Most music phones wear their dual personalities on their sleeves with external playback controls that are either too small or unresponsive. Motorola’s ROKR E8 is different. This sleek handset, exclusively available from T-Mobile, literally changes personalities with the touch of a button from phone to music player to camera. Only the controls you need are at your fingertips at any given time. You get excellent sound quality, whether you’re using the included stereo headset or the surprisingly loud speaker. Although it’s relatively expensive at $199—especially for a phone that lacks 3G data or over-the-air downloads—the ROKR E8’s innovative, eye-catching design and robust audio make it worth the splurge.

ROKR E8 Design

The ROKR E8’s smooth glass top and midnight blue body, which features a soft rubbery back cover, will certainly turn heads. The subtle red make for a beautiful package all around. The 4.5 x 2.1 x 0.4-inch ROKR E8 is similar in size to an iPod classic. Its 2-inch display is bright enough to view in light and dark conditions, but while its 320 x 240-pixel resolution was sufficient for displaying text clearly and left enough real estate for album art, we wish the screen was slightly larger.

Below the display is an orange backlit keyboard that glows a pale mint green in darker conditions. A 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top of the phone, volume controls and a camera launch button on the left, and a physical lock button on the right side that doubles as the power button. You can add a microSD Card under the back cover, but Motorola recommends cards no larger than 4GB. One of the unique features is the phone’s semi-circular control dial. You can run your finger along its arc to move through lists or menu options, and the quicker you move through the dial, the faster the lists scroll. It’s perfect for speeding through long lists of songs or artists, although we’d prefer a full circle to an arc.

We really enjoyed using the ROKR E8 as a music player, but if you’re used to using an iPod nano or another small MP3 player, it’s certainly going to be more cumbersome to use while exercising. The phone was just as easy to carry in a pocket as any other MP3 player, and we enjoyed walking a mile with it while listening to music, but it’s not something we would take to the gym, arm band or not.

Next-Gen Keypad

There are no real buttons on the ROKR E8’s keypad, but this phone’s breakthrough localized haptic technology will make you think there are. Each time you press a “key”—indicated by lights below a touch-sensitive surface—the area responds with a buzz in such a manner that it feels like a physical button actually exists. The ModeShift technology reveals corresponding keys for the phone, camera, and music player. When you’re using the phone, the alphanumeric keyboard is in view. When you switch to the MP3 player, the keypad vanishes and only multimedia controls remain. Likewise in camera mode, Zoom In/Out, Gallery view, and the video camera functions appear. The ModeShift technology attracted a lot of attention around our offices; many were stunned both by the ROKR E8’s ModeShift feature and the responsive haptic surface. 

User Interface

When we turned on the phone, we were welcomed by the familiar T-Mobile home screen that features the five MyFaves icons, which you can designate as shortcuts for contacting friends and family. Inside the main menu are ten icons along the bottom of the screen: your call log, E-mail & IM, Fun & Apps, Messages, Mobile Internet, Multimedia, Phone book, Settings, Song ID, and T-Zones. As you scroll over each of the miniature icons, a larger colored icon representing that application comes into a spotlight above. The interface is a bit sluggish if you try to scroll through quickly, but it was clean and easy to use.