Motorola ROKR E1 mobile phone

Motorola ROKR E1 is a tri-band mobile phone, so making it suitable for use in the USA and most parts of the world. This candy bar styled model is very similar to the earlier E398, and is in effect an updated version of that phone in a pearly white case, with the addition of an Apple iTunes® music player and a better quality display. From the collaboration between Motorola and Apple it seems that the new colour of the case is meant to mimic the look of an iPod, but the phone’s appearance is not so close you could actually confuse it for an iPod. Some may be disappointed with the capabilities of this phone as a music player, because it is not as versatile as an iPod, although it may be good enough for the needs of many users. Motorola said that the original E398 would double as a digital music player, and it is clear that this feature is still the main thrust of the ROKR E1.Motorola ROKR E1

Other significant features of the ROKR E1 are its integrated Bluetooth™ technology, GPRS and WAP data handling, MMS multimedia messaging, MPEG4 video recorder and player, voice memo recorder, TransFlash™ memory card slot, speakerphone for hands-free conversation, Java™ enabled, voice control, and a full e-mail client. There is also an Airplane Mode, so you can switch off the phone operation while on a flight, but still use the handset’s other facilities such as the address book, games and music player.

The large and bright active matrix TFT LCD screen gives you good viewing of the menus and pictures you can use on this phone, both indoors and out. The display has an impressive resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, and it can also reproduce up to 262,144 different colours, which is still about as good as it gets. The display has an icon based menu system, employing a grid of 9 graphic icons to take you to the functions you need to use, or alternatively you can choose to view the menus as a text-based list.

The high quality display comes in useful for viewing MMS messages, and the phone’s MMS capability means it can be used to send and receive messages that contain a combination of video clips, pictures, animations, sounds, voice records, as well as text, to create a unique multimedia message. Alternatively, you might prefer to send your multimedia messages by e-mail. Note that iTunes cannot be sent in messages, for obvious copyright reasons.

The integrated camera in the ROKR E1 is only a VGA quality device, which seems a little out-dated when compared to the megapixel cameras now available on some other models. The camera lens is located on the rear side of the case, and it can capture still pictures at the 3 resolutions of VGA, QVGA and QQVGA (640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 120 pixels). A mirror and timer are provided to assist with the taking of self-portraits. There is also the additional option of capturing video clips, with sound, up to QCIF resolution (176 x 144 pixels) using the phone’s camcorder feature.

Other useful features of the camera are its 4x digital zoom and adjustable exposure settings: there are 4 preset options provided (sunny, cloudy, indoor, night), as well as an automatic exposure option. In addition, a LED flashlight is built into the back of the phone (just under the camera lens), and this is designed to assist you with the taking of pictures in poor light conditions; it can also act as a fill-in flash for portraits. However, these small LED lights usually prove to be too weak to be of much use. You can also edit your pictures to change their appearance, and the phone includes 6 image style options (colour, black & white, bluish, antique, reddish, greenish).

The main reason users will want a ROKR E1 mobile phone is because of its iTunes® capability, and there is a dedicated key under the display for selecting the music player option. You have a choice to buy songs from the iTunes Music Store to use on the phone, or you can create your own tracks from favourite CDs. The phone comes supplied with iTunes software, which you need to install onto your computer, and using this application you can drag and drop tracks into playlists to load onto the phone. If album cover artwork or pictures exist, then you will also be able to view these on the phone’s screen. One disappointment users may have is that the phone cannot download iTunes tracks over-the-air. However, tracks can be transferred to the phone from a PC or Mac computer via the supplied USB cable, but they must be stored on the memory card in the phone. The phone cannot transfer music tracks using its Bluetooth connection.

A good set of stereo headphones (in the same white finish as the phone) is supplied for listening to the music, and this headset will provide a high quality of sound reproduction for the enjoyment of music. Alternatively, it may suit you better to play the musical output through the phone’s stereo loudspeakers, which are located on either side of the display and provide reasonably loud volume in 3D surround sound. When using the headset you should get up to 15 hours of listening from one battery charge, although when playing music through the speakers this drops to about 5 to 6 hours. As with all the multi-featured phones, heavy music use and taking lots of photos has to be balanced against how much standby and talk time you need, because too much listening will not leave enough power in the battery to make and receive calls between charges.

