By CNET staff
08/09/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,62045899,00.htm

Judges: Kent German, Bonnie Cha, and Nicole Lee

T-Mobile may be the smallest major carrier, but that doesn't mean it lacks a decent selection of phones. In the past few months the company has introduced two music phones that won our praise. The Motorola ROKR E8 offers an innovative "ModeShift" keypad, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a well-stocked music player that delivers on performance. The Nokia 5310 XpressMusic also brings a nifty music player to the table, but it packages it in a more traditional design. So, which is the better cell phone for listening to your tunes? In the latest CNET cell phone Prizefight we pit the ROKR E8 against the 5310 XpressMusic to see which handset comes out on top.

Let's have a clean fight, fellas. Ding Ding!

Round 1: Sexiness

Design and looks count for a lot when you're shopping for a cell phone, so here's where we examine the look, size, feel, and sex appeal of these two devices. Our judges' individual ratings are based on a 0-to-5-point scale, which result in a final score of 0 to 15 points per round.

Kent	5 The ROKR E8 wins this round by a mile. I love its polished surface, slim profile, brilliant display, and solid construction. This is one phone that feels comfortable in the hand and looks great, too.	4 The 5310 is attractive, but it can't quite match the ROKR E8 in the looks department. It does offer a brilliant display, a razor-thin profile, and eye-catching color schemes, but it won't stand out in the cell phone crowd.
Bonnie	4 The Motorola ROKR E8's overall shape and form aren't particularly eye-grabbing, but when combined with the black glassy surface and illuminated keys, the phone is really sexy.	3 The Nokia 5310 is a decent looking phone, but it's nothing special in my eyes. And, I never thought I would say this, but the Nokia 5310 is almost too small for me.
Nicole	5 Though both phones are decidedly slim, I have to give the edge to the ROKR E8 due to its glossy black finish and the amazing morphing abilities of its ModeShift keypad.	4 While we marvel at how thin the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is, it just doesn't have the sex appeal of the ROKR E8.
Total	14	11

Round 2: Navigation

Sexiness is one thing, but are the devices easy to use? In Round 2, we examine the design and usability of the devices' navigation controls and keypad buttons.

Kent	4 The ROKR E8 wins points for its inventive ModeShift keypad, which changes as you move between different functions. Yet, I wasn't so crazy about the navigation toggle or the actual keypad buttons. I call this round a draw.	4 Though it lacks the ROKR E8s whiz-bang technology, there's something to be said for keeping it simple. The navigation toggle and keypad buttons are intuitive and the music controls are conveniently located.
Bonnie	4 The Motorola ROKR E8 has a more flashy, and seemingly complicated, interface, but I actually found the phone quite easy to use. The scroll wheel was a little temperamental, but I like the haptic feedback of the keypad and the ModeShift feature.	3 The Nokia 5310 isn't hard to navigate. In fact, it's downright easy, but it's also very blah. The menus feel and look a bit antiquated.
Nicole	3 I have to admit that I'm just not a fan of touch-sensitive keypads, such as the one on the ROKR E8, due to the learning curve involved in getting used to the lack of tactile keys. That said, I really do like how the keypad is able to shift functions depending on the mode.	4 The navigation interface on the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic may not be very flashy, but it's easy to use and gets the job done.
Total	11	11

Round 3: Features

What do these phones offer under the hood? Here, we examine the features in each device and rate which phone offers more.

Kent	4 The ROKR E8 has a well-stocked feature set. Besides its music player, there's a 2-megapixel camera with good photo quality, full Bluetooth, an FM radio, 2GB of internal storage, and a "talking phone" application. There's also a full HTML browser, though Web pages don't look great on the (relatively) small display. Still, it wins this round by a nose.	3 The 5310 offers a comparable features set, but its photo quality is inferior and its internal memory is a dinky 7.3MB.
Bonnie	4 The ROKR E8 and Nokia 5310 are fairly even in terms of features, but the E8 offers something extra that makes a difference; specifically, the music player is more robust and the phone has more internal memory.	3 As a music-centric phone, it's pretty disappointing to learn that the Nokia 5310 only had 7.3MB of internal memory. Sure, there's an expansion slot, but that's still pretty pathetic. Also, there's no quad-band support.
Nicole	5 The features on both phones are pretty identical. Both have a music player, and both have a 2.0-megapixel camera. However, the ROKR E8 nudges out the Nokia 5310 because its music player is just better.	4 See left.
Total	13	10

Round 4: Video and music quality

These handsets do a lot more than just make calls--they also have video and digital music players. We tell you which phone offers a better media experience.

Kent	5 The ROKR E8's music quality was very good. Sound wasn't too tinny and it had a lot of warmth. Deep bass was lacking, but that's typical on a music cell phone. On the other hand, it bests its rival by offering better external speakers.	4 The 5310's music quality is excellent as well. If it weren't for the aforementioned speaker, there isn't a whole lot of difference between it and the ROKR E8.
Bonnie	4 This was a pretty tough round for me. Both phones had very good sound quality during music playback. However, I felt the E8 had just a tad more bass when tracks were played through the phone's speakers.	4 See comment on left.
Nicole	5 I have to give the tip of the hat to the ROKR E8 on this one. The battle was close, but, I admit, I appreciate the richer and more dulcet tones of the ROKR E8. Also, the speakers don't have that tinny effect that plagues most music phones.	4 The music quality of the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic was decent, but its speaker sound was not as good as that on the ROKR E8.
Total	14	12

Round 5: Call quality

Cell phones aren't worth much if they don't make good calls. In the final battle, we check out the sound and clarity of phone calls and the quality of handsets' speakerphones.

Kent	5 Thanks to Moto's CrystalTalk feature, the ROKR E8 delivers great sound quality on all fronts. The volume and clarity were fine on our end and callers reported the same conditions.	4 The 5310 delivers great sound quality as well, but in comparison with the ROKR E8 it wasn't quite as good. It loses this round, but just barely.
Bonnie	4 I enjoyed good call quality on the ROKR E8. There were a couple of crackles, but otherwise conversations were loud and clear. The speakerphone also was pretty decent.	4 The Nokia 5310 also had admirable voice and speakerphone quality. There was also a bit of that crackling, but our friends said we sounded fine, so this round is a draw for me.
Nicole	4 I couldn't find a lot of difference in the call quality of the phones. Callers heard me just find on the ROKR E8, and vice versa. Audio quality was good, for the most part.	4 Similarly, the call quality from the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic was mostly decent. I did hear a bit of static occasionally, but it really wasn't too bad. Good call quality overall.
Total	13	12

The winner is…

Total points
Motorola ROKR E8: 65
Nokia 5310 XpressMusic: 56