On February 29th, Motorola introduced the Next Generation of MOTOTRBO radios, the “e” series.
Professional Portable Radios: XPR7350e, XPR7550e
Compact and Capable: XPR3300e, XPR3500e
Slim line portable: SL7550e
Professional Mobiles: XPR5350e, XPR5550e
All of the new radios have the same form factor and basic features of their similarly named predecessors – with the addition of some major enhancements that will greatly benefit radio fleet managers.
1. All new e series radios have an integrated Wi-Fi option
Managing your radio fleet has been becoming more and more complex with the explosion of digital technology. Adding an alias, changing a setting, or adding a frequency could mean reprogramming and “touching” every single radio. This could mean pulling radios out of the field, or having our technicians go from jobsite to jobsite in order to reprogram your radios, costing you time and money.
Over the air programming while sounding great in theory has had its problems due to the very low data throughput these radios are able to receive in traditional two-way spectrum.
Wi-Fi capability in conjunction with Motorola’s radio management software allows the radio manager to make changes to a codeplug or update firmware from a central location. When users are in (company) Wi-Fi range the radio will notify the user of the new codeplug and they can simply update it. What once took weeks, days, or hours now takes days, hours, or minutes depending on the size of your operation.
2. Better battery life
A new high capacity battery option will allow for up to 28 hours of battery life. This is huge for multi-shift operations where battery management is a huge hassle. The hi-cap batteries will just about double the battery life of the standard batteries in the XPR3000 and 7000 series.
3. New Intrinsically Safe Option
There is now another option in the MOTOTRBO line for intrinsically safe (formerly FM, now UL) customers. The intrinsically safe option on the XPR3000e series has been coveted for some time by fleet managers looking to provide a cost effective, compact, digital solution for hazardous location communication.