By Kent German and James Kim
16/09/2005
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,39095422p,00.htm

After months of rumors, speculation, and a whole lot of hype, the Motorola iTunes cell phone is finally available. Yes, you can download iTunes songs on to the phone and play them at will, but it's important to note that the Motorola ROKR E1 is less an iPod player with a cell phone attached than it is a phone with Apple iTunes software preinstalled. The ROKR E1 performs its primary functions--playing music and making calls--relatively well, but from our perspective, it is just a noble first try. Due to several tedious limitations, it won't replace your iPod by any means. The phone's music memory is somewhat small at 50 songs maximum, you must use a cable (not Bluetooth) to download music, the overall design is dull, and the iTunes interface is sluggish. At US$249 with a two-year contract, the phone isn't cheap, either. (Note: This is based on the US list price. Localized pricing details in Asia are not yet available.) But the ROKR E1 claims one major advantage over other MP3-capable cell phones on the market: compatibility with iTunes, the world's most popular music download service. We'll buy one when it has more capacity, a faster processor, and an integrated Click Wheel, then dream of the day when the ROKR lets us purchase tracks wirelessly.

Editors' note: Motorola Singapore has confirmed that the ROKR E1 will be available in Singapore from end September. Local pricing will be released closer to launch date.

Design
Ever since Motorola unveiled the now famous Motorola Razr V3, we've expected a lot from its design team. That might explain why we're unimpressed by the Motorola ROKR E1's overall style. It looks nothing like the sleek device in pictures that floated around the techie blogs earlier this summer; rather, it sports a standard candy bar-style form factor that's nearly identical to the Motorola E398's. Almost rectangular in shape and relatively compact (108 x 46 x 20.5mm; 107g), it's furnished in a light silver with metallic touches on the side. Though not unattractive, the ROKR is boring and not what we'd expect from such a high-profile cell phone.

	The Motorola ROKR E1 has an uninspiring design.

The display measures an ample 2.0 inches diagonally and supports 262,000 colors. Great for viewing photos and playing games, the display shines brighter than many Motorola screens we've seen; it's even readable in direct light. You can change the backlighting time and brightness, but visually impaired users should note that you can't alter the font size. The primary tool for navigating iTunes (see Features) and the standard Motorola menu interface is a five-way joystick that you can program as a shortcut to five user-defined features. The joystick is on the small side, but even those with bigger hands shouldn't have a problem. We'd prefer an iPod mini Click Wheel, but during playback of audio files, you can press down on the joystick and pull up information such as full-screen album art and personal ratings.

In addition to the joystick, you'll find the traditional Talk and End keys below the display, two soft buttons, and a dedicated menu key. In an especially convenient touch, there's a clearly marked button that instantly open iTunes. The large keypad buttons are raised above the surface of the phone, making it easy to dial by feel. A bright backlight illuminates the keys, and you can program that light in a choice of eight color patterns that change when you receive a call or during certain actions (text messages, battery charging, and so on).

We liked that the dedicated volume controller on the left spine allows you to adjust levels for calls and music, no matter what screen you're on. The control makes the ROKR E1 sleeker and more agile, though those looking for the prowess of an iPod will be sorely disappointed.

Below the volume rocker, you'll find a "smart key" that you can set as yet another shortcut to any of the phone's features. On the right spine sits a dedicated camera button that's too thin for our tastes. On both sides of the phone, you'll find sizable 22KHz polyphonic stereo speakers that sit above rectangular LED lights, which you can set to flash in accompaniment to the keypad backlighting. It's a gimmicky but eye-catching touch. The camera-lens mirror and a surprisingly bright flash are located on the back of the phone, while the headset jack is conveniently located on the top. The included headphones are well designed and use a cell phone-friendly 2.5mm jack, though a 3.5mm adapter is included for those who want to use their own headphones. About 150mm down from the right earbud sits a microphone for speakerphone calls that works quite well and includes a Mute button.

After looking in vain for the TransFlash card slot (a 512MB card is included), our worst fears were realized when we found it resting behind the battery. But that's not all--you must first remove the SIM card to access it. While you probably won't need to remove the TransFlash card too often, we'd prefer to see it rest in a convenient slot on the phone's spine. And by the way, prying out the battery can be tricky.

Features
It's no surprise that the music player is the ROKR's primary attraction--it's called the ROKR, after all--but we'll get to the music functionality in a minute. The rest of the Motorola ROKR E1 covers a satisfying array of features. The phone book holds 1,000 contacts, each of which can take six phone numbers, an e-mail address, a postal address, and a birth date; the SIM card holds an additional 250 names. You can assign contacts to caller groups, pair them with a picture for photo caller ID, or assign them one of eight polyphonic ring tones--somewhat sparse for a music phone. Other features include a vibrate mode; instant messaging; voice dialing; call timers; a calculator; e-mail support for POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP; a date book; an alarm clock; text and multimedia messaging; a password-protected "safe" for storing personal information; syncing for your calendar and contacts; and a WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser, though there's no FM radio. We're pleased to see the ROKR E1 came with Bluetooth and a speakerphone, but these extras quickly lost their luster. The ROKR's Bluetooth functionality is limited to voice calls, and you can activate the speakerphone only after you've made a call.

