It is long past time to get a new cell phone and plan. My contract with Sprint has long since expired so I’ve been researching the options. I have several criteria I consider essential for my cell phone service:
- National Coverage – It must work while traveling
- Home Coverage – Good reception at my house (duh)
- Bluetooth/USB sync – Import/Sync address book from PC to phone
- Modem/Data – tether to laptop for everywhere internet access
The national coverage and data access are mandatory for me because of my consulting business. I offer a service to my clients and guarantee them a 1 hour response. Thus, my phone must provide me with the ability to get internet access from nearly anywhere. That narrows down my list of potential service providers to Sprint, Cingular, and Verizon.
Beyond the choice of providers is the matter of phones. I had been using a Sanyo 8100 for years. I am able to tether to it using a USB cable and sync my address book to it via BitPim. It is not pretty or elegant, but it works. I have two problems with that solution. The phone is HUGE in my pocket so I hate carrying it, and it drops calls with great regularity. It needs to be replaced.
Last year I tried out a PM-325, also from Sprint. It was a slick little phone but Sprint crippled the Bluetooth support so that it only worked with headsets. USB tethering was also borked (I can’t remember why) so I returned it a week later and have been waiting for a better phone to appear since. (Note: Sprint later released a firmware update that enabled Bluetooth tethering)
Last month I wandered into a Cingular store and bought a Motorola Razr v3. I used it for a few days. The phone has a great feature list. I immediately synced my address book to it (yay) and tethered my laptop to it via Bluetooth. Yay again. However, after I started making phone calls with it, I noticed that the voice clarity and coverage at my house stank. I frequently had to ask the other person to repeat what they said. The clarity of calls on Sprint really has spoiled me.
The other problem with the Razr is speed. The net access is really, really slow compared to Sprint’s Vision. The lag is so high that interactive connections (ie, SSH which I absolutely must have) are painful to use. I thought perhaps it was simply a network issue but I was in Wal-Mart one day. I needed to look up something on the web so I pulled up the browser and spent 10 minutes trying to get to the page I wanted to see. I realized that I could have driven home, looked it up on my computer and driven back before I found what I needed using the phones (wap) browser.
I concluded that the Razr was not really an upgrade from my aged 8100 so I returned it. Since then I’ve gotten two incorrect (way overbilled) invoices from Cingular. I called them and the kind customer service lady promised to correct the bill. It’s been almost two months and I still haven’t gotten a correct invoice from them. That’s not exactly a great enticement for me to ever try them again.
Finally, on Dec 30th, I called Sprint again and they made me a sweet deal to renew my contract. I got a Samsung A900 phone for $100 shipped. It has gotten excellent reviews from all over and it supports ED-VO, Sprint’s new high speed mobile access, which includes support for streaming TV to your phone. The promise of high speed on my phone and the ultra-thin profile were nice additions to the other requirements of mine that this phone met.
When we got home from Michigan, it was waiting for me. I activated it and have been happily playing with it ever since. Bluetooth tethering to my laptop works great. I was able to import most of my address book entries (it only supports 500). Network access is really, really quick. In fact, unlike the Razr, everything about this phone is quick. Menus come up pretty quickly, the web browser launches quickly, Google maps load quickly, and movies download quickly.
The camera phone is good, nearly as good as phone sized cameras get. It plays MP3’s just fine but only holds a few of them. I haven’t figured out how to get GPS data from it to my laptop yet. I did install Google’s Local for mobile phones. It is way cool. In all, I’m extremely pleased and this phone was well worth the wait. It’s highly recommended.
This reminds me, I need to look and see when my contract is up.
How much is your service/month?
How *was* your reception at home in Cadillac with Sprint? They opened a store downtown.
Jason: $30/mo for the phone, $15/mo for Power Vision (data/internet).
Jay: Excellent! Sprint reception is always good if you’re near a freeway. However, it stinks pretty badly when you start heading away from freeways. The only place in Cadillac that my signal wasn’t excellent is in the new Wal-Mart building. Something about that place wreaks havoc with the signal quality (but it still works).
Alright Matt, but I have the Razr and am extremely pleased
Who said there was anything wrong with the Razr? It is actually a pretty decent phone, which is why I took the time to kick its tires. However, it is not 3G and is still using GPRS which means it’s network access is sssslllllloooowowwwwww. And it’s not just the network access, the phone itself was also pretty slow to respond. Just launching the WAP browser takes more than a minute. Time it and see.
