Why You Can Trust CNET Motorola i890 - black (Sprint) review: Motorola i890 - black (Sprint)
Motorola i890 - black (Sprint)
Motorola i890 - black (Sprint)
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Motorola's i890 isn't your typical Nextel phone. It's not packed in rubber; instead, it casts a trim shadow and is actually a bit stylish. Sure, it's a lot like Sprint's earlier Motorola Razr2--or more recently Nextel's Motorola i9--but for what it lacks in originality it makes up for with its sturdy construction. It has all the usual Nextel offerings, and its performance is agreeable. The i890 costs $129.99 with a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate.
Design
The Motorola i890 doesn't offer anything that you haven't seen before. Its slim design, large external display, and touch music controls are all Moto hallmarks, even if they hail from a few years ago. Yet, we still like the i890 for what it offers. Even without rubber sidings, the handset has a sturdy, comfortable feel in the hand and its shiny face catches the light. It also attracts fingerprints, but that's a minor issue. The handset measures 3.9 inches long by 1.98 inches wide by 0.66 inch deep and weighs 4.2 ounces.
The i890's external display measures 1.8 inches and supports 65,000 colors (160x128 pixels). It shows the date time, battery life, signal strength, and photo caller ID. You also can access limited subset of features like the camera and music player without opening the phone. Below the display are three touch controls, to activate them press the Nextel "smart" button on the hinge.
Also on the top hinge is the button for the speakerphone. You can use it to activate the feature before you dial a number. On the phone's left spine are the volume rocker and the Nextel push-to-talk (PTT) button. Both buttons are easy to find when you're on a call. On its the right spine are the Micro-USB port for the charger and a syncing cable as well as a handset locking switch.
The i890 has an uncommon feature that we last saw on the Nokia 6131. A button on the right side of the hinge opens the flip phone automatically. It's a kick at first, but there a couple of things you should know. Make sure that you have a good grip on the phone or it might fly out of your hand. Also, be careful of dropping the i890. When we dropped our Nokia 6131 just once, its hinge button jammed and we weren't able to close the phone.
Motorola positioned the i890s camera conveniently in the middle of the hinge. As you open and close the phone, the lens changes position, letting you take self-portraits and shots of other subjects; however, there's no flash. The handset's rear side is covered in a soft-touch material. You'll need to remove the battery cover to access the microSD card slot.
The 2.2-inch display is just what you'd expect on a phone like the i890. It's not the most vibrant display, but the 65,000-color screen (320x240 pixels) should please most users. Graphics look fine on it, and you can adjust the text size, wallpaper, color theme, and backlighting time. Nextel's icon-based menu interface continues to evolve, mostly for the better.
The phone's navigation array is spacious and well designed. There's a four-way toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys, a menu control, a Web browser shortcut, and the Talk and End/power buttons. The toggle offers access to the phone book and lets you cycle through the shortcut icons on the display. The keypad buttons are flat, but they're easy to use thanks to their large size. We could dial and text quickly without any problems. The keys are backlit as well, though the numbers may be small for some users.
Features
The i890 has a 600-contact phone book with room in each entry for seven phone numbers, an e-mail address, an IP address, and notes. You can save contacts to and you can pair them with a photo and one of 25 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.
For higher-end offerings, the i890 has stereo Bluetooth, voice dialing and commands, an application manager, USB mass storage, PC syncing, and a voice recorder. You also get a voice playback option that reads out menu choices as you select them and text as you type it. You can choose from two voices: "Barbara" or "Sam."
Like other Nextel phones, the i890 offers the usual assortment of 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 Direct Send, which transmits your contact information to other compatible phones.
We had hoped the i890 would have more than a 2-megapixel camera. It takes pictures in six resolutions and two quality settings. Its other shooter options include a digital zoom, a self-timer, geotagging, four color tones, exposure controls, and five white balance settings. The camcorder shoots clips in three resolutions with sound. You don't get additional editing options, but can set the length of the video. The phone caps video meant for multimedia messages at 60 seconds, but you can shoot for longer in standard mode.
The i890's photo quality is just average. Most of our photos taken with it were blurry and its colors were dull. Since there's no flash, you'll need to make sure that you have enough light. After capturing your work, you can save transfer shots and videos off the phone or you can save them to the i890's 180MB of user-accessible memory; that's not a lot, so we suggest using a microSD card for more room; the handset will accommodate cards up to 8GB.
The handset also offers a selection of Java-based applications with the option to buy more. You'll find access to Sprint's Nascar Mobile and NFL Live, access to Telenav's GPS service, and a calculator suite, which includes a currency converter, a standard calculator, a metric converter, and a tool for determining interest and loan payments.
Performance
We tested the (iDEN 800) Motorola i890 in San Francisco using Nextel service. Its call quality was quite satisfactory and had good clarity and a strong signal. The phone's volume was loud and callers sounded natural. We had no trouble hearing or understanding conversations when were in noisy places, though we heard a bit of feedback when it was windy. We didn't have any problems speaking to an automated calling system. The i890 is compatible with M3 and T4 hearing aids.
Callers also reported good conditions. Some couldn't tell that we were using a cell phone, but even our friends that did know we were calling from the i890 complained little. However, they could hear despite a lot of background noise on our end. A couple of people said we sounded a tad raspy, but they were in the minority. Speakerphone calls were loud and relatively clear, and we had a good experience with a Bluetooth headset.
Direct Connect calls sounded fine as well. There was a bit of static on the line, but not enough to be distracting. Callers reported similar conditions on the other end.
The i890 has a rated battery life of three hours talk time. We were a little disappointed with the talk times of 2 hours and 12 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation, tests the i890 has a digital SAR of 0.45 watt per kilogram.