Motorola i856 User Reviews

This phone is godawful and anyone who owns it and doesn't work for Boost Mobile or Motorola will tell you that. It's flimsy, and it's not intuitive or easy to figure out. It has annoying features that you will never use and lacks features that everyone uses. If you set your alarm clock and the phone rings or you receive or send a text, or otherwise use the phone the alarm gets turned off. It takes over the whole screen and you can't use any other features when the alarm is on. Who cares or needs java for an alarm? Pointless. I can't figure out the GPS function. The free rings it comes with are realIy annoying (and high pitched). The games are retarded. I hear there is a calendar and calculator function, but for the life of me I can't find them. Shouldn't it just say "calendar" and "calculator" in one of those many and pointless menus?? The shutter sound is loud and annoying, the camera sucks and if you set it to the largest resolution for taking pictures it says they are too large to send in texts or emails. What's the point??? The keypad has a mind of it's own and sometimes when I've typed out messages on the annoying keypad it deletes the entire message (haven't figured out why) and I have to retype. There is no easy way to quickly go through messages... let's say you get five messages and you want to go from one to the next, you can't. You have to click on the message read it, go back to the main menu, click on the next message, read it, go back to the main menu. This is annoying when you want to delete messages cause it is a really slow and tedious process. You have the option to delete multiple messages but you can't see the actual message while you are deleting, only the sender. It's just annoying. It's flimsy and I felt as soon as I took it out of the box I could crush it with my bare (soft, feminine) hands! It was expensive, I paid $170 for this phone. There is no warranty and no insurance. This phone does not have even one cool feature that makes you go "Neat!" ....and WTF is "Hookt" and "Net Alert"?? And don't even think about using the internet unless you've got a 3 days to wait on the result. This phone is not a convenient phone, everything about it is tedious and annoying. I hate it.

I have owned this phone for a year and have had no problems at all. If folks would remember that it is a cell phone andnot  a sledge hammer the phone holds up very well to every day use. Sound is very good as is the signal. I say good job Motorola.

BETTER NOT DROP IT!!! Mine slipped out of my hand - who doesnt drop a cell phone?!?!?! and the glass over the screen SHATTERED!!!! I called motorola and they will not warranty it. So I told them that the design team needed to go back to square one and reboot - cause this is SORRY durability for a cell phone. Phones are dropped a million times a day!!!

So if you never go anywhere - never have your hands full - will always stay in a padded room - then this phone is for you!!!

But if you are like me and you have a busy life - better get another kind of phone.

 The i856 is a solid phone.  Build quality is good, although the phone feels a bit light.  It was easy to set up and use.  The included browser appears somewhat limited in internet use, but you can install Opera mini 3.1 and it improves the internet experience significantly.  The screen is clear, bright and easy to read, even in sunlight.  Call quality is typical Motorola, meaning that is it strong, loud and clear.  It appears to me that this phone is quite good at keeping signal and I have had no dropped calls or other issues like that.  Motorola has moved to using Micro USB chargers/data cables rather than the previous mini USB, which was in everything.  It appears that a lot of companies are moving toward the micro usb but that means that all the former motorola/blackberry/etc.,  mini usb chargers and accessories will not work with this new standard.  I think this is the best boost phone available at this time.  

My boyfriend and I purchased this phone two weeks ago. The first week we had to take it back because the battery cover would not stay on. The week the whole screen is just white. It has not been dropped! The phone will just shut off without warning and the chirp is always messed up. Other then that the ringtones are loud but we couldn't figure out a way to get them from fun for mobile so we just bluetooth them from other phones. The call qualitly is good and so is the chirp when its working properly. The phone has a nice slider design but the button are not all finger friendly. All around I give the phone 5.