Motorola i1 Review

Introduction:

Deeply ingrained into the minds of just about every consumer is this lingering notion that blue collar workers would naturally gravitate toward rugged styled handsets – most notably ones from Sprint-Nextel's lineup. Even though the niche is obviously there, some individuals prefer a higher class handset that would not only provide connectivity via PTT and solid construction, but bring forth some features akin to smartphones as well. Luckily the Motorola i1 might be the solution as it's being billed as the first Android powered iDEN smartphone that's built to certain military specifications, but will it live to the minimum standard of smartphone users?

The package contains:

• Motorola i1
• microUSB cable
• Wall charger
• microSD card adapter
• Stereo Headset
• Get Started Guide

Design:

Sleekness isn't placed highly on the design check list for the Motorola i1, however, it doesn't mean that it's not a pretty decent looking handset versus the other available iDEN offerings. The typical slate-like handset looks pretty appealing with its two toned gray and black finish which are supplemented with a soft touch coating to present itself as a fine rugged feeling device. Not particularly bulky (0.50” thick), it is rather normal size and comfortable to hold without too much heft (4.62 oz) being felt as you place it in your hand. Versus other Android smartphones, the i1 is rather over the top with durability as every nook and cranny are covered tightly to protect its innards from the elements and brute force of physical damage that one can accidentally bestow upon it. Basically you can dish out some mean punishment as it meets MilitarySpec 810F – that's for rain, dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, low pressure, humidity, and even solar radiation!



You can compare the Motorola i1 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The 3.1” capacitive TFT display dominates the front surface with its HVGA resolution (320 x 480) and support for 262k colors. When setting it to the maximum brightness setting, colors have a distinguishable look which will also enable it to function decently in outdoor conditions – but it's worth noting that reading text can be a challenge as it is rather small in size. Finally the touchscreen is fairly responsive to the touch, however, it has a plasticity feel as opposed to something more solid like glass – but then again, we'd imagine that plastic would fare better when it comes down to drops.



Easily the biggest attraction to the phone is its central circular sized navigation pad that has a chrome accent outlining it and illumination for notifications. Although it may require a solid push, it does well in aiding you to navigate about the platform – plus, pushing down the center button for a selection is a bit more tactile. Both the send and end keys are properly raised from the surrounding surface and well sized to make them easily pressed. You'll also find the usual set of touch sensitive buttons on the front which are placed far enough from the bottom portion of the touchscreen to minimize accidental presses. Additionally, you'll find a grill for the speaker phone directly beneath the d-pad. As for the other dedicated buttons around the sides, they are all stiff to the touch, but still nicely sized to be discernible to the finger. Although it sports a traditional microUSB port for charging or data connection, it reverts to employing a 2.5mm headset jack – regardless, the packaging contains a pair of stereo headphones. To the rear, you're presented with the 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED  flash while removing the rear cover will require you to push the latch on the right side of the phone before yanking it off. Once that is done, you'll be treated to the microSD card slot, battery, and SIM card slot.

Software/Features:

Now, the most unflattering part about the handset can be found with it running Android 1.5 – which is by far it's biggest eyesore when you consider how all others are making Android 2.1 the minimum standard. And no, MOTOBLUR is not running on the handset, but the i1 does implement some elements from Moto's customization, which is evident in the lower area of the homescreen, where the app drawer, phone dialer, and contacts icons are found. This Android experience might be considerably new for ordinary blue collar workers, but it's surely boring and behind the pack in terms of visuals and presentation for regular Android users. Presented with only 3 homescreens to personalize with various widgets and icons, moving about them is pretty responsive, although there are some jerky movements at times. Overall, it's not the fastest experience on an Android phone we've seen thus far with some lag manifesting itself in certain situations, but it should prove to be tolerable for most people.



The handset will naturally accommodate your Gmail contacts, but unfortunately it lacks integration for different social networking accounts – while adding a contact is no different from other Android smartphones.



Composing a message is difficult to accomplish using its on-screen keyboards due to the limited real estate of the touchscreen. We found ourselves making plenty of typos with the portrait on-screen keyboard, but using the landscape option made for a slightly more enjoyable experience. However, you can blatantly realize its unresponsiveness if you're a casual texter as it struggles to keep up at a rapid pace. Setting up email is pretty simple and straightforward with it requiring only an address and password to automatically set up an account for the popular services out there. Naturally, there may be other pertinent information required, like server addresses, in order to properly set up a custom account. As we've noted, it lacks any social networking integration with its stock Android experience – so that means you'll be required to check out the Android market to download your favorites. Finally, there are few Sprint branded apps preloaded such as Sprint Football Live, Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, Sprint Zone. As for third party apps, you'll find TeleNav GPS Navigator, Quickoffice, and Opera Mini on board.

Multimedia:

In portrait view, the Media Gallery app will display all your photos and videos in grid like view, however, there is a dramatic change in landscape where it switches to a 3D view, which enables you to scroll through your media. Nonetheless, you can edit some items through the phone, but it lacks multi-touch gestures like pinching to zoom in.



