Motorola - i730 Cell Phone Review

I've been a techno-geek my whole life but always avoided getting a cell phone. Then I was hired by a big cell phone company (Nextel), which soon merged with a bigger cell phone company (Sprint) to form an even bigger cell phone company (Sprint Nextel). Part of the standard kit of tools I was given upon starting my employment was a Motorola i730 cell phone and a free domestic US calling plan. That was in May 2005 and I still have the i730 and it still works fine -- and I've never paid a nickel for the service.

What it is

The Motorola i730 is a standard flip phone that looks a little stodgy among today's fashionable phones. The front face of the phone has a basic LCD display that shows the signal strength, date/time and state of battery charge. The back side of the i730 has only a screened opening for the ringer, which does double-duty as a speaker when the i730 is used as a speaker phone.

Flipping the phone open, the upper half of the inside has a 1.2 x 1.2 inch color screen that can be used to display menus and other information. The bottom half of the inside contains the keypad and menu navigation controls. As I look at these buttons, the left edge of the i730 has volume up/down buttons, push-to-talk button and a headphone jack. The whole thing weighs perhaps five or six ounces, with the battery installed. 

As far as I know, the Motorola i730 only works on the Nextel network. The Nextel network -- and the Motorola i730 -- is all digital. As far as I know, there is no analog fallback option.

Inserting the charging connector into the phone is a pain, definitely a two-handed job that takes concentration.

In use

I didn't take much time to study the manual, just enough to figure out how to get a few numbers stored. If you asked me to store a new number, I'd have to find the manual or struggle with the menus to figure it out, since using the numeric keypad and navigation controls to write words and get capitals correct is definitely not intuitive. The little color screen is generally easy to see, although it washes out badly in sunlight. The buttons are all big enough and easy enough to reach that I can easily punch in a number with one hand.

The Motorola i730 can do a few interesting things, particularly on Nextel's data-friendly system. One very cool feature is called TeleNav, which is a GPS location- and destination-finding utility. You can punch in an address and the phone will direct you to it as you drive. Unfortunately, my phone does not have this feature although many of my co-workers do and I have seen it in use often.

Another interesting feature of Nextel cell phones is "push-to-talk." This allows two Nextel phones to talk to each other like they are walkie-talkies, anywhere in the world where there is a Nextel network. The connection is more or less immediate, just like walkie-talkies.

Sound quality

The sound quality of the Motorola is a mixed bag, and much of this is due to the Nextel network. Connections are sometimes clean and clear, and other times voices sound like ducks sniffing helium. In an effort to squeeze more cell phone connections into every cell tower site, Nextel went with a compression encoder that's... um, quite aggressive.

When this compression encoder switches in, the quality of the voices goes down the drain. I can still understand what's being said but it's much harder to recognize the voice. When there is less compression, voice quality is okay and intelligibility is good.

The i730 can be used as a speakerphone and it does a surprisingly good job for this.

Network availability and dropped calls

I'm generally pleased with the level of coverage I get with the Motorola i730 and the Nextel network. In any city or suburbs, I can almost always get a connection where I am, without having to seek a better spot. I try very hard to not use a cell phone while driving, so I almost always am stopped when using the i730. The few times I was in motion, results have been mixed. All I can say is that the Motorola i730 on the Nextel network has exceeded my expectations. 

Summary

I've spent a lot of time discussing what is almost certainly an obsolete cell phone. However, the Motorola i730 has been reliable and useful, so you should consider it if circumstances present it as a possibility. It's small enough to easily fit in a pocket or purse, and it's easy to handle with a single hand. The speakerphone feature works very well, as do options such as TeleNav.

Note: I am an employee of Sprint Nextel, which gave me the Motorola i730 and pays for my service. I believe my review above is fair and impartial, but please take my background into perspective when deciding if this product (and related cell phone service) is right for you.