Motorola E398 (MTV Hijacked) Review

Some of my friends following my blogs already knew what happened: I bought a Sony Ericsson K750i and lost it a few weeks after. I bought a Nokia 6600 to replace it, and was terribly disappointed with my so-called first Smartphone.

I can’t afford to spend that much money on another Php25,000 phone, so I need to look for one that offers most of what I wanted at a price that won’t burn too big a hole in my pocket.

If you want to know why I hated my N6600 a lot, just refer to an older post in this blog. Now, on to the review.

Package Contents

I bought my E398 from the Motorola shop at the Digital Exchange in Glorietta. I decided to buy there after inquiring about the price and warranty terms from several stores. Apparently it’s the only store that still has the white/silver model in stock.

The box that I got was colored apple green, with a sticker on top that says “As seen on MTV”. It’s a reminder of how Motorola got a deal to advertise its ‘new’ MP3 phone — a cameo appearance on a Black Eyed Peas MTV of “Let’s Get It Started”, multiple advertisements on all MTV segments, not to mention its own “MotoAlert” segment. IMO, this deal with MTV, followed by the popularity of the RAZR phone got Motorola back on track with the Asian market.

Inside are the following:

- E398 mobile phone
- Travel Charger
- Stereo Handsfree with a 2.5″ proprietary jack
- 64Mb TransFlash (name recently changed to MicroSD) Card
- TransFlash to SD Card adapter
- USB Cable
- Getting Started manual
- Owner’s Manual
- Warranty Card

One thing I want to commend Motorola upon opening the package is that unlike some other mobile phone manufacturers, they had enough sense to include the USB cable in the package. Most mobile phone users that get mid-range to high-end phones use them in conjunction with a computer to sync data or copy music and ringtones. Not all have bluetooth adapters on their PCs, not to mention that using bluetooth to transfer large files would take its toll on battery life, so I consider this is a big plus.

The travel charger is quite small compared to those I’ve seen in Sony Ericsson or Nokia phones. I don’t think this will matter to most people, but I like the way the plugs in the adapter can be folded when not in use. It makes it easier to tuck the adapter inside a handbag.

The handsfree that came with my unit obviously is meant more for listening to music than making calls. While I was reading some posts on a popular Motorola fansite, some referred to it as ‘Frankenstein’ earphones. Now I know what they meant the minute I saw it.

The TransFlash card included in the box was really small, maybe about a third in size as compared to a regular SD card. IMO this type of memory is meant to be placed inside its host device and rarely removed, as its size would make it easy for someone to lose it.

I’m not really a fan of Owner’s Manuals and Getting Started booklets, so I didn’t bother to look it up. I’d rather explore the phone myself and ask in the forums if I’m stumped with something.

The warranty card was filled up and taken by the store clerk after my purchase, which is one of the factors that aided my decision on choosing where to buy my phone. One year warranty on parts and service, as compared to a few days on small stores.

Camera

Upon turning on the phone, the first thing I checked is the camera. I tried to take a picture of my son to make sure that it captures images properly, or else I’d have it replaced immediately. The phone takes pictures at VGA resolution, quite small compared to latest 1.3 and 2 Megapixel models. The viewfinder is very responsive, and it even has brightness controls that you can adjust in realtime to make sure that the pictures taken won’t appear too dark. The built-in camera can take pictures at up to 4x digital zoom, as indicated in the camera lens. I don’t really use the digital zoom feature of cameras, as it makes the pictures less detailed, but I tried it just for kicks. Unfortunately, this is how the zoom feature of the E398 goes: it takes the picture at half the resolution for 2x, and even smaller for 4x! Quite ridiculous really, but since I don’t use the zoom feature, this would be negligible for me. Otherwise, the phone takes decent enough pictures at that resolution. After making sure that the camera works fine, I had time to check how the phone has been built.

Overall Build Quality

I think this is one of the overall strengths of Motorola phones as compared to others in the market. The first thing I noticed with the E398 is it’s as solid as a rock! No creaks whatsoever with the main unit while I’m holding it. I’ve had phones from Nokia and Sony Ericsson that fall into this price category, and all of them had a part that’s quite loosely attached (i.e. battery cover, a side of the housing that if pressed will move a bit, etc.). I’ve read in some magazines that Motorola phones are drop-tested (not all phones are subjected to this test during assembly), so that gives an idea that quality control standards during assembly of the unit is quite high. This gives an impression that this phone will last quite a long time.

Buttons/Joystick

The buttons feel just right for me, not too hard and clicky (like that of the Nokia 3210) and not too soft that it would take much effort for you to make a successful entry. The feel would be similar to that of a Nokia 6630’s buttons. There are additional buttons on the sides that allows you to control the volume and activate the camera, and another “smart” button that (according to the manual) tries to guess what function you want to access.

The joystick that is placed between the on-hook and off-hook/power buttons reminded me of two phones that I’ve had — a Nokia 6600 and a Sony Ericsson K750i. The joystick of the K750i appears too loose that it doesn’t give much tactile feedback, while the 6600 takes much effort for you to make it move to the direction you want. The E398 sits right in between the two. The joystick won’t make your thumb hurt in using the joystick, yet it is not so soft that you could easily make the mistake of moving to one direction when you intend to make a straight downward push.

Display

The display is considerably large and bright and doesn’t lose much detail when used outdoors. The high resolution (176×200) LCD display technically shows more detail, but doesn’t really matter that much when compared to that of the Nokia 6600. I tried to turn it to maximum brightness, and I ended up squinting to look at it when somebody sent me a text message late in the evening when the room lights were already off.

