Motorola A835 3g phone

[Tom]

Thinking about getting one of these this week, the attractive thing is that its free, and the tariff is 500 minutes per month at £25.

I'm not worried about the size, its only very slightly larger than my current Nokia 6310. Only thing I'll miss is the carkit I have, maybe I'll buy a bluetooth carkit with the money from selling my 6310 and the carkits I have for it.

 

[Clown]

Yes, the 3G tarriffs look good, but I didn't know whether their chips would go in another phone. The 3G phones on offer look dire, and yes, I do use them as a fashion accessory as well as a toy. I recently just got the www.o2.co.uk Motorola v600. If it was up to the tariffs, I would have gone for the Vodaphone 900 X-net Off-peak minutes (£20/month) or indeed, the 3G.

What was your question again?

 

[Ch3tan]

Mate at work bought one. Its huge, and ugly. Its a lot bigger than a 6310. Your better off waiting till the end of Feb for the new NEC and Sony 3 phones.

 

[Tom]

Well, I just got one. Fuck it

Its only very slightly larger than the 6310, and compared to that, its quite nice. I've never been into 'tech jewellry', so I'm quite happy with it.

I'm just waiting for it to activate (<72 hrs ) but I can still play around with stuff on it.

I was going to wait for the new phones, but it looks like Sony will be on Vodaphone 3g, and I didn't want to pay for the early takeup, when I can wait a bit and get it cheaper.

Also, I got 3 months of half price tariff, so thats £12.50 per month for 500 mins, and after 3 months, provided I don't change the tariff in that time, they send me a cheque for £75.

Not a bad deal tbh.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

And do you know anyone else with a video phone you can call?!

Oh i see.

 

[Tom]

Yes I do actually, 3 people so far, whom I have regular contact with.



Anyway, the man in the shop told me to charge it for 16 hours before using it. The phone screen now shows that the battery is charged (after about 90 minutes). I know that the charger won't be doing anything now, as the battery is full, so is this just a remnant of old nicad technology, or should I just leave it? I wanna mess around with the software for a bit

 

[Ch3tan]

Leave it charging and play with it. The battery needs to fill to capacity, whether it says its full or not. It can take extra charge.

 

[Tom]

I just looked through the manual (how many of us do that hehe), and it says that the battery is partially charged, and needs a full charge/discharge cycle to get up to capacity. Therefore, the 16 hours is just something that the guy in the shop was taught as part of his training.

I got it from The Carphone Warehouse, the standard of service was very good, I was very impressed, the guy knew everything.

Now I'm on the prowl for a bluetooth car kit, one that mutes the radio etc. I have a nokia cark-91 atm, something along those lines, but I'm not going to buy a motorola cradle, because I'll most likely change the phone in 12 months.

 

[Tom]

Getting to grips with this phone now.

Observations so far:

3G content....
Pretty damn fine. ITN News headlines (25p a pop), each one about 2-3 minutes long, containing perhaps 4-5 stories. Takes about 1-2 mins to download them, and the quality is very good.

3G extras:
The GPS facility is very good. 3G also have their own internet portal (apparently using the phone as a modem will arrive later this year), which has brief headlines and stories. I haven't tried any games yet. All kinds of other stuff which I'll give a go. It also has a pr0n link!

Call quality:
Probably more down to the handset, but its crystal clear. It also has a speakerphone, which works extremely well, you can put the phone down on a table and have a clear conversation with the phone up to 2 feet away.

Texts, emails, etc:
Text is bog-standard, emailing to and from the phone is superb, it means I can redirect my emails to my phone while I'm out of the country, and not have to dial in to get them, as they are delivered in the same way as an SMS. MMS doesn't work between networks, although I believe that will be sorted out later this year (apparently not just a 3 problem)

Phone features:
Jam packed, all quality. One nice feature is the ability to link contact information with pictures (animated gifs as well), useful if you're like me with lots of names in your address book who you cant remember. Only thing missing is that it won't use mp3 files as a ringtone, only mid files unfortunately

Phone/pc software:
Comes with Mobile Phonetools, its ok, nothing special, just your basic PIM.


Problems:
The phone only seems to work on the 3 network when it has full signal. Unfortunately in my house it never goes higher than 50%. It works fine on the 2.5G network, but the phone wants to default to 3G. After a conversation iwth the customer services line, they said its either a faulty sim, faulty handset, or local network problems. I haven't ported my number across yet, so I have a couple of weeks to iron this out. If I can't, then the phone goes back.

Haven't tried video calls yet because of the above problems, but I've filmed some videos and played them back, the quality is better than your typical webcam image (although it is at a low res).

I've posted a copy of one of the newsclips I downloaded below, please don't go mad downloading it You will need a player that plays .mp4 files. The latest quicktime will play it fine, just open it, and click convert.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tom.je...60204D0802375-9360-41CD-9A03-690851F2AAF8.mp4

 

[pcg79]

that news clip is pretty damn good - 25p for 1.30 of news! damn! but the phones on 3g are way too chunky for me.

 

[Jonty]

Thanks for the info. and the clip, Tom, very interesting As has been said, it sounds like a lot of money in the long run, but I suppose prices will fall once the technology becomes more mainstream and the cost of purchasing the 3G licenses has been offset a bit more. Until then, you'll just have to make all your friends very envious

Kind Regards

 

[Tom]

Hi Jonty. Actually, with regard to pricing, the tariffs are mega-cheap. I believe they are unbeatable in this country. The pricing for the 3G services isn't that bad, I think ringtones and the like are the most expensive things, although I can just download them from the internet like everybody else. The prices for the news and other stuff ain't too bad, although if you were downloading all the news in one day, your phone bill would probably be another £20 a month

Football highlights is very good, if you're a football fan, its definitely worth getting.



