Motorola ROKR E8 Revisited: A commentary on the “virtual keypad”
June 10, 2008 by Jayvee Fernandez
Filed under Motorola
Let’s do a quick revisit. Back in February, Motorola announced the ROKR E8, their flagship music phone and I was able to get a quick glance over dinner. Now that it’s out and after going a few days with the ROKR E8, I have a few insight’s on Motorola’s latest music phone. It’s a big step from the ROKR E2 – as the new phone incorporates their ModeShift technology that relies heavily upon the touch sensitive virtual keypad that is case sensitive.
My feedback is that in the few days I’ve used the phone I still can’t get through the learning curve of getting used to this type of input method: I still can’t quite understand why they didn’t use the traditional keypad input method. Or maybe I just have really huge fingers. But then again, it isn’t like they’re using a touch screen. I sincerely believe that it’s hard to put a middle ground between a pure touch screen device and a keypad. Sure, there are devices that have both input methods, but to have keypad hardware that acts like a touch screen isn’t too promising. Although it looks cool for all intents and purposes (yeah it really does!), why not just go for the tactile feedback approach of a good keypad?
Luckily, the ROKR E8 doesn’t take the concept all the way, and incorporates some sort of tactile feedback, but with some of the keys cramped together closely, it presents some problems with getting the right thing you want on screen.
The phone is fine with me. The buttons are easy to press since they have the little bump over them anyway so you know you are clicking the right button.