A negative point about the music features is that it takes a lot longer to download tracks via USB than you would expect if you were downloading to an iPod; Motorola optimistically quote a transfer time of 30 seconds for a 4 MB music file, and so if you have a lot of music to download it could take some time. The technical quality of the tracks stored in the ROKR is at a data rate of 128 kbps in AAC format, and there are the usual controls such as fast forward, rewind and shuffle play. You can also activate the phone’s rhythm lights to flash in time to the music. Unfortunately there is a limit of 100 tracks for music storage on each memory card, which is the number that was set by the licensing agreement between Apple and Motorola.

As an iTunes player the ROKR’s internal memory of 5 MB would be completely inadequate, were it not for the addition of a memory card slot. The collecting of music tracks, in addition to all those pictures, sounds and other personal data, can very quickly take up quite a lot of storage space, and the removable TransFlash™ card eliminates the memory problems. A 512 MB card is supplied with the phone, but more cards can be purchased if you want to store more music and other media. The only disadvantage when changing memory cards is that the back cover and battery have to be removed, although that is more of a minor irritation than any major problem. So you should be able to carry around your entire music collection in your pocket - on several memory cards - if you need to play all your favourite tracks while on the move.

For those who wish to personalise this phone, there are the normal options to download more content such as themes, animated screensavers, wallpapers and ringtones. A good selection of polyphonic ringtones is provided for you to choose from, but the phone also comes with some MP3 real music ringtones as well. With the benefit of 2 speakers you can now experience the added impact of full stereophonic ringtones, where the sound bounces between the speakers - even more ear catching than those usual polyphonic or MP3 ringtones. One drawback is that you cannot use iTunes as ringtones, because they are stored on the memory card and ringtones can only be selected if stored in the phone’s memory.

As with some of Motorola’s other models, the ROKR E1 has several light show features available to excite the user. By adjusting the sensitivity of the phone to noises and music (7 levels of sensitivity are provided) you can make the phone’s keypad, display, and the colour LEDs on the sides flash in response to the sounds - which Motorola call Rhythm Lights - and this is something that is sure to get you noticed. You can also set up the side ring lights to flash when some event occurs, which allows you to use the lights to alert you to a particular caller or phone activity.

With its integrated Java™ capability, the ROKR E1 also gives you the opportunity to use a wide range of applications and games, and more of these programs may be downloaded when you want to try something new. Some games can provide a full gaming experience: the gaming action will be accompanied by a combination of sound effects, light display and synchronised haptics vibration - designed to make the game a more exciting experience. There is one game called “Crazy” preloaded in the phone to get you started.

The ROKR E1 has good data handling capability, being equipped to work with GPRS technology. The effect of GPRS is that you will be able to transfer your data faster and to gain the added benefit of an “always on” connection to the network. A WAP 2.0 browser is also provided to allow you to get the most out of the mobile Internet. There are now many WAP sites supplying the needs of mobile phone users, and you should be able to find the services and information you require somewhere among these WAP sites, whether it be news, sports, weather, traffic, entertainments, financial services, or business information. A further important tool on this phone is its onboard e-mail client, which allows you to keep up with all your e-mail correspondence while out and about, and this supports the standard e-mail protocols of POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP.

Connectivity options are an additional good feature in the ROKR E1. The phone has integrated Bluetooth™ wireless technology, so you may transfer MP3s, video clips, games, photos and vital data from your PC to your phone without wires. Bluetooth can be used for voice calls, but it is not possible to transfer or listen to iTunes via Bluetooth. The iTunes playlists also cannot be managed via Bluetooth. A second method of connecting to your PC or other device is to transfer your data using the standard USB data cable. Once a connection is established, it is then possible to synchronise your calendar and phonebook with your home or office PC, as well as to enable the downloading of pictures and sounds between the two devices.

The ROKR E1 has a useful organiser feature, which includes a calendar, notes, alarm clock, electronic wallet, calculator, and currency converter. You can store the details of 1000 contacts in the phonebook, each of which can have several numbers. Also included is a picture phonebook, so that you can see who is calling by picture ID, and you can also set a ringtone to an entry for ringer caller ID. The phone also has the usual vibration alert and profile settings, as well as Motorola’s own iTap® predictive text input.

Motorola ROKR E1 cameraphone specification

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Last updated 30th January 2008, 14:39 GMT