Motorola Theory (Boost Mobile)

The $79.99 Motorola Theory is a solid cell phone for users looking to talk and text while saving some money with Boost Mobile's low monthly rates. It's got a great QWERTY keyboard, good call quality, and a nice display. Everything else is a bit dated, but the Theory should satisfy talk and text fanatics.

Design, Keyboard, and Call Quality
The Motorola Theory looks and feels more luxurious than its price tag would lead you to believe. You wouldn't be out of line in confusing it for a BlackBerry. It measures 4.4 by 2.4 by .5 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.5 ounces. The back of the phone is made of soft-touch black plastic, while the front is shiny and glossy. The function keys are made of greyish plastic with a wood-grain look and sit directly below the phone's 2.4-inch LCD. The display is surprisingly sharp for 320-by-240 pixels, and again looks to be of a higher quality than you'd expect at this price range. Overall, the Theory is a very handsome device.

The real draw here is the QWERTY keyboard, and the Theory doesn't disappoint. The keys are nicely sized, raised, and well-separated. My fingers are less than nimble, yet I found it fast and easy to type long messages on the Theory. The spacebar on the keyboard lacks the same springy feeling as the rest of the keys, so that took some getting used to. But the selection keys are big enough, and I had no trouble navigating my way through the phone's simple UI.

The Theory is a single-band (1900 MHz) CDMA device with no Wi-Fi which runs on Sprint's nationwide 2G 1xRTT network. Reception was fine, and call quality was good overall. Calls sounded loud and clear through the phone's earpiece. Calls made with the phone were also good—voices could sound a bit muted, but there was decent background noise reduction. Calls sounded clear over the speakerphone, though the volume is a touch too low to use outdoors. I was able to easily connect to my Aliph Jawbone Icon Bluetooth headset ($99, 4 stars) and call quality was good. Voice dialing worked fine and battery life was average at 5 hours and 31 minutes of talk time.

Apps, Features, and Conclusions
Boost's $50 per month plan offers unlimited voice calls, texting, and Web access, which is a pretty fantastic value. Better yet, that $50 monthly fee is reduced by $5 for every 6 payments you make on time, until you reach $35. With unlimited data at your fingertips, it'd be nice to put it to good use. The Theory's Myriad Web browser did a decent job rendering basic WAP pages, and everything looked pretty good on the phone's display. The Theory may not have true high-speed Internet, but Sprint's 1X network is still much faster than the iDen network used by the competing Motorola Clutch +i475 ($99.99, 3.5 stars). The Theory is fine for casual mobile Web access, but it isn't the phone to get for real desktop-style browsing.

Motorola CommandOne Bluetooth Headset: The Cyborg [Review, Primo ...

Despite the word “Droid” plastered everywhere, the new Motorola CommandOne Bluetooth headset ($100) has already become my friend. True, it’ll never learn to pronounce my name correctly, is misunderstood by some of my other friends and has questionable fashion sense. We remain friends, however, because it’s easy to understand and comfortably fits in my ear. It’s unlike most relationships, but it works for us.

The Good:

Sound from the CommandOne is good. Callers are crystal clear, and even at mid-volume, the sound is crisp enough to earn a nice golf clap. This is true whether you’re listening to a friend praising (or complaining about) their iPad or listening to music via the headset’s A2DP technology.

The earpiece doesn’t require that feeling of being rooted into your ear canal to work, so those who fear overly-intrusive headsets due to fears of suddenly being called on by the  Cyber-Controller won’t have to worry about being upgraded due to a bad choice in headset. Instead, the headset’s earhook secures the piece to your ear, allowing your ear to breathe (even if it does make you look a little like a half- Lobot ).

When pairing the headset, a phantom voice sounding somewhat similar to Darth Vader tells you exactly how much battery life the headset has remaining. This is also indicated by an icon that appears next to the iPhone’s own battery life indicator. Battery life is decent, close to its rated talk-time of five hours.

Cosmetically, the whole piece is really light and plastic-y, and it almost feels like a cheap child’s toy. When it comes to fashion sense, the CommandOne won’t find a place on either the worst or best dressed list as it plays it just a bit too safe.

Controls are a bit befuddling too.The volume controls consist of two rubber buttons on the side of the helmet. With the mute button just down below the two volume controls (and very close to the texture), getting used to actually control the volume instead of muting your call takes a little practice. At the top of the headset is a call button a little more delicate feel ourselves as the rest of the headset that I find generally easier just to answer the call with the iPhone touchscreen .

Plug the headset into the charger is a bit awkward with the charge socket on the top of the helmet in the middle of the call key. Because of the curved shape of the call button, I usually found myself making two or three unsuccessful jabs at the socket before successfully connecting the headset to the charger.

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