My i930 world Phone Experience

In anticipation of my trip to Europe, I made the mistake of putting my trust in a 17 year-old Radio Shack employee. This being my first business trip, I wanted to be sure every detail was on the up and up. I would also get a chance for a little R&R in the U.K. Naturally, this being my first hop across the pond I needed to know I was well equipped, and where else do you go for that? With dead eyes and a soul to match, I was assured by the kid, the travel adapter I needed for my Nextel i930 World Phone, was circular and two pronged. Well guess what…The U.K. is different than Europe which is different than America and so on and so on. Turns out the two prong is for Europe and a square THREE prong is for Britain. Thanks dead eyed Radio Shack kid who doesn’t belong in a Radio Shack or anywhere in the technology service industry! ! Thanks!

This I find out while starting my R&R. My i930 was ready for a recharge as soon as I hit the hotel room. I moved my skinny little bed, found an outlet and plugged in and short circuited pretty much everything in the room. Thanks dead eyed Radio Shack kid who doesn’t belong in a Radio Shack or anywhere in the technology service industry! ! Thanks! That was a fine googley I’ll tell you!

But, as far as my i930 goes, I found it to be a quite capable phone. Even with the 2-5 minutes it took to connect to VodaPhone, I found the coverage to be excellent once I did connect. If there was an emergency I might have been up a creek, but once I got someone on the line they would have heard me loud and clear.

One of the surprising details for me was the voltage difference between the U.S. and U.K. The U.S. is 230 volts while the U.K. is a paltry 110. So when I used my i930 after a full charge (in the U.K.) I only got a full 30 minutes of talk time. Not sure but maybe it’s because I had to use two different adapters.

The i930 is bulky, which fits in with the size of European currency. I think it was built this way to accommodate the smartcard slot. No speculation on European currency. The i930 has all the bells and whistles. It runs WM, has a camera (which I didn’t use). Voice recording, Explorer, SIMManager the usual WM suspects. One thing I found nice was the snap button. A little button to press when the flip lid is shut, this snaps the lid open quickly. I do however wonder how long that will work as the action is swift and hard.

One other surprise was the texting, or should I say lack of. When I tried to send a text, it flat out didn’t work. I’m going to do some digging, but I’m 90% sure it’s because Sprint won’t have a data roaming agreement in Europe until July when they launch the long awaited 8830.

Over all the i930 did the job. It’s not a sexy phone and it is certainly not as capable as the 8830 looks to be. But given a choice between a wall eyed uninformed employee, and the i930, I’ll take the Motorola. Thanks dead eyed Radio Shack kid who doesn’t belong in a Radio Shack or anywhere in the technology service industry!

Story by: Joseph Nomis