MOTOROKR E8



Transforming the Music Experience
Motorola designed ROKR E8 to deliver an uncompromised consumer experience for music or talk. Using breakthrough ModeShift technology from Motorola, the quad-band GPRS/EDGE device presents users with only the controls they need, at the time they need them, instantly transforming from music player to phone to imaging device with the touch of a button. Simply move a thumb across the FastScroll navigation wheel to search for music (music mode), contacts (phone mode), calendar (phone mode) and multimedia (imaging mode). A perfect blend of art and science, the face of the E8 is a sleek, seamless panel that features the first haptic touch pad from Motorola, which provides vibrating, tactile feedback when the user touches virtual buttons.

Liberate Your Music Library
ROKR E8 is designed for music. The device enables the ultimate freedom in loading songs from multiple sources and is compatible with standard connectors, software and accessories. Compatibility with Windows™ Media Player™ 11 on the PC allows users to easily transfer their favorite music onto the device, access to more than 200 online music stores and simple drag-and-drop organizing of songs, artists, albums and playlists. Discovering and downloading new music has never been easier with the ROKR E8's built-in FM radio (optional 3.5mm headphones must be plugged in) and the Song ID feature that recognizes and displays tune information�. Share music with friends over the built-in speaker, break free from wires with stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology�, or use a favorite set of standard stereo wired headphones using the 3.5 mm headset jack.


Specification

Dimensions
115x53x10.6mm

Band
Quad Band; GPRS/EDGE class 12

Weight
100 grams

Battery
970mAh

Display
2.0" QVGA 240x320 262K TFT

Connectivity
Stereo Bluetooth Class 2, USB 2.0 Hi-speed, GPRS Class 12, EDGE Class 12

Platform
MOTOMAGX a.k.a Linux-Java

Features
* ModeShift technology transforms the device from phone to music player to imaging device with the touch of a button
* FastScroll navigation wheel allows for scrolling through songs, contact and image library with the slide of a thumb
* Innovative haptics technology provides tactile response when a virtual key is pressed
* 2GB internal memory4; optional external memory support up to 4GB capacity
* Microsoft™ music ecosystem support
* 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, stereo Bluetooth wireless technology (A2DP)�
* 2.0megapixel camera with 8x zoom, multi-shot feature, video capture and playback
* Airplane mode to play uninterrupted music in the air, even without a SIM card
* Talking phone offers a voice readout of text messages while dialing number or whenreceiving a call
* MIDI, MP3, AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+, WMA, WAV, AMR-NB, Real Audio (RA) v10
* Crystal Talk™ technology
* Full HTML browser

Released?
First week of May 2008

Retail Price?
RM1199

Source

Video
ROKR E8 sales video
International CES 2008
Mobile Review
Motorola press party at the CES 2008


User Feedback


* Cool.. Personally loves the innovative haptics keypad. Awesome feel when pressing the button. I guess it is some sort of vibration rather than spring feeling because it is flat and you can't feel anything/unable to press when the keypad lights go off.
* FastScroll navigation wheel is useful when adjusting volume. When browsing menu, I still use to press the navigation keys because already get used to it.
* ModeShift which made the phone more neat when using camera and music playback. Unnecessary keys will lights off during camera mode and music playback.
* Phonebook search is awesome when wanted to make call. It works like Windows Mobile 6 now. Meaning to say that you can easily call a contact by typing alphabet or phone no. on the home screen to filter out the contact. (Personally I waited for this method since I using MPX200 and finally on E8!)
* SongID works well on most of the English songs. Limited on the Chinese and Malay songs. Useful for those who loves music and find out the song title anywhere, anytime.
* Speaker volume for music playback(max is 20) and FM radio were superb. Loud and clear, additional with Equalizer, Bass boost and 3D stereo options. Furthermore, came with 3.5mm stereo jack.
* 2GB built-in + 4GB microSD support, you will not running out of space. Able to browse your files with the built-in file manager.
* Back to the keypad, it is just too good. Now addicted to type SMS because it is fast and feel the best so far using Motorola since StarTac. (SMS typing response already enhanced, much more faster than E2 & V8)
* User Interface enhanced. Better looking compared to E2 and V8. Preferred this UI than the rest Linux-Java.
* As a music phone, came with USB2.0 spec. Tested the speed for phone and card:
- Phone: Transferred 570MB file in 3:40 minutes, around 2.6MBps.
- Card: Transferred 570MB file in 4:30 minutes, around 2.0MBps.
* Nice wide-screen display. I prefer wide-screen, probably due to daily usage on laptop and LCD monitor. Reading SMS also feel better.



