The Motorola i576 Cell Phone Review
Business phones, smart phones, pocket PCs and all kinds of other stuff. Doesn’t anyone make a plain and simple cell phone any more? A simple, easy to use, reliable phone that you use to talk and text to others? Someone does and it’s Motorola. The company has listened to the words of all those who find all this talk of convergence and multi function devices too much. With the i576, they have married the latest in cell phone technology with basic cell phone applications to cater to those who want only a phone and nothing more. Does it work? Let’s see.
Price: 
Design:
Performance:
Overall Rating:
The i576 has a functional, almost industrial look to it. It gives the appearance of reliability, durability and ease of use and suggests that it means business. The features are basic – not even a camera – but its well worth the $79 with service from Nextel although the full price of $ 279 may cause some heartburn
Available in black with tough rubber sidings, an extendable antenna and a small external display, this phone has no pretentions to any bells and whistles. The rubber sidings both protect the phone from shocks and also give it a solid comfortable grip. The front and back covers have a textured metal design that is basically for show but does add to the phones tough look. And tough it is – it’s certified to US military specs.
Measuring 4.3 inches in height, 1.8 inches in width and 1 inch in depth and weighing in at 4.2 ounces, this phone may be a bit chunky, but that again adds to its tough no nonsense look. The i576’s external display is rectangular in shape and small – something that is expected from phones of this class. It’s not the best of sizes but then it’s not fair to expect anything bigger on a phone of this size. The display crams in all the usual information – date, time, battery life, caller ID and so on –but the text is so small it’s difficult to read. There are 2 lights placed above the display to indicate Bluetooth operation and new messages.
Externally the phone has a push to talk button and a volume control as well as a speaker phone button. The extendable antenna is a useful feature in weak signal areas but it needs to be treated carefully – it looks pretty delicate.
The internal display measures 1.75 inches and supports 64,000 colors. It’s not great but adequate for a phone of this type. The operational features include a phone book and the usual features for a phone of this class – nothing great but nothing essential missing.
Battery life is rated at 5 hours of talk time.
Performance wise there is nothing to complain about. The extendable antenna means that signal strength is good evening weak areas. The sound quality under all circumstances is good as is the volume. Very weak signals may be accompanied with a slight background hiss but this is not a problem that affects sound clarity. Callers had no issues when calling this handset and reported clear natural sounding voices. Speakerphone and Bluetooth functions are good with no problems of clarity or sound loss.
All in all, this is a phone for those who want a tough no nonsense handset for only voice and text communication