Motorola ic502 Buzz
Average Ratings
ic502
My father works as a dry waller, so we got the ic502. I am 12 and the smart one, he made me set up the phones. My phone started right up, and i called in set up my service. My dads phone would not even start, just a blank screen. I spent probably 2 days on and off talking with nextel.
After all that time they just decided to send my dad the ic602. that phone worked fine, but then my ic502 started acting up.
When I would turn it on, I would have to press the power button 3 times! The phone stopped charging, so my dad has to charged my batterie in his phone.
I hate nextel/sprint and cant wait till my 2 year agreement ends.
Do not buy this phon
My company got the ic502 as a promotion for only $0.99 and it definately was NOT worth it.
We received 20 phones. After all the phones were activated it was only then we discovered that we do not receive ANY service at our location. We had been told that utilizing both networks we would have better coverage than just off the IDEN network. Well they were incorrect.
With the 2 days it took to organize my staff to switch over to the new phones, the fact that the SIM cards are not compatible, and the time it took to switch back to our original phones this was a huge waste of time and money.
So if you are looking for better coverage- this is definitely NOT the phone for you.
Grate phone
I have had this phone for a few weeks. i can say i would buy another one.I have hand Sprint and Nextel both. Phone gets grate reception. Battery is not bad at all for as much as i use it. I get better reception with this phone then i did with my Sprint phone that was just CDMA.
my take on the ic502
I go through many phones, so i like a rugged phone and this one works great. not to mention i have not dropped a call or 2way call ever... I travel for work often throughout many states and this phone works hard it seems to pick up every tower...
PROs.
not one dropped call
easy to nav
rugged lil bugger
great sound
audio recording
great buy
CONs
not compatible with Moto phone tools
battery life problem. (does not hold a charge like it did when it was new)
over all it is a great phone. I have dropped it many times, even in water. it continues to work great. I have now dropped it in paint and well there is paint on the screen on the inside so i do need a new one now... im getting the 602 and will let you know what i think of that one as well.
Avoid this phone
I am responsible for issuing phones and dealing with Nextel for our company. When these phones came out, Nextel offered us a bunch of these phones for free to get us to switch to the hybrids. I issued them out to users, and the complaints started rolling in. The phone drops calls. Make a call, it drops, call the person back, it drops again. Repeat over and over.
The straight Iden phones work great in the same areas. Sprint CDMA phones work great in the same areas, but this bastardized merger of the two networks doesn't seem to work.
I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that most CDMA phones work in the 850 AND the 1900 band, and this frankenstein only works in the 1900 band.
If it were just one phone that had these problems, I'd think maybe it was a lemon, but when every single person that got one of these phones complained, I know that there is something wrong with either the phone or the system it is running on.
Since I know people with Sprint phones that DON'T have these problems, I'm going to guess maybe it is the phone.
Hate it -- leaving Sprint as soon as I can
How do I hate the ic502, let me count the ways:
First off for you Nextel users out there who think this will give you the "best of both worlds" -- it doesn't, this isn't a dual mode CDMA/Iden phone, it is basically a CDMA phone with the Iden circuitry grafted on, and only usable to contact other Iden subscribers via Push-to-talk.
Next, it uses mini-USB for charging, but Motorola (or Sprint) has crippled the USB port so that you can't use a USB cable to charge the phone, which means that you still have to drag a charger around with you instead of a USB cable, which you could plug into your laptop.
The phone has a "power save" mode --if you are in an area with no service, the phone will go into "hibernation". While this is a nice feature in that your battery doesn't get drained if you are in a low service area, the phone takes forever to wake up (unless you remember and flip open the clamshell so that it wakes up). I've moved from a bad service area to a good one and not had the phone "wake up" for more than 3 hours.
Additionally, I have had the phone die several times while using Motorola Phone Tools -- the USB port doesn't turn off or something and the battery drains, and then nothing will recharge it, short of taking the battery out of the phone and reseating it -- this may be my specific phone, as the techs at the Sprint store haven't seen this with anyone else, but I'm including it as yet another reason I hate this phone.
Add this to Sprint's awful customer service and I'm counting the days (214) until I can dump this and get something that is useful to me.
I gave it half a star because the ruggedized case is nice. I've dropped it on the floor a couple of times (I haven't thrown it against a wall, as much as I've wanted to) with no ill effects.
ic502
ic502, DON'T buy this phone. The coverage area is only CDMA 1900 (no CDMA 800/anolog). The CDMA 1900 service area is smaller than the Nextel service area. Have spoken with with Sprint/Nextel several times. For the hybrid phones to be an upgrade, will need to be a dual band/tri-mode phone (greatest coverage area). Spint/Nextel does not know when/if this will happen. If Nextel works for you, keep it. If not, and you can do without Direct Connect, go with Sprint (Make sure it is a dual band/tri-mode phone) or you will loose out again.
A nightmare to activate!
The phone is great if you can get the clowns at Nextel/Sprint to activate. Been on the phone with these incompetent customer service techs who don't know their head from their butt. This is the fourth hour that I have been on the phone trying to activate this phone. I have been transfered at least 30 times and still got nowhere. Person A doesn't know what person B is doing, nor do they have any clue about how to do anything besides transfer and make promises to call you back. It has now been many hours and still no callback.
In conclusion:
This is an anxiety attack waiting to happen.
I think it's a great little phone!
I upgraded from the i730 Nextel to this ic502 Hybrid phone a few weeks ago and have absolutely NO problems with it...yet! The upgrade (in an IMO Store) went flawlessly and the salesman/technician was very much qualified to perform the transition. I was able to use this phone immediately after exiting the store!
The Standard battery does not last long enough, maybe 1.5 days at most, but I expected that. I have ordered the Maximum Extended 1500mh Battery from Sprint/Nextel for the sale price of $24 instead of $69 which makes its cheaper than the Standard Battery price of $59!
The volumes for both phone calls and Walkie-Talkie are plenty loud enough. I even had to turn down the volume from 7 max to 6 or less! The belt clip is better designed and the phone is lighter and more durable than the i730. I have had only one dropped call and this was in an area where I typically got low to no signal anyway so I was not surprised.
Sprint never got it to work.
Our company has Nextel, and we purchased this phone for a new employee who already had a Sprint account. After multiple calls and 3 trips to the Sprint store, we simply gave up on it. There was an issue with the charger burning up the battery. Even after Sprint replaced the charger, the phone would not charge.
I recommend that anyone interested in this phone wait until Sprint and Nextel are better integrated.