* Memory card not hot-swapped. Have to power off the phone before remove it. The slot blocked by the battery just by 2mm.
* Noticed that the OS a bit slow when menu browsing. But for me, it's not a big deal.
* Just a decent 2MP camera. Noticed there is no enhancement on the picture quality.

Battery performance
- Normal phone call: around 60 mins
- SMS: around 50
- MP3 playback: 5 songs (3 mins each)
- SongID: 4 times
- Mobile Internet: 5 mins
- Bluetooth ON: connected to headset, about 30 mins total

Charge completed: 26 Mar, 12pm
Low battery alert: 27 Mar, 10pm

Note
Will not comment lack of 3G, wi-fi and all these non-sense feedback because it's already manufactured without such features. So no point to argue over here. Will only look at current E8 features and made the comparison between the Linux-Java and Synergy series. Questions are welcome...


My own review
1st April 08
After using the phone for more than 1 week, I feel great because it delivers a very good reception, easy to SMS/MMS, great interface and experience. Last but not the least, it is user friendly.

Basically, I love the haptics keypad because it gave us the awesome feel when pressing the button. The design of the front panel is flat and you unable to press the keypad when the lights go off (when ModeShift take place). So I suspect Motorola made it into some sort of vibration rather than spring whenever the keypad is pressed. Now I addicted to type SMS because it is fast and feel the best so far using Motorola since StarTac. Somehow, the SMS typing response already enhanced, much faster than E2 & V8. The idea of ModeShift technologymade the phone looks neater when using camera and music playback. Unnecessary keys will not be shown during the camera mode and music playback. Thanks to the innovative design from Motorola and I guess there will be more products in Motorola line-up in the future using the ModeShift.

Furthermore, the FastScroll navigation wheel also is one of the useful tools when browsing data such as menu, phonebook and music library. You just imaging there is 1000 Mp3 stored in the phone, and do you think you need to press navigation key each time to scroll the list? Forget about it for previous models. By using ROKR E8, you can easily scroll the song list just using your thumb by moving on the FastScroll wheel. The response is quick enough and you can easily select the particular song after you scroll.

Music lovers, this should be the product you looking for because it has a great speaker and volume can be adjust to 20 maximum. Sound quality is loud and clear, moreover it includes equalizer, bass boost and 3D stereo options. You can adjust it manually by changing the bass and 3D stereo, or automatically by select the equalizer. Feel wasted after you bought an expensive KOSS/Sennheiser headphone? NO! You still can use it together with E8 because it came with 3.5mm stereo jack. For wireless experience, user can connect it with Stereo Bluetooth headphones which have A2DP profile. I highly recommend Motorola S9 or S705 because it is lightweight and easy to store in the bag. Meanwhile, how can you purchase/download a song if you forget the song title when listen on radio or Mp3? Here's the SongID application whereby it can helps you to search for it through Shazam network anytime, anywhere. It works well on most of the English songs but limited on the Chinese and Malay songs. What you have to do is just let your E8 to listen the song for 10 seconds, it will automatically connects to Shazam network via GPRS to browse for the song title. Isn't it helpful?

Short of memory capacity in previous model? E8 offers 2GB built-in and additional of 4GB using microSD card, you will not running out of space anymore. Its equivalent to 3000 songs* can be stored in 6GB capacity. (Average of 4 mins in 64kbps bit rate. Recommend to use AAC+ enhanced format because the quality is as good as MP3 + smaller file size. Most of the phones in the market nowadays support AAC+ enhanced.) There also a built-in file manager to allow user to browse the data that stored in phone memory and microSD card. As a music phone, came with USB 2.0 spec. Tested the speed for phone and card:
- Phone: Transferred 570MB file in 3:40 minutes, around 2.6MBps.
- Card: Transferred 570MB file in 4:30 minutes, around 2.0MBps.
*Average 2 seconds per song (4MB)

E8 has a 2 megapixels camera. I can say it is a decent camera because Motorola did not focus on the camera since it is market as music series. Personally, I would still prefer the viewfinder of E2 because it has clearer viewfinder compared to E8. For picture quality, I am pleased with it. Click here for picture quality. In camera mode, resolution can be adjusted to 1600x1200, 1280x960, 320x240 and 160x120. If you received a picture from 5MP camera phone, you still able to view the picture but the phone will automatically resize to 1600x1200 without your notice. Is this good or bad? You judge it! In terms of video mode, there is no specific duration as long as the memory is available. You can capture more than 20 hours for video in 2GB storage. I think it is fine since I do not take much of video using phone.

