Motorola ROKR E8
Discontinued 7th January
2008
Some phones struggle to find a unique
selling proposition - something that differentiates
it in the market from everything else. The Motorola
ROKR E8 is not one of those phones - because the
ROKR E8 comes with a very snazzy dynamic keypad that
changes depending on which feature you are using.
If you are using it as a phone, then
the ROKR E8 shows a conventional numeric keypad - if
you're using the camera, then it shows camera controls,
and for multimedia playback the ROKR E8 shows music
keys. Motorola calls this technology ModeShift
and in the case of the E8 is is combined with a speed
sensitive "FastScroll" navigation wheel, which makes
it easy for users to scroll through media libraries
or menu options.
The
virtual keypad is enhanced with Motorola's haptics technology
- pressing the keys actually does result in some physical
reaction, even though they're completely flat and motionless.
When switched off, the ROKR E8's keypad is totally blank.
Motorola aren't saying exactly how the
ROKR E8's ModeShift keypad works - looking at the positioning
of the virtual keys, it does appear to be a logical
extension of the fixed hidden controls that we
first saw on the LG
Chocolate, with each button in a unique position.
This makes more sense than the expensive Optimus
Maximus approach where everything is an individual
active display.
Get past the clever keypad, and the
Motorola ROKR E8 turns out to be a pretty capable multimedia
phone. It can play back MP3, MIDI, AAC, WMA, WAV, AMR
and RealAudio music formats, comes with 2GB of internal
memory (expandable to 4GB with a microSD card) and it
has a landscape format (wide) 2" 320 x 240 pixel
display for video playback. The ROKR E8 can also be
used with a variety of wired and wireless headsets and
speakers. There's an FM radio too.
Somewhat disappointingly, there's no
SDHC support for high-capacity memory cards, the camera
is a basic 2 megapixel affair with no autofocus or flash
and the ROKR E8 lacks 3G or WiFi. Of all these shortcomings,
the memory is probably the most significant - 2GB or
4GB is less than even the Apple iPod Nano.
Motorola say that the ROKR E8 will be
available during Q1 2008, although no pricing information
is currently available.
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Motorola
ROKR E8 at a glance
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Available:
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Q1
2008
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
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Data:
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GPRS
+ EDGE
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Screen:
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320x240
pixels, 262k colours
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Camera:
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2
megapixels
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Size:
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Large
monoblock 115 x 53 x
11mm / 100 grams
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Bluetooth:
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Yes
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Memory
card:
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microSD
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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
specified
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