One of Boost’s unique features, in addition to traditional voice and text messaging, is the ability to connect subscribers using a walkie talkie type connection (formerly known as Direct Connect) accessed by pushing a button on the side of the Boost phone.

When the phone’s button is pushed you  connect almost instantly to another walkie talkie capable phone without any need to dial (other than the  unique walkie talkie number of the person you’re calling which is different than their phone number). These phones can also connect to Sprint/Nextel phones, participate in group chats and  work locally as well as nationwide. 

Boost Mobile is a prepaid service which uses Sprint/Nextel technology and frequencies. Boost was  one of the first nationwide prepaid cellular companies to introduce an unlimited plan  for $50 per month which provides unlimited voice calling, text messaging, and walkie talkie.  If you don’t want an unlimited plan they also offer pay as you go pricing which is about .10/minute or walkie talkie only can be used for $1 per day.  Boost sent  an i465 (also available on Sprint/Nextel) for testing and here’s what we found.

The i465 at $199 is affordable if a tad pricey for the prepaid market. The case is all plastic and feels as if it would withstand a few drops onto the pavement. There were no creaks or loose parts with my only real complaint being the charger door.

It may have been the charger that I was sent, but every time I went to plug in the microUSB charging adapter it was difficult to wedge past the open door.

At least once when I went to charge I found that I hadn’t pushed the power plug all the way in and when I took it off the charger the battery showed as nearly depleted.

Calling quality on the phone was excellent.

I had no missed calls or any problems completing walkie talkie calls between phones including a call to a Sprint/Nextel subscriber in Palm Beach Florida. Battery life seemed a tad short. While it is rated for 204 minutes of talk and 100 hours standby -  I found myself double checking the power level midway through the second day. I wasn’t able to run enough testing to say for sure whether the i465 was running out of power faster than it should and the battery never fully depleted on me but the levels got lower than what I’d expected for the light usage that it received during testing.

The Boost (and underlying Sprint/Nextel carrier service) has on occasion been criticized in various discussion forums for having somewhat unreliable calling and messaging. In my testing with over two dozen calls I noticed no problems or delays with regular text messaging. I was however unable to send a picture taken on the phone to an external email address.  The picture message (MMS) also did not arrive on my iPhone arrived 7 hours after being sent to my iPhone and my email.

The service was markedly improved from the last time I’d tried a Boost Mobile phone.  I used the phone on a trip into New York City as well as a visit to the Mohegan Sun Casino on what must have been the busiest night of the year (which often means  heavy cell phone use can cause dropped calls – of which I had no issues).

I had several people try the phone interface which has not  changed one bit since I’d last regularly used a Nextel phone (which is the service that Boost ultimately runs on) about 10 years ago. Everyone was able to navigate and complete calls without problems.

Perhaps one reason the interface hasn’t been modernized is that Motorola is the sole source for Boost phones and without a larger market for the phone there’s likely not much motivation to create a new interface. So far as I am able to tell all Boost phones share the same interface – even the more expensive i9 model.

The interface is serviceable but it’s old school Motorola with mostly text options that sometimes are buried a few levels deep.

The right side of the main display contains shortcut keys to messaging, web and the camera (which also allows for taking video).

The web browser is 100% WAP which means you’ll see text and not much more. The camera allows  five resolutions, from 640×480 down to 128×160. There are two quality settings, zoom, self-timer, adjustable brightness, and two shutter sounds. The video camera offers a similar set of editing options with a maximum 16 second length but longer in standard mode.

Bluetooth connections are supported and pairing with my Plantronics Voyager Pro was trouble free with good audio quality.

I had trouble taking picture samples off the camera. The MMS feature would not send out a photo to either my email or Flickr account email addresses. I also was unsuccessful sending an MMS to my iPhone.

Where the i465 interface becomes cumbersome is in the area of text messaging. It takes several unnecessary clicks to select an address and send a text message. The interface is the same on both Boost i465 and i9 that I have for testing.

Most people will use their address book to find the number to send a text message. From the initial screen you click on the TO field where you awkwardly must keep clicking several times until you’re eventually able to find an address.  It’s just more steps than seem necessary.

Screen resolution on the phone is only 120 x 128 with 16 bit color depth (65000 colors).  So long as you’re not expecting to view high resolution images or wallpapers you’ll be fine.

The display image quality to me seemed on par with other pre-paid phones that I’ve used – meaning not great but very usable and readable.  Most importantly I had no trouble viewing the display outside in bright sunlight.

The selling point on the i465 is the clearly the keypad as the user interface and functionality of the i465 is virtually identical to other Boost Mobile prepaid phones. The keys on the i465 were very easy to use and typing text messages was significantly easier than trying to use a more traditional phone such as the Boost i9. Given a choice between a traditional flip phone and the i465 I’d take the i465.

While walkie talkie use seems to be on the wane in terms of popularity I found it to be useful for keeping in touch with my kids. Several times I’d send them down to the road to the playground and keep in touch via walkie talkie. While some of this functionality could be duplicated simply by using traditional walkie talkies the advantage of the Boost Mobile service is that your walkie talkie connections  are nationwide. If I’d have been on a business trip I could have easily connected back to the phone  inside my house.

Calling quality was excellent. Several times I placed and received calls in an area that only had one or two bars of signal coverage. There was no wavering or breakup and I never dropped a call. Boost’s a good choice for anyone interested in their affordable prepaid calling plans that combine walkie talkie and voice calling.

Link: Boost Mobile i465 – $199 without any contract

Boost Mobile loaned Geardiary both an i9 and i465 (with service) for testing. Both phones are being sent back at the completion of the review.

What I liked:

- Calling quality was excellent
- The alphabetic keypad was easy to use and made texting much easier versus a traditional flip phone
- Screen was easy to view in outside light

What Could Be Improved:

- The Motorola interface is dated
- Many steps required to select address from phone book and send text message
- Wasn’t able to sent MMS to an email address or my iPhone (Update: MMS arrived — about 7 hours after being sent)

Related posts:

1. Boost Mobile set to roll unlimited voice, text, (slow) web – $50
2. Motorola Clutch i465 now shipping from Boost Mobile – $129
3. Boost Mobile i9 is thin, solid and dependable
4. Target has $50 prepaid phone cards for Verizon, Boost, T-Mobile, AT&T for $44
5. Readylink possibly euthanized as remaining user notified to switch