Motorola i1 (Boost Mobile)
Manufacturer: Motorola Part number: MOTOi1BLKBOOST
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Though it's far from the best Android phone, the Motorola i1 is a decent touch-screen smartphone for Boost Mobile customers.
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CNET editors' review
Motorola i1 (Boost Mobile) price range: $289.99
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 07/10/2010
The good: The Motorola i1 has a responsive and intuitive capacitive touch screen, a rugged construction, and has decent call quality.
The bad: The Motorola i1 currently only has Android OS 1.5. Also, its photo quality is mediocre for a 5-megapixel camera.
The bottom line: Though it's far from the best Android phone, the Motorola i1 is a decent touch-screen smartphone for Boost Mobile customers.
Prepaid phones usually consist of simple cell phones or normal feature phones, so we're always pleasantly surprised when a smartphone is made available for prepaid carriers. The Motorola i1 is one such handset--it's the first Google Android phone for Boost Mobile, and it's also the first Google Android smartphone to run on Nextel's iDEN network.
It's quite a rugged device--for a touch screen phone anyway--and it's also the only Android phone to support push-to-talk, which is a big deal if you're a Boost or Nextel customer. However, the i1 is saddled with Android 1.5, which is a relatively obsolete version of the operating system, and the iDEN network doesn't have fast data speeds. However, Motorola may release a software update in the future, so we'll keep hoping for improvements on that front. Overall, it's certainly not the best Android phone we've seen, but it makes for a serviceable touch-screen smartphone, especially if you're an iDEN die-hard. The Motorola i1 is available for $349.99, but bear in mind that price without a contract from Boost Mobile.
Design
While it might seem like a run-of-the-mill Android phone at first glance, Motorola dressed the i1 up with a decidedly rugged spin. Indeed, the handset is clad in what feels like a rubber and hard plastic casing, and the overall phone feels sturdier than most. Measuring 4.65 inches long by 2.34 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, the i1 is not too heavy at 4.63 ounces, and its back cover has a soft touch surface for a more comfortable feel in the hand.
A few of the phone's buttons and ports have also been given the rubber treatment so there's less danger of water damage. Motorola claims the phone is military certified to withstand blowing rain, dust, shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, low pressure, salt fog, humidity, and solar radiation. Yet, it stops short of surviving a swim, so we wouldn't be dunking this in a pool any time soon.
As you might expect, the i1 front is dominated by its large touch screen. The 3.1-inch HVGA display is sufficiently colorful and crisp with 262,000 colors and 320x240-pixel resolution, and we love that it is a capacitive glass display. The screen responded quickly to our taps with hardly any pressure. You can adjust the screen timeout, the brightness, the orientation sensor, and the vibration feedback.
The i1 does not have the MotoBlur software that Motorola often uses on its Android smartphones, so the phone's interface will be familiar to anyone who has used an Android phone before. You get the usual customizable home screens as well as the pull-up menu of applications. The i1 has a new clock design and new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi widgets, but the rest of the widgets are similar to those on other Android phones. While the i1 doesn't support the pinch-to-zoom gesture, you can double-tap the screen to quickly zoom in. You also get an accelerometer and a proximity sensor.
The phone dialer remains the same as other Android phones, and you get both a regular virtual keyboard and the Swype method of entering text. The Swype keyboard lets you spell out a word by dragging a finger on the keyboard from letter to letter, and then it tries to guess what word you meant. While I'm not a big fan of the Swype method, plenty of users have taken to it, so it's up to you on which style you prefer.
Underneath the display are the usual Android sensor hot keys for the pop-up menu, the home screen, the back key, and the speakerphone. You also get physical keys for the Send and End/Power functions, which we didn't like so much because of how skinny they are. In the middle is a five-way D-pad, which you can use instead of the touch-screen if you feel like it.
On the left side are the push-to-talk button and the volume rocker, while the battery cover lock, the camera key, and the charger jack are on the right. On top are the screen lock key and the 2.5mm headset jack. On the back is the camera lens and LED flash.
Features
As we mentioned, you only get Android version 1.5 with this device, so you won't get the benefits of 1.6 or 2.1. According to Motorola, the reason behind this is that it wanted the first iDEN Android phone to be incredibly solid, so they opted to use the most stable version of the operating system available at the time they developed the phone. However, according to Motorola, the i1 is upgradeable over-the-air, so this gives us hope that it'll get an update in the future.
