Super-phone?. Review on Motorola E398

Is it a stereo? Is it a camera? No! It's the Motorola E398! This super-phone can be best described with the Jack of all trades analogy. With an endless list of features, and a highly reasonable price, Motorola seem to have finally found a winner.

Surround Sound

A lot of new phones available in the market nowadays have speakers, but none like this. The E398 has dual 3D surround sound speakers that put the 'roll' back in 'rock'. With the 64MB flash memory card that comes with the package, you can store about 20 MP3s, and listen to them either on the handsfree earphones, or, preferrably, on the speakers. It's really very addictive, and music junkies will find it hard to stop turning it on. Though you'll barely be able to hear anything in say a crowded bus, the speakers are very effective in quieter surroundings. There isn't an FM radio on the phone, but this is only a minor drawback. The phone package also comes with a USB data cable to transfer files to and from your PC. Data transfer, though, is horribly slow, and it takes almost 2 minutes to transfer a 5MB mp3.

Video Killed The Radio Star

The phone has a bright, clear, and crisp 65,000 colour screen, that makes viewing anything from photos, to MPEG videos, a pleasure. Depending on the quality, you can store nearly half an hour of MPEG video on the phone! That means, you can store your favourite episode of Friends and watch it on your way to college, or during the sermon at mass.

Just Shoot Me

With the 4X Zoom VGA camera, you can capture images at a maximum resolution of 640*480. The cell even has a small flash for close range photos. You can also increase the brightness of the image manually. Given the right lighting, the phone takes some pretty good photos, but in the dark, or in fading light, the contrast of the images is disappointing. A really cool feature is the picture phonebook, so you get an image of the person who's calling.

I Just Called To Say

Voice clarity on the phone is very good, and the battery lasts about a day and a half with liberal use of the stereo, GPRS and camera. As with other Motorolas, the phone does not support SMS delivery reports, but you can check the status of your message in the Outbox. The phone also has support for an Instant Messenger, but I wasn't able to set it up with my GPRS connection. The web browser though is way better than the one on Nokia, and you can even store entire pages on it. The History feature is also very helpful, especially for slow GPRS connections.

Get What You Give

The phone is a bit delicate, and we did have some software problems while testing it. Overall, though, at 16,000 bucks, the phone is great VFM. And rest assured, with it's stylish looks, it won't be a fashion has-been for at least a few years.