Moto E398

[Laxe]

What are your opinions on this phone? I can get one off EBay for £238 inc. delivery but is the phone any good? Has anyone actually used this phone and if so where did you buy it?

Buying phones on EBay is rather a last option for me but I've been having trouble finding this phone to order offline anywhere on the net.

Any thoughts?

[Valdo]

It's quite a good phone. Great screen, support video recording and Tranflash card, MP3 and stereo speaker.

[tedwardo]

yeh, i want moto e398 as well, i was wondering if it has been released yet? an if so, where can i buy it, and for what price? it seems a bit steep to have what is marketed as a 'youth' phone, when it is on ebay for £238.

[cdover]

Originally posted by tedwardo
yeh, i want moto e398 as well, i was wondering if it has been released yet? an if so, where can i buy it, and for what price? it seems a bit steep to have what is marketed as a 'youth' phone, when it is on ebay for £238.

Yup, released somewhere... Goes for £180 locally. Not too bad.

[Laxe]

Where can you get this phone for £180???

The only thing with Ebay is that the phone comes with no warranty :(

[cdover]

Originally posted by Laxe
Where can you get this phone for £180???

The only thing with Ebay is that the phone comes with no warranty :(

Here in Singapore :D. Sorry man...

[tedwardo]

how much is a flight to singapore?

[commedecargons]

NOPE, i mean VIDEO RECORDING (someone correct me)

[cdover]

Originally posted by tedwardo
how much is a flight to singapore?

Haha, I'm not too sure. Cheapest I know is Malaysian air, and they're not too bad. Stops at Kuala Lumpur. :). My dad pays, so I just leave it up to him.

[Sheoma]

wait moto E398 does NOT support video recording, which is the main downside to a otherwise great fone.

[tedwardo]

oh well, theres always the stereo sound, mp3 playback,, wierd colour light thingys, nice styling, relativly small size, 64 mb memory pre installed, good camera, picture phonebook, speakerphone, bluetooth AND a large screen!!!

[Flip2k2]

E398 is on ebay for £185 with £15 shippingfee to the UK I'm getting one :D

[tedwardo]

so thats £200 to your door? what country are you from

[CrossBlade]

And aren't there some online shops that sell it ? I don't like eBay, and I suppose that you prefer warranty, too :)

No mind it will be availble here NEVER :(

[darkwolf]

It does support video recording, also has a LED light below the camera.

[Enjay]

Originally posted by darkwolf
It does support video recording, also has a LED light below the camera.

video recording on an E398? are you sure? i have an E398 and it does not support video recording, only playback. darn.

:cool:

[Wyatt]

Originally posted by Enjay
video recording on an E398? are you sure? i have an E398 and it does not support video recording, only playback. darn.

:cool: Haha, that's sad.

[darkwolf]

My bad...:(....it does not support video recording, only playback.

[Nuttey]

Linux?

What's so special about having Linux on phones, anyway?

And what Moto phones currently have Linux?

[darkwolf]

@Nutty
Huh? Who said Linux..? :confused:

[DEViANT]

Motorola are very difficult when it comes to warranty and their phones, they should take a leaf out of Nokia's book (repair anything so long as it's built less than 15 months ago and has had no accidental damage).

Does the E398 actually cost this much? I thought the E3xx Motorola phones were meant to be budget-class models - I know the phone offers a lot but I was under the impression it would be cheaper. Also it would be interesting to see where you can get Transflash cards from, because I haven't seen them and you can bet they'd cost a fortune.

[Daedalus]

Moto E398 - T-Mobile Pay as you go - UK ONLY - The Link (highstreet stores) - £199 :)
Brand new and given to you there and then, much easier than risking it on ebay...

[smilewarrior]

Just curious, how good or bad is the user interface of this phone? Is it easy to use if you've never used a motorola phone ever?

[Daedalus]

Pretty much yes, I adapted to it quite quickly and my Dad (owner of a V600, never been too techy with phones in the past and never owned a Moto) picked up on very quickly.
Its fairly idiot proof, unless you are an actual idiot :rolleyes:
I mean some people complain that its slow, but I've never had any problems with the ones I've used regarding speed, and I'm VERY picky about the speed of phones (thats why I'm like the only SPV E200 owner who thinks its too slow to even both using anymore).

Its the same UI as the Moto V300,V500,V525,V600 and V80 etc.

[Yusuf]

Has anybody seen white cover Motorola E398? It looks better I think. I wonder if it will be available any time soon.

[Wyatt]

Has anybody seen white cover Motorola E398? It looks better I think. I wonder if it will be available any time soon.
Its out in stores already.

