Motorola's r765IS now available at Sprint, perfect for making Navy SEALs swoon with envy
By Tim Stevens 
posted Aug 7th 2009 9:28AM
posted Aug 7th 2009 9:28AM
You can take your frilly iPhones and pretty Pres and shove 'em, because Motorola's latest and, perhaps, beefiest handset is finally available at Sprint stores. The r765IS, announced back in April, is Mil Spec 810F rated, so no worries about dropping it -- even into a bucket of salt water -- and that IS on the end means "intrinsically safe," so dial away even if you should happen to be standing in a room full of explosive gas, as we've been known to do from time to time. It also supports rather less exciting Nextel Direct Connect, NextMail to send voicemail as e-mail attachments, GPS navigation, and a variety of emergency calling modes for cutting through the bla bla bla. It's a little less slinky looking than some other Motorola handsets we've seen lately, but we'd clip one to our belts before heading to our next waypoint/coffee shop -- if only we had the requisite funding. A price of just under $2,000 ensures this will only be found in the mitts of the most well equipped mercenaries.
[Thanks, Brian]
Shouldn't they try to reach a larger target market?
They're for emergency services and the like (we have an older airwave type here at the Fire Service, allows us connectivity with the Police and Ambulance) - they're more radios than cells really.
Everything Motorola makes should end up in the Crapgadget column.
At consumer level perhaps. But this (and all the other stuff they do for emergency services) will actually be pretty solid kit.
Crapgadget, I think not. This a full 1 watt phone and not one of those puny 0.2 watt suckers that can't get a signal. Pretty awesome if you ask me.
lol omly problem bout paying $2000 for a phone is their shitty coverage
You forget that they own nextel, through which they own a very huge part of the local radio dispatch frequencies for tons of cities which they market as part of the iDEN network (which they haven't done a damned thing with since, to be honest). That's the coverage that's going to matter for someone with this thing. I wouldn't be suprised if the sprint network was just a fail over for when the normal radio can't get signal.
It's LOO, not Lou. Lou is a guy's name.
"It's a little less slinky looking than some other Motorola handsets we've seen lately"
I'll take this thing over the (piece of) Sholes that they linked to. But then, I'd take any entry level free-with-contract phone (except maybe Kyocera) over any Motorola.
...and what about the human operating it? Do they come with protection too? Similar issue to that with the underwater / water resistant phones from Nokia and Samsung: "Habla? Gargle blub blub, howbubble r u, blubble blob?"
blubble blob?
human?
I doubt there's any sprint signal where the toughness is really needed
I'm sooooooo tempted to go buy this. . .
1. I deleted Paul A. Chapel's comments.
2. I really, really want this phone. Badly
:D
I totally want this phone as well...Now if only my Pre had a whip antenna like THAT I would be all set!
Sexy.
Looks like it needs to come with a "My phone beat up your smart phone" bumper sticker.
Zach Morris wants this phone.
Does this phone has secure/encrypted voice capabilities?
it would really be nice if this was also a sat phone.
Big Deal. Make it a sat phone with a 'slightly' larger screen. Now THAT'd be a phone.
Safe for rooms with explosive gas? Water resistant? Hooray I can finally take a phone to a public bathroom!
It lacks a laser beam to paint targets... bhaaaaa...
Does it at least have a shortcut key to launch missiles, from remote site?
I wish they'd make a regular phone that had that button layout. Even better if it was a QUERTY slider. I'm sick of useless fashionista garbage everyone is cranking out these days.
This handset was developed for Disneyland Resorts who recently retired their SmartNet system and switched to Nextel. The main reason they switched platforms was Motorola charging $2000 for an MTS2000 handset. They've been going through Nextel i325 handsets like crazy, so M offered to solve the problem - for $2k per subscriber unit... figures.
I know you are being facetious, but the military or spec ops community would not use this device. It is for first responders or P25 community with the 800MHz band (military generally use 30-512MHz) that is trying to make it easier for them to be more interoperable
with each other. Spec ops use MBITR or other high end radios (cost about $5000). The MIL-810F is just the base standard for the military and a lot of organizations use this just because it is a standard. Most devices do not (like this one) use all the methods under 810F. Salt fog just means that it will not rust under those conditions.
The unit only does 0.6 Watts output, so you would not want to be in the middle of nowhere with this guy, especially if you do not have an RF amplifier. It does have a lot more bells & whistles though... Different market.
Engadget needs a way to rank and move intelligent comments such as yours over dipshit "QUERTY slider" comments that appear before it.
Bigger issue is that it contains no crypto...
I find this sexy. I think I want to go back 10 years into the past where all cell phones looked like this.
This is basically an iDEN version of M's Asia-Pacific market TETRA radio MPT850, with a few cosmetic touch-ups for USA. I already use an i580, which I enjoy. Two grand is a bit steep, despite the fact that I WANT ONE !!
I don't mind a brick...at least I can hold onto a brick, as opposed to a thin wafer. However, I don't find this radio "sexy", I find it "rugged". Sexy doesn't cut it in real-radio land. If you're one who complains about your radio pulling your pants down....wear a belt !
What Motorola should do, is downgrade the power to 600mW on both versions, so Sprint can allow it on the Nextel (and yes, Boost) networks. Even if Motorola still allowed 1 watt in MotoTalk mode, so much the better. But more than 600mW would tear up too many sites in Nextel's low-tier infrastructure, where 1 watt would be no problem on SoLinc. I'd suggest that Motorola do some coding to make the radio kick down to .6W if a Nextel or Boost SIM is used, and 1W if a SoLinc SIM is installed. The dual-SIM arrangement is a real plus.
It looks like my i355 mot. but... If you move to a place with no sprint-you loose the f... phone because they won't give you the UNLOCKING #s. You lose $2000!! Give me the UNLOCKING #s for my i355 and I'll retract my statement.