Motorola definitely has something cool going on with the ROKR E8, but will their haptic feedback technology keep up to the expectations?
Hands-on impressions
| Motorola ROKR E8 |
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 If you're looking for a good music phone on T-Mobile, check out the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music phone, which was slim and responsive with great dedicated music keys, instead of the Motorola ROKR E8, which has no keys at all. There wasn't much to like about this phone. The menus were a jumbled mess; the music player was hurt by the strange scroll wheel design and slow hardware; and, to be frank, the touch-panel-that-feels-like-buttons kind of creeped us out. This is a gimmicky phone, and though we have nothing but compliments for the great call quality and loads of onboard storage, the overall experience isn't worth putting up with. Plus, the phone will retail at launch for $200, the price of an iPhone, when better music phones can be had on T-Mobile for much less. Release: July 2008. Price: $200.
Pros: Unique design for true button-haters. Great call quality. Good battery life. Lots of onboard memory.
Cons: Touch instead of buttons doesn't make this phone better. Poor menu design. Strange scroll 'crescent.' Unresponsive controls hamper music experience.
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Motorola also took the wraps off the ROKR E8 music phone, which comes with Windows Media Player 11 compatibility. Other features include a ModeShift function to rapidly switch to the music player, haptic feedback on virtual keys and a FastScroll navigation wheel for scrolling through songs.
When powered off, the surface of the ROKR E8 is smooth, with no visible keys. Power on the device and it presents a virtual numbered keypad on the front surface. With one "press" of the virtual music key, the phone keypad disappears and control keys for the music -- play, pause, fast forward and rewind -- appear in its place. Needless to say, if Motorola makes this work smoothly, it'll become a sought-after feature in their upcoming feature phones.
With the slide of a thumb, the ROKR E8 will also switch between music, contacts, calendar or multimedia content. Information is viewed on the landscape 2.0" QVGA display. In music mode, the ROKR E8 delivers sound through a 3D stereo feature that enhances two-channel audio and an on-board equalizer. The phone also comes with Stereo Bluetooth support and a 3.5mm jack.
A 2GB internal memory can store up to 1500 songs, and the external memory is expandable up to 4GB with an optional microSD card. Music can be transferred via USB 2.0.
The Motorola ROKR E8 is expected to be available in Q1 2008.
Philip Berne, Matthew Ruiz, Edward Distel and Sindre Lia contribute to the CES 2008 coverage.
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