Although the i850 feels somewhat cheap and plastic-like on the outside, the new material is very lightweight. It's one of the few Nextel phones (besides the i830 and i836) that isn't bulky.

In his keynote address at CTIA, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse defended Nextel and its push-to-talk capabilities and added that Sprint this summer will be switching its push-to-talk (PTT) network to CDMA.