	The iTunes interface is simple but sluggish.

The iTunes experience on the ROKR is remarkably similar to the iPod's, so there is instant familiarity for iPod owners. Opening the player takes you straight to the music library, where you can organize songs by playlist, artist, album, and name. Under the Playlists option, you'll see transferred playlists, plus one called Mobile Phone, which holds the songs created by the convenient iTunes' Autofill feature. When playing music, the phone goes back into standby mode while displaying onscreen soft controls and album art. Settings include shuffle of songs or albums, as well as repeat one or all but no equalizers. Transferring between the cell phone and the music player is seamless, as music automatically stops when you receive a call. Hang up and press the dedicated iTunes key, and your song picks up again from the point you left off. There's also an airplane mode that lets you listen to your tunes in flight with the cell phone turned off.

Despite all the things the ROKR's music player can do, there are quite a few it can't. To begin with, you can download songs only through the included USB cable. There's no way to transfer iTunes music wirelessly, and since you must listen to music through the included wired headset, Bluetooth fanatics won't be pleased. There is a strict 100-song storage limit, and the iTunes tracks are stored on the 512MB TransFlash card. You can't store downloads on the phone's 5MB of integrated memory, and if you try to store 101 tracks, you'll get an error message. Though 100 songs may be perfectly fine for some users, we were miffed by the cap. For a device that's all about music, we were hoping for at least 1GB. What's worse, Apple said the 100-song limit won't change even if bigger cards come out, despite the fact that TransFlash cards are currently limited to 512MB. But wait, there are more catches. The ROKR E1 pairs with merely one computer at a time. When we tried connecting to a second computer, the ROKR E1 erased all our previously loaded songs. And lastly, you can't use iTunes tracks as ring tones. (Note: For ROKR E1 units in Asia, the song limitation is 50, not 100. This is due to licensing agreements between Motorola and Apple.)

In addition to the iTunes player, there's a separate, generic Motorola-designed MP3 player that supports MP3, MIDI, WAV, AAC, and DRM AAC files. Fortunately, it accepts downloads through Bluetooth, and you can use stored tracks as ring tones. Keep in mind, though, that this second player is not connected to the iTunes player in any way, so you can't transfer files back and forth. Also, the ROKR E1's meager integrated memory will limit you to about 20 songs.

	The camera lens includes a flash and a self-portrait mirror.

We were disappointed that the Motorola ROKR E1 has just a VGA camera, particularly for such an expensive phone. Still, it comes with a satisfying set of options. You can take pictures in 640x480, 320x240, and 160x120 resolutions; choose from seven lighting settings; and adjust the brightness. You also get a 4X zoom, a bright flash, a self-portrait mirror, an autotimer (5 or 10 seconds), and a selection of five shutter sounds, as well as a Silent option. The MPEG-4 video recorder takes clips up to 30 seconds in length with sound in two resolutions: 176x144 and 128x96. You can use the flash as a light for your films and choose a lighting setting. Photos and video were about what you'd expect from a VGA camera: fine for viewing on a computer but nothing that you'd want to print out. When finished with your snaps and clips, you can send them in a multimedia message or save them to the phone. You also can save your work to the TransFlash card, but you'll probably want to keep that chunk of memory for your music.

	The ROKR E1 has average photo quality for a camera phone.

You can personalize the ROKR E1 with a variety of wallpaper, themes, menu styles, color skins, screensavers, and message tones. If you'd like more options or ring tones, you can download them from Cingular. You get just one Java (J2ME) game but can always download more if you're an avid gamer. It's a letdown, however, that the phone supports only GPRS data speeds and not EDGE.

Performance
We tested the triband (GSM 850/1800/1900; GPRS) Motorola ROKR E1 in San Francisco using Cingular's network. Call quality was satisfactory, with good clarity and volume. Callers could tell we were using a cell phone, but the signal remained relatively strong, and we had little interference from other electronic devices. Occasionally, the voice quality had an echoing sound, but it wasn't bothersome. Calls over the speakerphone diminished slightly in quality, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for a cell phone. We tried using the ROKR E1 with the Plantronics Discovery 640 Bluetooth headset. We paired the two devices quickly and had good sound quality throughout calls. The first thing an experienced iPod user will notice about the ROKR E1's iTunes player is noticeably slow performance. There are obvious navigation delays--occasionally up to two seconds, particularly when skipping through songs or changing screens. We also fault the transfer speed. We sat staring at iTunes, as it took more than 12 minutes to transfer 90MB worth of tracks (22 tracks at 0.12MB per second). In contrast, the iPod Shuffle has a transfer rate of 1.38MB per second, while the iPod Photo has a rate of 7.49MB per second.

One area where the ROKR excels over its MP3 cell phone peers is sound quality. It compares well to an Apple iPod Photo, though there are no equalizer settings to customize your sound. The ROKR E1 won't give you the bright sounds of a Cowon iAudio U2, for example, but it won't disappoint anyone who values good acoustics.

The ROKR E1 has a rated talk time of 9 hours, which we met in our tests, and a promised standby time of 9 days. Music-only playback time is rated at 15 hours. According to FCC radiation tests, the ROKR E1 has a digital SAR rating of 1.01 watts per kilogram.