Motorola i580 - black (Nextel)

• Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 33 reviews Back to product review
• My rating: 0 stars

Full user review

• 1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

  4.0 stars

  "Very pleased with my purchase"

  by pk509 on September 17, 2006

  Pros: Packed with features; ruggedized.

  Cons: Dismal battery life; no alarm clock (?!); only demo games on phone.

  Summary: I bought this phone and switched from Sprint to Nextel because 1. This phone has all the features I've been wanting in a phone and 2. Nextel has better coverage than Sprint in the areas I work.
  
  My previous phone was a Motorola v60v for Sprint service. This phone is lightyears ahead in quality and feature content. It has Bluetooth, a 1.3MP camera that'll take both stills and video, speaker phone, walkie-talkie, GPS, it's ruggedized, and will play MP3s. I haven't used the MP3 player yet, but all other features work great. The phone, while bulky, is surprisingly light - lighter than my old phone. I like having the external button to send a call straight to voice mail. I also like the way the phone feels in my hands. Not tiny and fragile, but solid and substantial despite its light weight and faux metal inserts. It's very easy to email pictures and video (up to 15 seconds worth max) with the phone. You have to go through a few more steps to save pictures/video to the phone or card as the only options you're given upon taking pictures/videos are "Send" and "Discard".
  
  The phone comes with a 64MB memory card, SIM card, a memory card adapter so that one could remove the card from the phone and download (or upload) photos, videos or MP3s, and pretty nice belt clip that holds the phone with the back facing out to protect the small external screen.
  
  Nits to pick:
  Battery life on this phone is just dismal. Granted, I knew this going in from reading the Cnet review and other user reviews and still bought it. Still, why can't Motorola install a standard battery that will last longer than a couple hours talk time? If you plan to use this phone a lot, you'll either need to buy the heavy duty battery available for the phone, the car charger or both.
  
  I have been unable to locate any type of alarm clock feature on this phone. What's up with that? Perhaps another user can help me out, but if I can't find it by going through all the submenus and the user's guide, it must be pretty difficult to find.
  
  Speaking of submenus, there are a lot of them. Some are rather confusing and not necessarily intuitive to use. If you fool around with the phone a lot like I have, you'll figure it out. It's not that big a deal, just something some users might have an issue with.
  
  The camera is good and I'm pleased with its performance. What I don't like is that the default settings are Normal picture quality and Medium picture size. I've been unable to figure out a way to change these so that I can set it to default to something different.
  
  My last gripe is that all the games on this phone are demos only. If you want the full version, you have to buy it. That's just plain cheap. You'd think for a phone that runs $450-ish before contract rebates and such, games, at least one full-version game, would be included.
  
  In closing, I am genuinely happy with this phone and I enjoy using it. I've had no buyers remorse at all and would go so far as to recommend this phone to others that are looking for a similar feature set. It's not perfect, but it's as close as I've found to it.

  Thank you for submitting your feedback!

  Was this review helpful? YES | NO

  Report this postEmail this post

  Reply to this review

• 2 replies to this review

• reply by: dreamusik on April 7, 2008

  The only thing you can do is use the event reminder feature as an alarm clock. Set the date/ then time for reminder to go off 1 minute before you need to get up. Sort of a hassel but if its the only means to getting you to wake up this will work.

  Report this post

• reply by: kevin_upd on September 22, 2006

  pk509,
  
  The default camera settings can be changed. If you put the phone in camera mode and hit the "main menu" button, you'll see a list of options. Scroll down until you see "Camera Setup" and hit OK. You will then see options for Default Size and Default Quality.
  
  The same goes for the default video size. Make sure that the phone is in video mode and hit the main menu button. Then scroll down to camera setup and hit ok. That will allow you to change the default video size.
  
  I hope this helps.

  Report this post

Write review Back to product review See all 33 reviews

Compare prices for Motorola i580 - black

eBay

$134.97