You thought you’d seen it all, but no. Here’s the MTV phone: the Motorola e398 (“as seen on MTV” says the sticker on the box). This is a GSM music and video playback phone that was originally targetted at the T-Mobile lineup in Europe but is now sold in the US through Geeks.com. We take a quick look of what to expect of this good-looking device. The phone features a 2.2″ 176×220 65k color TFT screen; it’s tri-band; it has a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, removable memory (transflash), Bluetooth connectivity, integrated VGA camera with 4x zoom, MIDP-2.0 games, stereo headset jack, 3D stereo sound and more.
The box includes a stereo handsfree headset, an SD adapter for the included 64 MB transflash card, a billingual manual, two CDs (drivers and an mp3-maker application), USB cable and the power adapter (European-to-US socket adapter is included).
The phone feels very good in the hand; it is what I would call a “small” phone when taking into consideration its screen’s high resolution and size. The display can fit up to 9 lines of text – text that is very readable. The first time you boot the phone it will ask you to “personalize it”. In this menu you will find options for changing the screensaver, the wallpaper, the greeting, the rhythm lights (the light of the keyboard flashes depending on the mp3 song or ringing style currently playing). On the settings menus you will also find preferences for the ringing style itself, the USB or Bluetooth connectivity (for security reasons the phone will make the Bluetooth discoverable for only 60 seconds), car settings and more.
The battery promises up to 590 minutes of talk time and 210 hours of standby time and it delivers this. I successfully used the “voice dialing” feature, it seemed to work very well. The phone also features the iTap predictive text input method that tries to “guess” what word or what syllable you are trying to type. iTap seems to work for the most part, but it proved faster for me to write messages using the traditional way of text input.
One odd UI choice is the usage of the… Screensaver. The phone’s LCD backlight turns off after 5-6 seconds, but the screensaver comes on after 30 seconds and lights back on the LCD. I mean, I don’t get that. What is the point (other than the ‘cool’ effect) of having a screensaver (for an LCD that won’t burn-in like CRTs do) that turns the backlight on when the timer has already turned it off? Why waste battery life for nothing? And so I disabled that odd screensaver feature soon after…
Regarding applications, the phone comes with support for email, MMS, SMS, EMS, calendaring, the Motorola in-house web browser (renders the OSNews.com site really nicely with both the cHTML and WAP versions) and a slew of pre-installed applications: a really funky looking mp3 player, a pinball game and more. I also installed some MIDP-2.0 games and they worked really well (I downloaded them via my Mac and then used my Mac’s Bluetooth to send the games over and install them – worked like a charm). My Mac also supports the e398 out of the box with iSync and so I synced all my contacts from the Powerbook to the Phone very easily, via Bluetooth.
However, where this phone really shines is in multimedia: It can play mp3 songs (the transflash memory can be mounted on the desktop as a USB storage device, all you have to do is drag-and-drop your songs if you don’t want to bother with the included Windows application) and it can playback h.263 video too. In fact, multimedia is the secondary function of the phone, being the “MTV phone” and all. It played mp3s very well (I did not spot any incompatibilities) and some mpeg4 videos I downloaded off the web and tested it with. The phone also comes with the Motomixer software that allows you to “mix” your own ringtones based on available sounds on your storage card.
The camera is a plain VGA one, with a mirror and a small flash. In low-light conditions the pictures were equally bad with or without the flash, but I don’t expect much from a VGA camera.
And now the really geeky part: there is hacked software for this phone! The phone is upgradable to the “i398” version, which is a hack of the alleged “iTunes phone” that Motorola is supposed to unveil soon. A hacker by the name of Shoey has managed to create a version of the iTunes ROM that is compatible with the e398 device (actually, the new iTunes phone is very similar to the e398 under the hood – it’s pretty much the same phone). So, whoever has the guts to flash his phone (and potentially destroy it if he’s not very careful) will be able to get a few new features, like video recording (that’s mysteriously missing from the e398), airplane-safe mode (the phone doesn’t try to acquire a signal so it doesn’t interfere with the plane’s instruments), and of course, iTunes sync support!
In conclusion, I must say there is not much wrong with this phone. I believe it’s the best phone I ever have used, even if it has a bit of a confusing UI and no video recording capabilities. It does all the rest really well though and so I can personally forgive these oddities.
Pros: Light, powerful, extensible, funky, Bluetooth, does the job as expected.
Cons: No video recording application, no IrDA, mini headphone jack, UI could be better.
Overall: 8.5/10
What about the reception? How is call quality? What is the actual battery life? These are the most important questions to answer about a cell phone.
I already talked about battery time, it is excellent (better than my T310). And reception is very good too (and please note that we live in an area where only the Cingular network is strong, Sprint is the worse in my area).
This phone doesn’t seem to bring much new to the market. There’s so many nice phones out, so why does this one deserve attention? Have Motorola done anything right (with the exeption of the Razor phones, design wise) lately? Nokia and SonyEricsson have phones out already which is light years ahead of e398. And at the same price point.
The Motorola E1000. Doesn’t appear to be anything new in the specs than the E1000 either.
“Nokia and SonyEricsson have phones out already which is light years ahead of e398. And at the same price point.”
i’m looking for a new phone. can you provide models which have the same features? specifically the mp3 and mpeg4 playback, camera, and sd slot.
There are some, but not in the $200 price range that this Motorola phone is. The Nokia 6680 is the best phone for the middle-smartphone category for example (series 60), but it’s $600 without a contract.
