I hope you don't mind I am having a weird question. I guess I would say that I am an old timer on cell phone. For a long time, I have been using an old phone and I am ok with it until I feel the need of a bluetooth ear piece.
I don't need a fancy phone, a used one is ok as long as it's affortable for me, so I went out and bought a used Nokia flip phone (61xx) with bluetooth capable for $40 bucks. I love it, but then soon I realized that I can't lock the phone (Menu + *) in case the kid got their hands to it.
Then I bought a motorola razr v3 for around the same price, same problem and also the signal is very bad. This is with t-mobile. When I unlock it for my at&t phone, I messed it up.
Then I bought a motorola L6. This one is perfect regarding locking it but then sound is way too small. The other party complain that they can't hear me. And it's hard to hear the others too. Beside, signal is bad too.
None of the 4 phones I tried lately is as good as my very old Nokia phone regarding signal and sound. Are all modern phones nowadays worse than older phones? What is a good used phone I can get for cheap that you can recommand?
Thanks in advance.
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gerio Posts: 477
Phone Model: (Long sigh) 'Nother iPhone (keeping my Moto Q, though)
Service Provider: AT&T & Cellular South
Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:44 pm
I agree with you about the newer phones. They stink. and the carriers aren't any better, if you consider the technology available to day against what the carriers give us in terms of reliablility, signal quality and features.
It seems that carriers make more money from cutsie-pie picture, video, and music features (and I'm in the music business!) than from solid, reliable phones and service. However, why are they giving us this tripe they call phone service. Because it's what we ask for and what we are willing to pay for.
Now that's out of the way.
I remember those Nokia 61xx phones and other models of Nokia. I remember a lock feature, but it was to prevent unwanted dialing, not security. There was a lock code feature where you could set up a 4-digit security code. Everyone I know but me set up a code, then promptly forgot it, making a nightmare for reps at the phone stores. Still, they were good phones. But as I went from the Motorola Brick phones (where "brick" stood for a style of phone, NOT a phone that some dumbass has rendered useless by trying to modify it without proper knowledge of what they were doing) to the Moto Flip phones and StarTacs to the various Nokias, I noticed a steady decline in the reliability and signal quality (culminating in the subsequent reduced wattage models). When the Moto Razr came out, I thought I saw a glimmer of hope for the return of good signal quality and reliability even though it came with a camera and a few of the "cute" features that are popular now. Unfortunately, it seems that the Razrs are somewhat inconsistent in quality between versions and models. Nonetheless, they satisfied my needs until lately when I've been going back and forth and finally settling on the iPhone.
I guess the short version of this story would be "Not really". I would recommend the Razrs, but you've had a bad taste of those already. Try looking around eBay and see if anything catches your eye. You could be there a while, though.
I feel yer pain, good luck,
Geri O
rnmm Posts: 9
Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:01 pm
Well, I think the most important feature for any phone in general is the call/conversation including signal, sound, ring, etc. Camera, email, text, MP3 are nice to have but they should be secondary.
I agree with you it's not only the phone, but also the service provider's (signal) quality too. I used to complain t-mobile is so bad in this area and recently changed to at&t for better but guess what? It's even 10 times worse. Now, I hardly can understand what people on the other end are trying to say. The signal bars are almost a half of what it used to be with t-mobile. And my bill now include all kind of "data transfer" and "text" which I know I never did.
Back to the phone thing, I just got another used motorola L6 and I think it's beautiful for the price, so cheap. But I have to press it hard to my ear and still hard to hear other person. While the other person keep asking repeat "what are you saying?". "can you turn on your volumn?". hoho. Also, I charged the phone full last night before went to bed, now the phone is beeping low batery in the morning. New batery I guess.
I also read about the Blackberry Pearl and look like more than 50% users complain about it.
Whats happening is they are trying to make phones more "affordable" so in order to get good call quality and signal, you need to up the benjamins for a quality phone. Having ATT doesn't help either, as GSM tech is old and weary.
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