Another great improvement was the Phonebook search when wanted to make a call. It works like Windows Mobile now. Meaning to say that user can easily call a contact by typing alphabet or phone no. on the home screen to filter out the contact. Personally I waited for this method since I used the old Motorola MPX200. This method eliminates one step when making a call because user does not necessary to access phonebook to search for contacts.

In battery performance, I would urge Motorola to look into this issue and extend the performance with higher capacity battery. I would like to rephrase, I think it is quite decent when just for phone and sms usage. The result can be seen in below "2nd test":
Battery type: BK60, 930mAh
1st test:
- Normal phone call: around 60 mins
- SMS: around 50
- MP3 playback: 5 songs (3 mins each)
- SongID: 4 times
- Mobile Internet: 5 mins
- Bluetooth ON: connected to headset, about 30 mins in total
Charge completed: 26 Mar, 12pm
Low battery alert: 27 Mar, 10pm
Around 34 hours

2nd test:
- Normal phone call: around 93 mins so far
- SMS: 20 so far
- MP3 playback: nil
- SongID: nil
- Mobile Internet: nil
- Bluetooth ON: connected to headset, about 45 mins in total
Charge completed: 31 Mar, 8am
Full bar: Shows 100%, 1 Apr, 1pm
2 bar: Shows 50%, 2 Apr, 11am
1 bar: Shows 20%, 2 Apr, 3pm
Low battery alert: 2 Apr, 9pm
Power down: 2 Apr, 11pm
Around 63 hours

Overall, the User Interface is enhanced. It is better looking and faster response compared to E2 and V8. I personally preferred this UI than the rest of the Linux-Java phones. What I can see is the new UI will be available in the coming model such as U9, and let's hope Motorola will not fall back to previous version of UI in the oncoming models. Last but not the least, I strongly recommend this ROKR E8 for mobile user. More buying guidelines, refer below.

Experience Rating:

Who should upgrade to this MOTOROKR E8
- Those who are music lover!
- Those who carry 2 gadgets, phone and mp3 player. Say bye-bye to Ipod!
- Those who using ROKR E2. You will never regret!
- Those who image conscious, needs lifestyle, dump your V8 now.

Who SHOULD NOT UPGRADE to this MOTOROKR E8
- Camera quality is priority.
- Always connected to Internet for data.



More pics
ROKR E8

ROKR E8 User list
1. PRINZE
2. enjay
3. rayzrblade
4. 0nim3
5. dinraxxx
6. saladboolad234
7. caterpiez
8. Noyoudontcare
9. evengr
10. Raven143

This post has been edited by PRINZE: Nov 15 2008, 06:17 PM

oO? Fully touched sensor based phone?

prinze when are u gonna get it?

After read the review in Mobile-Review...
I like the keypad lights, when normal it will show the keypad number, while in camera mode it will shows the shortcut key.
The screen nice also, its 320x240 instead of 240x320.
The rest....same same one.

good question... hopefully before Chinese new year...

looks cool.. and whats the expected price..? rm 1499 for starting..?

All your friends will drools
Gonna hunt it while on very high price?

ehh.. same thing, my unit wont cost single cent.. but the market price unsure yet..

May i know how come yours one wont cost single cent?

because it is ES.. not for sale...

ES as in Emitation Set..? ahaha.. JKJK..

how i wish i can be like PRINZE.. enjoy free phones..

Yaloh, he everytime can try the new phone....

i think its Experimental Set lol...

looks cool man...

almost.. actually is engineering sample.. have to test it before hit the market..

yeah.. indeed.. a very cool music phone.. still waiting for my set..

argh.. we all guess it wrongly..

well.. i wonder how the screen really appears out for me to see..

hmm..what u mean?

coz normally we use vertically 2" ma.. not horizontally ma.. so will be kinda weird using it i think,..

ohh.. should not be a prob.. cos Q8/Q9 also wide screen.. used to it..

it would be great for wtaching videos though