Motorola ROKR EM35

Discontinued
2nd December 2008

Continuing Motorola's ROKR line of music handsets is the EM35 slider, a GSM-only device with a 2.2" QVGA display, a 3.1 megapixel fixed-focus camera, 110MB of internal memory (expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card), stereo Bluetooth, internal stereo speakers, an FM radio with RDS and a standard 3.5mm audio socket.

As with most recent ROKR handsets, the audio and video playback capabilities are pretty good, and there are dedicated media keys and a FastScroll navigation key. The ROKR EM35's "Linux Java 7.4" (MOTOMAGX) operating system allows you to download various applications (called "widgets") and these days the user interface is much improved over Motorolas of old.

It's not a bad handset if you are looking for a phone with excellent music playback support and a reasonable camera, but there's no 3G support and the camera is a lot more basic than the megapixel count might lead you to believe.

Ultimately though, the Motorola ROKR EM35 comes with very little to make it stand out in a crowded marketplace. We really can't see why anyone would want this particular handset, unless Motorola can keep the price low enough to make it interesting.

As it happens, the MOTOMAGX platform that the ROKR runs on is capable of a lot more than just playing music. But since Motorola are going to be concentrating on Windows Mobile and Android phones during 2009, this is probably one of the last phones running MOTOMAGX to market.

Motorola say that the ROKR EM35 will be available during Q4 2008, but did not give any exact details on availability or pricing.