My ipod can run for 18 hours without charge.
Most phones are good if you get 300 minutes of talk time.
Play tunes = your phone is probably off or your tunes are interrupted by each call and sms message.
There is not convergence here just a conflict of inerests. Adding camera and videophone actually work but I believe a mp3 player conflicts with the overall use of the phone.
You are confusing the fact that “talk time” is NOT the same with either “standby time” or “usage time”. As long as the phone radio is not used (meaning, not “talking”), the mp3 player can have at least 10-12 hours of battery life.
Thanks Eugenia.
That 6680 from Nokia is quite the little gadget.
Yes, it’s a really nice phone, but too expensive. Check Russell’s application recommendations for his 6680.
http://www.russellbeattie.com/notebook/1008503.html
ugh but it has a proprietary mmc card…
Read Russell’s link above, he explains about the MMC card.
I don’t think the headphones are actually proprietary – rather, they use the same smaller jack that many phones do. I think there are multiple stereo headsets available which would work with this, including some from Plantronics.
That could be the case, not sure. Thing is, I tried 4 different headphones I had at home and none fit, so…
nokia 6320i
I didn’t expect this phone cause many many problems. 1st time i get it from shop and it has internal problems. Next, after fix around 10 days by Motorola, the phone still has same problem + new problems. It is incredible fantastic in having such redicilious phone and the 2nd repair took around 3.5 months. So in total, i have to wait almost 1/2 years to use this phone properly. >.<
I am happy with Sony Ericsson phone, like T610. It did such a good job for me. The bluetooth integration is smoothly in my mac.
I am suspicious of your comment. You don’t even tell us what the problems were! My unit was just fine btw.
I’m guessing those are 3/8″ jack headphones that you had. Did you try a regular wired headset for a cell phone, even a mono one? Those use the smaller jack.
These are the Plantronics set that I was referring to. They’re not the only game in town for stereo earbuds with a smaller connector, either. I know BoxWave also make one.
http://www.plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/productName/MX100s
Yes, of course, the included motorola one works. But it has not so good quality for mp3, so I wanted to use something better, and I had some very good SONY headphones here that I wanted to try with but couldn’t.
For the most part all cellphones and even a large number of MP3 players are incapable of driving professional headphones well.
If you wish the best audio quality, you need a headphone amp. And even that will be limited by the quality of the output section in your cellphone or portable audio player. For a cellphone, the circuitry is usually cheap and does not perform well.
An example of a quality headphone amp:
http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/headroom-amps/the-…
try the new k750i, am using its predecessor the k700i and its a very good fone, very sturdy, jez remember to update the firmware though.
I’ve had one for 10 months now and it’s bad. The software’s a kludge.
The speed of the bluetooth link to a PC is appalling(ie the same as the serial link).
The charger connection is a disgrace and I know of several (including my own) that have gotten progressively worse until the phone is useless because you can’t charge it.
Mine’s in for repair now and I’ve only had it working for 5 of the 10 months I’ve had it.
Using Sony Ericsson k750i for a couple of weeks. It has memory stick slot with upto 2GB storage (64 mb free card), 2MP autofocus camera, fm radio. The media player can play mpeg4, mp3, aac and some other formats and has graphic sound equalizers. The phone comes with headphones and sounds very good. It also comes with USB cable that makes the memory stick card appear as flash disk and also charges the phone (at a slower rate).
With 9 hours of talk time and all the above features in a neat little form factor, this phone is probably the best out there at the moment.
Downside is that this phone is not sold through mobile carriers is the US and so you have to get it through online retailers.
http://motocoder.com/motorola/template.jsp?filename=center_E398.htm…
Also, Eugenia, time to cleanup the mess on your desk, no!?
😉
The E1000 is also a UMTS phone, and IMHO a very good phone except for battery life (but throwing away original h3g firmware and installing no-brand helps a lot)
The e398… is very a good phone if we think in price… yeah if have more many go for a nokia k750.
I have a e398 now i398…. and is fast yo can install some applications and games in the transflash memory some others dont work… capture video… is really a good phone… yo find a lot of games in the internet…
🙂
Stupid java piece of shit system.
That would make the phones about as smart as the people who buy them. A good match, if you ask me.
Why does the US consumer not have access to any decent cell phones? There seem to be quite a few knowledgeable people in this thread, if you were buying a phone in the US, what phone/service would you go with?
Ari
I would go with Cingular’s pay-as-you-go, the one that has a free phone-to-phone service. It’s the cheapest plan if you are not calling too much and it only has a $35 activation fee if you already have a phone device you want to use it with. After that, it’s $1 per day for the first time you use the phone in that day and 0.25 per minute for a call other to the phone number registered as phone-to-phone. So, if you only call the same person every day, you will only pay $1 per day and no other fees. If you are calling, let’s say, 5 people per day for 1 minute each, that would be $1 for the connection of the day, plus the call costs at 5*0.25=1.25. Overall, that would be $2.25.
We are a little behind in the times when it comes to cell phones (approx. 8m-1y)here in Canda to the asian market. I was oversees recently and was quite impressed by the new selection of phones over there.
DG
Do NOT forget that Shoey’s i398 flash enables the fourth band, GSM850, on the E398, thereby making the phone QUADBAND.
GSM850 considered a MUST for Cingular Wireless and Rogers Wireless subscribers.