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Motorola Rokr E6

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By Damian Koh
May 21, 2007

Motorola has been selling Linux-based devices for quite some time since the company's first announcement to adopt the platform in February 2003. Unlike handhelds which run on Symbian or Windows Mobile, the open-source approach for Linux takes advantage of community-based development for the system.

Unveiled at the ITU Telecom World in December 2006, the ROKR E6 is not like the musically talented ROKR E1 and E2 that came before it. It is more a smart phone with multimedia capabilities, targeted at young professionals.

Design
The all-black chassis of the Motorola ROKR E6 reminds us of the classic Razr lineup with laser-etched controls, except that it's in an oversized candy-bar form factor. The E6 uses touchscreen input, so users who prefer a hardware keypad to thumb away are better off with the slider ROKR Z6.

Unlike most touchscreen phones with their LCDs slightly below the surface of the unit, creating a sort of rim around it, the ROKR E6 is completely flat. Instead, the panel is under a transparent plastic layer that makes you feel like you're tapping on a layer of air. You never really "touch" the screen's surface in actual use.

At 123g, the E6 is not the lightest phone around, nor is it the thinnest (14.5mm), but the build quality is excellent.

Features
Like we mentioned earlier, the ROKR E6 is not like the iTunes-savvy siblings that came before it. In fact, placing the E6 in the ROKR category is a misnomer since the smart phone is nothing like the E1 and E2, both in terms of design and features.

There are some things which we really like on this ROKR, such as a 3.5mm audio jack, a Secure Digital card slot for up to 2GB of flash media, a Hold button to prevent accidental presses and a mini-USB port.

As a multimedia player, the installed RealPlayer is capable of playing most popular formats including AAC, AAC+, DRM, MIDI, MP3, RA, WAV and WMA. The E6 also supports Bluetooth stereo so you can use your wireless stereo headset. One thing we didn't take too well to was the poorly located music playback controls on the left edge of the phone. Because of the flushed surface, it is hard to feel for the buttons, much less know what each represents.

 
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