New name, Old toy

UrbanWire tries out Motorola's latest two-way radio offering.

By Kenneth Chiu • UrbanWire
email reporter • email story • printer friendly

"Stef to mum, where are you?" *beep*
"Mum to Stef, in the ladies dear, see you soon." *beep*

Think it sounds like your old Barbie walkie-talkie set you used to have so much fun with when you were young? You thought wrong.

In the light of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's (IDA) announcement in early February that the frequency bands 446.0-446.1 have been allocated to civilian low-powered walkie-talkies, without needing a licence, Motorola has released its latest two-way radio - the T6226. They may call it a grand scheme to "revolutionise mobile communications" in their press release, but isn't it just a walkie-talkie?

In 3 colours: Citrus yellow, forest green and navy blue, the T6226 seems to be designed with the mobile and active lifestyle of the youthful in mind. To be launched at the end of June, it's, however, intended by Motorola for young and old, male and female, ie everybody. The T6226 allows you to stay in touch with individuals or groups of friends and family on group outings and trips, as long as you're within a 3-kilometre transmission radius.

How would this beat SMS-ing?

For one, there's no subscription fee or airtime usage fees. Which means you guys can communicate with your buddies without worrying about an astronomical cell phone bill while rollerblading about the East Coast Park and the girls can yak with their gal pals, for as long as the battery lasts. Speaking of battery life, the T6226 runs on 3 AA alkaline batteries, affording it 35 hours of two-way use. According to Motorola, this equates to 90% standby time, 5% talk time and 5% receive time. Press on the large "Push to Talk" button located in the middle of the unit to speak and release to await a reply from your friend. It's quite simple.

Despite its relatively small size, 3 AA batteries mean it weighs a rather hefty bit, almost the weight of 3 Nokia 6610s. Packed into a sturdy plastic shell with black rubber buttons are some rather impressive features you never had on your Barbie set. The T6226 can create individual communication groups through its 5 primary channels and 38 interference eliminator codes; that makes 190 effective communication channels to pick from in all. That isn't too many actually. Should two-way radios catch on, we might soon find too many users using the same channel due to a lack of available channels. 190 pairs of users, on a channel each, would mean all channels are occupied. The rugged T6226's ergonomically designed form, which is supposed to fit snugly into the palm of an Asian hand, even a child's, looks uncannily like a hand grenade. Its unsightly marker pen like antenna sticks out on the top awkwardly; slightly undermining its aesthetic appeal.

Spy cool

The really impressive function would be Eavesdrop Reducer, which scrambles conversations into incomprehensible warbling to prevent any spying on your conversations, offering you more privacy. Think secret service communications encryption. However, as the term implies, it's only a reducer, which does not completely protect you.

Like a regular cell phone, the T6226 comes with features such as 10 different call tones to identify "callers", as well as a call tone to alert you of an incoming conversation. A confirmation tone signals that either party has finished talking. As with your handphone, you can switch the mode to either silent or vibration to mute the call tones and attach a hands-free set to have the conversation directed straight to your ears via the ear piece. Without an earpiece, it works much like a cell phone on speaker mode. It also has a keypad lock function to prevent accidental "calling" as well as a battery gauge to allow easy usage monitoring.

The Motorola T6226 two-way radio device is essentially a recreational device, so let's not have too lofty expectations for it. For greater credibility, the T6226 could do with improved transmission radius for reception over greater distances. Replacement of AA batteries with a rechargeable lithium-ion cell would greatly reduce its weight, while saving users the need to constantly replace their spent batteries.

The thought of having to lug around additional bulk besides your teeny cellular phone should already prove quite a turn-off. Otherwise, it is relatively easy to use and economical as it isn't plagued by fees and subscriptions cell phones experience; you just pay for the T6226 unit, at $109 and the batteries, then hope the other party has one too.