i856 Best of the Prepaid

I ordered the i865 from Boost Mobile on Tuesday (its release date by Boost) and received it yesterday. I ordered it for my son's birthday (hence the prepaid phone to avoid monthly bills).

The phone is the best of class for prepaid (pay as you go phone) except for possibly the Motorola i9 (which is almost twice the cost). I spent HOURS AND HOURS looking across all providers for a decent prepaid phone with wide variety of features.

i856 has the following features normally reserved for contract phones:

1.) Good camera 1.3 Megapixels - takes pretty nice pictures for a phone
2.) Video capture, with unlimited record mode (with memory card). This is a big feature as my kids love recording their webkinz, funkeys, freaky creatures, etc. It is a nice smooth recorder (not hurky jerky like the Virgin Mobile Shuttle) with a good picture.
3.) Nice MP3 player with good speakers.
4.) Any MP3 can be set as the ringtone (another big one for my kids).
5.) Games / Apps can be loaded via IDEN Jal. This requires the Motorola mini-usb data cord.
6.) Wallpaper can be set from any photo or picture.
6.) Pictures / Music / Ringtones / Wallpapers /Videos can be transferred via bluetooth, memory card reader (a little inconvenient with the memory card behind the battery) or via IDEN Jal / My Jal (with USB cord). I have been using blue tooth because it is so easy.
7.) 176x220 screen is really sharp and bright and it is 2.2 inches, which can play videos in landscape mode.

Most of the stuff I listed above is much better than the Virgin Mobile Shuttle (which was my first purchase and then returned). Shuttle video limited to 1 minute, video is very jerky and low quality, camera low quality, blue tooth did not allow file transfer (headphones only), no JAL works with Virgin Mobile network, ringtones HAD to be purchases and NO free apps. Virgin Mobile goes out of their way to make sure ALL ringtones and apps need to be purchased.

Only identified Cons at this point:
1.) Can not figure out which format to make videos to transfer/play on the phone. I have tried several formats that meet the defined specs but not found the magic settings yet. Any help here would be appreciated but I have not googled yet and may find it quickly.
2.) Motorola IDEN phones have issues with the softkeys (those keys on the left and right just below the display screen). Motorola decided to make them not register the same way as other phones, so quite a few java apps (games) have issues. If the java app comes to a menu (Sound On) that requires input of left or right softkey then the app is stuck. If anyone has any input/help it would be appreciated.

Really good news for users of My Jal. It works with the i856. You need to use the same method as the i9. Load IDEN JAL, connect to the phone, then load MyJal, attempt to connect, IT WILL ERROR, press cancel and then the phone will connect. I have not found a great need for MyJal, as blue tooth allows loading of music, viedos, pictures, wallpapers and ringtones. IDEN Jal will load apps, so no need for My JAL at this point.

A great release for Motorola and Boost Mobile.

CJae

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For the videos, if you have real player converter, convert them into "cell phone" I believe it's called 3gp. I can't get to them through the "my videos" button, but if you go into the multi-media center and scroll through everything it will come up. Could you tell me how to get the mp3's as ringtones?

I'll consider upgrading to this phone. Any idea on how the T9 works?

the t9 isn't too complicated. it's... different, but works well and learns words instead of forcing you to re-type words it doesn't have stored manually after the first time you type it (this was a major problem with the t9 on my ZTE 76 [i think] from metro). als does smile thingies easily, if you use them often.
my only issue is that, just as you can play .mp3's as ringtones, the ringtones are often played along with my own music. it's made me think my phone was ringing a few times.