Motorola i9 - black (Boost Mobile)
Manufacturer: Motorola Part number: I9BLKBOOST
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- Product series
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- Bottom Line:
- The Motorola i9 Stature is the sexiest Nextel phone we've seen. Apart from the disappointing camera, it offers decent features and admirable call quality.
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Where to buy
| store | customer rating | inventory | tax & shipping | price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon.com Marketplace |  | In stock | Enter zip code to get total price: Price +Tax +Shipping =Total price | as of 12/08/2009 |
CNET editors' review
Motorola i9 - black (Boost Mobile) price range: $264.00
- Reviewed by: Kent German
- Reviewed on: 03/23/2009
- Released on: 02/17/2009
The good: The Motorola i9 Stature offers a sleek design, brilliant displays, useful features, and good call quality.
The bad: The Motorola i9's controls and keypad are flat and stiff. The camera is rather slow and photo quality is just average.
The bottom line: The Motorola i9 Stature is the sexiest Nextel phone we've seen. Apart from the disappointing camera, it offers decent features and admirable call quality.
In the back of our minds we knew that the Motorola Razr, at least in some form, would make it to Sprint Nextel. Though the original Razr V3 is more than five years old, and Motorola has pumped out dozens of revamps, it has made it to every other carrier. And even though Nextel tends to shy away from thin, flashy devices, we just couldn't believe that Moto would pass up the opportunity to make an iDEN Razr. While the cell phone in question, the Motorola i9 Stature, does not carry the Razr name, it bears all the hallmarks of the venerable handset. Its thin, boxy profile takes us back to the V3, while the glossy skin, expansive external display, touch controls, and flat keypad remind us of the Razr2 V9m series.
Remarkably, the i9's feature set doesn't improve very much upon recent Razr models, but it remains a solid midrange model for communication and multimedia. It offers push-to-talk, a 3.1-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a music player. Call quality was decent--voices sounded a bit robotic, but we could carry on a conversation without any real problems. Besides Nextel, you also can get the i9 with Boost Mobile. The Nextel price is $199 with a contract, while contract-free Boost charges $299.
Design
As we mentioned already, the i9 is another branch of the Razr family tree. Yet, while the styling is old, the trade-off is that it is one of the most stylish Nextel phones ever. Razr fans, if there are any left, would recognize the sleek lines and trim, angular design. At 4.1 inches tall by 2.1 inches wide by 0.59 inches thick, it slips right into a pocket or bag, so it's easy to take on the go. And though it's a tad heavy at 4.7 ounces, it also has a sturdy and comfortable feel in the hand. We liked the soft touch material and the shiny front face, even if the latter shows fingerprints and smudges.
The 262,000-color external display is large and vibrant (two inches, 320x240 pixels). Colors are bright and graphics are sharp, provided you can see through the aforementioned smudges. It shows the date, time, battery life, signal strength, and numeric caller ID. It also shows photo caller ID and it works as a viewfinder for the camera lens. What's more, you can navigate through the i9s full menu structure and all applications without ever opening the phone. You can add wallpaper, but the short backlighting time isn't adjustable. You can always light it again, however, by pressing the volume rocker.
Like the V9, the i9 has touch music controls on its front face, but they're not part of the external display. Instead, they're set into the mirrored frame surrounding the display. Like most touch controls, the keys are slippery, but they're easy to use and they have vibrating feedback. Besides the play/pause, skip, and rewind buttons, you also can cycle through different player views. You even can delete music files thanks to a Trash control.
Other touch controls come into play depending on which feature you're using. For example, when in video mode, new player controls will appear on the left side of the display (or on the bottom if you're watching videos in landscape mode). And when you're snapping photos, even more touch controls appear to let you manipulate the shooter. The concept is similar to the ModeShift keypad on the Motorola Rokr E8 in that the controls appear only when you need them. Otherwise, they'll vanish to avoid a cluttered look.
