I have a Sprint Samsung A900 aka Blade. Overall, I like the phone but it is plagued with a lot of quirks. I had hoped that many of these quirks would be fixed with a software upgrade, but there has not been a single upgrade released since I purchased my phone and did the initial software upgrade to ZB12.

Actually the A900 I have now is the second one I’ve had. The first one I bought was a refurbished unit and it had tons of stuff wrong with it, including getting extremely hot during use, restarting all by itself and odd error messages when trying to do the simplest of things. I returned it and paid the additional amount for a brand new Blade, but still have problems that are common complaints among Blade users.

The bluetooth is hit or miss…I’ve gone through 3 different bluetooth headsets before I found one that works decently with the Blade. If I’m in a menu and a call comes in the caller gets directed to voicemail immediately. The phone book menu is so freakin’ slow! Every other phone I’ve ever had, when I type in the first letter of someone’s name I’m immediately taken to the corresponding letter in the phone book. Not with the Blade! There is a huge lag time between entering the letter and the cursor moving to the appropriate listing. This is such a pain!

So, I assumed some of these things would be software updates….but no!  Earlier this month Sprint/Samsung released the A900M….other than some small cosmetic differences (more plastic) the only other changes that have been reported are software related!

The A900M offers the ability to customize the appearance and features of the Standby Screen, Main Menu and My Favorites screens with a wide variety of downloadable themes. I’ve read that some people who have "upgraded" to this phone have found that some of the other issues have been fixed as well, although whether or not the problems with GPS (using TeleNav and Garmin) is still debatable. I’ve been reading reports supporting both views.

I’m also not happy with Sprint’s service right now. In an area where I used to have very good coverage I am often roaming or have no signal at all if I turn the roaming option off. I’ve tested this with my old phone, and friends also on Sprint are now having the same problem with coverage, even though their phones too used to work fine in this area.  Thank goodness for *2 and credit for a dropped call…at least I save a few bucks a month, since Sprint customer service insists that coverage is great in my area and I shouldn’t be having any problems.

I don’t understand why Spring/Samsung would release the A900M instead of fixing the problems with the A900. is their goal to piss of customers even more? It would appear so…

For all the fans who have been using the MotoRAZR for almost a lifetime (that’s almost 2 years!), and are now bored with it, Motorola finally launched the much-anticipated MotoKRZR in September.

Below is a picture of the product launch party in Hong Kong with models and big wigs from Motorola: [photo credits via hkphonedaily]

The new MotoKRZR comes in a glossy blue glass finish, all shiny and pretty, and has been scaled down to at least 1 centimeter narrower than its predecessor. It has a less clunky feel, so is easier to handle and carry around.

Though smaller, it hasn’t lost any of its features. It still boasts a 2.0 megapixel camera; integrated Bluetooth stereo with MP3, AAC playback; Quad Band 850/900/1800/1900MHz; supports micro SD card up to 2 gig; display resolution at 176 x 220 pixel with support for 260K colors; internet access capabilities. You can even sync your phone’s built-in calendar and phonebook to your PC. Retail priced at $3,280 HKD.

Originally from Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women on October 11, 2006, 5:35am

Filed under: Cellphones

Sure, you like the Motorola Q but hate the fact that it’s missing WiFi. And the lack of 3G on the HTC Excalibur is also a deal breaker. Well, look no further for your QWERTY fix brother, ’cause our favorite maker of boxy black devices is showing off their SGH-i600 Smartphone at IFA in Berlin. This tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 baby brings it all: HSDPA, EDGE, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel cam with another up front for video calls, a 2.3-inch, 65k color, 320 x 240 TFT display, Microsoft’s Push Mail, and 128MB ROM / 64MB RAM with MicroSD expansion all powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone on a TI OMAP 1710 processor. The phone looks small enough for single-handed operation, can pull double-duty as an HSDPA modem and can even be switched into USB mass storage mode for easy drag-n-drop data transfer off your PC. And yeah, it’s FCC approved so the estimated Q4 2006 release date is certainly do-able. Now sop-up the drool and click-on for more pics.

[Thanks, Martin]

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Originally by Thomas Ricker from Engadget on September 5, 2006, 9:36am

I have been fighting with Sprint because of poor service in my area. I’ve had Sprint for years and initially had some trouble with defective phones, but found a phone that worked pretty well in my area. After having the phone for two years (a Sanyo RL4920 BRICK!) I upgraded to a Samsung A900 (Blade).

