Random cellphone babbling thread #1

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Well...it's official; I don't want the Samsung T509 anymore. Two guys in my DC Electronics class both have one, and they both said that the battery doesn't last more than a day under normal talking conditions. One of the guys told me he's willing to go back to his old RAZR because of the crummy battery life.

I was telling another one of my classmates about the E900, and he brought up the phonescoop page while our teacher was out...needless to say, he was very impressed. He told me he might get it. I can only hope that he does. I want to hold it and see of the touch buttons are as awkward as people are claiming the LG's "chocolate" phone are...

 

I actually dig the Chocolate. Of course, the touch-sensitive buttons take some time getting used to, but otherwise, this phone is great. What's more, it uses the superior CDMA instead of GSM.



*ahem*

Did you even read my last posts about the T519? It's available as we speak, and it's a great phone - MUCH better than the crappy T509.

 

My wife's 1 year old Nokia is falling apart already, whereas my 4 year old Nokia 3210 is still like new. It might have another 4 years of good life left in it. I chuck it around all over the place and it handles it all. They don't make phones like they used to......

 

Well, I've had a D500 for bloody years and it's still going, despite all the gip it gets off me. Can't believe I've still got it...

 

True. Seems tha today phones are like pens, razors and stuff like that: disposable.

Just look at my T809... I've had it for a mere seven months and it's starting to behave weirdly. The MP3 player occasionaly freezes, the cam dishes out less than spectular pics, some of the buttons are conked up, and sometimes the phone just won't recognize a damn microSD card... okay, the phone was a prototype, which would explain the ****ed up behavior. Still, just compare it to my old, say, Nok 5165. It's been dropped from four stories, drowned in paint for five minutes, survived workshop hell, and still works just as great.

The cellphone is more of a fashion icon than anything else, it would seem.

 

To be honest, I don't read half of your posts.

Hehehe...just kidding. I don't really like the Trace. I'm now only drooling over the T809 (which T-Mobile no longer offers), the E900 (which TMo has yet to accept in to it's Samsung family of phones), and the T629.

 

Well, that's good to know.

But if T-Mo doesen't have anything to your liking, an unlocked Cingular (or whatever North-American provider, hell, a Rogers or Fido phone could even do the trick.) could do the trick just as well and best of all, they come without contracts.

The Trace isn't quite the epitome of beauty, I'll give you that. Also, Samsung have taken a little drop into my esteem - my T809 is starting to f*** up. But since you don't read my posts you probably don't know about it, huh?

 

I know more than you think. Like you said, your T809 is a prototype...so I'm blaming that. My current Samsung C225 has survived a weld shop, shipping line, and and my clumsiness for the past 2 years or so...and it still works just fine.

Now...the reason I've been looking at mostly TMo phones, is because I get a nifty discount on any TMo phone. Being poor as I am, I can't really afford to go all out and get an unlocked version of a differet carrier's phone. And unlike you DotW, I don't buy used phones.

 

Buying used CDMA phones is more tricky because unlike GSM - who identifies YOU to the network - CDMA identifies the PHONE to the network, so if the phone's ESN is blacklisted, you're pretty much screwed, though with some tinkering it's possible to flash the blacklisted phone and change it's ESN to a non-blacklisted one - I.E let's say you've got two CDMA phones, one is your current one, which works great, and the second one is the blacklisted one. With the proper software (I won't reveal my sources), the blacklisted phone's ESN can be read, deleated and replaced with the ESN of the OLD phone, thus making the blacklisted phone usable. This is a tricky operation, which precious rare people use, unless they're phone nuts like me.

I have purchased a couple of used phones, and usually they just need a new battery which can be bought for dirt-cheap. If the outside is damaged, just snap on a new faceplate if the phone has the option.

Nifty discount when signing on for two more years, yeah. When it comes to phones, I suffer from commitementophobia. (Read: I hate contracts).

To everyone it's own, though...

[ May 06, 2007, 21:10: Message edited by: Disciple of The Watch ]

 

Hey...the company has been good to me so far, so I have no qualms about signing a contract that says that I'll be loyal for some time.

Since we've had our TMo service, we've never had a dropped call, had bad customer service, or been ripped off on a bill. Also, TMo has recently given the service in the SLC area a shot in the arm. Hell...I can now get one or two bars while walking down a certain hall at my work that runs next to a machine that doesn't mix well with any signal frequency.

