music phonez! (formerly SE W550i or MOTO E398)

[larvs]

---

if i'm not mistaken, i htink he meant the lag in the menu scrolling. in a sort of crooked way of posting. hehe.

[aridoasis]

nice upgrades! i can't wait to get my e398!

re "continuous play", i meant for the songs, that after a song has played, it stops there and you have to manually select the next song. but i guess the itunes upgrade takes care of that...

thanx for the info bros!

[larvs]

ahh ok, that is if you usr the OEM mp3 player while running ROKR firmware on your phone. just be sure that you have winxp tehn you're set. while waiting for your phone, you can visit these:

http://motomodders.net

http://s14.invisionfree.com/bahay_moto

[aridoasis]

thanx! m still looking here sa istorya for a 2nd hand unit nga around 7k... if not the brand new nlang cguru...

[kamatari]

sorry out of topic ako here.

want to win sonyericsson phone?

play at www.sonyericsson.com/letsplay/ph

you might be a winner of w900.

[fiero19]

hi aridoasis,

I would suggest that you get the SE W550i. The E398 is no match to SE's W550i. Here are the main reasons why I'm recommending SE W550i:

Very Good Sound Quality. The sound is awesome. It has the same walkman feature as the W800. When you start your phoine, you'll have the option to use the phone or just the walkman feature. Meaning, you can still listen to music without actually turning on the phone feature. Great when travelling by plane. Music is continuous and supports listening by playlist, artist, or by track. You can also listen through loud speakers. Sound doesn't distort even if set to maximum level. It supports stereo widening which even makes the sound louder. BTW, the phone has two speakers. I don't really mind the limitted 256MB memory. I've got my computer. The package come with a pc suite with Disc2Phone included. Disc2Phone is what i use to transfer all my mp3 files to the phone. Just leave it there and in 10-15 minutes, you're done. The phone can store up to 70-80 mp3 songs depending on the bit rate. That's almost 3hours of continuous music. You can set the bit rate at your preference using the software. Lower bit rate will compress the size and quality of the file but still sound good. Crisp sound on the headset provided. It has a regular stereo jack, another new from sony ericsson. Meaning, you can replace the headset with just any headset or even a speaker for an even better listening experience. FM can be played in loud speaker mode as well. Great for party people. Just bring your Altec speakers and plug it in to the phone. And waaallaaaahhhh... you're the man! :mrgreen:

It's basically a multimedia phone. The 1.3MP camera is not the best but still good. Connectivity is good. You've got every connection possible on this single gadget -- bluetooth, infrared, usb connection, gprs, wap. You can also use the device a mass storage device as in a flash drive. The computer will detect it as a removable drive. Transfer file from computer to computer. And I mean any file (will be saved in others). You can even save MS Word files (though you won't be able to view it on your phone) and transfer them to another computer.

One thing I love about SE is the capability of being fully customzed. You can install themes, games, and software on your phone. Try http://lasyk.net/ and get all the free downloads.

Before I purchased the phone, I read one review that says screen quality is dull. I'd say it's not true. Well... it's a bit dimmer than the SE K750i or any Samsung unit but hey... screen quality is still very good. Graphics are smooth and nicely finished and animated themes are the best.

Battery Life... hehehe... I know you'd be asking me about that. With normal use (calls and text and a little music every now and then), it will allow you two days before you recharge again. For purely text and call usage, three to four days will be long enough. For extensive usage (phone + music on LOUD SPEAKER), you may need to recharge everyday. BTW, you can also recharge through the USB cable provided.

The Package. Along with the box is a the fast charger. You'll have to purchase an adapter though to connect that to your wall outlet. There is the usb cable which connects your phone and your computer for recharging or downloading contents. The pc suite cdrom and user's manual. The phone is originally in orange housing/case. You will have the option to change that with the included housing either in white, yellow, or dark blue. So in short, the phone comes with an extra housing included in the box.

Oh the Price... yes the price! How can forget that. It's always something I always look for when reading reviews. Anyway, you will be surprised to see that some shops sell it to as low as Php 16,000 to as much as Php 21,000. Most shops have them at Php 19,000. I bought mine at 16K flat with 1 year service warranty. If you're quite paranoid with parts and service warranty, go get the 21K.

Buying Tips. You'll have of options to choose from at SM. Try RC Goldline(SM) or Aerophone(SM). Aerophone sells it at around Php15,950 (not sure with warranty) the last time i checked. Unfortunately it was out of stock when I purchased mine so I opted for the second lowest which was around Maze in Ayala.

