The Motorola i880

The i880 is essentially a mini version of the i580, but with a few minor improvements (such as a 2.0 megapixel camera vs 1.3 megapixels, color external display, external MP3 player buttons, and the ability to access the MicroSD while it is in the phone). It’s very similar in many ways, but just different enough to be worthy of your consideration. To be quite honest, I haven't found any detectable difference in the RF sensitivity in any of the iDEN phones I’ve tested in the last 3 years, and the i880 is no exception. Motorola has provided the same stellar ability to pull in weak signals on every single iDEN phone they’ve built during that time. You’ll see the occasional message threads out there in which the posters claim one model is better than other, but in my testing I’ve never been able to find evidence of that.


Over-the-road Performance: This is another aspect of all iDEN phones that has remained consistently good over the last 3 years, though with the release of the i580 there was a slight increase in the tolerance of the phones to network issues. The i880 continues that improvement, but doesn’t cope any better (or any worse) than the excellent i580. Speakerphone: The i880 forward-facing stereo speakers just like the i580 and the initial assumption was that the i880’s smaller size would result in either lower volume or poorer tonal quality. While it did seem as though the i880 was a little less rich-sounding that the larger i580, there really wasn’t much difference in the two. I switched between each by simultaneous pressing the speaker button atop the phones to switch one from earpiece to speaker and the other from speaker to earpiece. There was certainly no difference in volume, and any tonal differences were slight at best.


The i880 is an excellent substitute for the i580 if you want a phone that’s smaller, lighter, and less industrial-looking. However, the i880 doesn’t offer much that the i580 does, with the exceptions of a better quality camera, a physically larger display, external MP3 buttons, and a color outer display. I hadn’t originally planned to replace my i580 with an i880, but the allure of less hiss and a better camera finally won me over.


The bottom line is: buy the i580 if you want a rugged phone that will survive shock, dust, vibration, and water. Buy an i880 if you don’t need that sort of ruggedness, or you would prefer a more cellphone-like model with a better quality camera.