Motorola Brute i680 – Durable, tough phone
For:
Durable, great call quality, comfortable keypad
Against:
Ugly looks, lacks back button, 2.5 mm headset jack
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The external display has a resolution of 120×160 pixels, or 65k colors. The internal display is 2.2 inches big and gives 176×220 pixels resolution. The 2.0 mega pixels camera can shoot pictures in max resolution of 1600×1200. The video resolution is 352×288 pixels. Supported audio formats are AMR, RA, WMA, AAC+, AAC, MP3. The handset has 180 MB internal memory and supports 8 GB memory expansion. Features for phone book include caller groups, multiple numbers per contact, picture ID and rind ID. Voice features include push-to-talk, speaker phone, recording, dialing. 1750 mAh li-ion battery has a rated talk time of 5.8 hours and stand by time is 6 days.
Razzle Dazzle:
You will easily make it out that the Brute i680 is a durable phone just by a glance. But it certainly won’t win any beauty contests with its thick rubberized skin and bulky body. The handset is 1 inch deep, 2.09 inches wide and 3.92 inches tall. It weighs 5.63 oucnes. If looks are important for you, stay away from this the Brute i680
Inside Dope:
Whenever we see a water and shock resistant phone, we automatically assume that it is going to be ugly. And most of the times, this is true because there is a lot of padding on the handset for standing through shocks and water. Brute i680 meets military specifications for elements like salt fog, low and high temperature, vibration and shock and dust. Though it is a water resistant phone you can’t take it with you for swimming with you underwater. But you can use it while talking in the rains. We held the phone under running tap in our labs and the device wasn’t damaged at all. For testing the shock resistance, we put threw the phone around on concrete floor as well as carpet. There wasn’t a single scratch on the device and it was working well too. The Brute i680 is made for Nextel, you can get it for $119 with service. Other features on the phone include a music player, camera which though not the best, are still nice to have on a phone. The call quality is also good, overall we didn’t have much to complain about this device.
Display
The Brute i680 has two displays, the one on the lid has a resolution of 160×120 pixels and supports 65k colors. You can use it as a viewfinder for the camera, photo caller ID, and it also displays the recently called numbers. Above this display is the flash and lens for the camera. The internal display is 2.2 inches big, supports 65,000 colors and gives 220×176 pixels resolution. The resolution isn’t the best, but photos and graphics appeared bright and vibrant on the display. You can change the backlight time and text size.
Navigation array and keyboard
The navigation array consists of Talk and End keys, camera shortcut button, two soft keys, dedicated menu key and a four way navigation button with OK key in the center. There is no back button which we bitterly missed. Below the navigation array is the spacious keypad. All the buttons are adequately raised above the surface which makes it easy to type. Ample backlight made sure we could type well in dark environments too.
Phone book and PIM features
Motorola Brute i680 has a 600 entry phone book which can take multiple phone numbers, notes and an e-mail address. You can make groups of callers, and photo caller ID is also supported. You get a choice of 20 polyphonic ringtones. As a Nextel handset, Brute offers a variety of the operators Direct Connect PTT services like Direct Talk (for out-of-network PTT-chat capabilities), Group Connect (for chatting with up to 20 others via PTT at once), and International Direct Connect.
Additional features include datebook, alarm clock, caller timers, speakerphone, memo pad, multimedia and text messaging and vibrate mode. Advanced users include voice playback for menu browsing, voice recorder, PC syncing, USB mass storage, application manager and stereo Bluetooth. There is also GPS and you can use it through Sprint’s TeleNav service for local search and real time directions.
Camera
The 2 MP camera can take pictures in 7 resolutions, the highest being 1200×1600 pixels and the lowest being 160×120 pixels. Editing options include two shutter sounds (without silent option), four color tones, auto focus, macro mode, GPS tagging, self timer, 4x digital zoom, white balance, exposure control and 2 two quality settings. The flash of the camera automatically switches on when you go in to the camera application. You cannot switch it off. The flash doesn’t help much in the photo quality, they look a dim. Photo quality is average. Camera also lets you shoot videos, and the editing options are quite similar to that of the camera. MMS clips are capped at 1 minute but you can shoot for more in normal mode. For storing videos and photos, the Motorola Brute i680 comes with 180 MB internal memory and supports up to 8 GB of microSD cards.
Music Player
The music player of the Brute i680 has a simple interface. You can choose from a variety of visualization and themes and it also supports album art. There is a nine setting equalizer along with repeat and shuffle modes. For transferring music, you can use Bluetooth, USB cord or memory card.
Games and personalization
You can personalize the Motorola Brute i680 with variety of wallpapers, color themes and clock styles. You can also download variety of ring tones from the WAP 2.0 browser. If you like gamming, there is just one game, Family Guy Uncensored. You can download Java games from the browser. For racing enthusiasts, there is Sprint’s Nascar Cup Mobile app.
Call quality
When tested for call quality, we didn’t have many issues on the Motorola Brute i680. Our friends sounded natural on the phone, the audio was clear and even though there was a slight background hiss, it didn’t bother us much. We used Nextel service and had good reception. Our friends were also happy with the call quality. They didn’t hear any background hiss while on the calls. However, they could tell that we were using a cell phone. The sound gets really loud and hence we could talk easily even in high noise environments. Bluetooth calls were very clear too.
Battery life
Rated battery life of the Motorola Brute i680 is 5.8 hours. We haven’t conducted battery tests yet, we will update this section when we do it.
Verdict:
Motorola Brute i680 may not be a pretty looking phone, but the features inside are really good making it a good mid-range buy.