As for physical exterior controls, the i9 has a few. On the left spine you'll find a volume rocker, the PTT button, a speakerphone/voice-dialing control, and the Micro-USB/charger port, while a handset locking switch, a camera shutter, and a control for activating the menu on the external display are on the right. The microSD card slot sits behind the battery cover. That's not the most convenient location, even if you don't have to remove the battery. We also didn't love the location of the camera lens and flash on the top left corner of the i9's rear face. Not only is it a natural place to rest your finger, but also it makes vanity shots difficult.
The internal display has the same size and resolution as the external display. Yet, you can change more options, including the text size and backlighting time. Three menu designs are available--list, tab and icon--but all are relatively easy to use. Our only complaint was that it takes a few too many clicks to perform such basic functions, such as shooting a picture and sending it in a multimedia message. Also, if you exit out of submenus you go back to standby mode rather than reverting one step to the main menu.
Like with most Razr phones, the i9's controls are hit and miss. Though they're spacious, they're also flush and rather stiff. Tiny silver bumps, similar to those on the Rokr E8, give the controls some tactile definition, but it's not enough to dial by feel. The navigation array consists of a four-way toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys, a dedicated menu control, the Talk and End power keys, and a Web browser shortcut. That's not a bad design, but we'd prefer a dedicated back key. In standby mode, the OK button will open the settings menu while the toggle doubles as a shortcut to four user-defined functions. The backlit keypad buttons are also spacious, but flat and stiff as well.
Features
The i9's 600-contact phone book has room in each entry for seven phone numbers, an e-mail address, and notes. You can save contacts to groups or PTT Talk Groups and you can pair them with a photo and one of 28 polyphonic ringtones. Other basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, a memo pad, a speakerphone, call timers, an alarm clock, and a datebook.
The i9 also has a few higher-end features: stereo Bluetooth, voice dialing and commands, an application manager, USB mass storage, PC syncing, access to Sprint Mobile e-mail, and a voice recorder. There's also a GPS application, but it's used for finding your position by longitude and latitude rather than by mapping or directional services.
As a Nextel phone, the i9 offers all of the carrier's Direct Connect PTT services, including International Direct Connect, Group Connect (for chatting with up to 20 others via PTT at once), and Direct Talk (for out-of-network PTT-chat capabilities). You'll also find NextMail, which sends voice messages to any e-mail address, and Direct Send, which transmits your contact information to other compatible phones. And finally, there's Nextel's second-line service, which lets you add a second line to the phone with a different phone number.
The 3.1-megapixel camera takes photos in seven resolutions, from 2,048x1,536 down to 320x240. Other editing options include two quality settings, explore control, white balance, brightness, an 8x digital zoom, a self-timer, a macro mode, an autofocus, four color tones, and two shutter sounds (there's no silent option). The camcorder shoots clips in three resolutions and it offers a similar set of editing options. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at six seconds, but you can shoot for longer in normal mode.
Photo quality wasn't as good as we were hoping it would be. Most images were blurry and dark,with faded colors. Videos were about average--fine for a short clip, but quick movements came out choppy. We also noticed that the camera is a tad slow, and we didn't like having to save every photo we took manually. The i9 has an impressive 128MB of internal memory and the microSD slot can accommodate cards up to 8GB.
The music player has simple interface on both displays. It supports album art and you can choose between a number of themes and visualizations. Features are pretty slim: you get shuffle and repeat modes and an equalizer with nine settings. Getting music on the phone is easy through either a USB cable, Bluetooth, or a memory card.
You can personalize the i9 with a variety of clock styles and wallpapers. You can download more options and additional ringtones with the wireless Web browser. You won't find any games, but the Sprint version of the phone comes with the Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile application.
Performance
We tested the Motorola i9 Stature (iDEN 800) in San Francisco using Nextel service. Call quality was up to usual Nextel standards. The signal was clear and free of static and we had enough volume. Voices sounded natural most of the time, but there was a robotic effect at times. It wasn't enough to be distracting, but it was noticeable.
