Motorola ROKR E2 Preview
Available
now 3rd January 2006 Discuss
this handset in our forum
We previewed the Motorola ROKR E2 last
month, and Motorola have confirmed that the ROKR
E2 will be available during the first half of 2006.
However, although the ROKR E2 looks quite like
the one we demonstrated last month, the E2 is a very
different handset underneath from the pretty poor ROKR
E1.
The
biggest shock is that this isn't an iTunes
phones - it runs Motorola's own multimedia player. And
the surprises don't end there - this is a Linux-based
phone too. Not only that, but Motorola have ditched
TransFlash memory and included a SD slot instead, giving
the ROKR E2 up to 2Mb of memory and a 500 song maximum
capacity. The screen has been upgraded to a QVGA 240x320
pixel unit, there's a 1.3 megapixel camera and also
stereo Bluetooth. There's an FM radio, and flight mode
too (so it can be used as a music player without having
the telephone component active).
So, the ROKR E2 looks like a promising
multimedia handset, and it's much more competitive with
the benchmark Sony
Ericsson W800i. It's an attractive handset to look
at too.
But.. what exactly are Motorola playing
at? We saw iTunes with the recent Motorola
RAZR V3i phone, so the lack of it in the ROKR E2
is a real surprise. We feel that this is going to lead
to some brand confusion, and customers are simply not
going to understand which handsets are iTunes ones (i.e.
the ROKR E1 and V3i RAZR) and which ones aren't.
Sony Ericsson's range is much clearer - the W550,
W600,
W800
and W900
are all "Walkman" phones which is nice and
easy to understand. Motorola's range looks muddled compared
to this.
Another shortcoming of the ROKR E2 is
that it isn't a 3G phone, so this deprives operators
of potential income from "over the air" downloads.
There is a rumoured ROKR E3 though, that might just
combine 3G and iTunes.. subscribe to our newsletter
for updates on that.
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Motorola
ROKR E2 Provisional Specifications
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Available:
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H1
2006
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Network:
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GSM
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Data:
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GPRS
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Screen:
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240x320
pixels
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Camera:
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1.3
megapixels
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Size:
|
Size/weight
tba
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Bluetooth:
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Yes
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Infra-red:
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No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
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Yes
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Battery
life:
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Not
known
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