MWC 2008: Motorola overview

Motorola has been going through some tough times recently, so we couldn't have been more curious about what they're up to. Their booth at the MWC 2008 in Barcelona needed to provide answers to some serious questions. From a high enough authority, the company is still committed to its mobile division and upping sticks is out of the question for now.

Motorola Z6w

We saw a few handsets on the Motorola stand in the MWC, including three that were fresh announcements at the congress itself. Now, a warning is probably due for those of you that are after top-of-the-shelf gadgets. Sadly, you won't be too impressed.
Motorola Z6w was just announced yesterday and is basically a Wi-Fi-enabled version of the Motorola Z6. It comes in the slider form factor and has support for all the four GSM bands. The 2" 262K-color display sports QVGA resolution, the straightforward midrange choice.

Motorola Z6w
The Z6w has a 2 megapixel camera and microSD card slot for extending the built-in memory. We did manage to see that it also has a new menu view mode and a few user interface advantages over Motorola Z6.

Motorola Z6w

Motorola E8

The Motorola handset to see the most of the GSMArena team appreciation was the bar shaped phone ROKR E8. Announced last September, the quad-band device almost passes for a true novelty, thanks to the new and unique user interface. The haptic-enabled touch-sensitive keypad offers commendable feedback. Vibrations tend to be shorter than what the LG Viewty offers for example, and we happen to like it better this way.

Motorola E8
The best part about the phone is the keypad, having no actual etched labels on the keys. Instead the virtual keys change depending on context. In the music player for example, the music controls appear, while letters surface in texting mode. The touch-sensitive semi-circle of a D-pad also helps a lot here, as it makes forwarding and rewinding real smooth.

Motorola E8
Motorola E8 is equipped with a 2" 262K-color QVGA display, which had very good picture quality. This may not hold true in brightly sunlight but it was good enough for us indoors.