On their end, callers said we sounded good. A few couldn't even tell that we were using a cell phone. A couple people even remarked on the clarity of the call. Our friends could hear us when we were in noisy environments and we had no issues with automated calling systems. Speakerphone calls were quite satisfying, with loud and clear conversations on both ends.
The i9 has a rated battery life of three hours talk time. Our tests showed a talk time of 5 hours and 38 minutes. According to FCC radiation tests, the i9 has a digital SAR rating of 1.44 watts per kilogram.
User reviews
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Good potential, but fails to deliver.
by Turbojimmy1 on March 13, 2009
Pros: Phenomenal camera, brilliant display. Nice design and feel. External key lock.
Cons: It's on the Boost network. Reboots at will. Menu key already sticks down. Non-text friendly. Battery life. LEDs on keypad flash entire time you are talking, a real pain at night. Sends every message as MMS.
Summary: This phone was much hyped from Boost and Motorola as a state of the art iDEN phone. I really like the promised features and design as the majority of phones ...
Summary: This phone was much hyped from Boost and Motorola as a state of the art iDEN phone. I really like the promised features and design as the majority of phones I have owned have been Motorola flips. I took only a few hours for my disappointment to set in.
One last thing that I totally forgot...and it's a biggie. Whenever you use the phone near a computer with speakers you get terrible feedback. The speakers hum constantly while you are are on the phone. It even continues after you mute the computer sound. It gets unbearable after a few minutes. Even if you are not in a call whenever you are about to receive a text the speakers will start to buzz. Not what you would expect from any quality phone or service provider.
First is texting. I text more than I talk so this is a feature I was really looking for. As I found out it is very difficult to text, it takes a lot of steps to send a simple message. The worst part is that it always quotes the incoming message when you send a reply. I have found no way to disable this so you are forced to manually delete the original message if you don't want to send it back in your reply. A real pain if you send a lot of texts. It has no predictive feature(not the t9 or iTAP, but the auto-complete function) like my old Razor had, and it was 4 years old. It has a setting for a first in/first out text delete so when you box gets full it automatically deletes the oldest text when you send or receive one. Well, even with this set to on it still tells you that you inbox/outbox is full and prompts you to delete messages. If you don't it automatically deletes you most recent message as soon as you read it. About 3 days after getting it I received 5 messages that I could not open. It told me who they were from but wouldn't open any of them so I just had to delete them unread.
The camera is the really shining feature of this phone, as well as the flash/light that can be left on while in camera mode. The auto-focus works great, a really cool feature. However, if you want to send a picture message you can't set the camera above the medium setting when taking pictures. What is the point of being able to take 3.1 mega pixel pictures if you can't send them? Now I understand the limitations of the networks in sending data, but even my old Cricket Nokia had an auto-scale feature that would automatically scale down pictures of any resolution so they could be sent as an MMS. So while you can take great pictures you can't ever send them, or you can take average pictures and send them, but you can't do both. And every text has to be downloaded whether it contains a picture or not. it also sends most of my texts as high priority even when I chose normal delivery.
The keypad design is pretty neat but also makes texting more difficult, especially if you are fast with the keys. They emit a small beep each time you press them, but if you are texting fast the beeps don't keep up with the input, making you think you have not hit the key enough times. Also only a few days after receiving the phone the right uppermost menu key started sticking. Now every time you press it you can hear it stick then release.
At times the phone will just randomly reboot itself. Usually when you are using applications such as MMS or the internet. The phone just locks up and the Motorola logo appears on the screen and the phone resets just as if you had turned it off and back on. Some times it does it so many times in a row it makes the whole effort pointless.
Call quality is good whenever the Boost network doesn't decide to drop it. It connects well with my Jawbone and clarity is good. Also the speaker phone works well.
