Home » Mobile Phone Reviews » Motorola E398 May 13, 2008

Motorola E398 Review

First Impressions

Ok let’s put this one straight, the Motorola E398 defiantly has the new WOW factor in up-to-date mobile phone technology, I wasn’t entirely sure that I wanted a new phone as I still own the E700 but I wanted to go for something with a WOW factor. I chose the E398 because I wanted an Mp3 player as well a mobile phone, this certainly does the job and more, I couldn’t wait to get the phone in and get set up with the cool black exterior handset with a sort of rubbery feel absolutely loaded with character, It just looks a treat, really modern with its stereo speakers and silver keypad.

Motorola E398

Sizes & Dimensions

Features

Motorola E398 Box

Whats In The Box

Menu Structure

I am surprised with the way I took to the menu structure of the E398, I thought it would be tricky to get used to, but it turned out to not be as bad as I thought. The phone contains the menu structure of having menus such as:, Pictures, Sounds, Games, Videos, Themes and a MotoMixer with sub-folders inside which are all accessed using the key stick in the centre, there are other menus that can be accessed using the button on the right of the t-zones button, inside there are menus such as:, Alert Styles, Downloads, Call Register, Messages, t-zones, Contacts, Organiser, Camera and settings.

Motorola E398 Held

Design

In general its self the phone meets my needs in deign terms, with being small and relatively light for a phone of its technology, with brilliant stereo sound speakers situated on the Right and Left top side of the mobile and having quick keys for the camera on the top right and volume and sound quick keys on the left with a headphone port on the top with rubber dust cover. The 65k colour TFT LCD screen stands out really well because of its size and brings the images to life, the keypad being modern and user friendly also helps a lot to although it is a fair way down the phone, it works well. The back of the phone has a user friendly design with the camera and flash ports being on the top back half of the mobile and keeping the bottom half free for a firm grip of the mobile, it all works well.

Motorola E398 Front

Display

The display features a 65k TFT LCD colour screen at a size of (176 x 220) which is capable of having 8 txt lines on the screen at a time. The quality of the display oozes style with a brilliant backlight with a time of up to 60 seconds which improves the quality, including a screensaver of your choice. The layout of the display can hold all information needed on a mobile screen such as the time in 12 hour or 24 hour format in the bottom right, the tariff details and date in many formats in the top left hand corner. There is a bar at the top of the screen which holds the battery bars, Bluetooth logo and signal etc.

Motorola E398 Screen

Camera

The E398 has a VGA (640 x 480) with 4 x Digital Zoom and Flash camera, with 3 extra image size options. The camera has the standard options with lighting such as dark contrast and bright contrast as well as built in night mode, not really needed with a flash but its there. The quality of the camera is outstanding, really very good; I must say it is much better than my E700 camera.

Motorola E398 Photo

MP3 Player

The Mp3 player in this phone is truly amazing I must say, I love it and it is really a good idea. The quality is just amazing on the stereo speakers, you can’t get much better but with the earphones it sounds just as good as a real Mp3 player. The usage time of the Mp3 player is roughly 270 mins depending on how fully charged the battery is, with the 64MB trans-flash memory card you can fit roughly 15 full length 3-4 MB songs on it, but with the 128MB trans-flash memory card it is more that double that, the Mp3 player is a real delight to have on this mobile and is the real WOW factor of the mobile for sure.

Keypad

The keypad in itself is a master piece, it really adds to the cool WOW factor of the mobile, they keys are very hard wearing and rubbery and don’t make that horrible clicking noise when using the keypad. There is a row of four key at the top of the keypad which are, camera short-key, t-zones short-key, menu short-key and messages short-key, below there are the answer and withhold keys with the attractive silver key stick in the centre, below that there are the main usual 0-9 keys etc. they key pad really does look the part and should meet anyone’s needs.

Motorola E398 Back

Battery Life & Signal Strength

The battery life of the mobile is a standard Li-ion 830mAh battery which has up to 560 mins talk time and 230 mins stand by time which also copes with a 270 minute usage time for the Mp3 player. My experience with the battery life so far is that when using the Mp3 player a lot the battery tends to need charging within 2 days, but without the Mp3 player on the go it lasts a good 4-5 days max. The signal strength is very good at a brilliant 4 out of 4 bars all the time wherever I am, this is surprising considering I am on virgin mobile, with a t-mobile phone, the t-mobile signal was also very good, but it all depends on where you live.

Summary

Overall I rate the Motorola 10/10 for everything mentioned in my review it is really an excellent mobile to have and I think it will meet all users needs except from the lack of IRDA and I really think it is a mobile worth buying, Motorola have outdone them selves this time. I am proud to own the E398.