Random cellphone babbling thread #1

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Now the initiative of Sprint providing MSL for their subscribers' phones makes sense.

This puts CDMA on equal grounds with GSM.

This will also force carriers to be significantly more competitive than ever before... which benefits to the customers.

I wonder if Alltel will follow Sprint's and VZW's footsteps.

Or, even better yet, I wonder if Canadian carriers will also take that initiative.

That would allow me to take my 6275i to Virgin Mobile, and to enjoy the longer airtime expiration periods. Losing the 5¢ per minute on evening and weekends is a worthy tradeoff because I'm a small talker anyway... and when refilling my account up, the rollover of unused minutes is significant...

 

Field test: Nokia 2125i

Modes: AMPS 850 + CDMA 850/1900

Battery life: Rated 8 days by the book. My own test shows battery life to be inferior by a day and a half, but I live in another flat which has bad Bell reception, which means the phone operates at a higher power level than usual, explaining the shorter battery life.

Signal: The field test mode shows the 2125i is superior to it's older brother the 6015i, but inferior to my 6275i. (-89DB/6015i, -85DB 2125i, -79DB/6275i)

Sound quality: Honestly? The 2125i sounds like a tin can.

Form factor: Candybar

Phone and keyboard feel: The 2125i is a tiny phone. Nontheless, it's easy to handle and feels comfortable. The keypad has an odd design (Nokia has always been known for their off-the-wall designs), but they work pretty good.

Screen: 65,535 or 16-bit colors. Ir's ridiculously small at 96*65, and the colors look washed up. Would not win a beauty contest, but does the job.

Camera: LMAO.

Customization: Tones/wallpapers can be downloaded through VXL. Faceplates from the 2115/2116/2119 also work like a charm on the 2125i.

Final score: 7/10.

In a few words: Shorty is a cheap, entry-level phone and you're not allowed to forget about it.

 

My mom is getting me an LG Rumor I guess since its free with service right now and she gets cheap service through her work plan... So does anyone have anything to say about this particular phone?

 

The Rumor?

You get a full QWERTY keyboard which is IMMENSELY useful if you're an avid texter like me. Other than that... you've got a 176 x 220 TFT LCD (which looks WAY better than a regular LCD, trust me), roughly 4.5 hours of talk tome and 3.5 days standby (what I've heard -- not the official data). 16MB internal memory and a memory card slot for microSD cards up to 4GB. Cam is 1.3 MP, though, so don't expect groundbreaking pictures with the phone. The good news is you also can do video capture with the Rumor. The bad news is that the cam doesen't have a flash. This is both good and bad. You also got yourself a speakerphone and Bluetooth, for what it's worth.

To wrap things up, I think you're gonna like the Rumor. I'm still waiting for official word whenever LG will launch this baby up here in Canada, and if so, you can be damn sure I'm getting one.

 

Thanks, it's nice to have somebody who knows what they're talking about when it comes to this around Hopefully it comes to Canada fast while they're still free (or only $50) with service. (unless you're just collecting )

 

Actually, I don't really mind shelling out 150 or even 200 bucks for the Rumor. I've long been looking for a messaging phone to replace my geriatric, battle-worn, unchangeable battery Blackberry.

The difficult with that was finding an good non-Winblows Mobile messaging phone. The HTC 5800 seemed a good candidate, but it's Winblows Mobile, which is a huge no-no for me.

I'm also a collector - I've got 21 phones on display and some more supposedly coming soon, supposedly including a Mike i1000. Less durable than the i315, but also smaller profile, and a clamshell no less.

 

Ha, so the Rumor is indeed coming to Canada.

Problems? 1- Bell. 2- CAN$300.

$300 bucks for this phone is utter insanity. I could get a Crackberry Pearl for that freaking price. $150 or even $200 wouldn't have bothered me, but $300 is just WAY too much.

F you, Bell, and your overpricing.

 

One of my buddies - a mad phone scientist - has proven that you indeed CAN use a foreign CDMA phone on a different network.

The procedure requires a phone with an ESN listed on the desired provider's network. Let's suppose I want to get a Solo 6275i running on Virgin Mobile Canada. Find a VMC phone with a valid ESN. Then connect the foreign phone to a PC, and change the ESN of the FOREIGN phone to that of the NATIVE phone. Once this is done, the network will detect the foreign phone as a NATIVE phone, and it's then a simple matter of activating the phone.

***WARNING!!!*** MAKE SURE TO DESTROY/DISABLE THE NATIVE PHONE AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TURN IT ON! THE NETWORK WILL DETECT MULTIPLES INSTANCES OF THE SAME ESN AND BLACKLIST THE SAID ESN!

I WILL be trying this trick in the near future, you can be DAMN sure of that.

Those who say that CDMA phones live and die on the network they get out of the factory on are LIARS, and this is a MYTH that deserves to be BROKE DOWN.

[And a note to the MODS: CHANGING a phone's ESN is NOT illegal - I have seen CDMA providers changing a customer's ESN upon rare instances. CLONING an ESN to fraudulently obtain service IS illlegal. In this case, think of it as an organ transplantion.

 

The Mad phone scientist's theory works! I have succesfully got Brallrock's old 7868W working on Telus with minimal problems - only a PRL file from another 7868W was needed, and that was an easy problem to fix.

