Customer Reviews

Motorola i860 Phone (Nextel)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

What can I say? I love this phone. If you're going to have the best service provider, you might as well have their best phone. A camera phone with Nextel has been long awaited-since 1999 with me. As always, I suggest speaking with the local phone techs before purchasing a phone. They always know, and will be upfront and honest, if the particular Motorola phone is of good quality or not. Although I didn't have the self-control to wait a month and adhere to my own advice, allow me to give you my 2 cents on the phone and Nextel as a carrier:

1)I though I broke my flip the first time I opened it. It clicked and stuck... FYI: There is a button on the top right side of the flip to push for auto-open. I now feel like Neo off of the Matrix.

2)I would rate this phone about 10x better than my i730. It's smaller, the LCD on the outside of the flip is huge, the LCD inside the flip is twice as big as that of the i730!!! Can you say a 640x480 camera w/ GPS, Picture caller ID, and MP3 Ring tones? I don't why as of yet, but I also seem to be getting better coverage with this phone than that of my i730-maybe about a bar in the plus.

3)The 10 seconds of video w/ sound that I can record has been a blast.

4)The data on this phone is superb. I have to say Telenav Track showing the map and talking to you on where to drive is great with the i860. The flip with double the viewing area is a godsend. There isn't a better phone to use it on. From all the Nextel users that I know, "If you are a business owner and don't have a data solution to enable the tracking of workers, vehicles, assets, shipments/delivery-you're undermining the competition and not utilizing Nextel's biggest differentiator other than the 2way..." A lot of my business contacts love a service called XORA that does this and there is a 15 minute presentation on their website.

5)Picture quality is pretty good. I suggest using the max resolution, which boosts you to 640x480 if you're going to send it to someone. Choose the wallpaper resolution for the obvious. Don't forget a 4x zoom, self-timer, and a shutter sound that is linked to your phone volume. Don't let anyone fool you. The flash pretty much sucks-but the ability to keep the light turned on has been useful for finding things I drop in the dark. So what if I now have a $400 phone/camera/flash light...

6)Want your name to show on the phone? Create a profile with what you want displayed. Want an alarm clock? Use the Datebook and create an event for the time you want to wake up. Want to find a hidden menu for Nextel Techs? Hit #, *, Menu, <right arrow> to trace the towers, find out how many mins the phone has used, the SIM/MSN #, and see options that you will probably never understand.

7)The games are decent at best that come with the phone. I like the Space Invader Demo though. What's important is that you can buy or "obtain" hundreds of games because the phone is java enabled. A key thing to note is that Nextel's are business tools in nature. Hence, you can note the focus of business tools on the phone. If you're looking for some cheap play toy, you're looking at the wrong carrier. If you're looking for a status symbol, read on...

8)The Sprint/Verizon Walkie Talkie's suck. If you don't believe me try them. Nextel uses 2 systems in their towers (a duplex and a simplex-one for voice one for 2way). On a user end, a person 2waying from Florida to Hawaii will note instant connection. Verizon/Sprint only have 1 system in their towers. The way they 2way is using 'packets' from the cellular. What is unavoidable is the packets having to go through the landline telephone network. Put it this way, make a call and see how long it connects. Umm, average 5.7 seconds (according to the studies I've read). Now picture hitting a walkie talkie button and waiting 5.7 seconds for each response.

9)The battery life is typical that of the other Nextel phones. Not better and not worse. Charge it every night and you'll be fine (and I talk 4000 minutes a month). A Nextel phone uses more juice because the phones are setup to "actively seek out a signal." Other carrier's phones are programmed to sit in a dormant state until the signal "comes to them." I'm sure you can figure out these advantages on your own...

10)An account setup fee is typical. A first month proration fee is also typical among cell companies. Also, taxes are taxes--you pay the same high percentage no matter whom you have.

11)Coverage, it depends where you are located. I'm guessing in the deserts of Arizona you'd have bad coverage. However, of the 20 or so states I've visited, Nextel has had SUPER coverage. Last year I can vouch for about ever Vegas Casino. Oh, did I mention there is never roaming charges with any plan?

12)Check out the News articles to see what worked for communication during all 4 (thus far) hurricanes in Florida. It wasn't the landlines, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T... Only the Nextel walkie-talkie worked (and as you'll read saved lives)!!!

