Fun with phones
Jun. 26th, 2008 19:19![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillI went to the Verizon store today to see whether 1) they have the phone I want, and 2) I could push up the upgrade date (I'm due for an upgrade on the 30th).
In brief: yes on 1, no on 2.
The phone I have my eye on is the Samsung Alias (the new version of the U740). It's been widely panned by reviewers and enthusiastically supported in forums. My general feeling is that the things it does poorly (the camera, web capability, and music without headphones) are things I don't care about at all, while the voice quality is reported as "quite good" to "superb" and the QWERTY keyboard would eliminate my annoyance with T9 text input. Battery life... well, I'm used to plugging in my phone every three days or so, and this wouldn't be any different -- the fact that it can't do eight days won't break my heart. It has the form factor of a Razr, and it isn't as ugly as LG's EnV. It's almost always described as "sturdy", and the tech at the Verizon store said they rarely see Samsungs come back in.
It doesn't have a standard headphone jack, which is an annoyance I'm willing to live with (since my headset is Bluetooth anyway, and the phone supposedly comes with a wired headset and adapter of its own). Small buttons are not a concern for me, and they seemed big enough in the store. Reception is reportedly less than stellar, but that describes my LG as well. (I doubt I'll be buying an LG again after this one.) So I won't be taking a step down, and the Samsung seems to be a step up in several ways.
Verizon wants $150 for it. All phones have a $50 mail-in rebate, apparently. The automatic upgrade gives me a $50 instant rebate as well. I can handle paying a net $50 for a good new phone... I did ask about an activation fee, and they do charge $20 on top, but when I said that pushed me past my budget the clerk added that they can waive the activation fee. I like my store. :)
The $50 instant rebate is automated, though, so they can't trigger it before the 30th. I had kind of hoped to be on a new phone before the hands-free law came down, since my existing phone has such horrible voice quality and the headset does it no favors, but I can manage for a couple of days. I need to copy my contact list to my PDA before that, anyway.
It would be refreshing to have a phone that isn't just "whatever's free on the plan", with a few nice perks. The double-hinge has something of a wow factor when showing it off, too. What I'm craving most is the ability to understand what the heck the other person is saying, of course...
In brief: yes on 1, no on 2.
The phone I have my eye on is the Samsung Alias (the new version of the U740). It's been widely panned by reviewers and enthusiastically supported in forums. My general feeling is that the things it does poorly (the camera, web capability, and music without headphones) are things I don't care about at all, while the voice quality is reported as "quite good" to "superb" and the QWERTY keyboard would eliminate my annoyance with T9 text input. Battery life... well, I'm used to plugging in my phone every three days or so, and this wouldn't be any different -- the fact that it can't do eight days won't break my heart. It has the form factor of a Razr, and it isn't as ugly as LG's EnV. It's almost always described as "sturdy", and the tech at the Verizon store said they rarely see Samsungs come back in.
It doesn't have a standard headphone jack, which is an annoyance I'm willing to live with (since my headset is Bluetooth anyway, and the phone supposedly comes with a wired headset and adapter of its own). Small buttons are not a concern for me, and they seemed big enough in the store. Reception is reportedly less than stellar, but that describes my LG as well. (I doubt I'll be buying an LG again after this one.) So I won't be taking a step down, and the Samsung seems to be a step up in several ways.
Verizon wants $150 for it. All phones have a $50 mail-in rebate, apparently. The automatic upgrade gives me a $50 instant rebate as well. I can handle paying a net $50 for a good new phone... I did ask about an activation fee, and they do charge $20 on top, but when I said that pushed me past my budget the clerk added that they can waive the activation fee. I like my store. :)
The $50 instant rebate is automated, though, so they can't trigger it before the 30th. I had kind of hoped to be on a new phone before the hands-free law came down, since my existing phone has such horrible voice quality and the headset does it no favors, but I can manage for a couple of days. I need to copy my contact list to my PDA before that, anyway.
It would be refreshing to have a phone that isn't just "whatever's free on the plan", with a few nice perks. The double-hinge has something of a wow factor when showing it off, too. What I'm craving most is the ability to understand what the heck the other person is saying, of course...
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 19:13 (UTC)Unfortunately, if the audio quality is poor with your current phone on your headset, it will probably be exactly the same on your new phone with that same headset. Audio quality problems, as far as I know, are almost never due to anything electronic, they're all about the physical transducers (and acoustics of the case, etc), which means it's your headset that's producing the bad audio when you're using the headset, and the phone has little or no say in the matter..
The wired headset that comes with the new phone might be better, but I definitely wouldn't count on it.. the bundled ones are usually as cheap as they can make them, because there's no profit in it..
And if they try to charge you for an activation fee when you're doing your automatic upgrade, that's just not acceptable. They're already getting a new contract lock-in out of the whole deal, which is why they're doing it. Trying to charge people on top of that for a routine part of the procedure is just greedy and, frankly, dishonest..
no subject
Date: 2008-06-27 20:35 (UTC)When I mate the headset to another phone, it seems to echo the voice quality of the other phone (i.e. mating it to a phone with better voice quality results in better headset voice quality). So I'm optimistic.
It has also been noted that LG phones sometimes do poorly with non-LG equipment, and it's a Motorola headset. Samsung does not have the same flaw.
I'm not sure whether this phone upgrade does lock in a new contract, since my contract isn't set to expire until October. I'll ask them. (I will definitely ask for the fee to be waived, regardless.)