T-Mobile Officially Launches Motorola ROKR E8

One of the coolest phones from this January's Consumer Electronics Show, the Motorola ROKR E8 is a bar-style phone with a twist: The phone's keypad changes depending on whether it's in phone, music, or camera mode, displaying appropriate keys for the application in use. It's not an LCD touch screen like the iPhone's; rather, it's a less-expensive, more durable technology that lights up different layers under the phone's glass surface.

The E8 is Motorola 's most buzzed-about release in months, a flagship device that's supposed to raise the profile of the world's number-three cell phone maker. Like most recent, prominent Motorola phones, it's more about design than about features. The E8 is a 4.5-by-2.1-by-0.4-inch black slab, topped by a sharp 2-inch, 320-by-240 screen. Stand it on its end, and it may remind you of the monolith from the classic sci-fi movie "2001."

The keypad is dominated by a touch-sensitive scroll 'arc' that works like a jog dial on an old VCR—the farther you drag your finger along it, the faster you scroll. Below it, the keys use haptic force-feedback technology to convince you that you're actually pressing keys when you're just touching images on glass.

The E8 offers a strong, midrange feature set. It has 2GB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot that carries up to 8GB cards; the phone comes with a 1GB card to get you started. It syncs via a standard microUSB cable with Windows Media Player 11 on PCs, playing protected or unprotected WMA, but also AAC, AAC+, MP3, WAV, and RealAudio files. You can listen to your music through the single speaker on the back, or through wired or Bluetooth headphones. The phone also has a 2-megapixel camera, an FM radio, a Web browser, and CrystalTalk, Motorola's noise-reduction technology. The phone creates virtual surround-sound effects with most headphones, Motorola said.

However, the E8 is missing one key feature for a new, flagship phone: 3G. The E8 only supports EDGE, which transfers data at around 100-120 kbps. The 3G networks run by Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and now T-Mobile are much faster. T-Mobile doesn't have media services that take advantage of 3G, but that's not a big minus for T-Mobile subscribers right now; it may be in the future.

The ROKR E8 music phone is going on sale with T-Mobile on July 7 for $199.99 with a two-year service plan.

source : http://www.pcmag.com/