Click the image for more details of the difference, but the long and short of it is this. My old phone used Sprint’s 1xRTT (not 3G) technology which was already quite good. The Razr, like my old phone does not use 3G and still uses GPRS. Notice how much slower GPRS is than 1xRTT, about 3 times as slow. So, when I used the Razr, it was 3 times slower than I was used to. That graph almost exactly describes my experience.
Compare that to my A900 which uses EVDO, which is 9 times faster than my old phone, almost an order of magnitude. The network it connects to is simply amazingly fast. It’s fast enough that Google mobile can draw the maps almost as fast as I can scroll across the screen. Downloading is really quick. I can watch TV on it for crying out loud! Of course, with such a fast network, you also need a phone that’s quick enough to process it data that quickly and happily, the A900 is.
Just for fun, see how long it takes you to open your Razr, launch the WAP browser, and navigate to http://matt.simerson.net. I can open my phone, launch Opera, and load up my home page in 12 seconds. More importantly to me, I can tether my laptop via Bluetooth and check my mail in about the same number of seconds. It took minutes to do that with the Razr and Cingular. The Razr is good, but for my needs, the A900 is much, much better.
Matt:
How are you using the modem via bluetooth. I called sprint to inquire on using my A900 BT with my laptop and they told me that sprint does not support this feature(although Sprint advertises the BT feature). Would you be able to share how you made the connection?
Any help will be appreciated. Thanks much!
Joe
Not sure how he is doing it, but I use my PowerBook via BT to my A900 for EVDO (PAM, phone as modem) Internet access with Sprint.
Most Sprint reps are not terribly technically savvy. Dont worry about that, and do not expect them to understand how you will connect to the internet using your phone. Just call up, order the plan you want, an EVDO phone like the A900 and the Phone As Modem plan. I created a A900 tethering page with more instructions.
Thank you very much for showing me the #777 trick to use the A900 as a modem. I’ve called Sprint customer service several times and still havn’t been able to get a straight answer out of them. I was using a USB cable, but the phone will eventually die because the cable does not provide power. I am using Bluetooth now and can plug the phone into the wall and keep it powered. The only disadvantage so far that I see is speed. I did a test (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/) both ways and the USB connection gets anywhere from 100-1400kbps. The Bluetooth connection(“115kbps”) seems to only get from 200-300kbps. I suppose this is the limitation of Bluetooth. Lastly, I like that it shows a regular connection icon in the task bar, instead of using Sprint’s PCS Connection Manager software.
Thanks again!
I’ve been considering the a900 and am curious how you got it for $100., Sprint is telling me $199. Quite a difference.
Hi Matt
I was wondering if you could help me? I synced my a900 and my laptop via the bluetooth. When I try to connect, it tells me that the modem has connected, but then the phone shows me a username and password error. Is this at the connection site or is it something I need to set up on my laptop?
Can you help me? Thanks
Christy
Great review Matt. I just got my a900 based on this and have been very pleased with it. Curious to see what phone setting you used with Bitpim to sync your contacts. I haven’t had a chance to sit down and try that yet.
I’m able to connect and explore the phone through my PC (Win XP)easily, but am stumped regarding address book inport to the A900. How did you import your address book entries to the A900? My web searches yield software that transfer data but not address information/phone numbers, etc.
Bitpim wouldn’t (and probably still does not) work with the A900.
I had to export my contacts as vcards and then manually drag them to the phone via bluetooth. When sending via bluetooth, the phone recognizes them and adds them to the phone book.
to what part of the phone are ya sending the contacts?
hey do you know if you can print pics via bluetooth? if so how?
Jim: via Bluetooth, just drag and drop. The phone takes care of adding them to the address book.
pat: No idea, I haven’t got a Bluetooth printer to try with.
I just purchased my A900 today actually, I’m going to be setting up EVDO, replacing my Sanyo 5500 that I had before, which I enjoyed at the time — but its a bit out dated now.
I was told that I could add Vision Pack Plus or whatever and din’t need the phone as modem, are you sure its a requirement?
Let me know, I want to bt to my phone using my mac book pro and get online whenever I need to.
You can get a USB cable that also supplies power at http://www.gomadic.com.
Justin: to be legitate, yes, you must purchase the Phone-as-modem plan. Otherwise, you can also modify a secret setting on your phone (disable NAI). Doing so is an invitation for Sprint to cancel your account if you abuse it by using excess bandwidth via your laptop.
hey can someone help me on how to use the #777 trick so i can put mp3 files on my phone! thanks!!
