timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I don't know if I can pre-order from a Sprint Store. Though instant rebate is nice, maybe I'll try to pre-order from Best Buy or Radio Shack.
iPhone syndrome
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I don't know if I can pre-order from a Sprint Store. Though instant rebate is nice, maybe I'll try to pre-order from Best Buy or Radio Shack.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I pre-ordered the Evo 4G from the shack. They tell me I only have to pay $199 for the phone. I guess by signing the new contract I don't have to pay extra...
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Yeah, usually if they can get you to resign for another 2 years they will treat you like a new customer in terms of phone discounts.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
That's nice I didn't know Sprint would do that.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm looking in to registering as a Sprint Small business customer rather than an individual. That will let me get an EVO with service for $45/month instead of $80. Unfortunately, other than some statements by the Small Business Service, no one at Sprint seems to be able confirm that price point.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
The info on their website is very confusing. Data is different from broadband?
ddrueding
Fixture
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
I guess I spoke too soon. Both W705s we have now have constant amd severe battery issues. Have logged a support case with SonyEricsson as it appears to be a not-so-isolated case with these handsets (approx 25% of all W705s have this issue). Asking for replacement handsets of a different model and we get to choose what models we get as replacement.
Thinking of going either a X10 (Android based) or Vivaz (Symbian based)?
FYI - The issue is approximately after 3-4 weeks usage, the battery will experience severe degraded performance where you may only get 24hrs on standby (if you're lucky). A Master Reset procedure wil fix it for another 3-4 weeks and it'll happen again. (Normal standby time with moderate usage is approx 7-8 days between recharge).
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Good luck with that. We had two S500 units. Sony Ericsson refused my request for even a replacement phone, let alone a different model (which was my intent). They fixed it three times, on the fourth occasion we binned it.
We fixed the other one at our cost, then binned it as well after the second failure. Neither phone made it to 18 months, and at one stage we were waiting nearly two months for one to be returned from repair.
That particular model had a well-known global problem with failing keyboards (amongst other things). I was all set to take Sony Ericsson to small-claims court, but after a long argument, they convinced me that this time, the repair would work. :boom:
I still have a handful of older Sony Ericsson phones that have never given any trouble. Obviously, the newer ones are not so good. Anyway, they're off my list and I'll probably gloat when they finally close their doors.
We fixed the other one at our cost, then binned it as well after the second failure. Neither phone made it to 18 months, and at one stage we were waiting nearly two months for one to be returned from repair.
That particular model had a well-known global problem with failing keyboards (amongst other things). I was all set to take Sony Ericsson to small-claims court, but after a long argument, they convinced me that this time, the repair would work. :boom:
I still have a handful of older Sony Ericsson phones that have never given any trouble. Obviously, the newer ones are not so good. Anyway, they're off my list and I'll probably gloat when they finally close their doors.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
If SE gives me the run around, I'll simply get Telstra to do the swap. They were the retailer that sold me the phone, but thought it would be easier to do it through SE first.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I'm picking my Evo 4G up in 47 minutes. This is going to be sweet.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
6 hours and 17 minutes for me or something like that.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Sitting at the shack waiting. Their servers appear to be basically down. I've been waiting for 40 minutes so far. They got me a chair at least.
I hope you don't have issue with this storage bug that is mentioned here.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Let's hope that was a comfy, padded/chair.
And that Sprint's cell network can withstand the punishment these new subscribers/owners are going to unleash.
And that Sprint's cell network can withstand the punishment these new subscribers/owners are going to unleash.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I got the phone after waiting about an hour and a half. It took a little while to start working. But, it works now and I even have 4G service in my office.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
You do realise that they should have replaced the phones on the 3rd repair? (Lemon clause of the Trade Practices Act).
Otherwise ACCC has significant documentation on handsets faults and the correct way to handle a claim. (The TIO and ACCC will do the legal fight for you if you can show SE has breached the TPA). Even on first fault you can ask for a refund or store credit...
See: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/815339
and
http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item...ur consumer rights: mobile phone handsets.pdf
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Did you get your phone? What do you think so far?
time
Storage? I am Storage!
There's no such thing. Replacement may be court-ordered on a case by case basis.
The TIA can only help if the phone was bought on a contract.