I hope my technical background and insight from 5 years of having Nextel help. I can't see any angle where you could go wrong with getting this phone-it truly is the best.

I got this phone with Nextel service about a year ago. Since then, I have used it as my main phone.

What's good about this phone?

1) Huge screen: You can easily and clearly see what you're browsing, reading, typing, etc. It also alternates as a flashlight of sorts in dark theaters.

2) Good sound quality/reception: What good is a phone if it has every gadget under the sun but horrible service and sound quality? Thankfully, this has a lot of both, especially when it comes to listening to the other party via the in-phone speaker or the external speaker.

3) External display: Okay, so you can't do much with the external display, but it's handy for checking for calls, the time, battery life, etc., without having to open it up. Tried to change the "Nextel" in the external display, but to no avail.

4) One-finger flipping mechanism: Press the button near the antenna and it opens up with a satisfying click and whoosh. My other phone requires two hands or tricky one-hand manipulation to open.

5) Durable: I've dropped this phone a few times. The display is half cracked, the exterior dented and punctured, but it still works like it did in the very beginning!

Now the negatives:

1) Miserable battery life: No doubt, because of the huge display that it has to keep lit. A full day on standby with an hour or so or talking will drain it to the point that it may not receive or allow you to place calls.

2) Huge size and weight: This phone is both large and heavy. It's thick enough that it does not comfortably fit in any pant pocket (unless you wear cargos all the time) and its weight nearly drags down your pants. I can't blame these factors on its age, because plenty of phones from two years ago were much lighter and thinner.

3) GPS is useless: In the one year that I've had this, I've only been able to acquire a signal once! I've been in open areas that are ideal for a satellite signal, but to no avail.

4) Camera is poor/lens gets dirty: The camera is pretty much useless. The quality is horrible, the resolution ultra-low, and the lens - since it's in a hole in the face of the camera - keeps getting dirty. You can only clean it with a Q tip, but it gets dirty quickly in a typical pocket.

5) No way to share audio/video/images other than through Nextel ($$$!): I bought an official cable from a Nextel dealer to download pictures onto my computer via USB, but it was useless. I used all the right software from Motorola, configured everything, etc., but it didn't work. Thus, I had to fork over $0.50 for each bad-quality picture I wanted to send to myself. Ripoff, really.

6) Functions are slow: When you make a change or take a picture or perform any other function, it takes a good few seconds to complete the task, thus becoming annoying. I have seen Sony phones do this much faster.

Well, there you have it! Whether or not this is a phone for you is your call. You may be interested in the "show off" qualities than the actual qualities for a phone, or you may need a solid audio-communication device that you can count on day after day. Whichever it is, consider my review if you're thinking about getting one!

First off, I've been a Nextel customer for over 2 years now and started with an i90 phone. I absolutely loved that phone for the entire time I had it and couldn't have been more satisfied. However as the times change so do features, looks, and functionality of a cellular phone. I figured it was time to upgrade and got my i860 at a relatively low rate of $300 on a 1 year contract(being that the phone had just come out) on my personal account. I had seen the phone online and pictures of it, and for some reason I wasn't too attracted to it, but I went out on a limb and got it anyway. Now I must say this is by FAR the best phone I've ever had. I work for Nextel so by default I should already know everything about the phone....WRONG. I seriously figure out something new or different that I can do to it every week, and to this day I haven't had a single problem with it.

Pros:

Great design, not too big not too small.

Very large inner display...(Looks a lot better than any other company's phone that's not a Motorola.

25Mb worth of memory...Most phones have 5 (V700, Razor, etc) I have video's, games, applications, tons of pictures..and Lord knows how many mp3's on here and it's only used 30% of the memory.

Anyone who has a data cable and knows what programs to use knows you can make all kinds of changes to the phone, such as making your background show up on the outer display, change color palettes and schemes, and create your own ringtones and wallpapers to TOTALLY personalize the phone to however you want.

Camera..Looks good if you get your resolution just right...no complaints on that except there's no flash.

Coverage where I live is better than any other provider in town, and it picks up a lot better than my old phone.

User friendly...Pretty easy to use..for the jacka$$ that said the phone doesn't have a calendar, yeah buddy it does, called a Datebook which you can switch to a calendar mode.