[Yusuf]

I live in US. Do you know where can I buy the white cover E398 online?

[14charusername]

I bought mine at http://www.no-air-time.com. If you're a NYC resident go to their store, 36 between 5th and 6th, so you can choose exactly which phone you get. When I went in they had matte black/sliver, blue/silver, and white/red from the Indonesian and Singaporean markets. The blue and the white ones are a hard plastic gloss finish unlike the black one. I bought the matte black one (similar coating to V300 except black). English is the default but British spelling is used "dialling" instead of "dialing" and "personalise" instead of "personalize" etc. The phone is nice, but there's a bug with the shortcuts menu on mine that causes the phone to reboot upon accessing the shortcut menu. Presumably a future firmware will fix this. This isn't a major issue for me there are seven buttons you can assign shortcuts to at the home screen (joystick directions, softkeys, and smart key). My software is R372_G0E.20.31R and my flex is GSKE398T672EN04E if anyone knows if newer versions are available.

The phone works extremely well as a phone compared to my T610. Much better reception (TMo USA, 1900 only). Talk time is amazing. Motorola's claim is just short of 9hrs. I haven't pushed it that far, but it managed 2hrs talk time and still showed full battery. My T610 would have dropped to 1/2 or 1/3 battery. It's pretty good at not picking up background noise. I read a post by someone who tested a K700 side by side with an E398 and the E398 did better at holding onto calls in low signal areas. It is clearly much better than my T610 was. My neighbor's unlocked T637 with a TMo USA SIM does not perform as well as my E398. I have no other basis for comparison.

Bluetooth is decent, but not as complete as Sony Ericsson. No problems sending files, though. You do have to be set as visible to pair and recieve files from a unknown phone. Visible/discoverable can only be set to 60 seconds. Look at V600 reviews for more on this.

The phone, at least when I bought it, came with MobilePhoneTools 3.0 ("MPT") and a USB cable. This is decent software, however the bit for uploading images to use as backgrounds on the phone is not as nice as the software that SonyEricsson provides for the T610. This software is bluetooth compatible. Uploading MP3s to the TransFLASH card is really slow via MPT. The TransFLASH comes with an adapater to be used in a SD card reader. My neighbor's SD card reader stinks, so I wasn't able to get this to work, but there should be no problem given a good card reader. You're limited to 32 chars for filenames.

The phone comes with a stereo headset with a 2.5mm jack. It's not the nicest, but it works. If you care that much, you should get a 3.5mm adapter that will allow you to use any stereo headphones for MP3s. These are widely available and cost about $5.

Speaking of MP3s, forget VBR. No AAC (iTunes) files either. Nokia 6230 may support both of those, but the screen is tiny whereas the screen on the E398 is absolutely gorgeous. The screen and colors are totally visible in bright sunlight. The LCD has very good reflective properties.

Text entry is good. The current version of iTap is pretty sweet. It has better word prediction than the T9 implementation on my T610. The multitap method also has word prediction (press up on the joystick once the phone gets the word right). I haven't found an SMS delivery confirmation setting or reply request setting. These were both present in the T610. Look at V600 reviews for more on this.

The phonebook is a bit annoying compared to the T610. Later firmware T610 includes a search function. Motorola has no search function, only browse by letter. First 9 entries are your one touch dial. Changing the memory location for a number overwrites the number in the target location if one exists. There is a prompt to prevent unintentional overwrites. My T610 would swap entries and then copy the first 250 numbers to the SIM. Speed dials are both from the SIM and the phone on the E398. That means you get 1250 numbers if you want. (Speed dial on the T610 is from the SIM only.) Look at V600 reviews for more on this.

[Yusuf]

Thanks a lot for the information :)

[Rahulk]

Hi,

Why are you guys so obessed with buying asian phones?


Soon

RK

[cdover]

Why are you guys so obessed with buying asian phones?

Why not? :cool:

[Rahulk]

Hi,

C.Dover is k for you cos your in asia, sumtimes k for me when i am in india...but if you r in the UK you mite as well by UK branded and specd fone for ease of use and warrenty reasons....



Soon,

Rk

[cdover]

C.Dover is k for you cos your in asia, sumtimes k for me when i am in india...but if you r in the UK you mite as well by UK branded and specd fone for ease of use and warrenty reasons....

Oh...sorry, by the way you said "Asian phones" I thought you meant phones made by Asian companies.

[Rahulk]

nah its k, my wording wasnt exactly top of the tick!


Soon,

RK