Do you Keep Breaking or Losing your Cell Phone? Try Out this One!
Written: Mar 27 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Durable, long lasting battery.
Cons: Added battery life and durability makes phone larger & heavier.
The Bottom Line: While most expensive cell phones are small and fragile, this one is made for people who need a phone that can handle abuse.
|
|
|
| grimjack2's Full Review: i700 plus Cell Phone |
I am currently doing contract work for a civil landscape contracting company. They have numerous men in the field who work large jobs that extend over miles of highway. Keeping them in contact with supervisors via cell phones can really make their work more efficient. However, the large cost of cell phone usage, the fact that the men roam between many different area codes during the day, and the often harsh and wet working conditions make using cell phones very expensive.
In order to save costs, this company started using the Nextel radio service. Basically they were able to connect 28 company phones onto a radio service which makes the phones able to function similar to walkie-talkies. Each phone is assigned a number and you can cycle through the phones to find someone you want, and talk for FREE. The only drawback is that only one person can talk at a time on a radio phone, but considering the cost and the large use of the phones, this isn’t really a problem.
The phones have four ‘modes’ that they operate in. Phone, which is for making standard digital cell phone calls. Private, which is for making 2-way radio calls. Group, which is for making radio calls to a group of people in your assigned group. And Net, which is for the Nextel Wireless Web.
Originally the men had Nextel i1000 plus phones, but soon the company noticed a very large replacement cost. In general, cell phones have gotten smaller and flimsier over time, and the i1000 just couldn’t handle the working conditions of men operating heavy machinery in the mud and in outdoor wet conditions. They probably work just fine for the average business user who wears a suit and tie to work, but not for manual laborers.
In order to handle this problem, our sales agent suggested switching our phones to the i700 plus series. I almost used the word ‘upgrade’, but in truth, these phones cost $30 less, and definitely serve us far better!
The i700 has a similar look to the old ‘sports’ line of electronic gear. Remember the Sports Walkman, or the Sports Portable CD Player? These were yellow and black, and were designed for moderate abuse. This phone can come in black, but I figure there was an advantage to getting them in yellow instead due to the increased visibility. Take a look at the picture above to see the yellow version I’m talking about.
They are one piece, and don’t flip open or extend in any way besides the antennae. The antenna housing extends up a little from the phone, and is clearly a stronger antenna than I’ve seen on the newest phone models. The phone is surrounded by a rubber edge molded to the plastic. The battery is almost the size of the phone and is covered by a little plastic shield that is part of the phone’s casing. The battery version is a Nickel Metal Hydride NTN8971B.
The phone has many features, most of which are common for the average cell phone. It has a speed dial and name search, call waiting, call forwarding, last number redial, keypad lock for security, caller id (which we don’t pay for), a missed call indicator and a last 10 numbers received / sent call list, just to name the major features. One feature that isn’t too common with cell phones these days is a four-line display screen with icons. This is almost a necessity if you are going to use the phone’s email system. The older one and two line screens were horrible for that.
Our packaging only came with the bare essentials. For hardware, there was only the phone, battery, and a travel charger. There are no clips for car lighters, cheap carrying case, or stand for quicker charging. There are a very large variety of accessories available from their web site, but I’m surprised they aren’t at least including a simple hands free microphone and belt clip like other pricey phones do.
The documentation is pretty good, and thick, which is a good thing considering how complicated this phone can get. The user’s guide is well organized and aside from a good index and table of contents also has an intuitive quick guide in the beginning listing pages for common questions and functions. As an example of how complicated the phone can be, the guide is over 140 pages!
Also included is a “Getting Started Guide” which is very helpful in that it lets you know what you need to do first to get the phone working, and gives a breakdown of the most common functions and uses.
There is also a large wireless web guide. We don’t take advantage of this with our phone, but it could be useful for some. The Nextel wireless web lets you take advantage of email and some wireless phone specific web sites.
For a person that needs this kind of durability, this phone should be a top priority. It doesn’t really make a fashion statement or win any comfort contests, but the longer lasting battery life can be appreciated by anyone. I think the phones are actually rather complicated, even for the tech savvy. But you don’t have to use the majority of features the phone offers. The radio feature is really only valuable depending on the number of people that you want to be in touch with on the same radio group, so individual users probably won’t find that major feature (and cost) worthwhile.
Still, the value of this phone is never truly appreciated until you’ve dropped and broken your old one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 130
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
grimjack2
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: San Rafael, CA, Marin County
Reviews written: 181
Trusted by: 124 members
About Me:
Film is my favorite art form. I live a life of constant amelioration.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.