Click for images of the Motorola E398.

As other manufacturers continue to fight the pixel war with megapixel camera-phones, Motorola decides to differentiate itself by taking a different route with its latest offering, the E398 MP3-phone.

Design
At first glance, you may mistake this bar-shaped looker paired with a joystick for another of Sony Ericsson's offering. In addition, the Nokia-styled silver keypad can fool you into thinking that this phone is of Finnish origin. The designers at Motorola must have been hard at work observing what its competitors did right to come up with this latest handset.

The rubbery material used on the mostly black exterior gives it a nice grip and feel. The sides house a pair of stereo speakers and rhythm lights. The navigation joystick made of shiny silver material may prove a little slippery for people with sweaty palms. Fortunately, the matt-silver keyboard is roomy and well-spaced for texting. Overall, it looks good either with your business suit or sports wear.

This triband handset uses a 176 x 220-pixel TFT which is standard fare in most recent Motorola models. The 65K screen which displays up to eight lines of text is visible even under direct sunlight.

Features
This E398 scores high in the looks department and is also feature-rich. Despite being targeted at music enthusiasts, the mobile comes laden with functions such as Bluetooth connectivity and PIM for business users, too.

The built-in VGA camera lends itself to occasional snapshots but we aren't fans of the 4x digital zoom that stretches images at the expense of quality. It's puzzling why Motorola left out video recording for a phone targeted at the multimedia buff. A night mode for low-light shooting is also absent. Fortunately, the brightness controls somewhat alleviate the need for it. Don't count on the photo light for assistance as it's good only for closeups.

While the keypad is excellent for messaging, the phone fails to keep up with our speedy texting. Letters continue to trickle in after we're done inputting our sentence. The E398 also suffers from the so-called "Sony Ericsson Syndrome" seen in models like the T610 and T630. Message alerts are muted if you leave the text window open after reading it.

The E398 is the first phone to use TransFlash memory. This diminutive media, housed below the battery, is roughly the size of your thumbnail. However, we have to caution you against the cumbersome and delicate retaining mechanism used in the E398. Nonetheless, it's generous of Motorola to bundle a 64MB card that stores approximately an hour's worth of MP3 songs.

Multimedia
The built-in dual speakers that pump out acoustics of excellent quality is also great for piping music and handsfree conferencing. This Motorola utilizes Haptics technology so that when you hold the phone, the well-timed vibration fools the brain and enhances bass in the music.

The stereo headset provided outputs crisp audio but lacks the bass punch heard on Sony Ericsson's K700i. To make matter worst, there isn't any equalizer onboard to tweak to your preference and the controls are rather bare. Another gripe is that the player chokes on MP3 files encoded in Variable Bit Rate (VBR), so discerning music aficionados will be peeved.

Transferring MP3 files from the desktop to the 64MB TransFlash is seamless using the SD card adaptor. With a capacity for about 20 songs, it's sufficient to last through an exercise session. Unfortunately, Motorola fails to pack in an FM radio found in competing models like the Nokia 6230.

This mobile not only screams to be heard but also to be seen. LED lights built at the sides of the screen alert you to incoming calls. Together with the customizable lights and vibration, it'll be unlikely for you to miss incoming calls.

The E398 plays back MPEG-4 videos albeit rather choppily. However, if you're not planning to watch the whole series of CSI, it should be good enough.

Reception, Battery Life And SAR
During the review period, we encountered no issues with E398's reception or voice quality. Battery life was rather good for a multimedia phone and it took us through three days of moderate usage easily. If you're planning to use the phone as an MP3 player, recharging will be more frequent.

This handset meets international requirements concerning exposure to radio waves, clocking in a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value of 1.01W/kg.

Conclusion
The E398 retails for S$598 with a two-year plan and S$748 without contract. If the quirky SMS engine and lack of FM radio don't bother you too much, this is a cost-effective alternative to MP3-phones from other manufacturers. Don't expect this Motorola to replace your iPod anytime soon although it's all the company you need for your daily commute.