Motorola EM330

Print

Email

Bookmark

Share

Add to My Products

By Irene Mickaiel, CNET.com.au
Dec 29, 2008

What has a touch-sensitive external display for music playback? That is, besides Sony Ericsson's W380i. OK, let's try that again: What is (at the time of writing) A$200 cheaper than the W380i (though slightly less fashionable looking)? The Motorola EM330.

Editors' note:

This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com.au. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some other products or telcos in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia.

Design

This small and unassuming clamshell mobile phone has an external display with touch-sensitive screen, and is framed by a brushed metal aluminium casing.

Along the left side of the EM330 are two clear plastic buttons for the volume and a smart key function. Just below these, hidden under a rubber flap, is the mini-USB port for charging and connecting to the PC. On the opposite side is the 3.5mm headphone port, which is great should you want to use your own stereo headset, but unfortunately due to the placement of this jack it makes it a little awkward to put the phone in your pocket while you're listening to music.

Inside the EM330 is your standard keypad--in almost all black. The keys are large enough for big stubby fingers and are to easy find without looking at the keypad. The five-way navigation keys have music playback controls and just beside them is a prominent red button for quick access to your music library.

Features

Motorola's supplied headphones are of decent quality and also enable hands-free phone operation, which is nice to have... if the button on the headset to answer calls wasn't so slow to respond.

The EM330 has an internal memory of 30MB with an option to expand to 2GB with a microSD card. Unfortunately to insert a memory card, you have to remove the back cover.

The phone's target market is the music crowd, and so is able to play most music formats (eAAC+/MP3/MPEG-4/H.264/3GP/WAV/AAC/AMR/XMF/AAC+/H.263/MIDI). With drag and drop capability, it doesn't take long to transfer music files to the EM330, so you'll be bopping to your music in no time.

There is also the customary 1.3-megapixel camera which most phones wouldn't dare neglect to include.

One great feature of the EM330 is its ability to record FM radio in mono, which you can then use for a ringtone. We wouldn't recommend using the recordings for anything else because the quality is pretty poor.

Tags: Motorola Inc., Music, headset, mini-USB, FM-radio

Performance »