 

Yeah, T-Mo won licenses all over the freaking country thanks to the AWS auction, which they bid pretty darn agressively during. This new spectrum is planned to be used to launch 3G... which is a bit odd, since the new spectrum is in the 1700 MHz frequency. Chip makers have announced chips to use in phones that are compatible with the AWS spectrum, though.

More spectrum means more network capacity, which in turn allows for setting up more sites, which would explain the increase in signal you mentioned.

Verizon Wireless was the ultimate winner of the AWS auction, though. They managed to snatch the most coveted 20 MHz F block for the northeast from T-Mo... which costed Verizon a whopping 1.3 billion.

 

Ok, DotW...my wife's 3 year old Samsung E715 bit the dust today. After dropping it on concrete again (this has to be the umpteenth time now) the screen's contrast went so bright that the only way you can see anything on the screen is to hold it at an extreme angle while squinting at it...and even then you can't see much.

Anyway, when she got home today, she plugged it in for a charge. A hour or so later, she picked it up, and dropped it (again)...but this time it wasn't because she's a klutz...the phone's battery was so hot it almost burned her.

So with that in mind we're going to be getting here a new phone this Sunday. She just wants one of the "free" Samsung phones: the T609, T309, or of $50 she could get the T619. What would you go with? She's not too picky when it comes to phones...she'd rather have a good looking phone instead of a phone that works.

Now, since she's under my family plan account, if she gets a new phone, I have to as well...either that, or forfeit my discount for another two years.

Rent is due soon, so I can't go all out and buy any of the fancy phones I really want...but for $150 I can get a Samsung T629 or the HTC Tornado SDA. Besides the fact that one is a Windows Smart Phone (we all know that you just *love* anything relating to Windows ), which one would you recommend?

 

The T629? It's an update of the T809, IIRC... it's rated as better than the T809, but I *hate* how it looks. Other than that, it's strikingly similar to the T809.

The T609 is a quad-band GSM, memory slot (microSD/TransFlash), and Bluetooth phone. Battery life is roughly a week, and the cam is 1.3 MP, IIRC.

The T309 is basically a downgraded T609. Tri-band GSM, speakerphone, a basic VGA cam (not sure about definition), but lacks a memory slot. Not much to be said, a basic, no-frills budget phone.

The HTC Tornado is quad-band GSM plus WiFi, which means you could use UMA (uses a WiFi connection at home to relay signal to cellular network). Battery life is roughly six days. The phone has a 1.3 MP cam, IIRC, and has a memory slot for microSD cards. It uses EDGE for data. I won't lie - Winblows Mobile phones are more susceptible to worms, viruses and junk like that than their OS-less cousins.

If you ask me, I would go with the T309, as I like no-frills basic phones. It's purely a matter of taste, however. All of these phones are viable options, but the T619 isn't worth the 50$ more they want.

 

Ok, here’s my review of my snazzy new Samsung T-629. I’m going to use DotW’s system of reviewing here as an attempt to keep things standardized.


Field Test: Samsung T-629 on T-Mobile

Just got the phone the other day and it’s sweet. Despite DotW not likening the silver look, I think it looks sleeker/classier than the all black T-809 that it replaced.

Form factor: Slider

Battery Life: When I brought the phone home, it had two out of three bars. I plugged it in for 3 hours while I watched a movie. Since its initial charge (4 days ago), I've taken 4, 30 second videos, 8 pictures at maximum res. (1.3MP), sent/recieved the usual ammount of text messages, and made a dozen or so calls…and the battery just died about 6 hours ago. The 880 mAh LiIon battery is rated at 5 hours continuous talk time, and 200 hours in standby…that’s more than 8 days. (That’s more than twice my old phone’s battery life.)

Signal: Our apartment is 50% underground, and I’ve got 100% signal strength in our walk-in closet (it’s the furthest point away from any windows or outside walls).

Sound quality: The phone is loud and clear. Under normal talking conditions, I usually have the volume turned down two notches from the maximum. The speakerphone however could be louder and clearer. But considering how small the external speaker is, I guess it’s of fair audio quality.