Overall, phone is great. No regrets. Hope this helped you with your decision-making.

fiero19

[aridoasis]

thanx fiero for the w550i input...

waahhh! my mind's going bonkers... oh well, i guess each phone comes with its own pros and cons, and either will be a good buy. now it all depends on how much dough i'll get and how soon i get it. *grin*

e398:
slim and compact; expandable; moddable (is there even such a term? *toink!*), haptics

w550i:
newer and more features(radio, 1.3 mp), higher resolution 256k, game mode, music mode

@larvs, fiero & wikitoy: again, thanx a lot - you've been realy helpful. i hope to get whichever by next week na siguro. and whichever i get, contented na ko. getting comments from actual users sure beats internet reviews!

@kamatari: cool link!

[fiero19]

no prob! :mrgreen:

more reviews here:
- http://mobile-review.com/index-en.shtml
- http://gsmarena.com/

[larvs]

wow! very good post for your first fiero19! but you might wanna edit your second phrase "It's no match to Moto's E398" for a while, i thought you were on my side, hehe.

well,
sound quality, flashing your phone can enable airplane mode, which basically means, there will be no signal allowed to your phone thus allowing usage in restricted areas like an airplane. playlists, whether OEM or flashed with ROKR firmware still has continiuos play. you may have a 100 song limit, but honestly, some people with 512mb sd cards are too lazy to encode their songs to be able to fully utilize the space. 128mb can store 50 ongs easily with 58kbp/s and still sound good if you know how to use iTunes' equalizer option. w550i has three speakers not two, if i'm not mistaken, i just don't know where hehe. the e398 has four. two on each side, and another two on top of the phone. haven't heard of w550i, but so far e398 has been enjoying the most unbiased and impartial great reviews. playing music from speakers still sounds the best for me for this 2 year old phone. and if you hold it while playing something, your hands'll go numb with the bass. what i do, is that i lay it on a table coz it enhances the bass even more, hehe. OEM phones also comes with the feature of setting the phone as a flash storage device. i used to d/l pics,progs,whathaveyous from the office, store them in the phone, then upload it at home. so up to here, there's really no difference.
differences is on first, the FM tuner. and the ability to directly connect to a speaker. but you still can play music thoriugh a speaker while it's connected to your pc. no biggie. and i have to admit that the headset isn't something to write home about either. but works good enough for me.

camera, VGA but the it's the best VGA camera around. not just my opinion, but others as well (meaning, my officemates, hehe) saw a pic made into a desktop wall from a w800i. still looked pixelated. with teh right amount of light, honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
vid recording with the latest firmware, 6fr(god bless whoever released this) is unlimited. this was a myth for e398 users before, this was previously hte main disadvantage whenever it gets pent up against k700i (which i think e398 totally owns, by now). and by seem editing, you can choose mp4 or 3gp format. quality is comparable to a MegaPix, with all the pixels dancing around. i'd post a vid of my dog jumping for his favorite toy(tennis ball) but i don't know how.

connectivity, everything's inside except for infrared, but who uses infrared anyways? not me. well, i used it once with my bluetooth deprived t68i. nuff said

customization, ahh now were talkin'. with customization - or MODDING - you're not limited to walls, screensavers, ringers, games, you're custom.. MODDING will go to the extent of the very core of you're phone. flashing, flexing, seem editing, gain table hacking (volume tweaking to the max!) operator name, font (something new!), is the stuff that's making moto's very exciting to own. best of all, these are free. we have this community that won wikipedia for the month of september because of the worldwide effort on hacking the ROKR firmware way back the same month. threads of over a thousand posts made it such a hit! modding has even come to the point of resurrecting a completely dead e398. talk about the lazarus of phones! hehe.

screen quality, excellent! the best test for me is to hold it against direct sunlight and see if you can still see the letters, then voila!

batt life, phone comes with a Lithium ion batt. mine will be a year on jan 25th. with the ROKR firmware installed, i play mp3's for 8 hours a day and still have enough jiuce to make calls, text, and ocassional tinkering. batt life lasts 2 days max with this kind of usage. i'm just waiting for the batt settings hack that motomodders are currently working on right now. word has it that it can last up to four days. yiipee!

package, Mobile Phone Tools is crap! instead we have a bunch of p2k programs developed by our russian modders to accomodate everything from walls, screens, ringers, game installation, hacked version of iTunes, to hard core modding. everythings free, btw.

the price, 10k for brand new which btw i suggest than bying second hand. nuff said.

overall, the moto e398 is a very old phone, and for a regular phone user who wants everything served in a gold platter, go for k750i, hands down. but the reason why i, we are still raving at this two year old phone is because of the community that you will get to know that also share the same interest, dilemma, fortune of owning the phone. again, we didn't win the wiki of the month last september just because we have an incredible phone. if you're really into moto, then i suggest you wait for v3i, now that's an entirely differenbt ball game.

[br]Date Posted: December 29, 2005, 12:42:07 AM_________________________________________________b tw, kamatari, i alreddy joined the contest. who else did? hope i got all my answers correct! but thins is, they're giving out w800 not w900?

[aridoasis]

i joined the contest too and yeah, it's the w800 they're giving out, not the w900... too bad though