Looking for camera and music quality cell phone?

[e268]

Thanks Jake. I do not use data, so no practical use of 3G for me. It is a "just in case" thing to me. It is a little thinner than W810i. I read somewhere that Europe uses 800 band and North America uses 1900 band, so it seems triband (which does not have 850 band) may be ok for travel. Yes, my top priority is travel use, and second is good music player. I guess by the time 3G becomes popular and more affordable (i.e., pay as you go) it would be time to buy another phone. So, now i an back to 810i.

[apn]

Originally Posted by e268

so it seems triband (which does not have 850 band) may be ok for travel.

FYI - Rogers is using 1900MHz and 850MHz in Canada, the latter providing rural coverage.

This from Rogers website http://fido.ca/portal/en/support/cov...ogers_network4

You may experience better signal level with an 850 MHz-capable handset in more-rural areas, but you are not likely to notice any difference in urban areas where there is Fido network coverage

also...

Some networks in the Americas now also use the 850 MHz band. The table below outlines which type of handset will operate in which countries

The table referenced is available at the posted URL.

Bottom line is that I'd want to stick with a QUAD-band phone, or at least one providing 850/1900 for domestic if travel was not important.

BTW, I got my W810i this morning (all is fine) and activated on Rogers paygo. So far so good and they have an offer to match (for free) your top-up amount in the first 30 days. Capped @ $40, increasing to $50 if you register for automatic top-ups via credit card.

[e268]

Thanks apn, for info and link. All roads lead to W810i.

[e268]

After much procrastination, I ordered SE W810i today. I agonized between W810i and W610i. W610 has Walkman V2 with album art and visualization, can use stereo blue tooth headset, slim and modern, but it has not so good camera, and connector is to the side which is not convenient (I actually went to Sony Store to handle both of them). I am telling these analysis for those who might be considering W610i. In my mind the con's outweighs the pro's, so I chose the W810i.

My next problem is to choose a global sim card. I have raised a separate thread on this. Hope you will help me out. TIA.

[e268]

Originally Posted by apn

Finally, I picked up a (new) Rogers SIM on eBay for $5 shipped from Victoria (vs. $25 in store). When I inquired about activation at the store, they told me it can be done over the internet - using a fake IMEI if desired. The process does NOT lock your phone.

Hi apn: I just searched ebay and indeed there are tons of Rogers sim cards for sale for a few dollars. Just wondering where do these people get the sim cards from, since Rogers sell them for $25. Are they hot or something?

[apn]

I'm not sure how the vendors procure product. Mine was shipped from Victoria, BC and arrived in seemingly genuine Rogers shrink-wrap, complete with instruction booklet. The actual SIM was mounted within a full-size smart card withthe standard pop-out to free the smaller module.

I used to work in smart cards (electronic commerce, pre-paid payphone cards etc.) and wondered if these are older generation cards, smaller memory or something along those lines.

My SIM activated just fine in my W810i, and I'm not too concerned about storage in the SIM, since I'm shopping for a 4GB MSPD module. Now that's a story - I just received a fake from a vendor in Markham, ON

[Jake]

The ebay Rogers SIM cards are unused cards that come in the box. People trade up their phone all the time but they keep their SIM cards. The phone dealers are selling off these. I picked up my 4GB duo pro during FS boxing day.

[e268]

I received my W810 2 days ago. Everything looks and works nice, but I am not too thrilled about the connector used for the earphone. Also, my 25 year old Sony ear plug sounds much better than this one supplied, but the cord on a regular ear plug would be too long on top of the silly connector and the cable. Makes it cumbersome to carry around. Oh, well, Sony does do odd things sometimes.

I'll be shopping for a 4 GB card as well (since 500kB can only hold 3 of my cd's ripped to mp3), another one of Sony's "invention". SO, if you gentleman know where a good deal is, please let me know.

BTW, is 4 GB the largest that W810i can take? or is it the limit of Sony's duo pro?

[Jake]

According to Sony 4GB is the limit for that phone. Be sure to check Costco. They recently had a rebate. It may still be in effect.

[e268]

Thanks Jake. I checked Canadacomputers and they have a sandisk 4 GB. I'll check costco as well.

BTW, I turned on Megabase and the earphone sounds pretty good

[apn]

I checked around for the possibility of a "hack" to allow 8GB, but came up empty handed, so I guess 4GB is it. Still that's good enough for a few tunes and pics.

I checked Costco last weekend and they had the 4GB, but I don't think it included the full-size adaptor. Had to take the cardboard to cash register to see product.

I just got hosed on eBay, buying for $xx shipped, but it's a fake. I have no idea what's actually in the package, but there were ~5 clues on the outside, including wrong Sony part # and UPC# for a 1GB card. The seller offered a full refund, but I might take it further and either give it to my RCMP buddy or call the SONY hotline.

BTW, thanks Jake for the very plausible explanation on the source of cheap SIM cards.

[Jake]

I had to remove the pricing discusion. If you find a deal post it in the Digital Deals forum. Thanks.

[apn]

Correction to my earlier post;

I checked the Costco website, and the Sandisk 4GB MSPD card they're selling DOES contain the full-size MS adaptor.

Costco everyday price is same as current FS/BB lowest sale price; only difference is they're selling equivalent Sandisk vs. Sony product.

[e268]

I went to Costco today and bought a Sandisk 4 GB Pro Duo@ $59 which is the lowest I've seen so far.

Anyway, I tried to load my mp3 music using the disc2phone software, and it is very slow. I got fed up, took the card out and plug it directly into my computer's flash reader, and just dropped my mp3 files on it, and it works, and fast.

Anyway, my mp3's are all in vbr format, and it works too, whereas the disc2phone software does not handle vbr. I guess that software is really uselss.

[apn]

I think the issue is more w/ the phone than the SE application.

I don't use disc2phone, but had my W810 connected to my PC via the USB cable. Transferring 160MB of files (23 mp3 files) took about 6 minutes. This to a genuine SONY 4GB MSPD device.

Pulling the MSPD from the phone and inserting into my PC's flash-media drive, I transferred another 126MB (20 files) in under 2 minutes.

My conclusion is that the phone's USB and/or Flash drivers are the bottleneck, so now I do all my file transfers with the flash-drive.