As with all Android phones, you get a very healthy relationship with Google-related applications right off the bat. The phone has apps for Gmail, Google Talk, Google Maps, and YouTube. We also had no problems running and accessing other e-mail accounts, and syncing up our Microsoft Exchange server was a snap as well. Non-Gmail e-mails are accessible via a universal in-box and all appointments are integrated into a single calendar.
Interestingly, the i1's default Web browser is not Android's WebKit browser, but Opera Mini 5. We suspect this has to do with iDEN's relatively slow network, as Opera is better equipped to handle slower speeds. As you'll find in our performance section, this definitely does the trick, as we're able to load web pages relatively quickly. You also have the option to switch over to the Google WebKit browser by going into Browser Settings and deselecting "Load Web with Opera." We warn you that the browsing experience may be slower with the WebKit browser, though, so you might want to save that for when you're on Wi-Fi.
Other features of the phone include the usual PIM functionality of storing contacts, voice search, a calendar, an alarm clock, a voice recorder, and more. You also get Wi-Fi, the Android Market, the Amazon MP3 Store, GPS, and Bluetooth. Of course, you also get the push-to-talk functionality, which has its own Walkie-Talkie contacts list and call log interface. You can integrate them into the regular phone's contact list as well.
We were hoping for better picture quality with a 5.0-megapixel camera lens. While images seemed sharp and clean of artifacts, the color seemed dim and muted, with a touch of grayish green.
Performance
We tested the Motorola i1 in San Francisco using Boost Mobile and its call quality was really good for the most part. We heard our callers very clearly, and we enjoyed natural voice quality as well. The volume was nice and loud, which was especially true in speakerphone mode.
On their end, our callers said we sounded good with very little background noise. The voice quality was not quite so natural though, they said we sounded rather fuzzy and strained at times. Still, volume was good enough and we carried on a conversation swimmingly well. They said they too heard us very loud and clear with the speakerphone.
We were prepared for slow speeds on the iDEN network, but we were surprised to learn it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. Loading the BBC Web page took around 29 seconds on Opera Mini, while the mobile CNET page took merely 12 seconds. However, loading YouTube clips put quite a strain on the phone's data connection, it took quite a while to buffer the video, and the video quality was rather choppy. However, its sound quality was decent.
The i1 has a 600MHz ARM11 Freescale processor, which we found speedy enough for our needs. The phone opened and closed applications quickly, but the accelerometer can take a few seconds to kick in. The camera activated in mere seconds after pressing the button.
The Motorola i1 has a 1,400mAH lithium battery with a rated battery life of 3.5 hours talk time and 4.17 days standby time. Unfortunately, the i1 only had a tested talk time of 3 hours. According to FCC radiation tests, the i1 has a digital SAR of 0.81 watt per kilogram.
User reviews
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Love the Motorola i1 prepaid android phone
by morr22066 on July 11, 2010
Pros: It is prepaid, Boost Mobile is unlimited use for $50.00 a month. As far as I'm concerned that beats a two year contract with data plan that runs over $100.00 a month. It is very tough phone with a tough screen. And of course it is an Android.
Cons: Even though it was released with Android version 1.5 that was not a deal breaker. Motorola released the Backflip with 1.5 and now have a 2.1 update available so it is likely that will eventually be made availble for the Motorola i1.
Summary: Overall I am very happy with this phone, it is a tough phone with a tough screen and it is easy to use, though a slide out keyboard would have ...
Summary: Overall I am very happy with this phone, it is a tough phone with a tough screen and it is easy to use, though a slide out keyboard would have been nice I can live without it. As far as I'm concerned it is the best prepaid smart phone available, and as far as I know it is the only prepaid Android phone. After being locked into 2 year contracts that cost more than double what this costs per month I am never going back to a contract again. The iden network is slow and is not really made for heavy data use, but the phone has full functioning WiFi and while connected via WiFi it is as fast as my internet tablet. It only comes wiith the Opera 5 web browser but it is a pretty good browser overall. However to view Youtube or streaming video you need to download the apps from the Android Market Place, you can also upgrade to a better media player which is nice. There are already a lot of accessories and cases available at Amazon. It has bluetooth so you can connect your existing bluetooth devices. To load your pics, movies and music to the SD card is simple, your pics, wallpaper and movies go under dsim folder and you create a music folder and just drag and drop into the folders. It has landscape and portrait modes like most android devices. And even though it may only have Android1.5 there are still tons of apps available for it including themes to make it look more like a newer version of Android if you like. It will take up to a 32GB SD Card. It is very easy to customize though I have not seen that anyone has "rooted" the phone yet it is still not a problem because it does not come with the motoblur so it is more like a true android device and easier to customize. The keyboard is small in portrait mode but flip it on its side for landscape mode and it is larger and easier to use. The Camera and video player may not be top of the line but it is 5 megapixel and the pics do look pretty good especially for a prepaid phone. Though you have to pay the full cost of the phone up front, the monthly cost is half that of a contract phone so in the long run it is cheaper. With more and more people moving to pre-paid phones I am hoping that this is the beginning of a trend to bring better smartphones to the prepaid market, plus you wont have an early termination fee for breaking a contract if you decide to get a newer and better phone available from another prepaid provider.
