Moto Rokr E8
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Nokia 5310
(Credit: CNET Networks)T-Mobile may be the smallest major carrier, but that doesn't mean it lacks a decent selection of phones. In the past few months the company has introduced two music phones that won our praise. The Motorola Rokr E8 offers an innovative "ModeShift" keypad, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a well-stocked music player that delivers on performance. The Nokia Xpress Music 5310 also brings a nifty music player to the table, but it packages it in a more traditional design. So, which is the better cell phone for listening to your tunes? In the latest CNET cell phone Prizefight we pit the Rokr E8 against the Xpress Music 5310 to see which handset comes out on top.
Motorola Rokr E8
(Credit: Motorola)Five months after it nabbed two awards at CES, the Motorola Rokr E8 has landed at a U.S. carrier. It will go on sale July 7 for T-Mobile ($199 with service), but we got our hands on a review model this week to give it a full shakedown. It's always exciting when a new phone arrives in the CNET labs, particularly when it's a model that was born with lots of fanfare. After a couple days of poking and prodding, we can report that the Rokr E8 hits some high marks. Its music player performs well and its feature set should satisfy multimedia fans. It also offers decent call quality, a brilliant display, and a sleek profile. Of course, it was the Rokr E8's "morphing" keypad that caught our attention originally, and that feature largely lives up to our expectations. We like how the backlighting changes as you move between features and how the keypad takes on the ergonomics of both a cell phone and a music player. Yet, there were a few things about the E8 that left us disappointed. The Rokr's navigation controls involve a steep learning curve and the handset lacks 3G, corporate e-mail support, and wireless music downloads. We also found that some menus were a bit sluggish and that the wireless Web browser wasn't very intuitive. But if you're looking for a full-featured and well-performing music phone, the Rokr E8 is a solid choice. Check out our Rokr E8 review and our slide show.
Motorola Rokr E8
(Credit: Motorola)Motorola's Rokr E8 will go on sale July 7. The phone will be available with T-Mobile for $199 with a two-year service contract. As you might remember, the Rokr E8 debuted five months ago at CES where it won CNET's Best of CES Award in the cell phone category and the People's Voice Award. Its main attraction is a "ModeShift" keypad that morphs depending on how the handset is used. As you shift from phone to music to imaging modes, the backlight on the control changes to illuminate only the relevant buttons for your current function.
Other features on the sleek candy bar handset include a Linux/Java OS, support for Windows Media Player 11, a large (2-inch) 262,000-color display, 2GB internal memory, stereo Bluetooth, USB 2.0, Moto's CrystalTalk technology, an external memory card slot, a 2-megapixel camera, a digital-music player, quad-band world phone support, and a 3.5mm headset jack.
We'll have a full review of the Rokr E8 by tomorrow, so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out our hands-on look from CES with video.
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