Motorola ROKR E8
30 JUN 2008
Launch price
from £free
Stuff says
The latest ROKR has plenty of personality, but could prove to be an acquired taste
PREVIEW
Even three years on, the original, designed-by-committee ROKR E1 still casts a shadow over Motorola’s music phone series. Not that the US company has given up on rehabilitating the ROKR name after that false start – it’s churning out more of the blighters, including the new E8.
The ROKR E8’s ‘I’m-a-bit-clever’ skill is ‘ModeShift’, which admittedly doesn’t sound world-changing. Luckily, it’s a bit more interesting in reality, enabling the touch-sensitive keypad to change the keys to suit the mode you’re in. So if you’re in music mode, the numerical keys will morph into pause and play buttons.
Scroll with it
The interface continues to impress with haptic feedback from the buttons, although an early play with the phone suggests that Motorola still hasn’t overcome all of its UI issues. The FastScroll wheel certainly isn’t in the Apple clickwheel class either.
That this is first and foremost a music phone is backed up by the inclusion of 2GB of internal memory, which should be enough for around 1500 songs. There’s also stereo Bluetooth for wireless cans, and a microSD card slot if you want to stuff in more tunes.
Crisp screen
The 2in display is also impressively bright and crisp, although the camera is only a 2MP affair and lacks useful toys like Xenon flash.
While it might struggle to displace the iPhone as our top music phone, the ROKR E8 has the skills that could see it charm its way into our Top 10. We’ll have a view review and hands-on video soon.