Pressing down the shutter button will load up the photo taking app, which offers a decent mix of options to fine tune your images. Slightly pressing down the shutter key will toggle it to focus, then pressing it all the way will capture the shot. To our amusement, we were more than satisfied with the images captured with the 5-megapixel shooter on the Motorola i1. There is a fair amount of detail in the photos with them looking a tad a little over-exposed in conditions where lighting is abundant. The same cannot be said about images taken indoors in poor lighting as they were hazy looking with washed out colors. Despite packing an LED flash, it did very little to improve the condition.





Not known for being a media centric device, the i1 features CIF video recording which will present you with a maximum shooting resolution of 352x288 at 15fps. Pixelated beyond belief, there is still a lot of prominent choppiness throughout playback which easily downgrades the experience – plus it lacks any audio recording; so you'd probably want to move on if video recording is a must-have on your list.

Motorola i1 sample video at 352x288 pixels resolution.

The stock Android musicplayer is in play on the Motorola i1 which functions properly like any other out there, but pales in comparison and presentation over newer offerings. Still, it does the job and the sound emitted by the speaker is more than audible to the ear as its power is substantially strong. When placed at the maximum setting, it manages to still be pleasant to the ear with its sharp tunes.



Watching videos didn't pose too much of an issue as we were able to load a video coded in MPEG-4 at 320x240 resolution. Additionally we were able to load another in 800x480 resolution, however, it easily began to come to a crawl as it was noticeably more choppy.



The unit is packaged with a 2GB microSD card which should be more than satisfactory for those who plan on utilizing its outdoor photo taking prowess to the max. To top things off too, there is also a microSD card adapter which will allow you to easily copy data back and forth between a computer.

Data/Connectivity:

You'd better check out coverage maps before simply going through with an impulse purchase with the Motorola i1 seeing that it's a dual-band iDEN (800/900 MHz) handset – which is limited in it's ability to penetrate the tough confines of most buildings. Sadly, this isn't a hybrid device that would rely on Sprint's EVDO data network, instead it routes data through the sole iDEN network.

Unless you're connected to Wi-Fi, you'd better stick to using the Opera Mini browser that's pre-installed as opposed to the stock one. Since the iDEN network isn't adept in dealing with data intensive devices, relying on the stock browser can be frustrating with sluggish load times – which took over 5 minutes for our web site to load. It doesn't end there as the stock web browsing experience lacks multi-touch gestures to zoom, which is instead done via using the on-screen zoom icons. Thankfully, Opera Mini manages to salvage what's left as it's able to load pages slightly faster thanks to Opera's compressing service on its end – thus enabling a slightly more tolerable experience.

Performance:

As long as you've got sufficient network coverage, you're probably going to be pleased with the calling quality on the handset since the earpiece was extremely loud and vibrant to hear natural sounding voices. There's some slight static at the highest volume, but notching it down a couple of levels diminishes it. Our callers also stated that our voice had a firm and natural tone to them. Seeing that this is a push-to-talk device, we were ecstatic about the audible and strong sounds produced by the speaker phone. Just a tad hollow to the hear, voices were still more than distinguishable thanks to the raw tones emitted by it. However, you'll have to talk close to the handset when using the speaker phone because straying more than a few feet from it considerably reduces the tone on the other end.

Although there were few instances of choppy connection to the network outdoors, we did find the handset fluctuating in signal bars indoors here in the greater Philadelphia region. Additionally, we did experience our voice calls cutting in and out due to the handset struggling to steady its connection.

Seeing that this is an always connected device, which is part of Android's stance of keeping in sync with Google's most popular services, battery life was somewhat disheartening as we received less than a day on a full charge. Yes, you'll manage to get through a solid 8 hour work shift, but just expect to keep a charger on hand if you're a power user just because it'll tap out around the 10 hour mark on normal use. The manufacturer has it rated for 3.5 hours of talk and 100 hours of standby.

Conclusion:

Always proving to be a good thing, the addition of the Motorola i1 on Sprint's lineup is a great thing for those customers who rely heavily on the iDEN network to directly connect with pals. Thankfully it is able to distinguish itself prominently with its nice looks that are equally adept in repelling the most brutal drops thanks to the rugged design. However, its decided sub-par implementation of Android 1.5 misses the mark as it's already behind the curve versus other recent offerings – it's nice for first time users, maybe, but it's horrifying for veteran ones. Naturally it managed to hit the mark in most categories, but also had some clear misses – but you've got to juggle your options to see if it's a relevant purchase. Priced at $149.99 on-contract, it definitely is an agonizing buy for those who necessarily don't require push-to-talk service – plus there are many more offerings on Sprint's lineup that are better buys. Ultimately, the Motorola i1 has the fresh looking young body that's resilient to the elements, but clearly show off its age in the platform experience.

Motorola i1 Video Review: