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.
Motorola W161
(Credit: Motorola)If you thought Motorola's first announcement at GSMA World Congress was boring, how little did you know. Perhaps it's because the company made such a bang at CES, but Motorola in Barcelona is proving to be a snoozer. Besides the Wi-Fi Motorola Z6w, Moto also unveiled two very basic phones: the W161 and W181. Sporting minimalist candy bar designs, the handsets are just for making calls. In fact, the W161 is so simple that it has a monochrome display. Surely, it's been years since we've seen one of those. Though I know there's always a place for cell phones that are just phones, Nokia and Sony Ericsson raised my expectations too high for this trip.
Motorola W181
(Credit: Motorola)Accordingly, the feature set for both phones is equally basic. There's no Web browser or multimedia applications. Instead the phone's highlights are limited to text messaging, a 500-contact phone book, and a speakerphone. The W161 and W181 also offer Moto's CrystalTalk technology, but Moto is adding that feature to every new phone in its portfolio. On the other hand, the FM radio in both handsets is a plus. Since the W181 has a color display it's considered the higher-end option (if a higher-end options exists at this level). To justify its position, it offers raised keypad buttons and 50KB more of internal memory (70KB of storage compared with the W161's 20KB). Oh, in case you didn't get this already, the W161 and W181 are intended for emerging markets.
Motorola Z6w
(Credit: Motorola)At the GSMA World Congress, Motorola has shown you can't judge a company by the size of its trade show booth. Though Moto had a sizable booth--and a swanky, two-story meeting area (complete with a bar)--the company's ho-hum announcements were barely audible above the din of the show floor.
Moto's biggest news, which, trust me, isn't saying much, is the Motorola Z6w. Identical to the Z6tv, and Z6c, the Z6w sports the slider design that was started by the Motorola Rizr Z3. Curiously, Motorola said it is dropping the Rizr name from its lineup, so while the design remains, the name has changed.
As for features, the Z6w has pretty much the same set of offerings as its siblings; inside you'll find Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, and a music player. What sets the Z6w apart is its integrated Wi-Fi. No, it's not particularly exciting, but Wi-FI is still welcome. Outside of a few smartphones, Wi-Fi remains pretty elusive in the cell phone world.
- prev
- 1
- next
