ROKR

I suppose some congratulations are in order. This past week Sprint announced that the Samsung Instinct became its fastest selling EV-DO handset ever. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that this touchscreen phone’s price had been slashed from $199 to $129 just hours before it became available—most likely out of fear of the iPhone 3G’s impending availability.

In the press release John Garcia, president of Sprint’s wireless division, couldn’t help but take a swipe at the 3G part of the iPhone’s name. He reminded the public that Sprint’s EV-DO Rev A network offers five times more coverage than AT&T’s HSDPA network (based on square miles). He shouldn’t have gone there.

The goal, of course, was to plant the seed of doubt in would be iPhone 3G owners that its increased data speeds won’t wow once you venture outside of downtown. That’s a fair criticism, but it ignores the fact that the iPhone’s Web browser runs circles around the Instinct’s. I’d rather wait a few extra seconds for a site to load in the suburbs and have it look like the real deal than be stuck with a browser that crowds the screen with icons and crudely formats pages. Speaking of circles, I’ve started using the Instinct and I’m sick of staring at spinning circles as I wait for applications to open. It’s like Windows Vista on a phone.

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Motorola just announced that the quad-band ROKR E8 will be available to T-Mobile customers on July 7th for $199. We’ve had previews and hands-on time with the beautifully crafted ROKR E8 a few times now, but there’s nothing like finally getting a review unit in and running it through its paces unsupervised.

The ROKR E8 will likely be most attractive to teens and young twenty-somethings on T-Mobile looking for a music phone that can also bring basic e-mail and Web functionality to their fingertips while remaining simple.  Its smooth glass top and midnight blue body, which features a soft rubbery back cover, will certainly turn heads. At various spots inside the UI and on the phone itself, there are subtle red accents that make for a beautiful package all around.

While the phone certainly feels sturdy, it’s still going to be hobbled by T-Mobile’s slow EDGE network. Its big competitor is going to be the $49.99 priced Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, which is also offered by T-Mobile. Where the 4.5 x 2.0 x 0.4-inch sized ROKR E8 is more similar in size to a 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.4-inch sized iPod Classic, the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic is more on par with the first generation iPod Nano’s measurements.

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