Motorola i850 (Nextel)

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The Motorola i850 has average photo quality for a camera phone.

Personalization options on the Motorola i850 are quite good. In addition to turning your snapshots into the phone's wallpaper or assigning them to individual contacts, you can assign five polyphonic ring tones (MP3 and MIDI) to contacts; change ringer profiles, such as Standard, Car, Meeting, Office, Outdoors, and Headset; choose from one of three color themes, including Geometric, Water Drop, and Glow; tweak the backlighting settings; and change the main menu from Icon to List View. When the phone rings, the keypad buttons flash in accompaniment.

Apps on the Java (J2ME)-equipped phone include a trio of game demos (Zuma, Aces Hold'em, and BlockBreaker); 1KTV, an on-demand pseudo-TV service; and TeleNav, a subscription-based navigation service that takes advantage of the i850's GPS support.

We tested the Motorola i850 (iDEN 850) in New York City and had no trouble with call quality; our callers sounded loud and clear, and they couldn't tell we were on a cell phone. We also tried the phone in our electronics-stuffed living room--complete with a large-screen TV, a Wi-Fi router, and a nearby microwave oven--and didn't encounter any interference. Speakerphone quality was good, but be advised that the speaker is located on the rear of the phone.

The Motorola i850's picture quality was good for a VGA camera phone's, with solid color and decent detail, although images looked considerably softer compared with those of the latest 1.3- and 2-megapixel camera phones on the market.

Battery life on the handset was painfully skimpy. Nextel promises a mere 2.75 hours of talk time, but we beat it by a half hour. For standby time, we got 3.5 days in a single charge, compared with the rated 3 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Motorola i850 has a digital SAR rating of 1.05 watts per kilogram.

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User reviews

Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 30 reviews
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4.5 stars

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

"Nextel came thru in the clutch!"

by avardan on July 19, 2005

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5.0 stars

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful

"Best Nextel phone yet!! WiDEN!!!!!!!!"

by xmanjoe0 on February 23, 2006

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4.5 stars

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

"Great phone"

by GM1211 on July 31, 2005

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Motorola i850 (Nextel)

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