iPhone vs. Motorola ROKR

The ROKR may be the candybar cousin to the RAZR, but is it the Motorola equivalent of the iPhone? That is the question.

The Motorola ROKR E8 is not a 3G smartphone, let's start there. So in a contest against the original iPhone, it might fare better, starting on more equal ground. But against the iPhone, it's already got one point against it.

Both smartphones are touchscreen phones, though the ROKR E8 has tactile feedback, which the iPhone does not. Score one for Motorola!

The face of the ROKR E8, while certainly appealing, is a lot busier than that of the iPhone, with its spartan set of controls. The ROKR has several more controls, including a 5-way trackpad where Apple's single, multifunction button would sit. It's got a Call Button and an Off Button, as does the iPhone, but then it's got 4 other controls too. But wait, there's more to it than meets the eye…

For where Apple shows its trademarked zeal for optimum efficiency with the iPhone's solitary multifunction button, Motorola shows its in the ROKR E8 keypad, a technology it calls ModeShift.

ModeShift is the E8's flagship feature, and what it does is transform the touch keypad on which sit these multiple controls from telephone controls to dedicated music player controls. How's that for turning your smartphone into an iPod?

And while we're on the music front, let's also observe that the Motorola ROKR E8 has an FM radio tuner, and the iPhone does not.

Really, though, let's be honest - one of the primary appeals of the iPhone was (at least intended to be) that it's the iPod of smartphones, meaning that it was the premiere mobile device for downloading, organizing, and - most importantly - playing music. Here the iPhone retains its crown, though at twice the price. As for the sound of music on the ROKR E8, it's not as great as on the iPhone, but you're also getting it for half the cost, and its sound quality is certainly not half as great.
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Going back to the subject of keypads for a moment, one other glaring difference between the iPhone and the Motorola ROKR E8 is that the ROKR has an actual slide-out keyboard (though not a QWERTY keyboard, just an ordinary phone pad) while the iPhone only has its touchscreen option (ordinary phone pad and QWERTY-capable).

Another key difference is that the iPhone is not just a music smartphone but an internet smartphone and a personal desktop assistant too, while the Motorola is pretty much just a music smartphone. A good one, by Motorola's standards, but not on par with the iPhone by any measure - ModeShift or no ModeShift.

When you're looking at the bottom line, Motorola is selling the ROKR E8 for about the same price the Apple is getting for the new iPhone 3G. Motorola uses T-Mobile; Apple uses AT&T. T-Mobile requires a 2-year contract; AT&T does not. Now go back and reread this review of the two devices and you do the math.