want to leave Three?

[Tom.]

I have a problem with my A835, and am now considering chucking Three and joining Vodafone. I'm on the VT500 plan, with some extra text c/o carphone warehouse, monthly bill is about 30 quid. I'm getting a bit fed up with the disconnects, and the phone is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Whats the cheapest way of doing this? I quite like the SE phone, but its not free yet. Is it too early to suggest that vodafone won't be suffering the same problems as Three's network and their phones?

Do you think I should wait until Christmas, and hope for some special offers, or should I sit out my Three contract which expires in February?

Thanks

[pure ginge]

sit out till feb mate, don't get sucked in just yet. See what three can come back with.......I came close to buyin a v800 this mornin but then i realised that the 50 quid left in my account is for drinkin purposes!

[18736]

I have a problem with my A835, and am now considering chucking Three and joining Vodafone. I'm on the VT500 plan, with some extra text c/o carphone warehouse, monthly bill is about 30 quid. I'm getting a bit fed up with the disconnects, and the phone is becoming increasingly unreliable.

Whats the cheapest way of doing this? I quite like the SE phone, but its not free yet. Is it too early to suggest that vodafone won't be suffering the same problems as Three's network and their phones?

Do you think I should wait until Christmas, and hope for some special offers, or should I sit out my Three contract which expires in February?

Thanks

Hi mate.

Call 08707 330 351 to get your phone collected for repair. Ask for a firmware upgrade too.

You'll have your phone back in 3 days.

Good luck

[simon69c]

Well according to my T&C's the introductory Vodafone plans are staying till end of January and by then Orange should definitely have launched and Vodafone will have a couple of months of live running feedback to make a better judgment call on. I'd suggest trying to get your current phone sorted first and if you can, hold on to see how things work out.

My 3 contract runs out in february too but I couldn't wait that long ;) The V800 is very nice IMHO and although I haven't tested the voice or video calling properly I've been very impressed with the browsing speed and downloads of music tracks (and that's from a not particularly strong 3G signal too).

[Tom.]

Hi mate.

Call 08707 330 351 to get your phone collected for repair. Ask for a firmware upgrade too.

You'll have your phone back in 3 days.

Good luck

3 days! I can't live without this phone for 3 days, that could cost me a lot of money. All my bookings are through this phone, I'm self employed.

I place no faith at all in them being able to repair it, too many sob stories here for that. I'm going to wander down to CW tonight and see whats in. Hopefully they'll have a trial period, and I'll see if its any good or not.

[Tom.]

Right, well CW do a 14 day trial period, so I put my name down for the SE V800

http://www.vodafone.com/external/0,3050,LANGUAGE_ID%253D0%2526CONTENT_ID%253D0,00.h tml

Its a really nice sharp looking phone, very lightweight, about the same thickness folded as the A835 but obviously much shorter when folded. Unfolded it looks very cool, and its quite well featured.

Obviously there may be some problems, but at least I'd be able to buy a cheapo phone off Ebay and use the sim in that if things got bad.

The guy in the CW didn't know how much it cost, it was so new :) Even their head office couldn't say, so he said he'd ring me when they had a price, and I could go in and collect.

YAY! I love getting new gadgets!

[colonel]

For the sake of sounding a bit like a broken record, I would strongly recommend having a look at the Motorola E1000, its smaller,cheaper and better specified then the V800. The software has been vastly improved since the A835. Surprised to hear of your issues, as motorola are generally known for quality. The v800 is a mechanical flip, which has a limited life due to (1) the streching of the wire that connects the screen to the main body, and (2) the strain caused to the screen each time you close it, which is is why flip-phone screens always start to develop hairline cracks. (although limited means generally starts showing symptoms after 18 months). This is why there is a slight push to sliding phones (like the samsung e800, siemens s65, etc.) where there is no 'snap' on the screen, and the electrical connection is transferred by a 'train rail'. Although personaly I prefer candy bar phones .....

The v800 is an excellent phone, I had a play with it. But its just too thick to be comfortable in the pocket. The E1000 is even smaller then the nokia 6600, which is a 2g phone.

I think the silver bits and the Sony name are driving some people to buy it.

