Motorola i296 for Boost Mobile

Targeting those who love adventure and outdoor activities, Boost Mobile together with Motorola released its rugged basic phone under the name of Motorola i296. In this phone, Motorola maintain to stay basic focusing merely on calling and texting communication with some additional basic features. Closer look, here is the review and detail specification of the phone.

Arrives in an old-fashioned candybar phone design, Motorola i296 is specially released for those who love adventure and outdoor activities. Along with its old-fashioned design, it is also covered with rugged chassis that is certified by Military Specification 810G for protection of dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, blowing rain, solar radiation, humidity and salt fog. It feels compact and light on hand measuring 118 x 48 x 15 mm and weighing 84 grams. Display on the front side of the phone features 1.8 inches TFT display with 128 x 160 pixels resolution and 65K color supports. Below the display are navigation array and alphanumerical keypad. The navigation array comprises of two soft keys, a shortcut key, a speakerphone key, a Call key, an End or Power key, and a circular toggle in the middle of navigation array. The alphanumerical keypad covers by rubber material with orange accents on each key.

Motorola i296

As a rugged phone, Motorola i296 maintain to stay basic with its features as well as easy to use operation. In connectivity feature, Motorola i296 operates on the slowest network in US namely iDEN (800, 900 MHz) network. You can still get internet browsing experience through Myriad web browser supports WAP web pages. Due to its low data network, browsing internet seems to be a very poor and disappointed experience. Other connectivity available includes Bluetooth ver2.1 and microUSB connection. In addition, there is Push-To-Talk features through iDEN network as well as GPS navigation system with A-GPS supports. For messaging features, Motorola i296 comes with text messaging (SMS) and multimedia messaging (MMS). Text messaging (SMS) itself appears in a threaded view giving a nice touch of a rugged phone.

Motorola i296 does not offer multimedia features as it comes with no camera, no camcorder, no music player, no video player and no radio. It can be said that this phone is really dedicated for calling and texting communication as well as its adventure-support features. To store data, Motorola i296 only provides 20 MB internal memory. Sadly, there is no additional external memory because it does not feature microSD card slot.

Motorola i296 also offers Phonebook that can save up to 600 entries whereas each entry may consists of multiple phone numbers, picture ID, ringtone ID and other related information. In productivity features, it provides calendar, alarm, and calculator. Notification types of the phone include Polyphonic ringtones, Vibration mode, Flight mode, Silent mode, and Speakerphone. Other basic features are Voice memo, Voice dialing, Voice commands, Voice recording, and Games with Java supports. Supporting all of its features, Motorola i296 uses standard battery Li-Ion 930 mAh. The battery life is rated up to 3 hours of talk time or up to 6 days of standby time.