Motorola E1070 review: Chubby RAZR

It plays MP3 without a player?

I cannot help myself but wondering and wondering why Motorola E1070 menu should be so complicated. For example, why does the camera occupy two position in the main menu (once as camera and once as video camera) since the same two icons are to be found on first position in the multimedia folder? Apart from this, I do not get the idea of doubling this application in general as switching from photo camera to video camera is absolutely seamless. The "Airplane mode" function appears twice too. Well, I do understand that such an important function deserves a place in the main menu, but why does it then pop out once again in the submenu...

"Airplane mode" function deactivates the phone part of the device

The airplane mode saves plenty of energy and is therefore quite convenient, if you prefer to listen to music. Btw, all Sony Ericsson Walkmans work on the same principle. Yet, where is Motorola E1070's music player? It is not in the multimedia folder, nor is to be found in the rest of the main menu. MP3 could be alternatively played by opening the Sounds folder, but it is not a real music player. So I thought: "The camera is presented by two icons both in the main menu and the multimedia folder. Could one of them be the music player?

I then found out that inside the Sounds folder files resembling fields from the phonebook can be created - to move from one file to another press the asterisk or the hash button. Consequently, these files can be grouped into playlists and filtered by genre. While a playlist is played, you can make use of functions like random play, repeat or Bass Boost. The player can be minimized too. In this case file name appears on the stand-by display. Switching between files is executed by the horizontal presses of the cursor key. Volume is controlled by the respective side buttons. There is no need to mention that the player also works when the device is closed. When you use this option file name will appear on the small external display. To switch between files without opening the phone use the appropriate side button.

 
Item with sound files (with My Music playlist being on first position) • files can be grouped into categories • music player • player setup

So eventually the music player has been found. Unfortunately, I was forced to test it without earphones as the phone delivered to us didn't have any. That is why I am not able to evaluate the quality of the sound output, but I can guarantee that the loud speaker performs pretty well. The Bass Boost function does not have any impact on it, though.

  
The file "Hyperactive" is being played as background; it is possible to play both forward and backward • played file appears on the external display • selecting file on the external display

Nonetheless, I think that in the final version of the E1070 model Motorola could imply a music java application similar to the one we know from Motorola V360 (such that would allow filtering files by artist and album name). What I have not mentioned yet is music files in Motorola E1070 can occupy a maximum space of 32 MB of internal memory. The phone is equipped with a memory card slot of the MicroSD/TransFlash type.

 
Memory Details

Decorated with a megapixel

Motorola E1070 built-in camera features a megapixel resolution, but its performance is rather average. We can only hope that the final version of the phone is able to take pictures of somewhat better quality. On the other hand, we all know that Motorola has never been famous for making top-class photo mobiles. E1070's camera application features exposure compensation, white balance, zoom, and color effects (applied with the navigation key). Inside the setup menu you can also choose your preferences as to the image resolution, the deactivation of the lens shutter sound, or you can set up the self-release function. The camera has fixed focus lens and no dedicated macro mode, so anything closer than 50 cm is out of focus. The phone does not have a night mode. This is partly substituted by a LED, which is however weak and thus rather useless. The LED can be put to a better use as a small flashlight.

  
Camera viewfinder • the image featuring a cross indicates which feature can be modified by using the navigation key • camera settings

Motorola E1070 sample photos in full resolution

Motorola E1070 photos resampled to 800 x 600 pixels

Self-portraits can be made by using either the internal tiny camera and the bigger display, or the better camera and the external display.

Active LED • outer display serves as a mirror

In video mode you can shoot videos in 3GP format. Their quality is rather poor, though, so in practice these may only be used as attachments to go with MMS. It seems that the video recorder (at least in our firmware version) has trouble keeping up with the fast action - you can see this in our second video sample.

Video samples

 
Fast switch between various camera modes • a bit strange again: video player's detailed properties are set up in the camera setup menu • folder with videos

Created images or videos are grouped in the same way like sounds are. In other words, you can create folders of your own. To switch between folders use the asterisk and the hash keys. In addition, pictures can be filed into Albums, or sequences of images. These can be slide-showed across the entire display, in a landscape mode.

   
Listing images • creating a category of one's own • like My Pictures, for example • both pictures and videos can be viewed across entire screen