Motorola ROKR E3 - Exclusive pics!
By Peter Rojas 
posted Mar 2nd 2006 9:03AM
posted Mar 2nd 2006 9:03AM
As usual, we can't divulge our super-secret source, but earlier this week we scored an exclusive hands-on session with the Motorola ROKR E3 (at least, we think it's called the ROKR E3!). As you've probably noticed, this is the very same mystery phone that was up on stage for a few brief moments during Ed Zander's keynote at MotoNow last summer. Motorola hasn't officially announced this phone yet, but we got further confirmation of its existence a few weeks ago when
reader Adam W discovered a ROKR E3 skin in Moto's phone tools.
We're still trying to figure out some of the specs for this one -- it was easier for our source to get their hands on the phone itself than on its spec sheet -- but near as we can tell the ROKR E3 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset with 512MB of internal memory, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a TransFlash memory card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and some multimedia software. No iTunes, and that round thing that looks like a scroll wheel is actually just four buttons surrounding a run-of-the-mill joystick. Oh, and the keypad wasn't very easy to use either.
Anyway, enough talk, on to the pics!
Close-up of the keypad.
Note the headphone jack.
The back of the phone.
Worst keypad layout ever! And why is it like 2 inches thick??
Ugh ... they "2" is the bottom quadrant of the click wheel? Kill me now. I'll even keep my ROKR E1 instead of this monstrosity.
The product manager should be fired over that keypad decision. I bet the apple guys make fun of this all the time, talk about ugly. Actually the entire phone is bordering on butt-ugly.
Me no likes!
That keypad looks like crap.
The phone looks horrible.
No scroll wheel? So what's the point of this hideous round crap? Seems to me they ditched iTunes at the last minute. Poor Moto.
So when's this hideous looking thing coming out?
I actually like the layout. It does seem a little thick, though.
But why no iTunes? I know the iTunes software with previous ROKRs and SLVR haven't been very good, but does this mean that Motorola is nixing the iTunes experiment altogether instead of attempting to just fix the problems?
keyboard layout seems very... unusable. and what is the oversized circle pad trying to imply? what happened to originality or individual style?
Ka'boing! -ball being dropped. That's just doofy looking.
Awful looking button layout.
It looks like the designer of the phone had never used a phone before.
isn't it umts also? at least it has a front cam and the umts video call button.
anyway, the ugliest piece of plastic soap i've seen so far.
Hey, keep in mind this is a probably NOT the final design. This device could look a lot different when it is actually released.
On the bright side, it has A2DP and SD, great!
On the down side....WHY IS IT SO UGLY?!?
One word: eew. The original was ugly enough, why did they have to make it even worse?
This will be hard to compete with the SLVR, which has iTunes and also the thinner profile. If they market this correctly as the poor man's musicphone at a price point of $99 or so, they'll have a blockbuster.
Ugly!!! Can't even come close to the new SE Walkman phones.
Is that a camera next to the speaker? Must be a 3G phone then....
Peter,
Its great to see you posting again!!! It seems like Ryan has taken over your spot with the big posts, even though his style is great, informative and funny, i miss your posts. Keep 'em coming. And keep thwoing your weight around!!
DEAR LORD. PLEASE STOP MOTO!
hey... it's not all bad - the bottom looks cool!
remember - it is a PROTOTYPE. Lots of things change (usually for the better) once you start actually manufacturing the things. However, this is an U-G-L-Y prototype!
My Reportcard for the E3
Design: F
- The #2 is part of that white monstosity in the middle. If it's not a click-wheel then it's useless in my opinion
Useability: D
- About 2 inches thick is rights. Hope they can trim the fat.
Interface: D
- Would have been an F if it still had the 100 song cap, but the Moto interface is the worst. Not sure when it took place but is anyone else happy they finally aligned the call receive and end call button with every other manufacturer on the planet and made the end call button on the right?!?
Overall: D-
Sorry Moto, no hello from Me.
Although I really like my ROKR E1 - yes there are people out there who actually like this mobile phone - I certainly do not like the E3.
It looks like it that the electronics companies are deliberately NOT constructing the phone we all want.
Why?
To me it's obvious that PDA's, digital camera's, video players, mobile telephones and mp3 players have reached approximately the same format.
BIG screen, 3+ megapixel camera, SD/MMC card (no transflash, mini-SD, RS-MMC etc etc nonsense please), 3.5 mm headphone jack, 60+ Gb HD, mp3/DivX player, WiFi.
Shouldn't be that hard to produce...
Who's brave enough?
Fake click wheel. No iTunes. Nice, Moto -- way to steal the low-end of the market from the iPod imitators! *rollseyes* It doesn't look terribly useful, especially with the numbers so far apart from each other and the headphone jack in the back.
The PEBL and ROKR E3 have similar numeric keypads. Are people complaining about the layout on the PEBL? I haveb't used the PEBL, but I can't imagine that the keypad is easy to use.
"BIG screen, 3+ megapixel camera, SD/MMC card (no transflash, mini-SD, RS-MMC etc etc nonsense please), 3.5 mm headphone jack, 60+ Gb HD, mp3/DivX player, WiFi.
