Motorola ROKR E6

For those of you who saw the preview of the ROKR E6 and the outrageously funny advertisement on TV, you probably have an idea of what the device would be. But let me take you into an in-depth analysis of Motorola's ROKR E6 and let's just see if it can have your head tripping even when you're about to ascend that stairway to heaven.

Form Factor
Talk about your average candy-bar design. I saw the E6 and wanted to peel it open to taste the flavor (of course it’s full of tiny nuts and bolts). But in a nutshell (pardon the pun extension) In my opinion it’s a rather large phone. It is slim though. Its length is 111mm but width is 51.5mm. The large 2.4-inch, 265K color touch screen display that sports an impressive 240 x 320 pixel resolution is great. The five-way nav-pad is handy for moving through menus without touching the screen. The E6 also has a dedicated key for the web browser and an "Open" key that can be assigned to any function.

On the right hand side of the phone is the camera key and just below it is the screen lock switch. And thank goodness for it, since the phone is held near your ear functions keep getting activated as it touches your face. So you need to keep the screen locked before you start talking. On the left hand side of the E6 are the volume / zoom keys. Below that is the SD card slot. What puzzles me is that the E6 uses an SD card converter with a microSD card inserted. I’m thinking that although it's generous of Motorola to provide us with the converter, why not have a microSD card slot to begin with? Anyhow, below that are the skip / rewind / fast forward keys for the music player with the play / pause button in between. Oddly enough, even with the screen locked, those keys function.

The top of the phone is where the 3.5mm earphone inlet is. On the bottom is the mini USB slot and the lock for the rear panel. The rear has of course the 2.0 megapixel camera that’s in the dead center of the speaker for some reason. The camera is equipped with a switch near the lens for macro and landscape modes. The stylus slides out from the bottom corner. It’s a little tight so you’ll have to give it a good 'yank'. Now here’s a funny thing. You’d be mistaken if you think you can simply slide out your SIM without touching the battery, even though it appears like you can. A little silver clasp works as a lock that can only be slid back when the battery is removed. Then you can remove your SIM.