Motorola ROKR EM330 Cell Phone

Motorola MOTO ROKR EM330

After many years of using Nokia phones, my cellular carrier has stopped offering much variety of Nokia phones so I was forced to decide on an expensive ($149 or more) Nokia phone or venture out with a new brand.
What I found was the Motorola EM330 (AKA MOTO ROKR).

After much research online, this seems to be the phone that best suits my needs without going too far over the top on features I'll never use.

I wanted a flip phone, removable media card availability, 1mp camera, music player & ability to use my music & pictures to customize my phone.

SIZE:
This is a small, thin, but somewhat wide phone, Measurements are as follows: 3.71" tall, 1.95" wide and 0.68" thick and weighs in at just over 3 ounces.
It feels about half an inch too wide for me, but I'm used to a narrower Nokia phone.

FORMAT & LAYOUT:
This is a flip phone which features a 1.8" internal screen as well as an unusual mirror finished outside/screen. The outside display is an LCD format that is only visible when needed (or when a button is pressed when the phone is closed).
This is somewhat of a disappointment because I like to use my phone as my watch (displays time, signal & battery on the outside display) but I haven't been able to find an option to keep the external display "ON" at all times. The only way to see the time, etc. is to press one of the side buttons normally used for volume & camera features.

It features a 1.3mp camera/video camera with a pinhole sized lens integrated into the before mentioned mirror finished external display.
More on the camera later...

Open the phone & you're greeted with rather large, raised number buttons as well as call, end, music, AT&T shopping (never going to use that for anything myself), a 4 way toggle with center select button and two additional programmable buttons.

The buttons have a nice feel & the numbers are actually large enough to see, although the letters (2=abc, 3=def, etc) are much smaller & harder to read.
Luckily, the numbers & letters are in a silver/white font while the buttons are a black/bronze color making it much easier to see.

I've found that by pressing & holding the #1 button, the phone automatically dials your voicemail inbox by default. I'm not sure if this can be disabled or changed, because there is limited documentation from AT&T as well as from Motorola.

Send & End buttons have colored green & red icons respectively & they too are easy to see.

The toggle disc is a little small for my tastes, but it has a raised feel around the edges & I haven't slipped off or pressed the wrong button yet.

The dedicated music button opens the built in music player that is basic, but functional. If you close the phone while the music player is playing, the external display shows the track title, time left, etc, as well as including 3 touch sensitive buttons to control the music player: (skip back/rev, play/pause & ff/skip forward). These touch sensitive buttons are nice, but sometimes can be difficult to activate and to see.
More on the music player later...

The dedicated AT&T shop button opens an internet browser (be careful if you don't have a dedicated data plan, they'll gouge you on data usage!) where you can shop for games, ring tones, music, etc.
I've never used any data service (including text messaging or IM) except for the times I mistakenly clicked on a wrong icon when first familiarizing myself with the phone, so I can't comment on the content or speed of downloads.

This phone is a TRI-Band phone which should suffice in most instances, as well as being an GPRS/EDGE network phone, NOT a 3G phone. Again, I have no use for any data service, in fact I had to call AT&T and put a block on all text messages & data transmissions to keep spammers from filling my inbox with garbage that I'll get stuck paying for.

The last two buttons inside the phone are programmable to several features of your choice, such as address book, camera, calendar, etc. I have one set for my address book & the other set for settings.
One of these buttons will change during a call to allow you to select the speaker phone on or off.
While on the speakerphone, I must say this one works very well, although the speaker faces the rear of the phone. My calls made using the speakerphone have been tight & loud enough to clearly hear without issue.

The screen is bright, highly detailed & a nice size. The only complaint I have with the screen is the top & bottom menus cover a portion of whatever background image you have set to your main page.

Outside the phone... to the left side, you have volume up/down buttons, dedicated camera button as well as a covered port for the mini USB data/charging port. The buttons have a solid feel, but the USB port cover is a soft rubbery plug that is attached to the phone permanently. I can see the port covers getting caught on something & ripped off easily.
On the right side of the phone you have a 3.5mm stereo headset jack for the music player/FM radio. You can use pretty much ANY headphones you want and there's no need to buy costly proprietarily adapters... this is VERY convenient.

The back of the phone has a small opening for the speaker as well as a small button for removing the back cover.
Under the back cover you have the battery and a small slot to the side (still under the back cover) for a MicroSD media card.
I'm glad the phone supports MicroSD cards up to 2gb, but accessing the cards is a bit of a task. You HAVE TO remove the back cover to remove or install the memory cards.