Note: I did originally buy a refurbished Blade from RadioShack. It was defective and RadioShack was more than accomodating. They replaced the refurbished Blade with a brand new one, from their latest delivery. I paid the difference between the refurbished phone and the new one.  Every problem I had with the refurbished phone is not an issue with the new phone.  I wish the people at the Sprint store were even half as helpful or polite as the people I dealt with at RadioShack! Unfortunately, they can’t do anything about Sprint’s coverage…and my phone worked just as well in their store as their demo phone.

Some "upgrade"!  I’m having problems with my calls dropping in town around my house, not to mention in my house. I have other friends who are on Sprint and they are experiencing the same problems. I called Sprint complaining about the the lack of coverage (actually roaming in the same areas I previously had coverage with my brick phone)…they told me I had to go into the Sprint store and have my phone tested to make sure it wasn’t my phone.

I went into the Sprint store only to find out that because I didn’t buy their service plan for $6.00 per month they wouldn’t even look at my phone unless I paid a $15 fee!!!  I can understand not FIXING the phone, but I have to pay to have it tested?! That’s ridiculous!  It’s not just my phone having the problem, my friends phones are having the problems too…it just doesn’t bother them as much because they rarely use their phones in town.

Right now, unless I want to break down and pay them to TEST my phone, my only recourse is to use the *2 option. What is that you may ask?  If you dial *2 on your Sprint phone you are connected to customer service. You will be given the opportunity to tell the automated voice what you need to do….just tell her you are calling for "credit for a dropped call".  She will apologize for the inconvenience and credit your account for one minute at the highest local rate. The good news is…it’s a pretty high rate. I get $1.00 for every dropped call that I report to Sprint.

I don’t know if they limit this credit, but I may be on my way to finding out. So far within the past week I’ve gotten $6.00 in credit for legitimate dropped calls.

Come on Sprint…$15 just to TEST a phone?!  You just don’t want to test it, then you’d have to address the problem with your spotty service coverage.

Moral of the story:  If you EVER have a call dropped on your Sprint phone…CALL *2 and ask for CREDIT FOR A DROPPED CALL!

Last week, I got caught in some pretty horrendous thunderstorms. While getting drenched running for the subway (even with an umbrella), I was wondering exactly how wet the phone stuffed in my pants pocket could get before it died. So, although I never intend to go swimming with my cellphone, I am intrigued by the waterproof SO902iWP+ from Sony Ericsson. It even receives calls underwater and comes with an mp3 player and 1.3 megapixel camera.

Via Akihabara News

Originally from Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women on July 25, 2006, 7:40am

Fans of the *beep beep* Z520 launched last year by Cingular that miss *beep beep* push-to-talk functionality will like the Z525, which is pretty *beep beep* much identical save for the PTT. It’s *beep beep* got a VGA camera, 16MB of memory, Bluetooth, and quad-band GSM. You can get it now for *beep beep* $19 after a $50 rebate.

*beep beep* – Jason Chen

Product Page [Cingular via Mobile Tracker]

Originally from Gizmodo on July 19, 2006, 6:30pm

The carrier that businesses love—Sprint/Nextel—continues its tradition of black, non-aerodynamic phones with the Motorola i670. The 130×130 display won’t be curing eye-cancer anytime soon, but the Push-To-Talk, GPS navigation, Direct Talk off-network walkie talkie and group walkie talkie makes this targeted towards the exact opposite audience that Helio is aiming for.

The i670 is available for $49 with two year agreement, or $249 if you want to buy it flat out. – Jason Chen

Press Release [PR Newswire via Mobile Tech Review]

Originally from Gizmodo on July 19, 2006, 4:26pm

Once you weed through all the corporate Newspeak, to combine two different things, you’ll realize that the gSmart i128 is a Windows Mobile 5.0-powered smartphone with its main feature being useful for only a small percentage of people out there. That is, it’s mulit-lingual, supposedly a coup for businessmen. And here I thought English was the lingua franca of business. It has many of the features that users of smartphones have come to expect, like Wi-Fi, analog TV reception, a camera (2.1-meapixels) and the assortment of Microsoft applications that businesses rely on, rightly or wrongly.

Its multi-linugal capabilities are the result of a collaboration between Gigabyte and Alta Vista’s Babel Fish. It supposedly lets users do exciting things like search for stock prices in as many as 98 different languages.

The gSmart i128 is supposedly identical to the Taiwan-only sSmart-i, pictured here. No word on price, though. – Nicholas Deleon

Press Release [Gigabyte via Slashphone]

Originally from Gizmodo on July 19, 2006, 5:28pm