Best Student Cell Phones: A Review of the New Motorola Rokr EM30, Rokr EM28 and Rokr EM25

It's back-to-school season, and time for students to renew their symbiotic relationship with their cell phones. Walk the campus of any high school or college and university, and you'll see students talking and texting on their cell phones nonstop. This makes the entire 15 to 24-year old age group a very attractive demographic for cell phone marketers. Every day, I receive dozens of emails and brochures in the mail regarding the latest, newest, "best" cell phone for students like me. But they can't all be the best!

After surveying numerous cell phones from cell phone providers like Verizon, AT&T (exclusive carrier of the Apple iPhone) and Sprint, I've finally found the best cell phone for high school students and college students. Surprisingly, it's not the Apple iPhone. Nor is it the LG Chocolate, another oft-hyped cell phone for the younger crowd. Instead, it's Motorola's newly-upgraded Rokr cell phone line.

Motorola's new Rokr cell phone line received a major update and upgrade in the first week of August 2008. I was surprised at the features and design that they poured into reinvigorating an otherwise unpopular cell phone line. With the revamp, Motorola has repositioned the Rokr cell phone line as the ultimate music cell phone. And I think it's worth the hype!

Student Cell Phone Review: Motorola's New Rokr EM30, EM28 and EM25 Cell Phones

The Motorola Rokr EM30: The Rokr EM30 is the most expensive of the three new Rokr cell phones. It's shaped in a rectangle with an open face, and fits snugly in your palm. While I'm not a huge fan of open-faced cell phones (I much prefer the slider type, or even the switchblade style of the Samsung Juke cellphone), the Motorola Rokr EM30 looks positively stunning with its bold, red design.

Feature-wise, you get what you pay for. As the most expensive of the Rokr cell phones, the EM30 has pretty much every feature you'd need. It has the usual cell phone features, such as a camera and speakerphone, as well as a very unique texting feature that changes its keypad backlighting depending on what you're doing on the cell phone. It's music player capabilities are especially strong, and the EM30 Rokr cell phone has some of the best music playback qualities I've seen in a cell phone to date: Not only do you get a memory card slot for extra storage capabilities, but the internal memor is already huge and the Rokr EM30 even has an FM radio and Windows Media Player installed.

The Motorola Rokr EM28: The Rokr EM28 looks much more like an ordinary cell phone. Gone is the EM30's bold, red color. Instead, you have a more traditional looking silver clamshell-like flip phone. While it offers many of the basic cell phone features that you'd find on any other cell phone, what makes this cell phone especially attractive to students is its astounding music features. The external speaker to be outstanding (it even has bass!) and it has enough memory to keep most music listeners happy.

The Motorola Rokr EM25: The EM25 is the cheapest cell phone in the Rokr lineup. It has the least amount of features, but is attractively priced and well designed with a sliding design similar to phones like the LG Chocolate. Feature-wise, the Rokr EM25 comes with paired down features compared to its other Rokr siblings, but it still has impressive music playback features.