Motorola i1 – Rugged phone
For:
Intuitive and responsive capacitive touch screen, decent call quality, rugged build.
Against:
Currently runs on Android OS 1.5 which is quite dated, if you are not using Wi-Fi, you are stuck with Opera Mini. The photo quality is not that good for a 5 MP camera
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Motorola i1 runs on iDEN (900/800 MHz) network, it is 4.65 x 2.28 x 0.50 inches (118 x 58 x 12.8 mm) and weighs about 4.62 oz (131 grams). The phone is powered by a 1400 mAh battery. The rated talk time is 3.5 hours an the standby time is 100 hours. The display is 3.1 inches big and has a resolution of 320×480 pixels with 262k color support.
The Motorola i1 has a five megapixel camera with features like Auto focus, Flash: LED, Digital zoom, White balance, Geo tagging, Panorama and Effects. It captures video too, at maximum resolution of 352×288 pixels. Supported video formats are RealVideo 10, H.263, MPEG4, H.264, RealVideo 8, WMV, RealVideo 9. Supported music formats are MP3, WMA, AAC, MIDI, WAV. The phone has microSD/microSDHC card slot with built in memory of 256 MB. The device is based on Android 1.5 OS and the phone is powered by Freescale Zeus 2.0 ARM1136, 500 MHz processor. There is 512 MB ROM and 256 MB RAM. For internet, there is Flash Lite and Opera Mini 5.0, HTML. Wi-Fi options include 802.11b/g. There is 2.0 stereo Bluetooth and a 3.5 mm headphones jack. PIM features include Calendar, Alarm, Calculator, Tasks/To-Do and World Clock.
Phone book capacity depends on phone memory and there are features like Picture ID, Ring ID, Multiple numbers per contact, Search by first/last name and Caller groups. Email features include POP3, IMAP, Microsoft Exchange, SMTP, Push e-mail. Voice features include Recording, Commands, Push-to-Talk, and Speaker Phone. There is also GPS on the phone.
Razzle Dazzle:
The handset is made for rugged use and that explains the hard plastic and rubber casing all around it. The phone feels very sturdy and it will certainly survive accidents. This device is 4.65 inches long, 0.5 inch thick, 2.34 inches wide and weighs about 4.63 ounces which is quite light. On the back, there is a soft touch surface and the handset feels quite comfortable in the hand.
Inside Dope:
When it comes to prepaid phones, we usually assume that they are going to be simple low end handsets with barebone features. But we were pleasantly surprised when we saw the Motorola i1. This device is available with prepaid carriers. For Boost Mobile, this is the first phone based on Google Android and this is also the first Google Android phone to run on the Nextel’s iDEN network. The phone has a touch screen display but it still feels pretty rugged. It is the only Android device in the market which supports push-to-talk. There are a few disappointments though, this phone is running on Android 1.5 which is an outdated version and iDEN network’s speeds are not fast enough. Motorola may give software updates in the near future so things are not that bad as they look. We wont say that this is the best Anroid phone ever but you certainly won’t get a better handset in the market if you are a iDEN fan. This phone costs $349.99 which is a lot of money but you don’t have any contract obligations.
Rugged design
Some of the ports and buttons of the Motorola i1 have rubber surfaces and this is done to minimize the water damage. Motorola says that this device is military certified and it withstands solar radiation, humidity, salt fog, low pressure, extreme temperatures, vibration, shock, dust and rain. It cannot survive in a swimming pool so we won’t recommend you carrying it under water.
Display
Motorola i1 has a 3.1 inch HVGA screen which dominates the front face. You get a resolution of 320×240 pixels with 262k color support. This screen has a capacitive touch screen technology so scrolling feels as smooth as the iPhone. The screen responded quite well to our taps and we didn’t have to apply much pressure. You can change the brightness, screen time out, vibration feed back and orientation sensor.
Navigation array and keyboard
The phone dialer on the Motorola i1 is similar to other Android devices. You have both standard virtual keyboard and Swype method for entering the text. For the latter, you just have to drag your finger on the keyboard; point at the letters that you want and the phone does the rest. We don’t like the Swype method much but you might think other wise.
Beneath the display, there are buttons for speaker phone, back key, home screen and pop-up menu hot keys. There are also the physical buttons for Send and Power/End functions but it is a bit skinny. In the center, there is a five way D pad which can be used as an alternative to the touch screen,
Dated OS
Motorola i1 is based on Android version 1.5 which is a bit old and you don’t get the goodies for Android 2.1 or 1.6. Motorola says that they deliberately put in the old OS since it was known for its stability and the company wanted the first iDen Android handset to be really solid. Motorola say they are offering over-the-air upgrades so you can upgrade it when you want.
Applications
Google and Android is a marriage made in heaven and this is reflected in the Motorola i1 too. The i1 has apps for YouTube, Google Maps, Google Talk and Gmail. We tried accessing other e-mail accounts on the phone and had no problems. Microsoft Exchange Server synced quite quickly too. For non-Gmail e-mails, there is a universal in-box and the phone integrates all the appointments in to a single calendar.
Web browser
The Motorola i1’s default browser is Opera Mini 5 and not Android Webkit browser which is a bit surprising. Maybe this is done to combat iDEN’s network which is a bit slow and Opera does a good job on a slow speed network. We tested this and it gave the expected results. Web pages loaded relatively quickly.
Verdict:
This is not best product from the stables of Android but it will still make Boost Mobile customers happy.