Phone and keyboard feel: Like the T-809, this phone is a slider. It’s easy to slide up with a flick of your thumb, and it stays up with no wobbling. The front of the phone has a total of 7 buttons including a 4-way rocker button for navigation. There are 3 buttons on either side of the phone that are place out of the way, so they aren’t accidentally pressed often. All the buttons on the frond and side feel natural and responsive. The alphanumeric keypad however is a flat sheet of thin plastic over recessed buttons. There are raised plastic dividers that separate each button. While it takes some getting used to, I got used to this new style of buttons rather quickly, and I think that it deters dust from accumulating on the keypad.

Screen: The screen measures 176 x 220 pixels and has 262,144 colors (18-bit). In English, that means it has a big, bright, and beautiful screen. Sitting next to my old phone that has a 128x128 pixel screen with only 65,536 colors (16-bit), the T-629 looks incredible.

Customization: Lots of it. Polyphonic Ringtones, Custom Ringtones, Picture ID, Ringer ID, Custom Graphics/Wallpaper, standard screen adjustments, multiple profiles including ‘flight mode’.

Wrap-up: I’m not a total phone nut like some people here, but I know a quality phone when I hold one, and the Samsung T-629 is exactly that. A great phone that looks great, performs well, and has lots of features. It supports 4 different GSM bands along with Bluetooth, has a MicroSD slot, a Mp3 player, and a 1.3MP camera.

Final score: 9/10. There are a few annoying features about the phone…like the inability to turn off the fake camera sound. If you disable the annoying “touch tone” noise when dialing a number, you end up disabling all keypad tones, including the error beeps. And lastly, the headset, power, and USB port all conncet through the same port…so good luck listening to music on a dead battery.

I did not have a chance to test the Mp3 player or the Bluetooth on this phone, due to the fact that I don't have a Bluetooth transmitter or a MicroSD card...yet. When I'm able to transfer some music to the phone, I'll add an update on it.

 

So you went for the T609? I'm not a fan of how it looks, but good if it works great. Also, a well-rounded review, Kit. Well done.

Actually, it's illegal to turn off/disable the camera sound, I was told... it became mandatory after some lawsuits regarding voyeurist uses of a cellphone cam. I understand how annoying it is, being the owner of a T809 myself, but that's what Johnny Law requires.

BTW, Kit, is your old phone unlocked? I might just be interested in it.

And who's a phone nut?

 

Well...on the plus side, you *change* the sound. I've got mine set to the least common sound a camera would make. It actually sounds more like a camera falling apart when you press the shutter release button.

Actually, since my old phone works just fine, it's been added to the "just in case" box. The way my wife treats phones, it's not a matter of "if", but a matter of "when" and "how"...

 

Right, then. Just a random thought, haven't you ever considered getting her a Nextel Moto i315? I'm fairly certain this phone would resist all the punishment she puts phones through - hell, this perticular model survived a 60-foot fall, a ricochet against a steel beam, crashing into a windshield, drowning in a puddle of mud, and falling out of the company truck at 90 MPH, and still works just as great. Plus, if you get one for yourself, you gain the benefit of Direct Connect...

 

My wife with an iDEN phone? Heh...you make me laugh.

After working for Sprint, she will never buy a Moto to begin with...but that phone is just plain ugly. The main reason she was so willing to inherit my Samsung E715 was because it looked really good.

My wife and I are Samsung junkies. The fact that the E715 is only dieing now is a legendary feat in itself!

 

I won't argue with you that Sprint Motos sucks, because they do, big time. iDEN is the only reliable serie of phone that Moto ever made, and not all iDEN phones are ugly. Take the i415, for example - it's a relatively good looking phone, at least to me. The i830 is good-looking, and with a body of stainless steel, it can take a good share of punishment. If Moto just don't tickle your fancy, RIM also makes iDEN CrackBerries.

Plus, iDEN phones can be unlocked, just like GSM phones. Hell, if Telus Mobility offered prepaid iDEN service, I'd jump on the occasion. Boost's a pretty big buisness down in the states, it's a wonder Telus hasn't yet bother considering the idea.

Just random thoughts, though.

 

Grrrr... my residence building has the worst cell reception ever. I've gotten text messages a full 24 hours after they were sent, even though my phone has been on the whole time. If I'm sitting on my bed, my cell goes into analog mode. As soon as I step outside, its fine. Same thing goes for the Math Building here, there is zero reception there, as well.