8 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Bought this phone on 6/21/10 with high hopes for it
by Lab_Tronics on June 25, 2010
Pros: Android Market - gives access to a bunch of apps.
The look of the phone - sleek & smooth.
Keypad lock - The iphone like slide unlock bar.Cons: Running Android 1.5 [WACK] Most the time, the apps are crashing [CANTupdate]
Iden Newtork -Nextel [WACK] Should Be using CDMA Network
5MP Cam doesnt take 5MP Quality pix [More like 2MP]
Stuck using only 1 browser [wack]
CANT PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEOS [***]Summary: How do you expect to compete or stay a prepaid giant when you drop a touch screen phone in 2010 with like 4yr features. Its a big deal since its ...
Summary: How do you expect to compete or stay a prepaid giant when you drop a touch screen phone in 2010 with like 4yr features. Its a big deal since its prepaid. No! This is not a new company, this is not a broke company. If I'm going to spend $400 on a phone, it better blow my socks off. Been with boost since 2002. Back then the chirp thing/ direct connect, blew socks off. This was there time to shine, and they blew it. I thought they were coming up when they dropped the blackberry curve. I had that. I was like okay. Now we doing something. [The Blackberry runs of the CDMA Network, why would you try to run a touch screen with multi features on a slower network like IDEN. Makes no since] Don't tell me the chirp/direct connect is the reason for that. If so, that that crap off. Come on Now! Blackberry didn't have a chirp. I could use these whole 5000 characters talking mess, but I'm just gone list more of the cons.
[While on the phone] If you do switch to another app and come back to the phone call. You will not be able to push any buttons. You can push em, but nothing will happen. Example: I called my voice mail. Switched apps and came back to the call. The automated system was telling me to push 1, 2, or 3. I pushed 1,2,3 more then once but the automated system washing taking it. It's touch screen, it's not like I'm pushing it to soft. I even did a hard push and nothing.
[Youtube] How could you not play youtube. That's like saying happy birthday with no cake. [Extremely up set with that little move]
[camera] How could your 5MP Cam take crappy pictures like that. I mean it looks like. HD on the phone before you snap the shot. Then after it like *** Happen.
There's countless number of glitches. That's some what expected. But there's to much on the phone.
[Wifi] If you don't have wifi, downloading apps will take forever to complete.
[Android] Although this is my first experience with the Android Market. Why were we giving the 1.5v when i see there is a 2.1v out heading into v2.2.
[Updates] I hope we get them, and soon. This phone could be such a high lite for boost.7 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
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HALF A STAR'S THE LOWEST IT GOES UNFORTUNATELY
by jdawgnit on December 15, 2010
Pros: motorolas contempt for its consumers shines through once again with this gem. a obsolete android OS (1.5, were onto 2.3 now) from 06 that wont run many android apps, a boot time longer than my computer, and a network so slow i cant stream anything
Cons: almost everything. motorola is the pure fail of this equation. stop the planned obsolocense motorola, we hate you for it, give me updates or an easy restore so we can root em ourselves. stop ignoring your users, well get alternative 1 day...
Summary: Motorola refuses to update the OS, wont comment on it. its scummy to lock us out of the open source android OS, and then refuse to maintain the OS yourselves. ...
