Though not an MP3 phone, the Motorola AURA looks like it has a competent music player. For $2000, it better be.
That's right. This baby will cost you $2000. I can't imagine why in the world this phone could cost that much, until I saw its "luxury" features. It has a cool circular display capable of showing off 16 million colors, it's protected by a 62-carat sapphire crystal, it's stainless steel, and it's textures and patterns are chemically etched.
If you happen to have $2000 lying around, please buy an AURA and drop us a comment and tell us how it fares.
Just when I thought Motorola is done with their vowel-dropping phones, out comes ROKR EM35.
The EM35 is a slider phone and an mp3 phone, just like its Moto ROKR cousins. It features listening to music while browsing the music store. The FastScroll navigation wheel allows users to easily scroll through menus and music tracks. One thing I like about the RORK EM35 is that it can hold upto 32GB of memory via MicroSD card, which is a whole lotta songs if you ask me. The colors are not too bad either.
Oh Motorola, you and your silly-named phones! RAZR. KRZR. ROKR. The first few were fun, and quite impressive, but recently it was just all branding. I say more innovation and less letter-dropping. That's why I'm not surprised to hear that Motorola RAZR3 aka Ruby was canceled.
The RAZR2 successor didn't make the cut, apparently. But this might mean good news for Moto fans. Motorola may have finally decided to move on and make better phones rather than rehashing old ones.
Motorola announced a couple of days ago another 5-megapixel phone, the MOTO VE66. The difference between this camera phone and Motorola's ZN5 is that this has LED flash instead of xenon. I'm not into camera phones that much so you be the judge which would be better.
What interests me is the MP3 playback capability of the MOTO VE66. The phone is equipped with FastScroll™ navigation wheel, which is always a good sign. It helps go through those long lists of songs and artists.
The MOTO VE66 will be released before the year ends. More about this MP3 phone when it becomes available.
The sleek and stylish Motorola RAZR2 V9x was recently added to AT&T's mobile phone lineup. What I like about this phone is it has a stainless steel structure, perfect for my rugged style. Oh, and did I mention it's an MP3 phone? Here's a summary of Motorola RAZR2 V9x features and specs:
Supported Music Formats: MP3 + Real , WAV, WMA AT&T Mobile Music: Yes Subscription Music Services: Napster Mobile Streaming Radio: MobiRadio, XM Radio Mobile MusicID: Yes Create Music Playlist: Yes CrystalTalk™: Yes Internal Memory: 32 MB Expandable Memory: 8 GB via microSD
Screen Display: 176x220 pixels, TFT LCD, 65,100 colors Size: 53 x 98 x 13 mm Memory: 40 MB internal, 2 GB microSD slot Ringtones: Polyphonic, MP3 Camera: VGA resolution
Motorola RAZR V3m Review
The Motorola RAZR V3m has a very polished, sleek design, making it popular on almost all markets. As with the majority of Motorola phones, this one's a looker.
Sadly, the V3m doesn't pass as a good Mp3 phone. Actually I should call it a WMA phone, since MP3s must be converted to WMA for playback. Sound quality is okay at best, and expect to pay extra to get yourself earphones and compatible USB cable. Yup, it doesn't come with the phone!
The music playback features of the phone is not the only one that is lacking. The camera is terrible, being there's no flash. You can't send email either on this phone, or use Instant Messaging.
The rest of the Motorola RAZR V3m is good. It sends messages and you can call friends with it. Just don't expect it to be a good mp3 player.
Launched: September 7, 2005 Screen Display: 176x220 pixels, 262000 colors, 1.9 inches Size: 108 x 46 x 20.5 mm Weight: 107 g Ringtones: Polyphonic, MP3, AAC Memory: microSD up to 512MB Bluetooth: Yes Camera: 640x480 pixels, VGA
My Motorola ROKR E1 Review
I was one of those who got caught in the "ROKR" hype. The first time I read the latest of Motorola's genius branding, I immediately want one, being a "ROKR" myself.
First thing I noticed with Motorola ROKR E1 was it was damn heavy, mainly due to its internal speakers, which I must admit was of superior quality. I haven't seen or heard of a better set of speakers on a phone. With a little modding you can get the bass to pump the way you like it. Battery life was decent as well, and sending and receiving messages are alright. ROKR was also quite cheap compared to the competition. That's about all the good things you can get me to say about Motorola ROKR E1.
After a day of rabid testing, I immediately noticed that it was a pain to upload MP3s to my Moto ROKR. You need to install iTunes for you to take advantage of the MP3 playback feature. It would take approximately two minutes to upload a song. And if you delete a song from the library of your PC, it will be deleted on the phone as well.
One of the biggest setbacks of Motorola ROKR E1 is that it only allows you to store upto 100 songs. Even if you have space left, you can't exceed their limit.
The second month after I bought the phone the extrior paint of my Moto ROKR started to chip off. Then I see cracks. My looks-okay phone officially looks ugly. I started to look for another MP3 phone.
