I bought this beauty last week. Earlier I had Motorola E398, a real rocky, had some problems in that. Now they almost cleared almost problems in MOTOROKR E8. My motive to by it was MUSIC. First disappointment, the default earphone/headset not at all rocking, even when compared with E398. But I checked with an ipod headset, its nice, at least u can say rocking. They have removed lots of customization/personalization options e.g clock position on the home screen, etc.
The contact search function is amazing, just type the name of the person on home screen, it will list you all possible names, great(E398 even did not have simple search). But you have to take lot of care while using. Battery life is OK for normal use. Screen size is quite small. Morphing keypad is wonderful. Keys give you feedback when pressed enough, not dead like touch screen.