The ACCC certainly won't help, their job is to prosecute large cases, not piddle about with individual consumers. But yes, I did call them, read their website, etc, etc.
I also wasted my time calling Fair Trading, even though I know they are useless.
Yes, you can ask! There's no legal obligation for the store to issue a refund unless the item is DOA or they can't fix it.
When you can't shame a vendor into replacing the goods, this is your only recourse. I'd expect most big vendors to fold before the hearing (they can't send a lawyer). The downside is the amount of time you waste doing it; I made a judgment call that it wasn't worth my time.time said:
Also, we lost the invoice for the second phone. When I requested a replacement from the official Virgin shop, they told me that they had changed their computer system and could no longer access historical records. With that excuse, they also declined to replace or repair it themselves.
If it was an HTC Desire or something similar, I definitely would not have rolled over so (relatively) easily. But it wasn't, so I've considered the whole experience a valuable lesson in dealing with S*ny in particular.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06...ay-sony-ericsson-5-inch-android-qwerty-phone/
5" Android phone from SE.
5" Android phone from SE.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Me, I'm waiting for the HTC Desire to become available. Looks like the best bet in an Android GSM phone. There are unconfirmed rumors that the HTC Vision is a Desire with keyboard. No point waiting for that, though.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Sounds like you covered all bases... Holey crapola, I guess I may have a fight on my hands then... (and no more SE products for me then).
That's the angle I'll be taking in seeking a replacement model. So far in all contact with SE I haven't spoken to anyone who has been able to show sufficient evidence that the fault can be fixed... (other than doing a master reset/phone repair every 3-4 weeks**).
From what I can gather, in this instance of fault with the W705a's, it's mot likely a firmware bug, in which a counter is overflowing (causing extra CPU time), an infinite loop in code (causing extra CPU time due to a unknown condition), or a hardware IRQ is not being handled correctly after a set amount of time (eg code isn't clearing a hardware buffer/queue properly and the DSP is pinging the CPU to have something done about it). It certainly doesn't appear to be a severe hardware fault, and if it is a hardware fault, then it's most likely a design fault rather than a failled component (which could easily be fixed by a PCB replacement). Again, something that they can't acknowledged can be fixed... (Bit hard to fix a design fault, unless you issue multiple PCB revisions and corresponding firmware releases).
** As I said to one of their support staff, having to do a master reset every 3-4 weeks, would like being having to wipe the HDD, reinstall Windows and all your applications and user data every 3-4 weeks - no one would find that acceptable. (as the master reset wipes everything including all user data on the SIM card).
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
With Merc's "do NOT buy Sony" attitude, Time's recent support hell with SE and my current issues with SE products, it wouldn't be one on my list to look at.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Well Merc's hatred of Sony seems to be based on an emotional response, I can certainly understand avoiding them if you are having technical failures. Was this a Telstra shop? Couldn't you get them to let you swap for another phone model in that monthly contract pricing band?
I wouldn't buy it first day for sure, let the early buyers beta test and get the bugs fixed. Xperia X10 seems like a potential good one, but apparently the screen doesn't support multi-touch. The swivelling screen. Would potentially allow for 10 finger typing on the keyboard. Thumb typing is ok but the speed is not up to par for serious typing. It would have to be a hell of a phone to get me to upgrade from my Moto Droid anyway.
There are times when I long for my Ericsson T39. Tiny, light, just did voice calls well. And that was many years ago.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Here are some of my random thoughts on the Evo so far.
1. The screen is great. The pixel density is high enough that they are almost impossible to see individually.
2. The browser is pretty decent. It renders almost every page I've been to perfectly. I wish there was an easier way to switch between tabs though.
3. The on-screen keyboard is useable. I'm still much slower on it than I was with my blackberry.
4. Battery life pretty much sucks. I think I'm going to order a backup.
More later, the battery is about to die.
1. The screen is great. The pixel density is high enough that they are almost impossible to see individually.
2. The browser is pretty decent. It renders almost every page I've been to perfectly. I wish there was an easier way to switch between tabs though.
3. The on-screen keyboard is useable. I'm still much slower on it than I was with my blackberry.
4. Battery life pretty much sucks. I think I'm going to order a backup.
More later, the battery is about to die.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Yes. Took about an hour and 15 minutes to get the pair (me and my wife). She drained her battery on Saturday before the end of the day. Mine would have lasted but I tried out the youtube app for about an hour. So I can probably make it a whole day on a charge but I'll get another micro usb to usb cable and take it to work to charge the phone.
