Random cellphone babbling thread #1

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Ok, the wife *really* wants a Storm...mainly because Verizon has a sale on the BB Storm (buy one, get one free), plus Jessica gets an additional 20% off. Since the Storm's issues are well documented, has RIM fixed them yet? The phone has been out since November 2008, so you'd think that RIM and VZW would have plenty of time to fix any hardware/software issues.

 

Kit, I'll tell you everything you want to know about phones on the chatroom, a bit later this week. Sit tight.

And on a different note, there was a Moto W370 at work that nobody ever claimed. My boss gave me the green light to keep it, so expect a field test fairly soon.

 

Can't...the rest of the week consists of work and sleep, 12 hours each. The wife is making me wake up early today before work to go buy the 2 Storms and sign the devil's deed with Verizon.

I guess we'll see how things fare with the Storm...

 

Hokay, asking at Telus about whenever the Storm is better than it was when it came out, the answer is yes. The initial firmware had overall lag issues, and so did the accelerometer -- yes, the Storm can be used sideways to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Speaking of the keyboard, RIM has made something totally different with the touch interface by souping it up with haptic feedback. In short, that means you litterally physically press the screen down. It sure sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it's actually pretty cool... though if you're a heavy text messaging user, your fingers will quickly feel sore.

Data-wise, the Storm has EVDO rev. A, and I'm not sure how big of a data user you are, but EVDO speeds are pretty damn good. You also get full-blown quadband GSM/HSPA radios for roaming in Europe, but the Storm is SIM-locked to Vodafone. Surprised? It all makes sense when one realizes Verizon is partly owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone also happen to have a few shares. I am not aware of any way to remove the SIM lock, and VZW won't do it for you.

And the icing on the cake?

Code:

Type: LCD (Color TFT/TFD)
Resolution: 360 x 480 pixels
3.3"   diagonal
Colors: 65,536 (16-bit)

In short, I'm not sure how much the new firmware actually improves the Storm, but from what I read, it addresses the lag issues big time. Do let me know your thoughts on the Storm, though.

 

I've played around with the in-store demos for a good hour (I was waiting for the wife to get off work). I typed up about a dozen lines of text on it, and the clicking didn't make my fingers hurt at all. One nice touch is that when your finger comes in contact with the screen, the letter you're about to press glows so you know it's the right "key".

As for firmware, I read a few minutes ago that RIM is coming out with another version soon that will make the Storm compatible with 32GB+ memory cards.

 

I take it you liked the Storm's keyboard, then? As I said, the Storm did tempt me, but the absence of a hardware keyboard flips me out a bit... especially after seeing some of my friends' touch phone's screen go bonkers -- go HTC Touch. Good if it's down your alley, but I wouldn't get a touch phone.

Aaaand, as promised...

Field test: Motorola W370

Someone forgot this sucker at work, never claimed it back, and I ended up with it. It's claimed as a low-cost alternative to the RAZR... does it deliver?

Modes: Tri-band GSM 850/1800/1900. The fact that a low-cost handset supports an European frequency is rather unusual, I admit.

Battery life: Moto rates this sucker for 18.8 days. Expect about two weeks of mild usage out of the battery. Interestingly, the W370 uses a BQ50 battery, the very same battery the cheap Tracfone W175g I bought in NYC last summer uses. It's rated for 200 minutes in conversation mode. Since I don't rattle my jaw for nearly three hours in a row, I don't know if it holds up to the promise.

Signal: To my surprise, the W370 takes a page out of the RAZR book and has great RF performance. I had no problems holding conversations even in weak signal areas, and considering that Rogers' GSM network also is underlaced with the old 1900MHz Fido network, those spots are pretty much a novelty.

Sound quality: The V3 was good, but not great on this point. The W370 follows in this vein.

Form factor: Clamshell

Phone and keyboard feel: One of my gripes with the RAZR is that it's too damn wide to be held comfortably. The W370 retains the RAZR design, but taller and slimmer. The W370 actually feels great in the hand, and I had no problem operating it with one hand. The 4-way key and "5" key are raised which makes finding the keys easier without looking, but since the numeral pad's buttons are not raised, you'll definitively have to look at it.

