The long awaited Motorola i1 iDEN Android smart device will be the first Boost Mobile Android device and the next Best Buy retail exclusive according to the image of the marketing poster. The device was previously announced by Motorola earlier this year after the first leaks of the device alluded to a release on Nextel late last year.
Pricing is expected to be inline with the BlackBerry Curve or higher and will require the $50 unlimited plan for purchase and activation.
349 at Best Buy.
Source:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Motorola+-+i1+Mobile+Phone+-+Black/Silver+(Boost+Mobile)/9935936.p?id=1218198443380&skuId=9935936
That is NOT the first Android phone without a contract, lol. T-Mobile should sue them for false advertising. The very first Android phone, the G1, was always available without a contract. And every single phone on T-Mobile is availabel without a contract right now.
Verizon also lets you get any phone you want without a contract.
Whoever made that poster needs to be fired.
This is going to be great! Finally get to try an android phone with no contract…can’t wait to get it…
@ SaltyDawg
I guess they forgot the (Asterisks) * with the corresponding fine print!! lol
I think JJ would like this one, however the $50 unlimited clause, seems like a “contract” requirement to me, unless they will sell it, at two price points, we will know soon enough!
Thank You
The phone is $350 at best buy. A little high but its android and it looks like a good phone. My question is.. is does this iden phone get evdo speeds? I’m not too familiar with the new iden services. It would be kinda of cool if that was the case. I wonder if pdanet will work on this phone.
@JJ The iDen network is rather old…it’s the old Nextel nextel Sprint got with the merger. The phone is the 1st Direct Connect enabled Android device and the $50 unlimited plan is a plan, not a clause. It’s still no contract, but just like getting a prepaid Blackberry, you have to have a certain plan.
Please note: THE IDEN NETWORK IS NOT MADE FOR HIGH DATA SPEEDS… it’s dreadfully slow compared to Sprint’s evdo speeds.
Using the Android web browser on the i1, PhoneNews.com takes seven minutes to load, based on our time trials at CTIA.
However, Opera Mini’s server-side processing does make the experience much more acceptable. The desktop version of PhoneNews.com loaded in about 30 seconds on Opera Mini in the same i1 prototype.
Motorola has worked hard to condition the i1 experience for iDEN, and remind you to use Wi-Fi whenever possible.
Our main objection to the i1 is not the slow iDEN speeds, it’s the ancient version of Android that comes with it. Motorola needs to commit to a newer version of Android for the phone (it ships with 1.5)… even 1.6 would probably not be received well at this point.
I remember at how slow iden was. My mom used to have it and I got her a palm pro instead and switched her to evdo. Whatever happened with the hybrid phones? Couldn’t they have made this phone a hybrid and use both networks?
But that is really messed up about motorola only releasing android 1.5. I guess they only want a small amount of people getting this phone and plan. It might be sprint doing this so people get the hero on a postpaid plan.
**nevermind.. forgot this isn’t nextel but boost mobile. Thats why its not hybrid. Sorry..mixed up.
I wonder if i will able to switch out my sim card from my already activated boost iden phone to this one? I guess as long as I have the unlimited 50 dollar plan…..Does anyone know yet?
“Couldn’t they have made this phone a hybrid and use both networks?”
Oh God no… I had one once and it was bad. The only reason Im still with nextel is that it works were I need it most. Everybody else comes and goes on signal. Now when we go out of town I’m SOL but close to home and work i’ll keep my cristal clear IDEN over sparadic evdo cdma or gsm.
Don;t you have to conect to a wifi network to get onto the android market on this phone?
@JJ
I think you nailed it, regarding SPRINT potential policy/marketing reasoning, although this is not Nextel, however it is BOOST, which is prepaid SPRINT!
Too bad regarding lack of EVDO, and poor Data speed!
Thank you
DOES ANYONE ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH KNO WHEN IT COMES OUT ????????????????
From all the comments I’ve read so far, I’ve seen one person mention June 1st, but it’s hard to say how real that date is at this point. You’d think if it was that close there would be some sort of announcement. I guess we’ll know come Tuesday if it’s released or not.