CAMERA:
The 1.3mp digital camera is sufficient, but probably won't replace my 10mp camera anytime soon. It features several presets for image scene settings (I always use the standard settings), and you can adjust the brightness and zoom in up to 4x digital zoom. I had to hunt around in the menus for several days before I found the option to automatically save pictures to either the camera's built in memory or to the MicroSD card. By default, after every picture you get a menu asking if you want to send a text message with the picture, save, etc. This was very annoying at first, because it would literally take 2 or 3 minutes to navigate the menus to simply save the picture.
I now have my phone set to automatically save all pictures to my memory card. Again, you'll have to do some searching to find out how to change the storage device from phone memory to memory card. Also, you'll have to hunt around the menus to find other camera settings like image size & quality. Default settings are all lowest settings; I changed all of my settings to the highest quality. Higher quality = bigger file size & less pictures per memory card.
The image quality is actually pretty good, as good as my bulky old 1.3mp camera.

MUSIC PLAYER:
An added bonus was the FM radio. You'll need to have headphones installed to use the radio, but after some tuning & tweaking I can pickup more radio stations on my phone than I can on my vehicle's high end stereo.

The music player is quite acceptable. Sound quality is so-so coming from the built in speaker, but add a set of headphones & sound quality is as good as my mp3 player.
The phone has stereo Bluetooth capability, but I don't have any Bluetooth devices to test it out yet.
As before, when the music is playing & you close the phone, the front panel has touch sensitive buttons to control the player as well as track info.
I'd suggest encoding your own music files and storing them on the memory card. The phone only has a limited memory & just a few songs or pictures will eat up that space quickly.

While on the topic of music, you can also use your own mp3 files for ring tones, answer tones, etc.
While on the topic of memory cards, you can use your own images for your background, screensavers, etc.
A word of warning on both of these items: Be sure you COPY or MOVE the music or images TO the PHONE MEMORY from the memory card if you plan on removing the memory card to download pictures taken from the phone.
I have found that if you set a background or ring tone from the memory card & remove the card, even if the phone is turned off, the next time you turn on the phone your ring tone & background images will be set to the default settings...Very annoying!

CALL QUALITY:
I have to say this is one of the clearest phones I've ever used so far. Noise reduction CrystalTalk feature makes the call quality very clear.

OTHER STUFF:
After AT&T bought up my old cellular carrier, my old phone would drop 70% of all calls, WHEN it would keep a signal long enough to make a call.
I had no option but to upgrade to an AT&T phone & plan. So far, this phone has kept 3 to 4 bars at all times & it hasn't dropped a call as of yet.

I had to sign a 2 year contract (as usual) but the phone was FREE (had to call customer service or sales, no luck getting it for free online. This phone isn't offered within a 100 mile radius of me at ANY AT&T store.)

You can use your own images or music files to customize the phone, no need to buy & download CO$TLY content that you can make from your own stuff.

Other applications include calendar, calculator, games, text messaging, clock and tons more features I'll probably never even try out.

Phonebook can store up to 1000 names & numbers. I suggest copying your entire address book to the memory card as a backup incase something happens to the phone or sim card.

Motorola suggests SanDisk branded MicroSD cards, but I've been using a Kingston 2gb card without any issue. I might steer away from no-name media and go with a name brand memory here.
I also picked up a $2.00 MicroSD to USB adapter online so I can transfer music & pictures to & from my phone to my PC.
Motorola also sells a USB data cable to sync your phone to PC for about $30.

Motorola claims up to 7.5hrs of talk time per battery charge & up to 10 days of standby time. Time will tell how long the battery lasts.
I'm not a big fan of the mini/micro USB cable for charging, but I did happen to find an OEM car charger online for about $10.00 vs. $29.99 from AT&T. The phone comes with the home wall charger.

You'll be lucky to find a hard plastic belt clip with an open face (my favorite style) as it seems everyone is going to these leather pouch style belt clips. I'm sure carriers will sell them in stores (AT&T wanted $29.99 for one) but again, I found one online for about $5.00 that works just as well for me.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Overall, I like the phone.
Great call quality, after all that's the main reason for a mobile phone...to make calls.

It has a pretty good music player & camera.

The menus are frustrating & it seems as if I'm going around in circles trying to do a simple task like copy a music file from my memory card to the phone.

My phone only has 3 different layout color choices & I have not found any way to upload more or how to edit the ones that are pre-installed.

The address book is a little hard to navigate, especially when you have contacts stored on the phone AND on the memory card... I get two copies of EVERY contact that I have to scroll through every time I want to make a call.

The external screen gets fingerprints & smudges on it EVERY time I use the phone & it's nearly impossible to see anything on the screen (when it actually is available) in normal daylight. At home, it's a little easier to see the time, battery, etc on the external screen, but sometimes you have to cover the screen with your other hand to block the light.

I guess the ladies could use the front mirror panel to check their makeup.

It's a pain in the butt every time I want to remove the back of the phone to get at the media card.

I still haven't found any way to modify or add new themes to change icons or display colors.

Even with it's many quirks, I'd still recommend this phone.