Review Of Motorola i880 – Red (Sprint)

REVIEW:
Nextel rarely makes an effort to be trendy but that doesn’t mean the carrier never follows trends. Rather, it just chooses to do so on its own terms. The Motorola has come up with another great mobile the Motorola i880. And it’s a prime example of Nextel’s way of doing things. It’s a stylish handset but it’s not a very thin mobile by any means. The new external music controls are good and it has got a 2 megapixel camera as well. The price of the i880 is reasonable and easily affordable for the users. It’s a solid effort overall and a needed addition to Nextel’s lineup.

Motorola i880 isn’t the most compact mobile that we have seen over the years. It’s a bit clunky but that’s hardly a mark against it and it’s not a big issue at all. The phone feels solidly constructed and comfortable in the hand. The color scheme is unusual–sort of an eggplant shade–but it’s quite attractive. The stubby antenna is extendable but a bit fragile.

The i880′s front face is packed with features, the external display of the 880 supports 65,536-colors. It also shows the battery life, the time, photo caller ID and signal strength. You can’t change any options beyond the wallpaper. Above the display are a full set of camera elements including the lens, a self-portrait mirror, a flash, while the external music controls sit just below the display. You can use the controls to activate and manipulate the music player. Stereo speakers lie below the buttons.

On the left spine are covered headset jack and a covered MicorSD slot. The volume rocker and a Direct Connect button are on the right spine. The speakerphone key and a button for sending calls to voicemail and accessing the recent-calls list when the phone is closed are on the top of the phone. All keys are coated in durable rubber. Finally, the charger ports rests on the bottom of the i880.

The internal display of the i880 supports 262,000 colors. The brightness setting isn’t adjustable but you can change the backlighting time and text size. It’s easy on the eyes and does a good job displaying everything from text to graphics. Also, we like that the i880 supports Nextel’s newest menu design.

Nextel handsets tend to have crowded navigation buttons and while the i880 is no exception, it does a better job than most of its predecessors. We like that the buttons are separated from each other by sliver bands and that they are covered in a tactile material. Each of the directional buttons doubles as a shortcut to a user-defined function. There’s also a dedicate menu button, the traditional talk and end/power buttons, a camera shutter and two soft keys.

The keypad buttons are very well designed as well. They’re raised slightly above the surface of the phone so it’s easy to dial, and they’re also large and well-spaced. In a nice touch the dedicated power button sits below the star key and the second set of stereo speakers line either side of the keyboard’s bottom half. The digits on the buttons are brightly backlit and should be large enough for most users to see easily.

The 600-contact phone book has room in each entry for seven phone numbers, an IP address, a Direct Connect number, and an e-mail address. Some other essentials include text and multimedia messaging, an airplane mode, voice dialing, call and voice memo recording, AOL instant messaging, a memo pad and onboard GPS. On the higher end features you also get Nextel’s Direct Connect walkie-talkie service and Direct Talk, which gives you out-of-network walkie-talkie chat with another Direct Talk handset at a range of up to six miles. The i880 supports full Bluetooth for connecting to a headset or sending data to another Bluetooth device. The i880 also supports Nextel’s second line service, which allows you to add a second line to the phone with a different phone number–perfect for users who want separate digits for personal and business use. A newer feature is Direct Send, which sends PTT contact information to other compatible Nextel phones.

The camera of the i880 is good and it takes pictures in seven resolutions. Picture quality is quite good with sharp colors and enough light. Our only complaint is smaller objects such as flowers looked somewhat fuzzy. The i880′s video recorder shoots clips in two resolutions (176×144 and 128×96) with sound. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 15 seconds; otherwise you’re limited by the amount of available memory. Clips were nothing special, with a grainy, pixilated effect.

The MP3 of the i880 is simple and is comparable to the i580. It’s perfectly serviceable for listening to your tunes. Features include Jazz, Classical, and Rock, Bass EQ presets, Pop, shuffle and repeat modes. On the downside, it plays tracks only from Trans Flash cards, so you can forget about direct-to-device music transfers, let alone over-the-air downloads. You can personalize i880 with variety of themes and wallpaper. If you don’t like what’s on the handset already, you can always download more options with the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser.
SPECIFICATIONS:

GOOD FEATURES:
1 Picture quality is good.
2. Strong signal.
3. Sound quality is good.
4. Good call quality.

BAD FEATURES:
1 Music player is not that good.
2. No streaming web TV.
3. Battery life is poor.
4 No alarm clock.

MAIN POINT
The i880 has a user-friendly design and a generous range of features including a music player, 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth. Call quality is also very good. But on the downside, the i880 is a tad big and its integrated memory is small. Also, music quality was unexceptional. So I give 3 stars out of 5 stars to it.