Motorola ROKR EM30

The Motorola Rokr EM30 proves that a good music phone doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

With just a press of a button, this device ­transforms from a phone to a music player.

The Rokr EM30 features the company’s proprietary ModeShift technology which allows users to switch between the two modes in a jiffy.

The phone’s keypad illuminates in blue when it is in the standard phone mode. But the blue keys vanish and are replaced by red ones for media control such as play, forward and rewind when in music mode.

To complement its music ­function, the phone is loaded with features such as stereo speakers, 3.5mm audio jack, USB 2.0 support for fast data transfer, and Bluetooth with support for A2DP profile.

Additionally, this quad-band phone supports EDGE and runs on Linux Montavista 2.6.1 operating system and is preloaded with essential productivity apps such as Symphony browser and PDF reader.

Design

The longish and flat design is nothing to shout about — frankly, it looks boring but the phone feels solid to hold.

Its 2in LCD screen is quite ­readable even under direct sunlight, which is great for ­accessing the playlist anytime you want.

Actually, the phone is the successor to the company’s E8, which it launched not too long ago.

Those familiar with the Rokr phones will definitely see the family resemblance between the two.

However, the EM30 includes a few cool additions, including a four-way button instead of a touch sensitive scroll wheel, and real buttons instead of the haptic ­feedback keys on the E8.

Although we welcome the ­feeling of pressing real buttons, the EM30’s keypad actually leaves much to be desired.

The buttons are just too hard to press, and left my fingers sore after using the phone for awhile.

So, if you message a lot, this may not be the phone for you.

Music to my ears

EM30 supports a vast number of digital music formats including MIDI, MP3, AAC, WMA and WAV.

The music player also features many preset equalisers and options for bass and 3D stereo boost. However, there is no option for tweaking the equaliser.

If the built-in 2GB of memory is not enough to store all your favourite songs, you can make use of the microSD slot to expand the storage capacity. The slot supports memory card up to 8GB.

Since the phone uses a standard audio jack, you can always use your favourite earphone or headphone.

alternatively, you can listen to music over the built-in speakers or stream audio to a Bluetooth ­headset wirelessly.

We paired the phone with the Motorola S9 Bluetooth stereo headset and it worked extremely well together. Also, the phone has a built-in FM tuner.

Other stuff

EM30 also includes an integrated 2-megapixel camera with 8x ­digital zoom.

However, it lacks flash and ­autofocus and as expected, pictures looked good only when there is ample lighting and not-so-great when shot in dim lighting.

At least, the phone reception and voice quality was good thanks to the inclusion of the proprietary CrystalTalk technology, which improved call quality.

The phone lasted about two hours when used to play music continuously and almost three days when used purely for calls.

Conclusion

The main downside of this phone is its buttons which are hard to press and tedious to use, so heavy SMS users should look at other options.

But, as a music phone, this model rocks because it supports a lot of music formats and it uses a standard audio jack.

And the ability to switch between phone and music mode effortlessly is really cool too.

And at RM899 it certainly won’t burn a big hole in your wallet.

Pros: Affordable; cool modeShift technology; supports lots of music format, standard audio jack,

Cons: Bad keypad design, poor camera.