I do like how the phone is rugged, no contract, a $50 plan. As with other, I don’t like that it’s on the iDEN network (slow) and Android 1.5
Pat, that is correct. Apps can restrict super-slow connections like iDEN if they are flagged to do so. As of the prototypes at CTIA, Android Market required a Wi-Fi connection.
I’m not certain, but I suspect that Android 2.0 added a flag to block apps from using iDEN if performance is sub-par. It looks like Motorola backported that feature and cooked it into their Android 1.5 build for the i1.
This is actually a good thing for most developers, if your app is going to be unusable on the i1 via iDEN, you can code your app to require a Wi-Fi connection on the device.
That said, I disagree that the Android Market should require a Wi-Fi connection, this was probably added at the request of Sprint to minimize the impact of the i1 on the iDEN network.
Many apps are only a few hundred kilobytes and could be downloaded within a few minutes on the i1, which should be offered to customers in a pinch when Wi-Fi simply isn’t available.
Just one of the many reasons some will be waiting for the device to be rooted, I’m sure.
Sprint just needs to put that iDEN network out of its misery already. All of those towers should have been converted to CDMA a long time ago, and the few iDEN users left given a comparable CDMA phone.
I have no idea why anyone would actually consider getting this phone if they had equal Sprint coverage and an identical phone available for the same price on Boost CDMA (with no Android Market restrictions and 3G data).
That Nextel merger continues to prove what an epic failure it was.
The puechase of Nextel might not have been the brightest idea but boost has saved sprint from final ruin. People who canceled their contracts have switched to boost. Alot of my friends have switched to boost. Boost iden might be slow but you get unlmtd text and minutes and web even if it’s slow. But the new virgin mobile plans might hurtboost but then again their both owned by sprint so it’s a win win either way and people that useboost also use it for the best push to talk feature of any service. So i think for now Boost and nextel are going to be around for a while.
My issue is location. Boost CDMA is not in my area of NH, but iden is here.
I had US Cellular. Also no evdo where I live so my BB curve sucked.
Is iden slower then the 1x I had, do apps like slacker / pandora work as they did work on 1x.
iDEN is a lot slower than 1X, and I don’t know if Pandora would work but I doubt it would.
Thanks saved me spending $350 I’ll stick with straight talk for now.
Pandora will only work when Wi-Fi is connected.
For me, I’m going to happily switch from my Curve (Boost) to the i1 because I get much better iDEN coverage vs Sprint 3G coverage. It doesn’t help if the data is faster over CDMA if I can never connect to it on a consistent basis or end up losing my signal in the places I frequent most. With an 8GB micro SD card, I’m pretty sure I can deal without having Wi-Fi required applications (Like Pandora) unavailable in the few places where I can’t get a Wi-Fi connection. And anything that needs to be loaded via Android Marketplace will most likely be set up before I leave the house instead of on the fly.
Absolutely, it would be nice to have the data fast enough to grab apps whenever I needed them, but for the majority of people, many of us upgrade and tweak our phones and apps when we’re at home on downtime rather than doing it while we go about our busy lives. Boost has been good about getting the latest 5.0 on the Curve when it came out so I’m hoping they keep that trend going by offering the 2.2 update to Android when the phone finally drops.
BestBuy took that link down 🙁 WHY?
here is the cached link from google:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:yk08Bt1xYcYJ:www.bestbuy.com/site/Motorola%2B-%2Bi1%2BMobile%2BPhone%2B-%2BBlack/Silver%2B(Boost%2BMobile)/9935936.p%3FskuId%3D9935936%26id%3D1218198443380+motorola+i1+bestbuy.com&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Why put this on the iDEN network? To slow,even with WiFi.
Bob, sorry up in NH you dont have good CDMA, down here in Mass. I have great CDMA. Fast web and texts. I used to be on Boosts iDEN network but wont go back after getting my Blackberry from Boost Mobile
Love haveing a drink in a bar & watch youtube on my BB.
Now the rumer is Boost will be getting the Kyocera Zio Android that will be on the CDMA network.
Sent from my BlackBerry® by Boost Mobile
The i1 motoroal boostmobile suck I wish I never brought it.. its the slowest phone I ever had in my life.. Also cant watch youtube email sucks… I must say the speaker is the best part of the phone nice and clear. but over all its not worth 362.00 dollars..
To add you need wi fi 4 everything that make the i1 sucks even more dont waste your time