i680 - my first impressions

[wn0anc]

Ok so I'm a guy who has to have every new iden phone that comes out. But my wife says I could have worse addictions. However my days of longing for the perfect phone may be over. Check out the i680 brute. I held it in my hand for about 15 seconds (a new record) before I realized this was my next phone. It's THAT good. Build quality is stunning. Take the keypad for example. The buttons are made of what feels like pure silicone rubber. Soft, tactile with just enough feedback. This is THE BEST keypad I have ever seen on cell phone I don't care who made it. It's BETTER than my $3000 Motorola XTS-3000!!! Then there's the display. It's NOT as good as the i9 but it's PLENTY good enough. It appears to be exactly the same display as the i856. But the most amazing thing is the audio and the software, and well reception too. First the audio.... This phone has dual microphones which when added to some rather fancy phase shifting circuitry effectively eliminates background noise. The speaker will blast you out, I'm here to tell you. For the first time EVER I do not leave the ringer wide open cause it's just TOO loud!!! Perfect for noisy work environments. SWEET!!!!!!!! And as for the software, well it's the same as the i856 EXCEPT for one VERY cool feature. I have never seen a phone that if someone calls you but you're too busy to talk and you kill the call by pressing the top button on the phone it will automatically (or ask for verification first) send a text message to the caller with a preprogrammed message saying something like this, "sorry I can't talk now but I'll call you back ASAP." WOW!!!!! That's like having call alert acknowledgment for regular phone calls. AMAZING!!! And it works with "chirp" two-way calls too. So NOW if you're on the phone and your co-worker calls you on the two-way and he gets a "caller unavailable" message he will receive a text message the moment he hangs up saying that you tried to call him but couldn't get through!!!!!!! WOW, I mean WOW this is a valuable feature!!! And there are other cool features like auto-resizing of pics that are sent via MMS without changing the original picture size. And there's more!!! The reception appears to be equal to the i580. Or if not equal, very close to the i580. The battery is 1750 mah which is the biggest battery I have seen in an iden phone yet. The battery cover is sealed with a ribbed silicone rubber gasket. Even the micro USB cover is a ribbed silicone gasket. I am betting the phone also has a metal housing under all that soft silicone rubber. It has a VERY solid feel to it with just enough weight to let you know it's not a toy. This is an industrial grade phone that's just stunning to use and a pleasure to look at and to carry. I installed the modified Opera Mini browser that works with the Zeus processor and I now believe I have the most awesome phone that works well on the internet (so long as you visit mobile sites that require less bandwidth) and handles voice, two-way and MMS messages like you've never known before. Oh and guess what?? The installed browser also does T9 text inputting AND is not limited to 256 characters like Opera Mini is. I sent a 2000+ character MMS message to my wife's US Cellular phone and she got tired of reading my gibberish after a few linked text messages. This phone is simply THE BEST iden phone Motorola has EVER made and I'm a pretty discriminating RF user. I carry a Motorola XTS-3000 everyday and have for over 20 years although my first handheld was an MX-330 for those who know what that is. Buy 1 you'll love it. I'm heading back to Sprint for my second one today. It works flawlessly on Boost too. $280 retail. WOW!!!

[al904]

Thanks for the glowing review, wn0anc!

It sounds like Motorola got one right!