Motorola i670 Cell Phone

I have had Nextel Service for six or seven years. During that time, I have owned three or four different Motorola Direct Connect (push to talk) cell phones. About two years ago, I switched to the Motorola i670 Cell Phone. My main reason for switching to this model was the DirecTalk feature which allows this cell phone to operate like a walkie talkie without using a cell tower. My experience has been a mixed bag. This review will not cover Nextel Service, nor the drop in the quality of that service following the merger with Sprint, concentrating instead on the functionality of this phone.

Durability Issues
My main issue with the Motorola i670 Cell Phone is the durability. As suggested by my Title, this phone should be purchased with a service contract. I have had this phone in the shop to be serviced five or six times in the past two years. The first problem I encountered was automatic shut down. While talking on the cell phone, it would completely shut down in the middle of a conversation and have to be turned back on. It started happening once or twice a day. When it happened approximately ten times in a row in a single day I got frustrated enough to take it to the shop. They replaced the entire unit and I was out of the shop the same day. The next problem I encountered was the Direct Connect button which failed on me twice. This also required a complete replacement of the handset guts. Several months ago, the dial pad stopped working requiring me to had the insides replaced yet again. Two days ago, while removing this phone from the holder, the antenna broke off. Another trip to the shop. I had other minor problems that didn't involve major replacements, but the overall reliability of this cell phone is weak.

Direct Connect
The Motorola i670 Cell Phone is equipped with Direct Connect capability, which allows the phone to be used with Nextel Service. The Direct Connect feature uses cell towers to chirp another person allowing one person to talk at a time between handsets. This feature requires a calling string rather than a telephone number to connect. The button that enables the Direct Connect is made of rubber and has been resistant to damage externally. This feature has serious issues internally. One of the problems I had with this feature involved repeated discharges when the button was not pressed. After finishing a conversation using the direct connect feature, the phone would discharge to the last person called without the button being depressed. Another issue I had with this feature involved double discharges during the initiation of a conversation. When the button was depressed it would chirp twice instead of simply chirping to allow conversation to begin. When it double chirped it would not allow me to talk before chirping again. It acted very similar to the alert feature, but on the other end sounded like two individual chirps.

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