Sound Quality - Speakers

If there’s one thing that will draw your attention the first time you encounter an E398, it must be the sound quality coming out of the two speakers placed on each side of the display. The first thing I did to test the speakers was to play Kon Kan’s “Arts in D Minor (Harry Houdini).” It has a part near the start of the song that pans the sound from left to right and back several times. It confirms that the E398 indeed play sound in stereo. As for
the stereo effect, it is noticeable when you place it at ear level, about 2-3 feet from your face. This is quite understandable, since the speakers are far too near each other, and any “spatial effect” won’t do much in this situation.

Things get a bit different when you turn on “Vibe Sync.” In effect, this setting would make the E398 “thump” to the beat of the music. It fooled me once — making me think that the phone was taking a beating because of the loud sound coming from the speakers. It was actually a separate mechanism on the phone, which vibrates to the beat using a technology called “Haptics.” Turning Vibe Sync on also makes the music play louder. I have an old bass-y version of Masta Plann’s “Bring Dat Booty” stored in my E398 that (when played) never fails to impress those who listen to it through the E398’s speakers (of course with vibe sync on).

Sound Quality - Earpiece

Sound quality coming out of the earpiece is better than average, I’d say. The voice of the person from the other end of a voice call can be heard loud and clear, although not at a level that even others would be hearing it as well. This proves true even when you are taking a call in a loud area (in my case a train station).

Connectivity

There are two ways to make the E398 connect to a PC — one is through the supplied USB cable, and another is through Bluetooth. Sorry, no IrDA available for this phone.

The USB cable attaches itself to the E398 through a connector at the bottom of the phone. I must emphasize that this is NOT USB2 — transfer rates are not fast, but still usable. The phone may be set in 2 modes, the first allows you to make the phone behave as a Data/Fax modem, and another as a storage device (more like a USB drive).

Bluetooth connectivity in the E398 is quite tricky compared to that of other phones. First you have to turn on Bluetooth, then to pair with a device you’d have to select “Find me” in the Bluetooth settings. You cannot use the phone to search your area for other Bluetooth-enabled devices.

User Interface

On first glance, the E398 user interface (which is very similar to that of the RAZR V3) is quite plain. A 3×3 matrix of icons, where the cursor is positioned at the center by default. Pressing down the joystick would select the currently highlighted icon, and a submenu (which is now in list form) is displayed.

On closer inspection, the wonders it possess shine — every item may be rearranged according to your desire. This customizability endeared the UI to me. Now upon selecting the menu button, the center icon which is selected by default is set as my messages item, pushing the joystick up selects the address book, pushing it down shows the media items, pushing it left shows the office menu, and pushing it right shows the phone settings. The left and right soft keys may also be set up in the same manner (mine is set as sounds and messages for the left and right soft key, respectively).

Battery Life

On average use (Filipinos tend to use the SMS feature more than make calls), the phone took about 2.5 days starting from a full charge. When bluetooth is on, the battery life drops to a day or a little more than that. When using the MP3 player for about 2 hours a day (let’s say when commuting to and from work), it took about 2 days before it dies out on me. Charging the batteries with the supplied charger takes about 4 hours when starting from battery empty status.

Other Attractions

The E398 has lighting effects to go with its exceptional sound.

Rhythm Lights is a feature that makes your phone “dance” to sounds in its surrounding. This effect looks cool whenever you go to a place where it is noisy — the phone would suddenly light up. The novelty wore off for me after I learned that battery life took a hit when using this feature.

Whenever anything happens to the phone (a message is received, an incoming call is displayed, an alarm is set off), the E398 maybe set to turn on its lights similar to that of Rhythm Lights. You cannot miss it when somebody calls you and the phone is in someplace where it’s dark.

During charging, the phone turns on its lights ala-”Mac” when it is in sleep mode. The lights would continually fade in and fade out as if it is breathing on its own. Reminded me of Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., actually.

Tweakers Welcome

I’d say that the E398 is for tweakers. There are a lot of third-party utilities online that lets you modify part of the firmware to enable or disable some menu items, set the gain of the sound and vibe sync, and add or change the supplied themes that come with the phone.

If you’d notice, the E398 looks a lot like the newer ROKR E1. Well you could use some of the third party tools to load the ROKR’s firmware to the E398, adding voice recording and video recording to it. I haven’t tried it yet, but when time comes that I’m not anymore satisfied with its features, I most definitely will.

Shortcomings

The E398 is not a perfect phone, mind you. There are cases when the UI tends to run a bit slow. It’s hard to compose a text message while using the MP3 player. As with all Motorola phones that use the same connector for data and power, the connectors can easily get damaged. Just 3 days after I bought the phone, I went back to Motorola Digital Exchange to have the power charger replaced because its contacts weren’t properly aligned to that of the phone. This is a problem that I learned to be a common gripe about E398 users when you search through forums in the ‘net. The 2.5″ headset connector is proprietary, so if you want to use your regular earphones to listen to music, the 3.5″ adapter that you can buy off-the-shelf from electronics shops won’t properly match. If you set an alarm, unlike other phones that show an indicator somewhere on the screen when in standby mode, the E398 doesn’t have any except for that small icon beside the alarm when you are in the alarm settings menu. The E398 has no voice recording and video recording as well — only sound and video playback is provided. As for the sound, you could only use MP3s — no WAVs here, and MP3s encoded in variable bit rate (VBR) would sound really funny when played. The included themes may only be changed or added by tweaking the phone unlike others where you’d download a theme and it is added instantly.

Conclusion

Overall, I’d say I’m more than satisfied with the E398. It’s more than a year old in terms of market age, yet it still puts some later-released phones to shame with its features. If you want a relatively low-cost phone that has a memory card and camera to come with it, plays MP3s (and plays it loud), has superb bluetooth support, and is tweak-happy, then this phone is for you.