Boost Mobile adds Motorola i290

To coincide with the roll out of their new unlimited plan, the folks at Boost Mobile have introduced a new phone: the Motorola i290. That’s it above. It’s a pretty basic candybar model, featuring Boost’s walkie-talkie service, GPS capabilities, SMS, and MMS. Really, though, it’s just a low-cost way to get into Boost’s nationwide unlimited service. It’ll cost you $49.99, and you can get it at Boost’s website.]]>

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14 Comments

  1. Bob Smart on April 30, 2009 at 10:03 am

    I just bought this phone 3 days ago and it turns on and off almost like resets itself randomly even when I am in the middle of a phone call which disconnects me from it. My opinion this phone sucks the big one and oh yeah the battery barely lasts 12 hours with a full charge.



  2. Crux Felder on June 4, 2009 at 8:17 am

    The Motorola i290 is a great phone. This phone has been my constant companion for the last two months since I signed up with Boost Mobile and it has worked flawlessly all around the Eastern US. Always got a strong signal in the mountains, in the cities, or on the beach. Fits easily in your pocket without having to wear a geek pouch on your belt. Somehow the phone, by itself, figured out that I wanted to lock the keyboard when it was in my pocket to avoid accidental presses. The keyboard unlocks when a call is received at the touch of a button. Great ergonomics!



  3. jimmy on June 11, 2009 at 6:14 pm

    crap! good plan but bad phone! that simple.



  4. sharon on June 20, 2009 at 12:57 am

    Just 2 days ago, my boyfriend bought both of us the i290. We both love this phone. We have had no problems so far. The sound quality is great. The walkie talkie feature works great. I told him that so far this is the best phone we have had and he strongly agreed. We are both very satisfied with the phones and service. This phone is the best.



  5. john on June 23, 2009 at 10:04 am

    My sister and I both got this phone about a week ago. It’s not the best phone I have owned, Nokia having better apps IMO. The walkie talkie feature is the best thing about the phone and makes it for me. As far as reception goes, well it can be spotty. I get next to no bars in my house, but outside it’s not bad. Also, there is no alarm feature, which is something I relied heavily upon with my old phones. I have to keep my old phone charged and ready just in case I need to wake up to be somewhere. Otherwise, great phone!



  6. chris on June 30, 2009 at 2:55 am

    No calculator!!! otherwise decent phone for the price



  7. rachel on October 9, 2009 at 8:22 pm

    I got this phone about 2 months ago. It will not hold a charge for more than a day, and I rarely even talk on my phone – this is because I hardly ever can get a cell signal. No alarm function on this phone either.. and for some reason I have to keep the volume on very low. If I turn it up beyond about halfway, the ringtone is so piercingly loud it literally hurts my ears to be in the same room.
    Thanks Boost Mobile! =P I think I’m going to switch back to AT&T as soon as I can afford to.



  8. David on December 27, 2009 at 1:43 pm

    I think its an ok Phone i got it like yesterday.. but the AT&T LG365 IS A GREAT PHONE I ALSO OWN ONE



  9. man on January 24, 2010 at 10:06 am

    Total piece of crap. This “phone” does absolutely nothing that the manufacturer says it does. Web browser works for the first week, then don’t work anymore, only accepts gif pictures, then you can only store and send, cant receive any type of mms other than gif, no mp3, no jpg, no applications of any sort, you can record your voice and send, but that don’t matter because it’s vnf file which don’t exist at all, so whomever you send it to get’s a useless file, has built in ringtones, but if you try to send it to your email address to find out what type of file it is, you can’t do that. No option for sending. Nothing truthfull can be found out about this phone other than user reviews, and some of them are not right. You can’t even get texts all the time. Sometimes texts are “downloading” and never show up. Other texts just don’t come in at all. Some texts that you send from this thing don’t go anywhere. This is the worst cell phone I have ever had in my life. Every time I try to do anything at all, I just want to destroy it. I’ve had to let it go after only a part of a month. Totally unacceptable. Had to shit can the service provider, Boost mobile as well because they only sell Motorola phones, and Motorola lies about their phone’s capeabilities and features, making it useless to get another phone that might work, might not. Plus if you try to email them with questions about their products, you can’t. AND no phone number to call, even though there is a link on their site to a page where it says will be a customer service phone number. – You are “ring around the rosied” to an endless amount of useless webpages that don’t give you a phone number.



  10. Jon on March 13, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    WORST PHONE EVER INVENTED! I had the c290 phone before, which was not the prettiest phone but it had FABULOUS reception everywhere i went, never a dropped call. But now that I have the i290, thinking it’d be an upgrade, I’m so angry with this phone. No alarm, calculator, barely ever get texts, won’t charge for sh** & THE WORST RECEPTION ON THIS EARTH! Whoever chooses to go with this phone-scratch that, whoever decides to go with BOOST, cancel your plans. You’ll end up killing yourself over the damn phones they have!



  11. ashole on June 18, 2010 at 12:59 am

    I keep getting a blinking white screen when trying to charge.. either on mini usb for computer, wall, or car charger.. wtf? I dont understand why it wont charge with manufacturers charger..



  12. Amber on August 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Phone shuts off randomly. Kind of bad reception but if you wait a few seconds, it eventually goes to at least 3 bars. It DOES have alarm btw. you just have to go to calender and create and “event” and put a reminder on the event. And, sometimes, your texts don’t go out or in. But it’s a pretty good phone overall. Nothing happens daily to the phone.



  13. gfx-dreams on August 28, 2010 at 10:28 am

    I have recently just got this phone from a buddy since I needed a Boost Mobile phone and I didn’t want to buy one. So since I’ve had it I have mixed reviews.
    Pro: has a nice loud speaker phone to it.
    The walkie talkie feature works good for me.
    I haven’t had drop calls, which is a good thing cause when I regular plan T-Mobile service I used to get drop calls, missed calls, etc.. you know what I’m talking about.
    Con: The Phone is kind of big IMO.
    The battery doesn’t last very long. I mean it doesn’t even last a full 24 hours after being fully charged!
    Some areas in Connecticut I can’t get good signal.
    No alarm function on this phone
    I mean the phone cant evene receive any type of mms other than gif, NO mp3, NO jpg.
    I main problem is that when someone sends you a voice mail and you don’t even check CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS, YOU GET A MINUTE TAKEN AWAY FROM YOUR AMOUNT. That’s some Bullshit IMO.
    I can’t think of anything else right now, but as for the phone 1-10 I would give it a 3! But HEY I needed a pre-paid phone and it’s doing what I need.



  14. Richard Hartness on June 7, 2011 at 9:22 am

    I bought this phone a year and couple of months ago, it was great for a basic phone, had to clear memory sometimes,when using web, but I liked it very much, great call quality, great look and build, id recommend it.