Sprint announces the intrinsically safe Motorola i365IS

Motorola i365IS is the name of the newest push-to-talk handset announced by Sprint for its Nextel Direct Connect network.

Well, the phone itself is actually not that new, since it’s just an intrinsically safe (IS) version of Motorola i365, which is offered by Sprint since the fall of 2008.

Being intrinsically safe, the i365IS provides “a protection technique for safe operation of electronic equipment in explosive atmospheres, when used with IS battery and accessories.”

Other than that, the device looks similar to the i365 and it has the same features, including:

• Ultra-rugged design, meeting military specs for dust, humidity, blowing rain, vibration and shock
• 64K colors display with 130 x 130 pixels
• Second Line Service
• GPS navigation
• Bluetooth
• Speakerphone
• 5.3 x 2.1 x 1.2 inches
• 7.05 ounces
• Talk time: up to 300 minutes

Sprint doesn’t say how much the Motorola i365IS costs, and neither when it will be available for purchase (but this should happen pretty soon).

Via Sprint

Motorola Stature i9 announced, Sprint and Boost will release it soon

Motorola i9, a handset that we’ve seen several times before, has finally gone official, under the full name of Motorola Stature i9.

Touted as the thinnest iDEN flip phone (15 mm), the i9 will be available via Boost Mobile by the end of February, with Sprint getting it shortly after that.

Boost Mobile will sell the Motorola Stature i9 for $299 free of contract, while Sprint’s 2-yr contract price is of $199.99.

The i9 is not only the thinnest iDEN handset, but it’s also among the ones which have the most advanced features. Here’s what the phone comes with:

• A 2.2 inch TFT internal display with 240 x 320 pixels
• A 2.0 inch TFT external display with 240 x 320 pixels
• External illuminated keys with ModeShift technology
• Built-in GPS
• Openwave 7.2 browser
• Next Mail
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Music player
• A 3.1 camera with autofocus and flash
• MicroSD card support, up to 8GB

If you’re interested in Sprint’s offering, you can pre-register for the i9 at the carrier’s official website.

Via Press release

Motorola Inferno to be released soon as Motorola Torch by Verizon?

Motorola Inferno is one of those Moto handsets that leaked at the end of last year with Verizon written all over them.

Now word on the street is that the Inferno will actually be called Motorola Torch. Even more, BGR says that Verizon will begin hardware trials with the Inferno / Torch as early as next month.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the handset will be released next month, but it’s a sign that it shouldn’t take long until this happens.

The new Inferno / Torch seems to be the successor of Moto Krave ZN4, thus it might also be referred to as Krave 2 or Blaze 2.

Unfortunately, there’s no info about the features the new flip phone has, but it’s said that what we can see in the above image doesn’t actually represents the real handset, as Moto has made some changes in its design.

Now we can only hope that we’ll be blown away when Verizon and Motorola decide to officially launch the device.

Motorola i465 mixes iDEN technology with a QWERTY keyboard

A Motorola phone with a QWERTY keyboard is certainly not something you’ve never seen before, but when that phone is also an iDEN one, well, then we’ve got something special.

And the new Motorola i465 is exactly that: an iDEN handset with a QWERTY keyboard.

There’s nothing official about the i465 for the moment, but an image with it has just been unveiled by Engadget.

The phone looks kind of weird, perhaps because a small display can’t look “normal” when paired with a QWERTY keyboard.

Regarding the features of Motorola i465, the only known ones are Bluetooth 2.0 and a 2001-like VGA photo camera. Release date and pricing details are obviously not known yet.

Orange MotoPrizm released in Korea

Motorola Prizm (or MotoPrizm), the Korean edition of Motorola Krave ZN4, has just been launched in a new and good-looking orange version.

Coming shortly after the dark grey version released in December 2008, the orange Prizm offers similar features. And no, I’m not talking about features similar to the one of Verizon’s Krave ZN.

Motorola has blessed the Prizm with a 840 x 480 pixels touchscreen display, a 3MP camera and mobile TV capabilities.

And these surely make it better than the Krave, which only has a 240 x 400 pixels display and a 2MP camera.

Sadly, both of the MotoPrizm versions are Korea-exclusive products. But maybe, just maybe, Motorola will soon come with an orange Krave ZN4 too.

Via NewsWire.co.kr

Motorola ZN300 pics & specs, Motorola QA1 UI

Yesterday we told you about 4 new Motorola phones nearing the release date - Motorola QA4, ZN300,VE465 and VE66 Luxury Edition.

Unfortunately very limited information about the new handsets was available. We weren’t even able to bring you the images of the darn things.

Well, today we might do a little better, since we’ve got some more info about the upcoming Motorola Zine ZN300 music slider.

As you can see from the picture it looks like an incremental upgrade to a low end Motorola Zine ZN200 handset released last year. And the few specs that we know about confirm this.

The new Motorola ZN300 will come equipped with 3 megapixel camera, QVGA display and Opera Mini mobile browser.

Well, that’s about all we know about ZN300. But we also got confirmation about another Motorola handset in their QA line.

It’s a Motorola QA1. But at this moment all we can give you are some screenshots of it’s UI:

Which probably indicates a touch capability and what looks like a rather smallish display.

Via Mobile Review

Motorola VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux get semi-official

We knew a while ago that official Motorola site webmasters are not really at the top of their game.

And as the launch of new Motorola handsets approaches, they sometimes tend to appear on it’s official site before the official announcement.

Today, in such a semi-official way Motorola confirms 4 new phones – VE465, ZN300, QA4 and VE66 Lux Edition.

We already heard about Motorola VE465 as it passed through FCC. It’s a low end CDMA/Ev-Do music clamshell with 1.2 mpx camera:

The other model to appear is Motorola ZN300. Only in this case we do not have the picture of the phone itself, only the model number and interface screen capture:

Which does not tell us very much about the new handset.

For Motorola QA4 Halo it’s the same situation. Only some phone menu screen captures are available:

It’s too early to guess, but the picture itself seems to confirm rumored Web widget capability, and the app icons at the bottom of the picture indicate touchscreen functionality. Other rumored Motorola QA4 Halo specs include CDMA/EV-Do connectivity, 2.8″ 400×240 px display and built-in accelerometer.

And finally there’s Motorola VE66 Lux. Not even a picture here, but the name makes it kinda obvious that this will be a Luxury edition of Motorola VE66 phone.

Via Mobile Review