“The ROKR entered into my posession this Saturday. My wife and I visited the Cingular store in Dallas… The hardware is E398 technology – Motorola’s flagship MP3 playing phone. The phone has a weight and size I really like. It’s easy to handle. It’s also just gorgeous to look at – The white and chrome industrial design really integrates well with the iTunes interface. For those who have been bashing it as a ‘has-been’ technology, I challenge you to find a ‘bleeding edge’ phone that has speaker sound quality that’s as good. Granted, I’m not going to be playing it much without headphones, but Motorola has outdone itself on built-in speaker sound,” Micah Boswel writes for Conscious-Shell.

“The ROKR comes with some very cool light options – the side grills reveal about 5 color options, and one can choose how those light up and when – a very nice aesthetic touch that turns your phone into a ‘Communications, Music Playing Glow Stick,’” Boswel writes. “Aside from the new iTunes software on the ROKR, the firmware is basically an E398… The iTunes interface is familiar and beautiful. You get it in gorgeous color – the Motorola screens are just unbeaten in contrast and brightness, even outdoors. You get the album cover as well as the other iTunes song/track/album notes. Another nice touch – when you get a call, iTunes playing automatically pauses (One small suggestion to Firmware engineers for future releaseses would be that, once your call is done, the device should by default start playing again). The iTunes interface also carries over to your default screen (home screen) when it’s active. It’s obvious that the interface and hardware engineers worked well together on these issues.”

Much more in the full article here.

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