If you are interested in taking pictures, it might also be worth waiting for the Sharp 902. First reviews of this have been very positive and it has a 2 megapixel camera. I think it will be released by end of January.
http://www.livingroom.org.au/cameraphone/archives/sharp_902.php

If you change your tariff on 3 to the 15 pounds a month one. Then you would only have to pay a penalty of 45 quid to get out and get a PAC code to transfer your number to vodaphone.

You pays your money, you takes your choice .... as they say!

[simon69c]

In what way is the E1000 better specified than the V800? TBH I don't think there's much to choose between them feature-wise and it's more of a form-factor/manufacturer preference as to which to go for.

The V800 is lighter than the E1000 - it is also very nicely balanced when the flip is opened.

Flip phones are specifically designed to be opened and closed many, many times - they are ***igue tested so that they will be expected to last at least the used lifetime of the phone. There is some extra wear and tear associated with flips but as long as the manufacturer has done their job properly it should never be a problem for you.

Although some may be attracted to the Sony name, the more savvy will pay more attention to the Ericsson half of the partnership who have proved themselves time and again with highly innovative designs and features on their phones - and this has been continued through the SE partnership. Most of the 'label conscious' mobile consumers always go for Nokia anyway out of some misguided idea of them being the best.

[colonel]

I agree that the Sony is a good phone.

I would say however that there lots of extra bits on the Motorola, of course which may not be needed by everybody:

1. Stereo speakers (the loudest ring I have every heard)
2. Sync. with Lotus notes
3. Joystick selector. This is personal taste, but I find it much easier then a rocker switch
4. internal memory of 20 mbytes (sony has 7 mbytes)
5. SE web-site says it weighs 151g. Motorola E1000 only weights 130g.
6. 176x220 pixel screen. Motorola has 240x320 (qvga)
7. Motorola has flash, SE doesn't.
8. Uses proprietry memory stick (only good if you have other Sony products). Motorola has trans flash with a convertor to SD.

The v800 is also a second generation SE 3g phone, whereas its a 5th generation Motorola 3g one, they have had more experience.

hmm.. seem to remember Ericsson having the most buggy software ever. This is why they had to merge.

Agree with you about Nokia's. Easy interface, like Samsung, but overtaken by others now, I would say

[simon69c]

1. Not really fussed about stereo on the handset itself - headset wise I'm not sure if the V800 is or not - the handsfree is for both ears but that doesn't always mean stereo from the phone.

2. You sure there is no sync with Lotus Notes on the SE software? Does anyone still use Notes?

3. As you say, personal taste.

4. Fair enough - but most stuff taking up sizeable memory will be saved to the external memory anyway.

5. Just spotted that on the SE site. Voda's literature has the SE weighing in at 127g compared to 140g for the E1000. V800 certainly doesn't seem as heavy as 151g but I guess we'll need some definitive answer on that.

6. Ok the screen resolution is a lot better on the Moto - but the V800's is very good in its own right and plenty big enough for most things.

7. V800 most definately does have a flash - and the brightest I've ever seen on a mobile at that. The 6 flash led's are either side of the camera lens and can be used as a torch when the flip is closed.

8. The memory expansion issue is a good point - and Memory Sticks are a lot more expensive for equivalent sizes. Doesn't bother me as I'm not planning on getting anymore memory for mine anyway - won't be using it as an mp3 player or anything like that.

If you want to play numbers then the V800 has a 1.3 mp cam over the E1000's 1.2 :) It is also considerably shorter than the E1000 when it is closed which may suit some pockets better.

I also much prefer SE's bluetooth implentations over Motorola's. They have built in file/directory browsing and remote control profiles on top of all the other normal bluetooth functions. They are also easier to pair to other phones than Motorolas. NB: This is based on my experience of the Bluetooth on the V3 Razr so if the E1000 is much better then feel free to correct this!

[colonel]

the v3 razor is very good, my mate just got one. pity its not 3g ...

the bluetooth is excellent and has browsing on the e1000
sorry about the flash, didn't see it on the sony phone.

my company has 160,000 employees and we use notes. many large companies use it

enjoy your phone!

[Tom.]

Well I just tried my Three sim in the new voda V800, and it wasn't having any of it :D

Oh well, I have to wait a week for the number to xfer across. This is a very spiffy phone btw.

Also, the software on Motorolas has always been very poor, and the new Moto is just too similar to the A835 for me to even consider it.

