After entering the smartphone era, there was a brief popularity of “music phones” from 2013 to 2015, giving rise to HiFi phones like the vivo XPlay and Lenovo Lemon X3. However, during the earlier feature phone era, music phones were quite common, with the Motorola E2 being a blockbuster at that time.
Today, I discovered a large number of brand new E2 phones on Xiaohongshu. Did the warehouse key finally turn up?
The MOTO E2, released in 2006, is a music phone. From its model name, it is clear that it is a successor to the E1, which was a collaboration between Motorola and Apple, pre-installed with the iTunes music player, and based on the E398 hardware.
At that time, the domestic version of the E2 featured Jay Chou as its spokesperson. Besides the standard black and white colors, the most iconic version was the orange and black one. There was also a customized version for China Mobile, which seemed to carry the “M-Zone” logo, but I can’t recall the details as it was so long ago.
The MOTO E2 is powered by an Intel XScale 208MHz processor and supports a maximum of 2GB expandable storage. Only those who have used the E2 know that it, along with the E680, was a “flashing tool” of that era. The system is based on open-source Linux, and although the number of software applications is not as extensive as Symbian, its playability is quite high.
I still remember needing to download the MOTO RSD flashing tool on my computer. The E2 was dubbed the “unbrickable cockroach”; I spent sleepless nights flashing it, which was as challenging as flashing earlier Siemens phones, even more so than later Android flashing, but it was also more rewarding.
It also features a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top, designed centrally, making it a music player when headphones are plugged in. When placed in jeans, the headphone cable can stick out. At that time, the MOTO E2’s competitor was the Nokia 3250, both of which were akin to “arcade machines”. That year, even domestic brands like Lenovo entered the music phone market, releasing small hits like the i908 and i909.
The MOTO E2 also has physical music shortcut keys on the right side, making it easy to switch songs and adjust the volume. Only true music phones had such side keys back then, with the most representative being the Alcatel OTS-853, which only “hardcore” players would remember.
As for the price, there are many shops on Xiaohongshu selling brand new MOTO E2 phones, with the bare unit priced at 95 yuan, and the boxed complete set priced at over a hundred yuan. I can’t figure out the source of these.