Motorola Rokr E8

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Motorola's ROKR E1 made its debut in 2005, but the iTunes-compatible handset didn't turn out to be a worthy iPod replacement. Instead, reviewers critiqued the E1 as simply a normal phone with Apple iTunes software preinstalled. Moto repeated its attempt at a music-focused device shortly after with the ROKR E2 and a number of upgraded features and, again, the response was, at best, lackluster.

The latest to join the ROKR series (after the touchscreen E6 and slider Z6) is the E8 that was announced at this year's annual CES. For the record, the E8 nabbed CNET's Best of CES award in the cell phones and smart phones category.

Design

It is easy to mistake the ROKR E8 for a bar of Godiva in its black wrapper, because that's what it looks like. At 115 x 53 x 10.6mm and weighing 100g, the E8 has an average size for a phone. What sets it apart from its competition is its new keypad. Or rather, its lack of one.

In idle, only three columns of tiny nubs marking the positions of the numbers on the underlying keypad and an incomplete silver ring are visible. Once activated, the alphanumeric keypad and the control panel light up from under the phone's clear plastic surface, making the keypad look like it is floating in limbo.

Although the tiny nubs are supposed to help us find our way with the keypad, it was impossible to type on the screen without looking at it. In addition, the shortcut buttons to the music player and correction key are a tad too close to the call/end controls. So we ended up pressing the wrong ones on several occasions.

Because the E8 doesn't come with conventional hard keys, Moto substituted the typical user experience with a "vibrating" keypad. This isn't the first time haptic feedback is used on phones. However, on earlier models such as the Razr2 V9, the vibrating feedback was implemented primarily on the music controls on the external LCD. With the E8, every control and every button you press will register a short pulse of vibration. While that's generally a good thing (at least there's some sort of tactility), we felt the overall user experience lacking.

The E8's other showpiece is the scrolling toggle marked by an incomplete silver ring. The toggle doesn't go full circle, and if we trace our digit on the missing portion of the circle at the bottom, the cursor on the screen would stop and then resume again when we got to the other side. If you are not used to it, you can always fall back on the four-way pad. The scrolling toggle is fun to play with initially, but after a while, you'll find yourself clicking left and right more often.

Elsewhere on the phone, the 3.5mm headset jack is on the top of the phone protected by a piece of rubber cover (you can pluck this off and discard it). A manual keylock switch accompanies the proprietary port on the right edge. Although the front of the E8 is glossy, the back is made from soft-touch plastic. You can also find the 2-megapixel camera at the back with the onboard speaker on the bottom edge. The disappointment is that while the E8 comes with a generous 2GB of in-built memory, to get to the microSD expansion card slot, you'll first need to remove the battery.

Features And Performance »