Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, CDMA

If the i880 wasn’t really doing anything for you when it surfaced in the wild, perhaps this here i885 will. Motorola’s upcoming halo iDEN devices will see service on both Nextel and Boost, sporting pleather and faux snakeskin exteriors — pick your poison — and a trick button-operated flip mechanism. (If they’re going to get creative with case designs on us, we can only hope they deep-sixed the standard Nextel “beep beep” while they were letting those creative juices flow.) Besides minor cosmetic differences, the phones’ guts are presumably identical; both should be rocking 2-megapixel shooters, music players, and dual color displays. We’re getting mixed reports on whether these are CDMA hybrids, but even if they aren’t, the pair gives Nextel much-needed love in a market segment they aren’t typically accustomed to servicing.

[Via Mobile Magazine]

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, Cingular, GSM, GPRS

If you’re a Cingular customer and you’ve been jonesin’ for a Z520a with push-to-talk, your phone has arrived. Sony Ericsson’s Z525a is about an incremental upgrade as an incremental upgrade can get, offering the addition of PTT and that’s about it. As we mentioned before, EDGE would’ve been welcome, but for 20 bucks on contract with a mail-in rebate, we guess we don’t have much room to grouse about it.

[Via phoneArena]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel, EV-DO, CDMA

We have to admit that we're not big fans of the whole push-to-talk thing -- something about that annoying "chirp chirp" followed by both parties repeatedly querying "where you at?" -- so we were naturally a bit disappointed to learn that Sprint-Nextel will begin releasing dual-network phones that only incorporate iDEN functionality to feed people's nasty PTT habit. As we'd heard last month, Sprint-Nextel will start rolling out a series of these iDEN/CDMA with EV-DO Rev. A handsets near the end of the year, and now the first pictures of two models from Motorola have surfaced. Besides their ability to jump on iDEN for walkie-talkie action, nothing really stands out about these devices; they both incorporate the same function-over-fashion design that we've come to know, if not love, from the Nextel-Moto alliance. PCS Intel reports that these two unnamed handsets could go on sale as early as November, for an unknown price, with more feature-filled (read: multimedia-centric) models popping up in the second quarter of next year.

[Thanks, John R.]

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Sprint-Nextel

If push-to-talk isn’t too sissy for you now that those href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/02/cingular-goes-live-with-push-to-talk/">Cingular kids can do it, Motorola
is prepping a rugged version of their href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/31/motos-i870-antibacterial-widen-phone/">i870 iDEN phone, the i580. The
phone has the same WiDEN connectivity, PTT (of course), Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, and dual displays of the i870,
though the external display on the i580 is a smaller grayscale one. The phone does lose the external MP3 controls,
though it can still play your tunes off of the internal microSD slot. Of course, the main addition is the rubberized
shell and military grade resistance to rain, dust, shock, and vibration that the new handset includes. The i580 should
be available in Q2 of this year for an undetermined price.

[Thanks, Allen]

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM

It's not exactly revolutionary update, but if push-to-talk functionality was all that was holding you back from Sony Ericsson's semi-low-end Z520a, the Z525a should fit the bill exactly. The new model adds a PTT button -- well, more like, repurposes the camera button for PTT -- and nothing else. We're sure this will keep the Z520a purists happy, but we could've done with a bit of EDGE data or an improvement upon the VGA camera and 160 x 128 pixel display. Oh well, at least now we'll be able to complain in short annoying bursts.

[Via MobileBurn]

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Alltel, 1xRTT, CDMA

We’ve finally reached a stage where we’re comfortable throwing the term “low-end” at a phone with Bluetooth — and as such, we give you LG’s AX355 for Alltel. The modest flip lacks EV-DO, but offers a speakerphone, 1.3-megapixel camera, and a black & white external display for $69.99 on a 2-year contract. Joining the AX355 is the AX390, another LG handset that also lacks EV-DO. The 390 drops the camera but shaves 10 bucks off the out-the-door price, coming in at $59.99 with contract. Both phones support Alltel’s “Touch2Talk” PTT service and are available immediately.

[Via phoneArena and Mobilewhack]

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