Following up on the launch of the maker's first music phone,
the ROKR E1, Motorola today announced the introduction of the ROKR E2 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Dropping iTunes compatibility in favour of support for MP3, WMA, AAC and RealAudio formats, the handset retains the form factor of its predecessor yet boasts improved specifications in several areas.
To compete with recent entries such as
the Sony Ericsson W600i and
Samsung MM-A900, the ROKR E2, the handset is powered by Motorola's Linux-Java platform and rids itself of the 100-song limit as imposed on users by the ROKR E1. Also new is the inclusion of USB 2.0, which vastly outperforms the transfer speeds offered by the USB 1.0 port present in the E1, whilst the E2 also forgoes miniSD cards in favour of hot-swappable, larger-capacity and cheaper SD Cards - currently available in sizes of up to 2 GB.
Equipped with a 2-inch high resolution display, the ROKR E2 also boasts a 1.3 Megapixel camera with video recording capabilities, an integrated FM radio with 30 presets and Bluetooth - the latter of which supports the stereo-capable A2DP profile in addition to the common Headset and Handsfree profiles. Its Bluetooth support also enables another vital component of the handset, which is support for Motorola's newly introduced iRadio service.
The somewhat confusingly named iRadio service is launching with 435 'channels' featuring both talk and music content which is downloaded over the Internet and packaged for transfer to iRadio compatible devices such as the ROKR E2. From here, audio can be streamed digitally via Bluetooth to stereo earphones as well as home and car stereos courtesy of accessories to be provided by Motorola.
Additional features of the ROKR E2 include the ability to create and manage playlists on the device itself; dedicated music control keys placed on the front and side of the handset; the inclusion of a standard 3.5 mm stereo earphone jack; Motorola's SCREEN3 technology for direct access to content from the standby screen; and the Opera Mini browser.
The Motorola ROKR E2 is expected to be available in the first half of 2006; Motorola declined to comment further on the expected pricing of the handset.
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