-I'm Nicole Lee, Senior Associate Editor for CNET.com and this is a first look at the Motorola i886 for Sprint/Nextel.
This is a Nextel messaging phone and this is compatible with Nextel direct connect push-to-talk services.
At first glance the i886 looks like a pretty normal messaging phone, but if you take a closer look at the user interface, it looks
very familiar, almost too familiar.
In fact, it looks a lot like android.
In fact it has 3 home screens, a nice analog clock in the middle similar like the most android phones.
It also has the pop-up menu that looks almost exactly like an Android phone.
Because the i886 is not technically an android phone, it does not have the android marketplace on here.
You also don't get the usual G-mail and Google support for those apps.
You do get a get a GetJar market app store, but essentially lets you get Java apps.
So, it is very unusual that a simple messaging phone or a feature phone has android.
We ask Motorola about this and all they would say is that it has a proprietary Linux-based operating system.
As you can see here, we gave us a little bit more to the story here, but we will go by their story for now.
Underneath the screen you get keys that are very
similar to android phones as well.
You get the home key, they menu key right here, the back key, as well as the notifications key.
You also get a round toggle right here.
Underneath that, you get the usual number keypad.
Using the phone is pretty easy, but do remember it is not actually a smartphone, so the display is not a touch screen.
We have to remind ourselves of that occasionally.
Slide-open sider and you reveal a full qwerty keyboard.
It's very roomy,
the keys are well separated, very easy to text and type by feel.
Like most Nextel phones, the i886 is military certified to take up beating.
It is ragged with thick sides, kind of a heavy feel as well.
The Motorola i886 ha a variety of features that include Opera Mini as the browser, you also get the usual text and multimedia messaging features, there is also e-mail support with exchange active sync support as well.
The Motorola i886 is available for 76 dollars 99 cents of the new 2-year service agreement with Sprint/Nextel.
I'm Nicole Lee and this has been the first look at the Motorola i886.