I have now been using my Samsung A900 phone as a modem for a week in West Virgina because of the lack of telephone and cable service in this neck of the woods. I manage to get average download speeds of 620 kbps with 2 to 3 signal strength bars. Way Way faster than the usual 56 kbps dial up phone modem. Sprint has a special now $ 39.99 Phone as a modem Plan for unlimited usage. Its works GREAT !!!!!
Hello, I purchased my A900 2 days ago and its great, but i am having problems sending files through bluetooth. i know how to pair but how do u send files. When i pair it only says to send or receive contacts, not files. can someone help me. Thanks
OK…so I did everything right, but the modem would not work…said incorrect login/password. I called Sprint and they informed me I needed to purchase teh $40 a month unlimted plan – said there was nothing else available although I’ve read and heard about a $10/month plan.
In any case, she gave me a one month trial. We’ll see if its really worth $40 a month.
THanks!
Well, if you have EVDO in your area, it is fantastic. And, Sprint has announced that by the end of the year, an EVDO upgrade will be out that significantly raises the bandwidth available to EVDO devices.
By the end of 2007, the 4G version of EVDO will be out and mobile broadband will be as good and often better tha DSL or Cable. That is great news for the 150 million people who live in EVDO covered areas.
I’ve had my A900 for a month now and I love it, but I’ve been trying to find out if there’s a way to connect the A900 to a portable car tv screen (for my portable dvd screen that I have in my car). It would be great if I could do that my children would be so glad when driving those long trips across florida. We have a dvd in the back and a screen in the front.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!!!!
Thanks, have a great Thursday!!!
Maria
Hi,
I’m sure this question has been asked and answered but here goes again. I have a Samsung A900 and power vision with Sprint so how can I use the phone as a modem (with and without bluetooth windows laptops) without getting a phone as a modem plan.
Thanks,
Don
I used Sprint, Future Dial Suite and a Sanyo 8200 as a modem connected via USB to my laptop for a few years. I bought a new Samsung mm-a900 and the only thing Future Dial supports is Contact Sync. I downloaded the driver from Samsung. I do not see my phone as a modem or know how to select it as a way to connect to internet. Is there a document with step by step instructions on how to define phone as modem and use it to get to the internet without using Future Dial for us less technical humans?
Thanks much, Ralph
A900- Does anyone know how to sync over Calendar items from Outlook???
Matt, are you using the built-in obigo browser or have you downloaded another one? I’m after an https web site that requires redefining the wap gateway IP address in the browser config and I can’t figure it out on the obigo.
My plan with sprint ran out and I called them and threatened them that I’d join Cingular b/c I could get 2 razrs for free (me and my wife) and they gave me 2 a900 phones for $100 and then screwed up in shipping and accidently sent me a 3rd phone free. So now I have 3 a900s for $100 and also got a ton of stuff added to my plan. Sprint rocks.
Now my question is how can I place mp3s on my a900 and play them from it?
I recently got the A900s for my nephew and me and we are very happy with the phones. We also got the unlimited Vision plan. It is very exciting to learn that this phone will apparently substitute for the Sprint Internet Access Cards we got for our laptops, each of which is costing $60/month for unlimited access.
And we got the extended life batteries, which should help with that pesky connect time issue raised above.
Is it still true that a Bluetooth connection is much slower than USB?
Do I have this right?
Connect the a900 by USB cable to the computer. The computer (XP) should see the connection and install the usb drivers.
Now go into the menu on the phone and click tools, then click “Mass Storage” and then click “connect to pc”
This is the only way the pc will see the phone.
The phone will now show up as a extra hard-drive on your computer.
You can move mp3 files into the “media” folder to play on your phone mp3 player.
The “DCIM” folder is where your jpg pictures are store that you take with the camera.
From here you can take the pictures that you have taken and move them to your pc.
You can also move pictures from your pc to this folder for use with your contacts.
They need to be in the jpg format at 240 x 320.
You can also use this website to download ringtones that you have made to your phone.
http://www.sprintusers.com/focus
The ringtones need to be in the m4a (mpeg-4 audio) format and have to be less than 30 sec long.
Have fun
I have the the Samsung blade, it’s a very neat phone with a tone of extras. But the only problem I have with it is the battery life. I have to charge it at least 2 times a day just so it can last the whole day, but I guess that’s what you can expect from a phone that has more extras that the majority of other cell phones.