And to be quite honest more than any other feature the phone offers, my favorite thing is the push to open flip activation button. Regular flip phones just plain suck when compared to that.

Direct Send..Automatically sends someone's contact information to your phone whenever they Direct Connect you, or vise versa.

Cons:

I only have 3...

I HATE the flap that goes over the charging port, if you had an older model phone before this you'll probably rip it off.

The holster scratches the housing of the phone at the bottom.

I wish they made a black OEM battery door instead of the blue, because it looks out of place with the color scheme.

In conclusion, I couldn't be more happy with this phone.

It's about time Nextel scores a 10. The i860 is one of the best phones on the market. The camera takes up to a 600x480 pic and once taken, you can send the pic to any phone or any e-mail address...presto! The best news is that you don't pay for sending or recieving pics. One of the best features of this phone is it's ability to use Mp3s as ringtones. Nothing like your favorite song playing to alert you. Plus, you assign a ringtone and a pic for each of your callers...very cool. The external display is nice also. It will display the pic of the person calling.

The battery time is a bit less than other phones. I have noticed about 25% less overall time. Still, it's a small price to pay for such a feature rich phone. The external speaker is clear and loud. The phone has a very nice holder/clip that protects it better than previous models. Nextel has added a push button flip activation. Very cool. Just push the hidden button and it opens. The phone fits nicely in the hand and feels comfortable. The only con on this phone is the small buttons. I have big hands and sometimes press the wrong buttons. Overall, it's the sweetest phone I have owned. Nextel is also coming out with the i930 and the i960 in the near future. These phones will also have the camera feature but will incorporate the pocket windows system thus they will be called smart phones. They will be a little bigger than the i860 but will have a great new feature.....an SD card slot that can accept more memory.

You talk to the FRONT of the phone; Not the back; the back simply has the speaker. Try it- it will work for you too !
Nextel and Motorola have developed the ultimate "ultra cool, super sleek, power attitude, I am the man / I am the woman, great phone w/the i860. Not only does it have consistent great sound quality on calls, but the ability to quickly contact other Nextel friends or relatives with a single push of the Direct Connect button makes other phones "just another phone".
**By the way, the Direct Connect (2 way radio) is usable in FULLY PRIVATE mode by simply pressing 1 button. The speaker turns off, you hold the phone to your ear, you scroll to the name of the bud you wish to contact, you push the button to talk and release it to listen and NO ONE has to hear your fast Direct Connect conversation. All Nextel phones have the privacy button for Direct Connect. It makes voice mail such a waste of our time.
That is how I use my Nextel all day at work in the office, I also keep mine on silent vibrate mode for totally discrete private use.
Look at any volunteer fireman/firewoman, construction person, cop, or young Jr High/HS kid in the Westchester/Dutchess/Rockland/Putnam County, NY region: you'll see a Nextel on their belt or in their hand. It is THE PHONE where I live.
Just try one. They have so many plans you will find one you like.

This phone is great. I must agree that it is the best thing Nextel has ever had. However, I must disagree with the previous review which compared Nextel to Sprint. Sprint may have the most technological phones but what good is a pretty phone that has horrible service? I had a Sprint for about 6 months and I was always in trouble with my mom b/c I never answered my phone which was b/c it never had service. I've never had this problem w/Nextel. Of course every phone loses service at some point but not every 10min. Everything about the i860 is hot and well worth buying it.

This particular phone is very sleek and very nice looking. I have had this phone for over a year now, and still have not had any problems with it. The speaker is really nice and loud, the click to 0pen button is a perfect touch... and over all I am Very pleased with this phone and would highly reccomend it to anyone!

Man this phone gets all the stares why 1. the screen is real big internal and external 2. there is the quick flip the razor though very stylish doesnt even have that I've seen someone struggle to get the razor open to answer a call me huh push flip open done. I have had this phone since may of this year and never not once have i had a problem with it and like I read in a review earlier it looks a whole lot better then them silver LG, Samsung and ugly sanyos that all look the same with them little rinky dink screens. The i860 is a very powerful cell phone it holds alot of media and surfs the internet really fast. The only thing I suggest get to protect your investment is buy the Body Glove cover for it the reviews on here are bad on the body glove but thats because them idiots were clumsy and dumb I have had it for a while and it protects you i860 from scuffs and marks on the chrome

This is the first Nextel phone i've ever owned, and its only because they were running a special on service of 800 minutes for $33 a month...good for 2 years! Anyway, my previous phone was the SonyEricsson T610, which i was in love with except for the fact that the reception was poor. I had to actually stand right against my windows in my apartment in order to make calls. With this i860 Motorola, I can stay on a call even in the elevator. Thats pretty good.