The battery life is simply unacceptable. I text frequently but talk on it once or twice a day for 5-10 minutes each time. I am luck to get a half days use out of the battery before it needs recharging. This is really a shock to me since I charged the phone fully before use and let it completely drain down the first 4-5 times as stated in the instructions to condition it. I can't imagine that this battery use is normal as it makes the phone almost useless unless you have several spare batteries to carry everyday.
One last problem is using the phone with the charger attached, which is more often than not. When it is plugged in and you try to use the phone with the flip closed the front display will not light up. Every time you press a button it will flash for a split second then go back dark. You can take pictures or access the music menu's, but you can't see what you are doing so it makes it pointless to try.
All in all I am very disappointed that this phone has Motorola's name on it. Moreover that they would put something that seems to be thrown together and hastily produced with little to no testing or quality control, especially considering the hefty price tag. It come with much promise but fails to deliver in many aspects, even more painful is Boost's strict no refund policy. Think twice before you buy.
Updated on Mar 19, 2009
I emailed the problems with my i9 to Motorola 3 days ago and have yet to receive a response. Kinda glad I made the switch to an LG.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Again, Motorola crap!
by EZCartGuy on April 5, 2009
Pros: Camera is well below average, and they are trying to brag about it. It is absolutely the worst I have ever had on dozens of phones. To charge this much for a phone, and say that they have a truly great camera, is nothing short of falsehoods.
Cons: No pluses, just cons! Everything else should of course be normally expected from a phone. Add all kinds of dropped calls from Boost, and it spells disaster for those of us that need great communications!
Summary: DON'T BUY ONE!
Summary: DON'T BUY ONE!
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Unacceptable Performance for such an Expensive Phone
by meprise on July 28, 2009
Pros: I really have nothing good to say, especially in view of the price and my inability to check my email.
Cons: Can't access Gmail, awkward menu functions, can't mute camera and videocam shutter sounds, limited and unattractive font and interface choices, limited language settings, buttons are not "tactile."
Summary: I hate this phone. The fact that is was so expensive makes it even worse. I paid about $300, and that didn't even include a charger, a wire connecting ...
Summary: I hate this phone. The fact that is was so expensive makes it even worse. I paid about $300, and that didn't even include a charger, a wire connecting the phone to the computer and headphones or earbuds and I can't use most earbuds.
I'm sorry I trusted CNET. I don't know how this phone received such a good review.
After spending hours on the phone with Boost's customer and tech support, after owning this phone for a month I still can't access Gmail. The flaws are endless, including: the menu functions are awkward and time-consuming; instead of being returned to the immediately proceeding menu you are returned to a main menu. The shutter sounds can't be muted, so if I use them in a class I disturb people. The menus are not logical and the commands are not intuitive. The camera and videocamera are substandard.
This the third or fourth phone I've owned, by far the most expensive and it is far and away the hardest to operate. Every time I call the support people are polite, but it's the SOS.
NOT RECOMMENDED.
Updated on Jul 28, 2009 -
Very Well Built Motorola
by syberbrat on May 28, 2009
Pros: Lots and Lots of Features, Easy To Use, Loud Speakers, Two High-Res Screens, Durable, Easy Buttons and Controls, Strong Signal, Feels like a Real Phone. Best Uses : Games, Email, Making Calls, Web Browsing, Music, Texting, Pictures & Video.
Cons: No Qwerty Keyboard, Pricey
Summary: Currently this is by far the most durable and well-made Motorola Flip (My Opinion). It is considerably more durable than the RAZR 2?s! This phone has so many features ...