[colonel]

I guess its personal opinion, but all new phones have the same icon based menus (nokia series 60, samsung, SE, Motorola, LG, Panasonic, etc). The only difference is speed of operation and clarity of icons. Here Samsung and Motorola are ahead of the pack.

I actually thought the A835's menus were quite good. Better then the nokia 7610 and the Sony k700i that I used recently. The E1000's are much improved, in fact if you just used it for a phone, the E1000 has almost the best and most reponsive phone menu I have ever used. Just beaten by the Samsung 800, which doesn't have 1/10 of the functionality.

If you guys want to find out more about the E1000, look at the Motorola developer site: www.motocoder.com
Look up the device E1000.
When you see what they provide, in terms of detailed technical references, and software SDKs, you can see how miles ahead of SE they are.

rgds

[gajet]

I remember old Ericsson phones before sony, they were rubbish, cheaply made, poor software nad generally fell apart, stupid flip key covers.
I also heard from someone who works for P4U that the Razr was rubbish, just a V6 squeezed into a smaller case, with a keypad thats guaranteed to fail sooner or later.

I apologise for this trolling but couldn't resist

[18736]

3 days! I can't live without this phone for 3 days, that could cost me a lot of money. All my bookings are through this phone, I'm self employed.

I place no faith at all in them being able to repair it, too many sob stories here for that. I'm going to wander down to CW tonight and see whats in. Hopefully they'll have a trial period, and I'll see if its any good or not.

If you can't live without your phone or number for three days, what will happen if your new phone (on Voda 3G with worse coverage than 3, for example) develops a fault and has to be repaired / replaced?

What will you do then?

AFAIK, 3 are the only network that does FREE repairs and a 3 day turnaround. I know stories of people being without their phone for WEEKS on other networks.

Your choice ,mate - I would say get ya phone repaired for free and see how it is then, but, as alwaya, the "decision is yours" ;)

[Tom.]

Well, if it does develop a fault, I'll just put the sim in a cheapo phone. A 6210 for instance, which I happen to ahve one of sitting in a draw.

Voda 3G has worse coverage than 3? Thats funny, I thought vodafone had 99% of the population. I don't need 3G to make a call. I just want 3G, because, well, I like gadgets.

I'm sick of 3. Being constantly cut off. The phone having fits. The poor call centre service. The lack of internet access. The crap bricklike phone.

[Geoneil]

The thing about Vodafone is unlike 3 they have their OWN 2G network (3Seller was referring specifically to 3G coverage obviously, but the bread and butter functions of any mobile phone can be carried perfectly over 2G) and therefore won't be borking their SIMs to not work in 2G phones the way 3 do. (That's right, 3's USIMs don't work in 2G phones because 3 progam them not to, check this forum for threads of users who stuck their USIMs in 2G phones only to receive a nasty letter and a borked USIM from 3)

Also, I've used Vodafone Retail's repair service, they've pretty much always had loan phones (one could question the quality of the handsets mind!) these handsets will very likely be 2G phones, Voda 3G not having been around for 18 months, and I've never really had to wait longer than a week for my phone to come back. Of course, this is my experience with 2G Vodafone, but I'd expect it to be the same from Vodafone Retail regardless of what phone you have.

[encoderX]

Hi Tom

Sorry to hear your not pleased with 3.

Vodafone are second to last in terms of 3G coverage - 3 are the largest. So I am unsure of 99% - I presume this figure is for 2/2.5g

Same as me I sure don't need 3g - 2/2.5g is certainly more reliable - regardless of which network your with but then again GSM has been around alot longer. 3G is a nice thing to play on in the short term but the telecom companies are hoping we'll 'warm' to 3G - they've ploughed billions into the gamble.

Luckily 3 have strong signal in my area, I don't suffer cut-offs - apart from the odd one - but I've had that even before I moved to 3.
Surprisingly I have nothing but good to say about 3 CS - they have answered calls within the low minutes and even resolved issues within an hour of me reporting it. I did port my number into 3 from o2 and that was seamless - I was impressed.

I'm not too bothered at the lack of internet access as Voda 3G charge quite high and if 3 see this as the same I'd rather not have it - at least until the price drops.

My phone the LG U8120 (dual-screen, clam-shell) is no different to my o2 Samsung V200 (o2) - I was very surprised and thankful. The NEC is bigger but that's a candybar phone and still people I've shown it don't mention the size, personal preference I suppose.

Which 3 phone you have?

Happy posting!