Nextel i580 Phone Review
This military-grade clamshell promises to withstand drops, dust and even rain, and it packs in a 1.3-megapixelcamera, Bluetooth and a music player. Did it pass our punishing bootcamp?
Design
The Motorola i580 is built like a tank. Its striking rubberized shelladheres to the military 810F spec and can endure extreme weather, drops(we knocked it around tile, hardwood and concrete without so much as ascratch), solar radiation, snow and rain. In fact, we put the rough andtough clamshell under a running shower head for a full minute, and thei580 didn't skip a beat. The keys are fully protected and encasedcompletely in rubber, as are the battery and the antenna. Consideringits near indestructible shell, the i580 is rather light (5.1 ounces)and packs in a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3 player and a bright,surprisingly sharp, 262,000-color internal display.
Calling - Very good
Call quality was impressive on the streets of New York as weheard our pal's voices loud and clear. However, reception was adifferent story, as the flip phone's service dropped in and out everyfew minutes, even when our test unit hadn't moved an inch. This also made dialing a call a little tricky; we sometimes had to dial two or even three times before our calls went through. Still, the hard-as-nails clamshell won us over with its bevy of calling features, including Nextel's push-to-talk, Direct Talk (which allows for off-network chatting with another Direct Talk-equipped handset), group walkie-talkie, voice tagging, Bluetooth and a very loud speakerphone that could be heard over noisy rush hour traffic. The handset also boasts three-way calling that was very easy to use, but we miss maneuverability between calls. The i580 offers up a robust phonebook with several calling fields and the ability to assign pictures and ringtones to your pals. However, there's no while-you-type searching for contacts, and overall battery life was disappointing, at just 2.75hours of talk time.
Messaging - Good
Messaging isn't one of the i580's strong suits, but it's still quite capable. The backlit, easy-to-distinguish keys were tough topress, and we were annoyed by the lack of a dedicated back key. Also,we noticed a slight lag between our key taps and the appearance ofcharacters on the screen (which fits about 120 characters, a bit shy ofthe 160 we prefer). Moreover, the i580's wallpaper shows up in the background as you type messages -- a nice effect, except that it made our messages a little difficult to read. That said, the i580'smessaging menus were easy to use and we added text, pictures, music andvoice notes to our messages with no trouble.
Odds and ends
We were pleasantly surprised to find that the i580 isn't just all business. The clamshell manages to squeeze a 1.3-megapixel cameraand an MP3 player into its tough shell. Even though Nextel doesn'toffer downloadable music, the i580 packs in a microSD expansion slot that makes it a breeze to side-load your favorite tunes. The1.3-megapixel camera takes stills, with solid color balance, and video(albeit a little blocky). The i580 also makes it simple to share your shots via MMS or Bluetooth transfer.