Summary: Currently this is by far the most durable and well-made Motorola Flip (My Opinion). It is considerably more durable than the RAZR 2?s! This phone has so many features and functions that are not listed on Motorola's Site. My favorite function is the ability to record both sides of the conversation with perfect clarity on either the earpiece, speakerphone or bluetooth ? you can even set those recordings as ringtones! (Most phones only record one side of the conversation). Camera picture and video quality is extraordinary, and with a maximum of an 8 GB micro card, I can record hours of video or store thousands of pictures and audio files. The speaker(s), speakerphone and walkie-talkie is very loud and crisp. Mp3 player works flawless, which by the way includes a custom equalizer and special audio effects (3D Surrounds, Echo?s, Reverbs, etc). You can even crop, resize, rotate/flip, color adjust; add borders, stamps or text and text bubbles to your photographs. When the phone is closed you can access recent calls, camera, video, images, music, and apps ? each selection has a haptic vibration response as you select it. You can make or receive calls without opening the flip. I have found no restrictions with any multimedia feature; sends, receives pictures and audio, which can be resent to others or saved and used as ringtones or background images (No special compressions). Many other models do not allow those types of functions to work. Also, the bluetooth functions all work correctly with no restrictions, including OBEX file transfers and printing as well as stereo and mono headsets. You can create and set customizable profiles, that are quickly accessed, so while you are in a car, you can set everything to loud with a specific background, audio levels and certain ringtones ? unlimited amount of customization and naming of profiles for various situations; meetings, movie theaters, etc. Voice recognition allows you to record any name or sound you want for each contact, not just the name that the contact is saved as; for example, if you have a contact named ?Home?, you could assign a voice recording as ?My Pad? so every time you said ?My Pad? with your voice, the i9 would call ?Home?. You can assign individual ringtones and text/mms messaging tones for each contact also, not just a broad sound file for all messaging. Basically you would not believe all the features this phone is capable of. I?m not sure if there is another (non-smartphone), with a true walkie-talkie, voice, text, multi-media, and web, which have this many functions. The T9 keypad has an adaptive dictionary and is easy to use. The phone has a beautiful piano finish, which while it looks and feels high-class; it does retain fingerprints that I am constantly wiping off (I?m a clean freak!) The battery, on most days, will last from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. with the bluetooth on, surfing the net and approximately 4 to 6 hours of talk time, depending on signal strength. The Battery will typically last about 3 days if the bluetooth is off, and If I only talk about 1 hour total. On the JAVA side, I have loaded a plethora of free Java based games and applications which work like a charm, including the all-powerful Opera Mini HTML Web Browser. I can surf the web securely at lightning speeds with (BoostMobile Totally Unlimited Service for a flat $50 a month <<<<-----PLUG!!), and have access to all my secured banking and financials on the go! The phone does come with Openwave 7.2 WAP Web Browser if you prefer that instead. I also use the Motorola i9 to tether with my laptop to take full advantage of the Internet and business apps while traveling. In conclusion: If you have used Boost Mobile or Nextel in the past, are a current subscriber of either or would like to be; this phone and it?s functions are unlike any other non-smartphone that they have ever had. It does not have weird picture or sound file restrictions. It has a very bright/brilliant screen that you can even see very well outdoors, and it looks and feels like a top-notch phone! I actually own two of these phones and I have never had a lockup or abnormal malfunctions. Boost Mobile plans to make a statement this year with their new $50 Unlimited plan and current/future lineup of amazing phones and as far I am concerned, they are doing a remarkable job.
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Awesome Phone, One Big Bug
by horsefork on April 1, 2009
Pros: Sleek, powerful, easy to navigate.
Cons: Auto Lock feature doesn't work. If you lock the phone manually, calls roll to VM even when the phone is on.
Summary: Nice phone, horrible security. I would not have bought this expensive phone had I known I could not take calls with the phone locked. Nice job MOTO.
Summary: Nice phone, horrible security. I would not have bought this expensive phone had I known I could not take calls with the phone locked. Nice job MOTO.
Product series
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Motorola i9 - black (Boost Mobile)
Manufacturer: Motorola
Specs:
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Motorola Stature i9 - black (Nextel)
Manufacturer: Motorola
Specs: iDEN 800/900 (Dual Band), Up to 180 min, With digital camera / digital player, 4.7 oz
Manufacturer info
- Motorola
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Motorola products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.motorola.com/
- Address:
600 N. Highway 45, Libertyville, IL 60048 - Phone: 847/576-5000
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