Having failed to deliver its iTunes phone at CeBIT, Motorola offers a first peek of its new E680i and E725 music phones at the M3 Summit in Miami.
Music is the tune to which 2005 will play, and despite having missed its launch opportunity for the much-hyped and presently-in-limbo iTunes phone, Motorola unveiled two new music phones at the M3 Summit in Miami late last week. A more stylish version of its first Linux-based music phone, the E680i is to hit the Asia Pacific in April 2005, whilst the E725 is headed for the Americas in the second half of 2005 boasting EV-DO.
A follow-up to the Motorola's E680, the Linux-based E680i brings several minor improvements over its predecessor including improved storage capacity, stereo audio over Bluetooth and a slight reduction in size. Powered by a 312 MHz Intel PXA270 processor, the E680i offers 50 MB of internal memory, and doubles the SD/MMC Card expansion limit of its predecessor from 1 GB up to 2 GB.
 | | Motorola E680i |
Retaining the integrated FM tuner, the tri-band GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 MHz handset sees its Bluetooth improved and now supports outputting stereo audio over Bluetooth courtesy of the AD2P profile. Music formats supported include MP3 and WMA, as well as RealAudio, AAC, MIDI and WAV, and the E680i still boasts the dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound as found in the E680.
Other features of the E680i include a 65K colour touchscreen with QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) resolution and the same 0.3 MP integrated digital camera as found in the E680. Also present is a basic suite of applications, support for J2ME, handwriting recognition and broad messaging support including e-mail, and finally, USB 1.1. Slated for availability in the Asia Pacific in April 2005, Motorola did not comment on the expected pricing of the E680i or the availability of the E680i in other markets.
Better equipped in the data transfer department than the E680i, Motorola's E725 will come with support for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, allowing for rapid downloads of full music tracks over the air directly to the handset. As with the E680i, the E725 is equipped with memory expansion to allow for expansion up to 1 GB of memory by way of miniSD cards, also sporting the same dual stereo speakers with virtual surround sound.
 | | Motorola E725 |
Other specifications shared with the E680i include an FM radio, a 0.3 MP camera and a 3.5 mm earphone jack, but the similarities stop there. A slider handset, the E725 is a more compact phone with a 1.9" display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, supporting BREW rather than J2ME and native Linux for third party application support.
Also present in the E725 is external 'rhythm lights', a series of LED lights that pulsate to the beat of the music currently playing. A 5-band graphic equalizer will let users adjust output according to their preferences, and for connectivity the E725 serves up USB. Slated to hit shelves in North America in the second half of 2005, Motorola did not comment on the expected pricing of the E725.
Additional images of the Motorola E680i and E725 are available on the following page.
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