Motorola i576 – Basic phone with rugged design
Sum and Substance:
Thumbs Up:
Durable, sturdy design, easy to use interface, good audio quality, plenty of calling features.
Thumbs Down:
Display has a low resolution
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: iDEN
Band: iDEN 800/900 (Dual Band)
Phone design: Folder
Caller ID: Yes
Other features:
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The LCD display of the Motorola i576 has a 128 x 160 pixels resolution with support for 65 colors. The external display has a smaller 128×32 pixels resolution. The phone is weatherproof, shockproof and dustproof. Organizer features on the phone include alarm clock, reminder and calendar. Downloadable content on the phone includes wallpapers, ring tones and games. Messaging features include NextMail, Multimedia messages (MMS) and Text messages. The phone also Internet browser and support for JAVA applications.
Razzle Dazzle:
Motorola i576 has a plane jane design. The handset is 4.3 inches tall, 1 inch thick, 1.8 inches wide and weighs 4.2 ounces. It is a bit bulky and thick but still is easy to carry around in your pocket. On the front, there are rubber sidings which reiterate the durability of the phone and also gives you solid comfortable feel in the hand. The manufacturer has put a textured design on the back and front covers which looks like a metal floor. This is just for improving the aesthetics.
Inside Dope:
Motorola i576 is a phone from Nextel and it doesn’t have anything out of the box regarding design or features. But there is hardly anything to complain about that since most Nextel phones have industrial and functional design and they are made mostly for durability and usablity instead of sex appeal. There have been occasional exceptions but Nextel has stuck to this rule for most phones. These handsets are made mostly for business. This handset has rugged design just like its predecessors and along with it, the phone has small external display, extendable antenna, and rubber sidings. The feature set on the device is pretty much basic, you don’t even get a camera but if you are looking for a sturdy phone with decent performance, the Motorola i576 won’t disappoint you. The phone costs $279 and with the service agreement, it comes down to $79.
Motorola i576 has a tiny rectangular external display just like most Nextel phones. There is a lot of information crammed on to the small display; you get caller ID, signal strength, battery life, time and date. The text is really tinny and the screen supports 64k colors. It doesn’t show photo caller ID but on this small screen it wouldn’t have been worthy anyways. There are two indicator lights above this screen for new messages and Bluetooth feature.
Left side of the phone has buttons for push to talk and volume rocker. Both these keys are tactile and large. There is the stubby antenna on the top and besides that, there is a speaker phone button along with a control for calling when the lid is closed. You can extend the antenna but be careful while doing this since it looks a bit delicate. On the right, there is a 2.5 mm headphones jack next to the microUSB port. The speaker is located on the bottom and it is colored in blue which feels a bit out of place.
The display on the inside is 1.75 inches big and has supports 64k colors. Even the most basic phones support 262,000 colors and the difference will be apparent. The look of the menu system can be changed in either grid or list formats. We thought both of these designs were quite easy to use. The font size and backlight time can be changed.
Design of the Motorola i576’s navigation array is quite pleasant. There is a four way toggle along with OK button in the middle along with Talk and End/power keys, Web browser shortcut, menu control and two soft buttons. The buttons are arranged spaciously and the buttons are quite tactile. The toggle button is silver colored and it stands out from the background. The buttons of the keypad are big and there is adequate space between them for typing without any mishits. They are also raised above the surface of the chassis and have adequate backlighting.
The phone book of the Motorola i576 has 600 entry memory and a single entry can take multiple numbers, e-mail address, IP address, and Direct Connect number. Contacts can be organized in groups and there are 22 polyphonic ringtones to choose from. Other features on the phone includes vibrate mode, multimedia and text messaging, calendar, speakerphone, voice recorder, notepad, Bluetooth, call timer, call forwarding and voice dialing.
Motorola i576 can be personalized with various alert sounds, themes, and wallpapers. More can be downloaded from the Web browser. There are plenty of choices for Java (J2ME) applications which includes Nascar Sprint Cup game, Calculator Suite, Sprint Mobile e-mail and Alarm Clock Plus. The handset comes with integrated GPS which lets you use TeleNav 3.8.
Finally, we tested the Motorola i576 for call quality and it was similar to other Nextel phones that we have used. The signal was strong enough on our side and we could hear our friends clearly but our friends said that there was a bit of background hiss.
Nitty Gritty:
This is a basic down to earth phone for just calling and sending text messaging. Get this handset if you are looking for an entry level phone.
