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ROKR? KROKR (SHITE) more like.
A while back I told you that I'd upgraded my mobile phone to a Motorola ROKR (with iTunes). Well I've finally come 'round to writing down what I think of it and I have to agree with every other review I've read - This phone is the worst phone I've ever used.
Why? Right where do I start?
Might as well start with the thing that drew me to making such a stupid choice, iTunes. You'd have thought that with the inclusion of Apple in Motorola's development, this would be the one thing that did work properly. You'd be mistaken. Somewhere along the line, someone decided not to put enough RAM inside. The functionality of using the iTunes menu is all wrong. It can't keep up with you button pushes (something that happens on every function of the ROKR). Using the mini joystick instead of the wheel take a bit of getting used to, but you end up clicking it twice because it seems that the first click doesn't register...but it has. It's just a few seconds too late. The one thing that's good (yes that was 'one') is that you don't have to scroll though your whole playlist to get to, say Foo Fighters. You can go straight to the 'F's buy tapping three times on the phones' 3 button (like you do to text). The seconds counter that shows when you play a track can't keep up either. Another thing that 'pumped my nag' was that I had to buy an adaptor to plug in my Sony headphones...and once I had, the sound quality wasn't as good as on my 3rd gen iPod. The headphones that come with the ROKR do have a mic (so you can pause iTunes and take a call without unplugging your headphones), but they feel, look and sound cheap. Syncing isn't any easier. The sync cable doesn't want to stay attached to the phone. The 100 song limit isn't much of a problem for me as I only use it for a few hours a day and I sync my iPod daily.
During normal use, the ROKR fails in many other ways.
As I've mentioned before, the phone is too slow. Even when you know the combination of button pushes to get to, say 'call the last number dialed'. Unlike a Nokia, it's impossible.
The 'collect call' and 'end call' buttons are too small, you end up turning on the speakerphone when you attempt to answer a call.
I've lost count of the number of times I've sent an unfinished text message. This is due to the 'send' button being placed where the 'delete' button should be.
The camera takes abysmal shots because it's a low res VGA.
Even doing something as changing your ringtone takes forever. I'm the sort of person that picks techy things up almost instantly, but you have to dig so far down the menus to find anything, you lose your way every time.
The phone crashes. It once crashed whilst I was driving. The damn thing wouldn't stop ringing until I pulled out the battery.
iTunes crashes quite often too.
So my words of advice are (deep breath, shouted out) DON"T BUY IT.
No wonder Steve Jobs overshadowed it with a 'real' Apple product when it was launched.
Now I've got my nano (in 'nu metal' black), I don't use it as a mpeg player.
Unlucky, I'm lumbered with using it as my mobile for the next twelve months. Unless it breaks. OOPS! Just dropped it over the side of a motorway bridge.