I don't have a use for the whole Direct Connect function or the video capture function, so I can't really comment on that.

Here's my list of pro's and con's, but keep in mind that I am used to using an extremely useful phone, SE T610.

Good things about the phone:

- Camera resolution is really great.

- Has a button to open the flip. That just makes it cooler.

- This phone has A LOT of memory space.

- Java is integrated very well into the phone.

- With the use of the Data Cable accesory and a few programs on your PC, you can make any wallpaper or ring tone you want. Instead of having to buy the crappy ones from the various vendors.

- The reception is outstanding.

- Speaker phone function is really helpfull.

Bad things about this phone:

- Doesn't have Bluetooth in the phone. You have to buy a Bluetooth attatchment for the phone.

- Doesn't have a normal alarm clock function. You need to go into the datebook and set up an event reminder to re-occur daily at a certain time with an alert and use this as your alarm clock.

- The phone won't let you use emailed pictures as wall paper, ie: you email your phone a picture and it will save the picture file, but you can't set it as your wallpaper. The only way to use any image you want as a wallpaper is to buy the Data Cable and use some webjal software...blah blah blah....this is a little to technical for most casual users. Its just more convenient to email a pic and select it as wallpaper.

- Size. I have had the credo that the smaller the cell phone, the cooler. But my wallet decided that $33/month for service is better than looking cool. The phone isn't that big, just big for my taste (compare to the SE T610).

- Missed calls sometimes aren't reported for some reason. This is probably a network issue though.

- The datebook function isn't very user-friendly.

- The phone doesn't come with a hands-free ear-piece. Although I find the speakerphone to be an acceptable substitute, I was under the impression that cell phones had to come with an ear-piece for driving saftey.

- If you do buy the data cable for the phone, it doesn't come with the necessary drivers! Is that supposed to be a cruel joke on us consumers????

- No software package at all comes with the phone. This is just a nice gesture from other manufactures, but it should be industry-wide practice, especially in such a competative market and keeping mind that this phone is Nextel's attempt at gaining a larger market (not just construction workers, contractors, and trucking dispatchers).

- How do I get better looking themes for the phone? I can't figure this out anywhere. Not on the net, not on usergroups, not even the guys at the Nextel store.

- The spotlight on the phone doesn't seem to be very effective, at least for me, but this isn't really that important...after all, it is just a phone.

I've listed more pro's than con's, but these con's are fairly important to me. I rely heavily on my cell phones as my organizer so the datebook/calendar needs to be fully functional and easy to use and read. Same goes for the alarm clock.....i can't believe they even bothered selling a phone without a normal alarm clock. This might be the first without an alarm clock for years. The fact that I can't use any picture i want as a wallpaper is just assinine. I presume this is because they want me to buy wallpapers, well F**K THAT. The requirement of the data cable and additional software to do some of the cooler things with the phone is an annoyance.

All this in mind, I got a really great deal on service and the price of the phone from a local Nextel store. I was paying about $53 a month on TMobile and only got 600 anytime minutes, now i pay $33 a month for 800 anytime minutes. So considering the money i'm saving on service, i'd use the phone if it were made out of cardboard and bubblegum. Comparing this phone to my old Sony (which in all likelyhood was designed a by vastly advanced alien civilization which Sony has enslaved in order to control the market by releasing super-products) just isn't fair. The i860 is a fine phone if you need to use Nextel and have the extra money for the coolest phone they have.

I recommend this phone to anybody that hasn't used Nextel before, under the condition that they are getting the same service deal I got. Otherwise, for the price I paid for this phone I would rather have another SonyEricsson if the price for service was the same.

Before buying this phone I did read the review that it does not have an Alarm. Bummer!!

But there is a alternative way to set up reminders:

From the main Menu go to Datebook and set up the events.

You could use this as an alarm.

Disadvantages:

The battery life is too short. If I use my Camera the battery discharges very quickly.

Overall I like this phone, the camera feature is really cool!