Screen: 128*160, 65,535 colors TFT LCD. Readability in the sun has been an issue. The W370 lacks an external screen, but the black part on the phone's front holds three icons - calls, messages, and battery, and the appropriate icon light will light up when getting either a call, message or the battery running out.

Camera: "Budget phone" and "camera" don't go together. No deal.

Final score: 9/10.

Random thoughts:
- Laggy firmware. Not unbearable, but annoying.

Overall, the W370 is a fine entry-level phone that delivers the goods for someone looking for a basic, no-frills handset. It's good to see Motorola redeeming themselves and ousting better phones than back in the days.

*EDIT* Well, experimenting with USB connectivity, I discovered you can connect the W370 as Mass Storage Device. It gives access to the phone's storage space just like a USB flash drive. It's then a simple matter of uploading your own wallpapers/ringtones. Even better, it's COMPLETLY FREE OF DRM!

This is the second GSM Motorola phone I own and the V3 is just as piss easy to personalize, though unlike the W370, the V3 requires MPT. I'm starting to take a serious liking to Motorola phones for the fact you can pretty much customize everything. And I do mean *everything*.

But more seriously, this piss easy way to customize the W370 scores big points in my book, and I'm fairly certain there's gonna be faceplates offered, so if I can tweak it to my liking, that's one GSM I like.

 

Ok, I bought a Samsung J700 (for £40, more my price range) and although it looks really nice, I really don't like it. My main issue is the fact it only stores 200 text messages, and I can't work out how to use the SD card for text memory - after playing around with it for a bit, I don't think it's possible.

I'll be selling it ASAP, but can anyone recommend a cheap phone with good text memory?

 

WTF, do you write freaking novels by SMS?!? I'm not aware of any way to save messages to a SD card.

 

If he's like me, and saves all the really funny txt messages, you fill up the memory prety fast. I've learned to save the media to my SD card if I really like it...anything else ends up getting deleted once my txt memory is full.

 

Blackberry 7100 review coming soon. 5810 was okay, 7290 was terrible, how will the 7100 be? I'm unsure about a SureType Crackberry, but I'm itching for a smartphone.

 

We got our Storms in the mail today. I spent well over an hour trying to do something as simple as changing my status on Facebook....however, I was on the full HTML site. Once I went to m.facebook, I achieved my goal in under a minute.

DotW, how secure is mobile banking? My bank has a BB app...and I'm just a little uneasy about having full access to my account on a phone that also has full internet access.

 

I'm not an expert, but cnet has an article about mobile banking which might interest you:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10164244-83.html

 

Field test: Blackberry 7100t

The 5810 was okay and the 7290 was terrible. Will the third time be the charm? Will the 7100 redeem the Blackberry name?

...OH HELL YEAH!

Modes: Full blown quad-band GSM.

Battery life: Rated by RIM for 10 days, so far so good, though I haven't set up push email yet, so I'll update this section when I have a definitive answer.

Signal: The 5810 was decent for a single-band (1900MHz, the other frequence the 5810 has is 900MHz, which is not used in NA), the 7290 was downright terrible switching to "No Service" like a F'N [expletive]. And since the 7100 is quadband, this means both 850MHz and 1900MHz are used, significantly cranking the performance of RF versus say the single-band 5810. The 7100 passed the Dead Zone test very satisfyingly well. This CrackBerry was then jokingly nicknamed "Redemption" by my bro.

Sound quality: The 5810 lacked an earpiece and microphone (as the phone functions were designed after the PDA functions), so depending on the headset employed, sound quality varies an awful lot. The 7100 sounds great, though cranking up the maximum volume wouldn't have been a luxury... using this Berry in a noisy place is painful. Speakerphone is loud aplenty, and sounds good too.

Form factor: Candybar -- surprisingly small, too.

