Another Indestructable Handset From Motorola, Makes You Wonder

Sprint Nextel have kept Nextel’s old iDen network running, and amazingly enough, are still releasing phones for the antiquated system. Motorola makes all of the iDen handsets, and if you’ve never seen one, they’re the ugliest phones on the market, possibly. However, they’re also typically indestructable. The latest is the i570, announced recently, with MIL-SPEC 810F, which means it’s military spec’d for resistance to dust, shock and vibration. Having spent 2 years selling phones in West Texas, I can verify personally that you’d be floored by the stories of what these iDen handsets can endure.

Personally, it always amazed me that Motorola is the manufacturer of these tank-handsets. The same Motorola that made the v180 and v220 atrocities, the RAZRs whose screens cracked if you look at them wrong, and other embarassing handsets. It’s also the same Motorola that used to manufacure the Startac, quite possibly one of the most indestructable handsets ever. I’d wager there’s a few SMStextnews readers that still sport the Startac, am I right?

So how does the same company continue to pump out handsets with such different build quality? Nokia is the same, the difference in build quality between the Eseries and Nseries is astonishing (although the Nseries has gotten better lately). My other question, how come these indestructable iDen handsets have to be so stinking ugly? Perhaps that’s why no carrier has commissioned Motorola to make a GSM or CDMA version.