Durability of the I730

I have to say that the I730 I have through Boost Mobile is the most durable
phone I have ever seen. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Motorola
I730, but it is (for now) offered through Nextel and Boost Mobile. It
features a color screen (130 by 130 pixels) as well as polyphonic,
monophonic, and wav ringtones, GPS, Java enabled games. There are a few
other nice features as well, but what I want to talk about, is the
durability. I have to be one of the most inattentive person in the world
when it comes to my cell phone.

I have a job working in a factory that can be very demanding physically at
times. My I730 was always positioned on my side with just the snap on cradle
that came with it. In the last couple of years that I've had the phone, it
has been dropped to the concrete from heights of 15 to 20 feet depending on
what I was doing at the time. It has had forklift forks dropped on it. It
has been dropped and kicked by accident across the warehouse floor.

My home life can be as demanding as well. The I730 has been run over by a
four-wheeler, riding lawn mower (blades engaged), dropped in mud and then
run over by a car. It has been left in the snow for a number of days.

These situations are just the consolidated list of things that can happen to
most people. The difference is, they may not all happen to everyone. It just
so happens that they did to me, no doubt to carelessness. After all the
abuse listed above, my phone still worked fine. The screen was just as clear
as was the ringtones were as loud as the day I bought it. You will notice I
used the words "worked fine" above.

The reason I used past tense is not because the phone doesn't work now, but
because it isn't working as fine as it once did. I did put it through one
last final abusive torture that proved to be a little much. I got a little
angry and the only thing in reach was my phone. It hit the wall with such
force, that the battery cover flew off and the battery separated from the
phone to continue flying another 15 yards with enough force to penetrate the
ground. The really cool color screen shattered inside the phone itself, but
remained inside due to the safety cover over the screen. I then realized
what I had done, and was very disappointed with myself. I was so angry at
myself for throwing the phone, I forgot what I was originally angry about.
What really amazes me is the fact that I can still make calls and receive
them as well. The outside display is still intact so I still have caller ID
and access to the recent calls list.

I am left with a choice. Get a new phone (I730) or fix this one with $25
worth new parts from eBay. I figured why not just get a new one and fix the
old one. A phone this durable disserves the credit for the abuse it
received.

It's just too bad Boost Mobile will be discontinuing the sale of these
phones soon.