The Motorola ROKR is nothing to write home about, according to a review of the new iTunes-enabled phone from Motorola by Walt Mossberg for the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Mossberg took isue with the hardware controls, the arbitrary 100 song limit imposed on the device, and the lack of style when compared to the iPod.

"You can tell that the ROKR is no iPod just by looking at it," wrote Mr. Mossberg. "It's a thick, stubby candy-bar phone, far more conventional than Motorola's super-slender RAZR phone. The ROKR also lacks an iPod-like scroll wheel for navigating music, instead relying on a tiny joystick that isn't nearly as effective."

On the plus side, he cited the fact that the ROKR is the first phone that can sync with iTunes, the only non-iPod device to do so. Mr. Mossberg said that this makes it the easiest phone to load up with music on the market, as competing phones like Sony Ericsson's US$499 W800 Walkman cellphone and the $150 LG VX8100 from Verizon Wireless are simply more difficult to work with.

Once your music is on your phone, Mr. Mossberg said that iPod users will find the iPod-like interface on the phone easy to use, another advantage. However, the very process of moving the 100 songs you can play on your phone takes forever with the ROKR because it utiliazes USB 1.1, which is substantially slower than FireWire or even its younger cousin, USB 2.0.

While MR. Mossberg's overall impression of the ROKR was negative, he had equally negative comments about the above mentioned competitors. His final advice for readers was to wait for a more elegant device in the future.

The Wall Street Journal requires a subscription, but this column should be available for free soon at his personal site for a limited time.