Shouldn't be that hard to produce..."
I'm sure that it would be technically feasible, but the device would be HUGE and would cost an absolute fortune.
Big devices with high price tags are very niche items. They do not sell particularly well (look at the HTC Universal) and therefore there's not much incentive to develop such a device.
And that's without going into the potential battery life of a device like that.
motorola had it in to sabotage the itunes project from square one. don't be surprised if moto come out with a plays for sure version. regardless, this is not a phone i would buy... with or without itunes. it would look good with flames on it. real ones!!!
what the frak is MOTO's deal with pre-announcing products? They haven't even brought the E2 to marker and they are already showing off the E3? Maybe they should concentrate on getting the Q out before all the other treo clones are released.
THIS IS A SIMPLE MESSAGE TO MOTOROLA...
1. You fcuked up with the ROKR E1! Haven't you learn anything?
2. Ugly phones don't sell!
3. Re: The E3 mock up. Are you having a joke at our expense?
Heres a a little recipe. It's a recipe for success.
It's yours for free.
i. Take the slvr.
ii. Add a little depth to it.
iii. Stick some dedicated play buttons on the side.
iv. Add a 3.5mm headphone jack.
v. Bundle it with at least an 512mb external memory card.
Now lets rock!
What happened to the E2?
I've got an original ROKR, which I love by the way, and I wouldn't give 2 cents for this ugly looking, hard to use piece of junk. It is so crude looking, I don't even think it's real, actually.
Sorry to put out the fire fellas, but that phone has already been cancelled. As you mention, your super secret source doesnt know the full story.
OMG! I hope this wont be the final design of this phone! I mean, why Motorola designers are so desperate to imitate an iPod? cant they make a new and cool design just like Motorola v3 or something like that? The big round button that look like the iPods button is very awful and so BIG! This guys seriously screw the phone off. The design in general in not so good and resembles a lot of E2 but wit very AWFUL design. They need to dig in more into v3 and L7 desing, this phones got much more cooler and futuristic design.
They need to do a new design for the very best sake of Motorola Phones hahaha =P
The best Motorola can do with this phone is to hide it in the vault from human race...disgraceful!!!
transflash is near worthless, use a damn sd slot
the 2 on the lower portion of directional pad
thicker than jlo's ass
no itunes? might as well get a slvr if you want a motorola candybar
Why on earth would anyon buy that, when they could have a SLVR with iTunes? It is just as bad of a design as the first ROKR. They should have just let the SLVR be the new "iTunes Phone" and cut their losses!!!
No way! this is what an ipod phone should look like! And thiness is not always important. After all who wants an anorexic phone anyways!
It's fat cause it's 3G, notice the front mounted camera. Although it shouldn't have to be THAT fat...
Seems like Motorola did it again: Messed up a phone that could be awesome...
so BIG
so f'n big...and why "rokr" without iTunes? DUMB
The ROKR E2 has yet to come out, and this one's only prototype. Prototypes are supposed to suck. There's plenty of room to grow.
Give the latvians something! :)
Ok, I did not like the E1 and do NOT Like the E3.
Looks like ctap
I'm having mid-90's Apple/Motorola flashbacks. The crappiness... oh Lord the crappiness...
I have to agree
totally ugly
I think that was absolutely hideous.
That phone is ugly.
And mad thick.
Why not work out a way of putting a sim chip and a camera (possibly) in an ipod and be done with it? So many phone companies seem to be trying to make their phones perform the functions of all these other gadgets which they generally perform poorly
As I use my phone the least (and its functionality is so basic) I wish Apple would just let me put my sim in the ipod and use the scroll wheel to dial the number.
I'm surprise nobody has commented on what appears to be an interesting feature. From these pictures, and the 'skins' images that did the rounds a month or two back, it looks to me like the keypad lights up relevant keys depending on mode. I don't own a Motorola phone, and it's entirely possible this is an existing feature (apologies if that's the case), but if this is a new feature with this phone, it's at least a positive development from Motorola.
As for the looks, the photos probably do not do it justice. They are clearly taken with a hard flash (in places) and will not compare to the marketing pics we're used to seeing. The back does look cool though.
imagine the commercial arguments from the marketing dept (because of the sub-standard microSD card slot:
"We are sorry, but because our STUPID engineers chose to implement the WORST storage card technology available today IN THE WHOLE WORLD, you will be severly restricted in your storage possibilities:
- you have at best 8 times less storage capacity to store your favorite music, movies and pictures
- of the standard cards you may already own, NONE will fit into this device
- you will need yo buy many more sub-standard cards if you wish to exchange data between this device and all those you may already own
- your pictures will take up to 10x more time to be saved to the card
- your movies will take up to 1 min or even a lot more time to be saved to the card
- your cards will cost you more
- you will be severly restricted to find new cards
- the maximum card capacity (technology limit) will be a lot less than that of competing products
- etc."
Note that microSD used to be called TransFlash. This is EXACTLY the same technology, it's just a name change.
See further http://minicards.boycott-it.info