Given Nextel's history of offering durable but bulky candy bar-style phones, Motorola's i80s is a welcome surprise. Not only is this model tough, but it's also pretty darn sleek and ergonomically designed. Only its mediocre battery life keeps it from scoring higher.
Curved for comfort
The i80s is one of those phones that actually feels lighter (4 ounces) than its size would indicate. It's not really that big, but it is a full-length--albeit slim--candy bar-style phone (5.4 by 2.0 by 1.0 inches). Apart from its high-tech, silver-like casing, the most impressive aspect of the i80's design is the ergonomics. The phone is slightly curved, so it contours to your face nicely. Also, there are two indentations on either side of the phone that make griping and holding it easier. All in all, this is one of the most comfortable candy bar-style phones we've used. And like other Motorola Nextel phones, it's sturdy and should withstand some light punishment (we allowed a three-year-old to play with it for several hours, and it survived no worse for the wear).
We had no complaints with the phone's buttons either. They're a little tightly spaced and don't have the cool blue backlighting of the i90c's, but they are rubberized with a nice feel. As with all of Nextel's new models, there's a four-way navigation button in the middle of the phone for scrolling through menus and text on the wireless Web. The interface is relatively simple to navigate, but it will take users some time to dig into and uproot all of the phone's features, which include the ability to create keypad and voice shortcuts.
Nice display
The i80c's internal display is similar to the sharp ones found on Nextel's earlier J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) phones--the i85s and i50sx--and displays up to six lines of text in wireless Web mode. It's 4-bit and has more pixels than your average cell phone screen, which means that it can display higher-resolution graphics--we're not talking anything spectacular, but you'll definitely notice crisper text and images.
Like other Nextel models, the i80s is equipped with the company's standard suite of business-centric features: "always-on" wireless Web access, three-way calling, and Nextel's Direct Connect two-way radio feature with built-in speakerphone, which allows you to communicate walkie-talkie-style with a predesignated group (for example, coworkers, family) of Nextel users in your home market. This model also features voice-activated dialing.
One of the phone's selling points is its ability to run Java (J2ME) applications, 8 to10 of which can live on the phone's 640K of dedicated memory. The preinstalled apps include a couple of calculators, an expense-management program, and the games Reversi and Borkov. If you want to swap out or add additional games and applications, you simply select Download Apps from the phone's menu and choose from a number of titles. Some are free to download wirelessly, and some cost money (the most expensive games are $8). Among the more impressive--and we use that term loosely--are Pop Solitaire, Dice Extreme, and Funny Balls.
It's worth noting that Nextel includes a free online account that you can use to hold calendar and address book information. Up to 500 contacts can be kept online (you can import an Outlook database but not sync with it), 250 of which can be selected for wireless storage in the phone at a given moment through the Nextel network.
So-so battery life
The one department where the i80s falls a little short is battery life. Many of Motorola's newer Nextel phones boast improved battery life over older models, but the i80 offers only mediocre battery life when using the slim lithium-ion battery, with a rated talk time of 125 minutes and 45 hours of standby time. Our tests confirmed Nextel's numbers; however, these times are not nearly as long as other phones in the same class.
This model, like all phones that work on Nextel's all-digital, packet-based iDen network (TDMA 800), doesn't feature analog roaming, but we had no complaints about call quality after testing the phone for a week on Nextel's network in San Francisco. We also found the speakerphone's sound quality to be quite good, though you can't stray too far from the mike when talking.
In the end, except for the battery-life issues, we came away impressed by this phone. It's definitely a step in the right direction for Nextel and should to be a popular model (especially with a discounted price of $150), particularly for those who like candy bar-style phones. Those who prefer flip phones, however, should spend a little more and opt for the i90c.
