Motorola's E398 - now in stereo!

Motorola E398I first played with a Motorola E398 quite a few months ago. Motorola had supplied me with a prototype to mess around with. While I was quite impressed with what I saw, I was still cautious. The Bluetooth system wasn't working at all back then, and the firmware was buggy. Plus it was white and metalling purple (T-Mobile colors).

But now the E398 is ready for prime time. It has a new look, and a lot of muscle packed into it.

The Package

The E398 is a bit larger than other phones in its class, assuming that you consider phones such as the K700i to be in the same class (even though it lacks a memory card slot). Coming in at 110g with SIM and TransFlash memory card, it is not the lightest of phones. Nor the smallest, at 108mm x 46mm x 21m. But that mass (I don't want to call it 'bulk') serves a good purpose. This phone is very solid. Everything about the feel, fit, and finish suggest that the phone can dish it out as well as take it. I find the black soft-touch rubber compound to be the perfect material for a phone cover. It is very easy to grip, comfortable, warmer to the touch, and it does not attract fingerprints like the current crop of black glossy lacquer finishes we have seen in the past year. You still have to worry about fingerprints on the display, of course, but that could probably be dealt with by adding a glare reducing screen protector, such as those sold by Boxwave.

To my eyes, at least, the body of the E398 is quite beautiful. There is a lot going on with it, but it doesn't come across as busy. On the left hand side you have the volume control rocker switch and the voice dial button. The right side has the dedicated camera button. One thing that you don't see often is the presence of a speaker grill on both sides. This is due to the E398's stereo sound system (as in stereo polyphonic ringtones). The top of the E398 has the jack for the stereo handsfree headset (included) for calls and music. The rubber cover is attached, and can be rotated out of the way, which I appreciate. One of the small holes on the top of the device houses a light sensor that will turn off the keypad backlighting when it is not needed, which makes the keypad easier to read and saves power both. The bottom of the E398 is where you will find the charger/data cable port. The back of the phone houses the camera, self-portrait mirror, and LED assist lamp. There is also an external antenna port on the back. Lastly, there are two chromed bolts above the camera near the top corners of the E398. I presume they are there simply because it looks cool.

I found the keypad to be equally nice, with a few exceptions. The numeric keypad and the two softkeys and menu key all have a very nice feel. They are also very well lit when it is dark, but thanks to that previously mentioned light sensor, stay easily read and unlit when there is enough ambient light in the room. The green and red call control keys are chromed and very easy to find, being nicely separated from the other keys. The 5-way joystick is located between the call control keys. All of this is very nice, a really good layout. But there are those exceptions that I mentioned. On my unit, two of the key sensors in the phone seem to require too much effort. Those two are the down volume control and the joystick select button. The joystick navigates quite well in general, but I often have to press with far too much effort to get the joystick to recognize a selection. I have no such problem with the directions. The down volume is the same way - it simply isn't consistent, often requiring a lot of effort. The up volume function has no such problem. As such, I don't expect that all handsets will have the same problem, but I do suspect that others will have similar problems, but perhaps in different locations. I recommend that you give a new E398 a good once over before purchasing it. The problems my unit has are very minor, but I'd certainly prefer them to not be there.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Multimedia is what this phone is really about. The 65K color TFT display on the E398 is about 1.8" in diagonal, and offers up 176x220 pixels. It is very bright, and has great contrast in and out of direct sunlight thanks to a highly reflective backing. There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about it.

 

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