Other than battery life I love it. Unfortunately it seems to want a google account for the marketplace. It won't use my google apps for your domain account for that. It did accept it during setup and is configured for my calendar and email just fine. Facebook app sucks. It is showing me the posts in that weird order that isn't the most recent order. Can't figure out how to change that. Surprised there isn't a picasaweb app or something.
Screen - great!
Size - I thought it would be big and it is. But it isn't too big. I like it.
Weight - heavy in the pocket but not dragging down my pants heavy.
Android - still learning but it seems nice.
Other thoughts:
- No bejeweled blitz app from popcap.
- EA's tetris app gets horrible reviews so I didn't download it.
- Signal isn't as good at my house as verizon but no dropped calls so far. No 4G here but I should have it at work.
- Boo that the car kit isn't available at launch. Rumored to be available the end of July. And $60 each for two is a bit pricey.
- I came from an LG flip phone so it is a whole different world.
- Picture quality seems like they overly process the jpegs or something. Definitely not even up to my point and shoot quality. Okay for quick pics and sharing though. The best camera is the one you have with you anyway.
- Video works - took some of my son at baseball on saturday.
- Browser - while I can open new windows it seems I'm limited to 4. Not sure why. I added the websites I visit to my news app (rss feeds) to alleviate that.
Still lots to learn and figure out. But I like it so far.
Still debating whether to add the sprint insurance for the phones.
The high deductible and no water damage coverage makes me think it isn't worth it.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Telstra will send the phone back to SE 3 times for repair irrespective of the fault before they allow a swap. I'm hoping SE will swap it first time, or acknowledge that it can't be repaired in which case I'll get SE to do the swap or go to the local Telstra shop with evidence in hand and get them to do the swap.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Latest email from SE, indicates to return both handsets to the retailer for repair/replacement at the retailers discretion. Now to convince Telstra to replace with a different model and not repair.
So SE are simply passing the issue to the retailer to handle. That's what I call standing by your product and excellent customer service on SE's part.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's supposed to be an extended capacity battery. It doesn't seem to be available yet.
Also, it's a good idea to turn off crap you aren't using. If you're being served by 4G, you don't need the 3G radio or 802.11. You can probably turn off Bluetooth, too. You should also set your phone to grab emails at reasonable intervals (say, every 15 minutes) rather than have it constantly check or push.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I've been turning off WiFi when not using it, I haven't ever enabled bluetooth. I'm only using GMail and it doesn't have a setting to change how often it checks for messages.
Will the extended capacity battery stick out the back?
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
How do you configure the update interval?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm not sure. I've only ever done it on iphones, crackberries and WinMo.
timwhit said:
Reviews I have read say it doesn't, but as far as I know it's not available yet for anyone to buy yet. I usually get parts from cellphoneshop.net. They do a good job of having cheap phone accessories.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
Gmail is pushed to your phone, no interval to be set. I can send an email to my wife and she gets it on her phone within 10 secs or so.
I would recommend Advanced Task Killer from the Market, it can help you kill off uneeded apps if your memory is getting low (shouldn't be a prob on the Evo).
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I have TasKiller installed. Is the one you recommended any better?
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
I assume they are both good. The Droid only has 128MB of RAM so I use it a fair bit.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I installed "TaskManager" last night, it's quite a nice application.
Now I'm looking for an application that will allow me more fine-grained control on power settings. For example, I'd like the screen to stay on for more than 1 minute when connected to power, but to turn off after a minute when using the battery. Any ideas?
Now I'm looking for an application that will allow me more fine-grained control on power settings. For example, I'd like the screen to stay on for more than 1 minute when connected to power, but to turn off after a minute when using the battery. Any ideas?
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
From a quick search:
http://androinica.com/2009/09/02/50-best-android-apps-tools-and-utility-apps-40-50/
Power Manager looks like the one you want, though it does cost $1. Toggle settings will get you to the screen brightness etc quicker than normal.
http://androinica.com/2009/09/02/50-best-android-apps-tools-and-utility-apps-40-50/
Power Manager looks like the one you want, though it does cost $1. Toggle settings will get you to the screen brightness etc quicker than normal.