In an effort to inject a little flare into its line of Motorola iDEN phones and appeal to the broader consumer market, Nextel has dropped the price of the i85s, adorned it with an interchangeable faceplate, and deactivated a few features. It calls the new handset the i50sx, and depending on what extras you need, this may be the better deal of the two models.
Customizable cosmetics
Since the i50sx is nearly identical to the i85s, many of the judgments we made about the earlier model apply to this one. Like the i85s, the i50sx looks and feels like a standard, albeit well-constructed, candy bar-style phone. On the inside, though, it's enabled with Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) and Nextel's standard suite of business-centric features, which includes "always on" wireless Web access.
At 5.1 ounces, the 5.2-by-2.0-by-1.2-inch i50sx is slightly larger and weighs 0.3 ounces more than the i85s. By today's cell phone standards, it's somewhat bulky, though less so than most iDEN phones. As noted, the major difference between this model and the i85s ($199.99) is that the i50sx ($149.99) has a removable faceplate, which we found easy to pop on and off. The phone comes with metallic blue and silver covers, and you can buy a bronze-colored one for $19.95. In the future, additional colors will probably be available.
Though it's not a major drawback, the i50sx's backlit buttons aren't rubberized (the i85s's are). They're made of hard plastic, and some users may find them a tad slippery. As with the i85s, 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 simple to use, but it does take time to find all the phone's features, which include the ability to create keypad and voice shortcuts.
Sharp screen
The i50sx has the same four-bit screen as the i85s. Depending on the font setting, it displays up to six lines of text in wireless Web mode and is one of the nicer monochrome screens we've encountered to date.
Like other Nextel models, the i50sx has three-way calling and Nextel's Direct Connect two-way radio feature, which allows you to use the phone as a walkie-talkie to communicate with a predesignated group of Nextel users (coworkers, family) in your home market. This model, like the i85s, also features voice-activated dialing. Nextel has deactivated the i50sx's speakerphone and voice-notes functions, though you can activate them for a one-time fee (speakerphone: $20; voice notes: $15).
Enabled for Java
One of the phone's selling points is its ability to run J2ME applications, 8 to 10 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 an unimpressive game, Borkov, courtesy of Sega. The calculators and expense management app fit under the "sort of cool" umbrella, but nothing blew us away. However, Nextel says that several new games and applications should be available for download in August.
Nextel includes a free online account that you can use to store calendar and address book information and up to 500 contacts (you can import an Outlook database but not sync with it). Through the Nextel network, you can select 250 of those contacts for wireless storage on the phone.
What's the better deal?
While the i50sx's battery life isn't great, our test results came close to the phone's rated 165-minute talk time and 75-hour standby time (with the included standard battery). This model, like all phones that work on Nextel's iDEN (TDMA 800) network, doesn't feature analog roaming, but we had no complaints about call quality in New York City.
Naturally, the big question for those trying to decide between this model and the i85s is whether the i85s is worth an extra $50. If you can do without the speakerphone and voice-notes features and like having interchangeable faceplates, opt for the i50sx. However, if you prefer the i85's look and feel (particularly its buttons), ante up the extra dough.