Summary: Motorola refuses to update the OS, wont comment on it. its scummy to lock us out of the open source android OS, and then refuse to maintain the OS yourselves. if your not going to do it let us, but dont lock it down so im stuck with your crap software after shelling out 400 dollars. first off, i already hate your company because ur always scumbags. i only bought this thing because its the ONLY prepay android. doesnt that scare you? i only bought ur product because i had no choice and now im out bashing you? go ask blockbuster how that business startegy worked out for the lol. soon iphone will be out on verizon, and no1 will buy ur awful phones, and i will tapdance on another pre-droid sales slump. you only survived the last one because U WERE THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE TO IPHONE. that wont happen again. hah. go bankrupt or give me my update to 1.6 at least (were on 2.3 dont forget), hopefully both.
6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not ready for prime time
by RichieAG on July 9, 2010
Pros: Feel of the phone
Cons: IDEN network. Have to go outside to make calls. No turn by turn navigation, due to OS 1.5. Screen is small at 3.1", so I have to go into landscape mode to type. Service was so bad I exchanged first phone figuring it must have been defective.
Summary: The problem is the network and the old operating system Must say the Boost customer service has been polite and responsive, just nothing they can do.
Summary: The problem is the network and the old operating system Must say the Boost customer service has been polite and responsive, just nothing they can do.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Not worth the money
by srinisun on December 21, 2010
Pros: Phone looks decent
Cons: Slow data. Poor battery life.
Summary: There is clicking noise during calls if data dowloads are occuring at the same time. Data is very slow. Browser is outdated and slows down the pages further. Poor battery ...
Summary: There is clicking noise during calls if data dowloads are occuring at the same time. Data is very slow. Browser is outdated and slows down the pages further. Poor battery life. I imagined something close to an I phone for the money I paid but silly to think that Motorola can do it.
4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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You get what you pay for.
by techiekid on October 15, 2010
Pros: Its Cheap. Alright camera, ok Apps.
Cons: the software, running 1.5 android which probably wont be upgraded.
Summary: This is good if you dont have much money and want a low monthly bill. The software is running android 1.5 and most likely wont be upgraded. im not ...
Summary: This is good if you dont have much money and want a low monthly bill. The software is running android 1.5 and most likely wont be upgraded. im not that satisfied with the phone but it will have to do until i get the tmobile g2.
4 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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not all that good
by johneboy39 on January 2, 2011
Pros: not much just wifi that I use
Cons: no streaming have to downlaod everything to watch video's
no youtube no flash playerSummary: buy only if you need a phone
Summary: buy only if you need a phone
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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in need of a boost
by daedae513 on February 1, 2011
Pros: walkie talkie
Cons: screen is small, keypad on screen is too small, phone turns off and restarts by it's self, a lot of apps doesn't work on this thing, adobe flash can not work on it
Summary: have seen and used another carriers which I will not name, but the picture is so much better and the screen make this one look like a toy
Updated on ...Summary: have seen and used another carriers which I will not name, but the picture is so much better and the screen make this one look like a toy
can't find anything good to say about this except that there is no contract and when it's time to upgrade, I'm not looking in anything that has to do with Motorola or Boost.
Updated on Feb 1, 20112 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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love this producy
by angelamclaurin on June 23, 2010
Pros: the design and all features
Cons: it was a little high. but better than a 2 year contract
Summary: the best part is the walkie talkie, i am disabled and it help to call my husband real fast, i like how my contacts can be in a real picture ...
Summary: the best part is the walkie talkie, i am disabled and it help to call my husband real fast, i like how my contacts can be in a real picture form. and getting on line was easy, has real good instructions and tutorial.
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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This great phone comes at a higher cost.
by mrphx1969 on June 9, 2011
Pros: The phone for the most part is a fully functional android phone that is able to use all of the Boost Mobile features. Unlimited talk, Unlimited text, Unlimited web and the popular push to talk feature that made Boost Mobile famous.
Cons: The phone has a flaw in which it will shut itself down multiple times a day. Just out of the blue and for no reason it just shuts down even while talking on the phone. I thought it was just my phone, however I know several people that bought the same phon
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Motorola
- Part number: MOTOi1BLKBOOST
- Bottom Line: Though it's far from the best Android phone, the Motorola i1 is a decent touch-screen smartphone for Boost Mobile customers.
General
- Product Type Smartphone
- Width 2.34 in
- Depth 0.5 in
- Height 4.65 in
- Weight 4.63 oz
Cellular
- Service Provider Boost Mobile
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Motorola products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Motorola
- Address:
600 N. Highway 45, Libertyville, IL 60048 - Phone: 847/576-5000
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