, 256K colors

Size

320 x 240 pixels, 2.0 inches

- Touch-sensitive keypad - Navigation scroll wheel

Ringtones

Type

Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3, AAC

Customization

Download, order now

Vibration

Yes

- 3.5 mm headset jack

Memory

Phonebook

Yes, Photo call

Call records

50 dialed, 50 received, 50 missed calls

Card slot

microSD (TransFlash), buy memory

- 4 GB internal user memory

Data

GPRS

Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps

HSCSD

No

EDGE

Class 12

3G

No

WLAN

No

Bluetooth

Yes, v2.0 with A2DP

Infrared port

No

USB

Yes, v2.0

Features

Messaging

SMS, EMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging

Browser

WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML

Games

Yes+ downloadable, order now

Colors

Dark Navy, Platinum

Camera

2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, video

- Java MIDP 2.0 - Stereo FM radio - MP3/AAC player - Calculator - Organizer - Built-in handsfree

Battery

Standard battery, Li-Ion 970 mAh (BK60)

Stand-by

Up to 300 h

Talk time

Up to 5 h

 

 

 

            I won’t give a detailed review of ROKR E8. Those features above are all working well. Allow me to defend this music phone from unjust negative reviews by some bashers and websites. Points I will tackle would be helpful to those people considering this phone.

 

              1. Touch-sensitive keypad

              Its morphing keypad is undoubtedly the best cell phone innovation this year. When E8 is in call or text mode, the keypad, at least with my fingers, works perfectly.  Naturally, there was an adjusting period for the first few days (hours in my case).  The virtual keypad is accurate and very responsive. The word – predicting mode is helpful and so does the landscape screen. The haptic feedback gives you the feeling that you are actually pressing conventional keypad. I prefer this over a full touch screen, too. When a friend of mine borrowed my E8 to text, she wondered where the feedback was coming from. Aside from ROKR’s music capability, it is texting that I love the most.

 

            2. Camera

                     I wasn’t really interested in E8’s camera since I have my own digicam already. The camera is poor and has no flash, but good enough to take pictures for your contacts and well-lighted subjects. This is a music phone for music-lovers. Users with interest in pictures will surely be disappointed. The pictures are usable if printed in wallet size. One thing is for sure, I have never and will never try to develop pictures captured by a cell phone.

 

            3. Scroll Wheel

                       It isn’t really a full circle, but a horseshoe shape. A lot of people find this difficult to control.  The trick is YOU DON’T USE IT IN NAVIGATING MENUS AND SUB-MENUS. Use the 4-way navigation key instead. Click the center button to access the main menu. It has 10 features and each of them corresponds to numbers 1 to 10. For instance, if you want to use the calculator, just press number 6 and Office Tools will open up. Press number 9 and Calculator will show itself. So what is the Fast Scroll’s point? I think E8 was equipped with this strictly for navigating your music. Imagine if want to find “Yellow” by Coldplay without the aid of the Wheel, it would take me hundred times of pressing the down button. I have stored more than 180 songs already and going through them with the wheel is such a breeze. All it takes is a little practice.  When I learned how to speed up and slow down, I actually find it addictive.

 

            4. Call

                   Hands-down to Motorola. While other manufacturers are busy in improving camera features of their models, Motorola is doing the same, but in handling calls hence the genesis of Crystal Talk. It automatically and effectively reduces the noise background and adjusts the volume during calls. I never experienced dead signal on the subway. Genius! My personal experience can attest that.

 

            5. Music

                     E8 is a music phone hence the sound quality is superb! There are review websites that tested its music functions against Nokia Music Express and Sony Ericsson Walkman Phones and the results are in favour of the E8! E8’s music player has an equalizer with 11 options, a bass boost, a 3D stereo and a first class built-in speaker. If you turn up the volume to its highest level, there is no tinnying effect. The speaker can be heard in a small room. And if you have a head set better than the supplied one, just plug it into the 3.5 mm universal headset jack situated on top of the phone. ROKR E8 truly rocks!

            6. Built

                   With its elegant look, one can’t help but say “Every new phone looks good.” E8’s construction materials include rubberized aluminum and chrome- plated metal hence cracks and squeaks found in plastic phones are nowhere to  be found in E8.

 

            6. Battery Life

                    E8’s stand-by time lasts up to 3 days. With my day going  by with 3 to 4 hours of listening to music, receiving and replying to calls and text messages, and fiddling of notepad, calendar and task list, E8’s power lasts for 1 and 3/4 days easy. To prolong battery life, brightness and screensaver are customizable.

 

              Conclusion

            Other manufacturers create phones with good music player but terrible call function or vis-à-vis. E8 is a perfect example of a phone capable of playing decent music and making crystal clear calls. That alone make up for its sluggish interface. Another negative thing, there is only 1 skin, and downloadable application and games are rare to find. However, if you are brave enough to try modding it, here is the best site for it http://motohell.com/index.php?board=51.0 . Another wow factor is E8’s morphing into three forms: an MP3 player, a camera, and a cell phone. With E8’s outstanding phone function, handsome design, and tiptop music, I am glad that I purchased it. 

For a comprehensive review, try this site http://smape.com/en/reviews/motorola/Motorola_E8-rev.html

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