Joystick, well it is rather handy. It is made in a form of a “mushroom” and does not protrude over the main phone surface. To move and press it there is a kind of crater encircling it.

Additional buttons

The number of side keys almost exceeds the quantity of the main ones, which is quite OK for a musophone, that's the way it should be.

On the left side there are a volume control (both for player and ringtones), player control block (contains three keys previous track, play/pause, next track). The right side features recorder triggering button and a slide bar to lock the keypad. If the Keypad is not locked one has only to take the handset when the keys are unvoluntary pressed the phone starts playing music calling strange numbers and the like so a separate mean of locking the keypad is a very right choice.

The display is just amazing. It is TFT with 320x240 pixels and supports up to 262K colors plus bright matrix which makes image especially lively. Besides all that brightness does not fade in the sun. The display of the ROKR E2 is on eof the best today.

Functionality

Camera

The impression of the camera is as if it was not made a point of the handset and is something secondary against the background of the musical abilities of the device. It is 1.3 Mp w/flash and 8x ZOOM. The quality of the pictures and especially of video is quite mediocre especially for the phone of such class.

The camera block is situated at the back panel in the middle so the fingers do not interfere with the shooting process. A bit higher there is a powerful flash and self-portrait mirror.

The maximum resolution of pictures taken makes 1270x1024 pixel.

Among settings we've found flash activation, timer setting, multishooting for 4, 6 or 8 shots, the time interval (0-6 sec), camera sound, storage place (integrated memory or expansion memory stick), picture quality.

The length of the videotrack is not restricted which is the only plus we see. The resolution is but 176x144 pixel, the quality is clearly lame. Let's hope that will be improved.

Menu:

The main peculiarity of the Motorola ROKR E2 interface is the fact that its OS is based on Linux-Java also called Juix OS. The interface has a nick of Chameleon. Therefore ROKR E2 is not a simple phone but not yet a smartphone: it is something in-between. But surely Linux application won't work on it only Java ones are compatible. We will dwell only on peculiar points of the menu. The menu includes 9 icons

There is theme support.

The messaging includes SMS, MMS and e-mail client. MMS may contain audio, video files, pictures, web-sites to make the long story short: anything you like.

The phonebook is a real miracle. For example there is a possibility to assign a ring tone to a message of a definite contact.

Entertainment

The ROKR E2 offers JAVA games, MP3 player, FM-tuner, mpeg4 media player

MP3 player is one of the most interesting really well realized features of the phone. The music can be reproduced either through headphones or through the loudspeaker. The jack slot of 3.5 mm allows to use your own headset for a better quality of sound. The equalizer has several presets, one can also define the order of track reproduction, create and edit your own playlist. The player can play in the background mode. On incoming call music pauses and waits until you press play.

The radio has the same “envelope” as a player. The headphones serve as an antenna. There are 3 groups of station settings each featuring 9 points.

Slots:

The miniUSB slot is common for Motorola phones. Beside it there is expansion memory SD slot. Due to a firmly fastened gag it is not very handy to change. The thing that is really nice is a standard 3.5 mm for every music fan is sure to have headphones but till now they could be used only with adapter if there is one. And the place for the slot is the most convenient at the upper panel.

Memory

The Memory includes 48 Mb RAM, 16 Mb ROM, 64Mb Flash. Although integrated memory capacity may seem insufficient, there is an expansion slot for SD card which is a rather popular standard. File manager allows to delete, move, cut and copy files of any type and pictures have additional options such as printing through Bluetooth, set as a wallpaper a.o.

All files can be selected and the operations available with one file can be done with the group. As for the memory stick we used two of them: Transcend (1Gb) and Kingston (128 Mb) and noticed no problems in any of the cases. Sales package includes 512 Mb memory stick so additional memory stick is optional.

Connectivity

The connectivity includes Bluetooth and miniUSB interfaces. There is no IR port as well as Wi-Fi.

Working time

The time of autonomous work of constant listening to a player, radio, camera activation ran battery down in 1.5 day. In other circumstances the phone can “survive” up to 3 days.

Pluses:

• Comprehensive functionality
• Great display
• Handy control
• Professionally realized player (nice interface, work with memory card, jack slot etc.)

Minuses:

• Weak camera
• Comparatively large dimensions

Conclusions and impressions:

Motorola ROKR E2 is a next step in “mobile-building”. It is one of its kind. Lots of latest manufacturers developments were gathered together at the principally new platform. It is bound to win a legion of fans. It will be a start for a new line of new cell phones. All we are to do now is to wait patiently.