Motorola Buzz ic502 Cell Phone

A nextel phone for people who haven't used them.

By Yahoo! Shopping User  May 31, 2007 | 1 out of 2 found this Motorola Buzz ic502 review helpful

Pros: Traditional Motorola phone user interface, calls sound great. Feature-light.

Cons: Inconsistent navigation between walkie talkie and regular calls, not a true hybrid phone. Feature-ight.

The Motorola Buzz ic502 ("i" standing for IDEN or Nextel's network, "c" standing for CDMA or Sprint's network.) is one of the first two "Hybrid" phones released by Nextel which takes advantage of their partnersh...ip with Sprint. The phone is a "hybrid" phone because it uses both networks for it's operations. Why I keep putting "hybrid" in quotes isn't anything to shame this fact: the calls sound great and I have yet to experience a dropped call that's my fault. It's a "hybrid" phone, quotes attached because the WALKIE-TALKIE is using IDEN or Nextel's network only and the Voice calls and data use CDMA or Sprint's network only. When I hear hybrid phone, I think of a phone that uses IDEN and CDMA simultaneously for voice and data, choosing automatically the best network to transmit off of so that the effective range of Nextel AND Sprint is my total phone coverage. THAT would be awesome to see happen. (Obviously except for Walkie-talkie, since Sprint has yet to give a Push-to-talk feature outside of Samsung phones.) But the fine print makes fools of us all. Even with this, I'm not disappointed so far with it's performance. It's phone interface looks less like a Nextel phone and feels more like a traditional Motorola phone, so it's pretty simple to use. My only hangup on usability is on Walkie Talkie: Only the Push to Talk (PTT) button can be used to speak. If a soft button could be used to speak while the phone is open I would prefer that. I hate closing my phone for any reason when I'm using it as the standard fear is that on a clamshell phone, you flip it closed and you're done with what you're doing. That habit takes some practice to break, since Walkie Talkie calls are instantaneous and doesn't require you to open the phone when receiving the call. Phone design is very nice. I have very large hands myself, yet I can see this being used for smaller hands as well: when opened it fits well, when closed, it isn't elongated or awkward to hold. It is compliant with the Military 810F specification: this phone can withstand dust, shock (can withstand periodic drops up to 20 gauss, or 20 times the force of earth's gravity), vibration, moisture (READ: you can use it in the rain, NOT UNDERWATER) and extremely low/high barometric pressures. One telltale sign of this is the rubber seal you find in the battery compartment: the battery is sealed from moisture when the cover is closed. Of course if submerged under water it will still get to the battery and the core electronics, so read the parenthesis above. The extended life battery (BK-10) came with my model, which is nice: I use it for two-three 10-minute calls at work, come home and after being unplugged for 16 hours, battery life is at 2/3rds power (Battery meter has only three bars). Being the BK-10 is two-thirds the capacity of the standard battery, even that battery would still have one bar of power left before recharge, which isn't bad. Bad in my book is getting a low battery warning after normal use. A 90-minute call to Aunt Elsie isn't normal cell phone use to me. The only other con (or pro) is that feature wise this phone is pretty dry. No camera, no music player, 3 MB of storage capacity. This simplicity may be a blessing or a curse depending on what you are used to. If simple is better, this would be a good thing for you. If you like function, this may be a disappointment. Even the miniUSB plug doesn't work with a PC unless you get Motorola's Phone Tools program first (an extra $30). One last comment as a new Nextel customer: I am also of the opinion that Sprint's ringtone store sucks... some of the ringtones are of FM-quality and even if your phone's speakerphone is scratchy at a high volume, hearing Audioslave's opening riff to Revelations sound like a 56k modem stream from the start doesn't help much either. Use the website previews before buying: there is no difference between the preview and the actual tone. Read more Less