Using Telus' automated activation process worked like a charm too - *22083, phone is programming, programming complete, reboot... BAM, m*****f*****, you said it couldn't be done? Think again.

 

Field test: Solo Sanyo S1

The S1 is a small, rugged, no-nonsense phone.

Modes: CDMA 800/1900. The S1 is a pure digital phone, so no analog support. A bit of a disappointement, but I have voicemail, so it will take care of buisness while I'm off in the fringe.

Battery life: Rated about a week by the book. Minimalist use in combination with power saver exceeded the rated battery life by about a day.

Signal: The S1 is comparable to my SCP3100, though the S1 is a tidbit better at holding a signal. I hold from 1-3 (out of 6) bars in my dead zone flat, and despite the weak signal, calls are not choppy.

Sound quality: Earpiece sound quality is respectably good. The speakerphone sounds good too, though at higher volumes the sound garbles. Both earpiece and speakerphone are VERY LOUD. The S1 can also be used as a walkie-talkie.

Form factor: Candybar

Phone and keyboard feel: The first thing that struck me was how small and thin the S1 is. I carry the S1 in my shirt pocket and I do not even feel it's presence. The keyboard is good, though I think Sanyo could have made this phone with a little bigger buttons.

Screen: 128x160, 65,535 colors TFT LCD. The screen is adequately sized for the phone, though I oh so badly miss the 6275i's 240x320 262,144 TFT LCD...

Camera: Sorry 'bout your damn luck. The S1 is an rugged work phone, and Sanyo had the brilliant idea of NOT putting bling on it.

Wrap-up: Considering I'm transitioning from a blinged-out 6275i, the S1 demanded a learning curve - I have to live with the fact this is a basic work phone and not a blinged out gadget. Nevertheless, the S1 is a solid performer which does honor to the Sanyo brand.

Final score: 9/10.

My only gripes with the S1 is the sound quality, which is not even close to matching my 6275i. My other gripe is the fact the internal antenna is on the BOTTOM of the phone, which makes holding the phone a bit awkward since if you hold the bottom of the phone, you are blocking the antenna, and signal will be affected, and the phone will operate at a higher power level to compensate.. Despite those two minor gripes, I would definitively recommend the S1 for someone looking for a rugged, reliable, basic work phone.

The S1 is going to be a stepping stone, though, because my favorite Mad scientist has cooked up an experimental way to resurrect 6275i who were victim of a White Screen of Death. I'm lending mine as a test subject, though I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart - it's been a week or so down the road and I already miss my 6275i...

The bottom line : A rugged, vanilla tank who delivers the goods.

 

So... Nokia e61 is my new "WANT! SHINY!" and since I have a friend who should be able to acquire one for me with a price tag that is ridiculous compaed to the going price, why not?

Only problem? I don;t know how to text with qwerz keyboard. And yes, qwerz, not qwerty

 

The E61 is just as good a PDA as it is a phone. Plus, being a Symbian, there's litteraly tons of applications you can download.

The huge downside of Symbian? They're susceptible to mobile viruses, which means you've got to keep it secure.

 

Good thing, then, that said friend who has promised to acquire, etc, knows what' he's doing.

 

I have some damage to my LG Rumor screen or something now, without any clear indicator. I was at home eating lunch and checked if there was anything new and all was well. Well, after I went back to school I got a text and pulled my phone and... gah! There's a large white triangle on the screen with a black blotch in it that won't go away. I plan on taking it to a Sprint store tomorrow, but I'm not looking forward to paying for repairs, or a new phone... Especially seeing how this one was free. So yay! for me, I get to take a phone in on my birthday

 

Chicken, what you describe is a cracked LCD, and I have some bad news for you... this falls into "user damage" category and is not covered by warranty. I'm afraid you're going to have to get a new phone.

My brother had the same thing -- cracked LCD -- and Telus refused to fix the phone, even under warranty, as this kind of damage is not covered by the warranty.

If you want to avoid that in the future, ALWAYS carry your phone in a holster/clip/case.

 

That's what I though... bugger, lol. It sucks, I'd be fine if I was being dumb and caused some damage, but it was just in my front pocket. At least I know one thing I'll get for my birthday

 

It's frustrating, for sure, but this kind of stuff happen. Especially considering how flimsy phones are today... I remember when my friend opened her phone to take a call and CRACK, the phone is in two halves.

Do let me know your options for a next phone, so I can make some recommendations/blacklist.

 

I managed to break my phone by dropping it in a glass of water -_-"

 

Ahh, good old water damage. Did you pulled out the battery and let the phone dry for a few days? Depending on the severity of the water damage, letting the phone dry *MIGHT* bring it back. You could also technically try the oven trick, if you don't mind taking the phone apart. Brought a 'broken' Crackberry back from the dead using this trick.

As for me, my 6275i is back from service. Way sooner than I expected it to be. I have $20ish bucks to burn, so methinks unlimited browser might make an appearance.

I'll see how it goes down the road. If my 6275i works like a new one, I'll let enough time slide by and pick it back up. If it starts going bananas on me again... well, you're officially replaced by the S1.

 

I'll be sure to ask if anything different comes my way. I might just get another Rumor, I liked it and they have a pretty good reputation for durability (as far as that style phone goes- candybar slider). Plus they aren't very expensive here.