/edit: update

Well, the phone seems to be working perfectly now, even in poor signal areas. I'll still take it back and have them check it, because 3 only allow you 14 days to change your mind and cancel the contract. After that, if the phone breaks down, they collect it, and offer you a temporary replacement.

 

[Sar]

Flash bast

Saw the telly ad for this last night when watching Something About Mary on ITV. Nice

 

[kentnicklloyd]

Help

I have the A835 and "phone tools" keeps crashing on me, anyone else having this problem or is it just me yes it's getting that bad I may turn to drink, only happens then I try and sync the calendar with outlook :eek2:

 

[Tom]

What software version is it? You could try taking it to a 3-point (in superdrug I think) and get them to flash it.

Anyhow, try the forums at www.3g.co.uk

 

[Ch3tan]

Woolworths will be selling the a835 on "threepay" for £149.99. Phones are in stock now, look for the huge threepay promotions coming up.

 

[kentnicklloyd]

BT Billing for 3

Watch out, BT is billing calls to 3 at mf6 rate :

Price (pence per minute including VAT, rounded to 2 decimal places)

Hutchison 3G Day 22.67 Evening 16.96 Weekend 4.13
the only network it cost more to call is Dolphin (who I hear you ask well their website is ment to be at http://www.dolphin-telecom.co.uk but it aint working so who knows! lol)

 

[Tom]

Well, anyone stupid enough to not use their cross-network minutes instead of their landline (my NTL phone = zero use) really shouldn't expect any less

Its odd though, didn't BT own O2, who just happen to have a network-sharing agreement with 3?


Ch3tan, I think all the 3 shops will be getting rid of their old phones (besides the A835 which is only 4-5 months old), and pushing the new ones soon. £150 isn't too bad, expansys sell them at a higher price than that, without SIM.

 

[wyrd_fish]

phones sans SIMS are always more expencive

 

[Ch3tan]

Its exclusive to Woolies, phones go on sale tomorrow. The threepay service and vouchers go live tomorrow. It seems good value if you dont want a contract, far cheaper than the other pay as you go alternatives (provided your a moderate to heavy phones user). More details when they reveal the price plans tomorrow.

 

[AnthonyG]

Downloading video to PC

Tom

Are you using some special software to copy the news video to a pc?

Phone tools doesnt let me see content i've downloaded from 3(protected somehow), so I can't copy it to the PC. Can you please enlighten me on how to do this?

Thanks

 

[DaGaffer]

that news clip is pretty damn good - 25p for 1.30 of news! damn! but the phones on 3g are way too chunky for me.

This is a joke, right? 25p! Are you mad? Buy a newspaper ffs. I never thought I'd say it, but my 'early adopter gland' has failed me when it comes to 3G; I'll wait until there's something remotely worth having before I jump on that bandwagon. On the other hand, Motorola's latest smartphone has got me salivating again. Of course, when it comes out it will have some major flaw that makes it irritating/useless (as with almost all mobile/pda tech), and I'll live in hope for the day when one of these widgets actually does everything I want, when I want, and doesn't break down after 20 minutes.

 

[Tom]

Tom

Are you using some special software to copy the news video to a pc?

Phone tools doesnt let me see content i've downloaded from 3(protected somehow), so I can't copy it to the PC. Can you please enlighten me on how to do this?

Thanks

Well, basically I start mpt, and the video folder appears, and in that folder are all my downloaded news/film/sport clips. They're just there. Sorry

DaGaffer, 25p does seem expensive, but its very cheap compared to the price of your average SMS or even MMS message, when you consider the content you receive.

 

[DaGaffer]

DaGaffer, 25p does seem expensive, but its very cheap compared to the price of your average SMS or even MMS message, when you consider the content you receive.

Each to their own I guess. I personally wouldn't do that particular comparison when I was working out the 'value' (to me) of a newsclip. An SMS performs a different function for me, and there aren't really comparable substitutes (until everyone gets mobile email anyway), whereas I can think of plenty of alternatives to a newsclip ranging from free (looking in Dixons' window ) to the price of a newspaper or waiting until I got home and watching the telly or using the internet. I guess I just can't imagine that many circumstances where I would really, really need to see a 2" high Trevor McDonald when I'm on the bus...

I'm sure I'll end up with a 3G phone eventually, I just can't see the benefits other than keeping up bleeding edge street cred on boards like these.

 

[Tom]

Well, 500 minutes for 25 quid is a good start

 

[DaGaffer]

Well, 500 minutes for 25 quid is a good start

Yeah but the handsets are HUGE. Its like living in 1987

 

[Clown]

900 off-peak, Xnet, £20 anyone?

 

[Lazarus]

Yeah but the handsets are HUGE. Its like living in 1987

nowt wrong with 1987!!!!

 

[Tom]

900 off-peak, Xnet, £20 anyone?

I'm talking about 500, cross network minutes, anytime, anywhere, including free access to news services.

Also, bluetooth, 64MB ram mp3/video player, video camera, 2 stills cameras, speakerphone, and about a zillion other things.

Yes, the phone is big, but thats only of concern to people who choose fashion over functionality, and I've never done that.

 

[Tom]

Size comparsion. The 6210 has an extended battery on it, so sits slightly higher on the floor.