Phone and keyboard feel: Since the 7100 has a SureType keyboard, the 7100 is SIGNIFICANTLY smaller than a full-blown QWERTY CrackBerry. SureType requires a learning curve, though... BUT, the more you use the Berry to send mails/texts, the smarter it gets since it auto-learns the words you use that are not in the dictionary. Those words are stocked in a "Custom Wordlist" which you can access to add/delete/modify words .

Screen: A huge 240*260, 65,535 colors TFT LCD. A royal PITA to look at in the sun, requiring me to crank the backlight up to 100.

Final score: 9/10. The 7100 has restored the RIM name it's full glory. I am very pleased with this Crackberry. There is, however, some laggyness upon powering up, but once it's up and running, it's speedy and responsive.

Firmware dates back to '06... I'm a bit reluctant to update it since I'm worried about the possibility of the Berry re-locking after the update... this is an unlocked T-Mo Berry, not a Robbers-branded Berry.

IN A FEW WORDS:
- Speakerphone is pretty damn good.
- Wouldn't win a beauty contest.
- The initial laggyness is a bit irritating (but seems to happen after a battery pull and not a regular shutdown)
- Kickass RF
- Good ol' tried, tested and true RIM push email integration -- regardless of how hard it tries, the iTrash is no Crackberry... or BIS, for that matter.

 

So I've got a problem with my Storm. I'll go to work with a full charge, and when I go on break 2.5 hours later, I'll take my phone out of my locker, and it'll be quite warm to the touch...and the battery will have gone from 100% to <5%. It has happened several times, and the wife told me I need to Menu > Close my way out of everything one page at a time, because apparently, on a BB, the red "end call" button does *not* end all like it does on every F***ING phone I've had prior! Anyway, I do as she says, and the things still gets hot like it's been overworked for 2.5 hours straight!

First off, *WHY* does the end call button not terminate every open app? And is there a way to change that?

Secondly, have you ever heard of such issues?

and lastly, how hard is it to program an app for a BB? I want a "flashlight" app...but all the ones currently out there only bring up a white screen. I want one that uses the insanely bright LED flash for a flashlight...yet, no one has made such an app.

 

Just out of interest, has the G1 been reviewed here?

 

Kit, I believe you likely have a defective battery. Since your Storm is new, head to a VZW store and explain the situation to them. Since it's under warranty, they'll swap your battery for a new one.

Not to my knowledge.

Installing an app is piss easy. You'll need Blackberry Desktop Manager, and of course the app you want to install.

Go to "Application Loader". Go to "Add / Remove applications". You'll see a list of the apps installed. Click "Browse", and head to the place where the applications files are, and select the app you want to install. Desktop Manager will take care of the rest.

No. If the G1 is ever reviewed, it will not be by me, as I have no interest whatsoever for the device.

 

Can I ask why? I'm genuinely curious.

 

The G1 is fugly, expensive, and I fail to see the point of the Android platform. Open source platform? If LiMo could be pushed harder, there would be no need for Android.

 

It's not a pretty phone, but i've seen far, far worse so it doesn't really bother me. I didn't realise the mighty DotW was so superficial

As for it being expensive, I can't see this point atall. I got a Samsung G600 for exactly the same monthy price with the same initial outlay for the phone, and the G600 didn't have unlimited internet tied in.

And finally, i've never used anything with LiMo on it so I can't really comment on it, but personally I think Android is great. Of course, as i'm pretending to be you, my opinion is simply fact. Therefore, Android is great.

 

Heh... that gave me a chuckle. Try as hard as I can, I can't find any beauty in the G1. Don't get me wrong, I've seen my fair share of beauty in the eye of the beholder when it comes to phones myself, but there are phones you don't like at first sight, and for me, the G1 falls in this category.

And good for you if you like Android. I've been a longtime Blackberry user, so maybe I'm biaised. If I ever get the chance to play with a G1, I will, and make my own opinion on it, but I have no plans to buy one.

Just what the hell are you implying?