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Do Working Cell Phone Demos Exist Anymore?
Peridriga asks: "I've been using the same cell phone now for going on about 4 years. I personally love it but, new technologies such as Bluetooth, WiFi, etc leave me wanting more from my 24/7 tool. I haven't gotten rid of it because I can work it in almost any condition (dark, drunk, asleep), with only occasional glances at the screen. Menu functionality, layout, ergonomics, and button layout are of real importance simply because I want a phone I don't have to think about using. The problem comes in that none of the cell stores/kiosks/provider retail outlets/etc have working demos of phones available. Simply shells of the phone model physically attached to the displays. How am I supposed to drop down $200-$500 on a top-of-the-line phone when I can't even see how it works? Does anybody know of a provider that has working demo models of phones on display so you can actually see what your buying? How about websites that review phones with their function and purpose in mind, not just the specs and the manufacturer provided marketing fluff?"
That said, surely you have some friends? Find out what they're using, and give their equipment a listen. You'll find phones to get or avoid, and your friends will usually be quite candid about them if they've had the phone a while.
That said, AVOID AT&T. They outright lie to you about their network. In Chicago at least, you get crap, no matter which phone you choose if you're looking at the new 3G (mMode) network. The 3G phones can be rate throttled to take care of congestion, resulting in ass-quality calls, which lets AT&T put off getting new towers forever. And they *do*. They lied to me about "improving the network shortly" for most of a year before I called the local tower owners to find out where AT&T was expanding their presence. None of them were, and when I took this to AT&T, they not only let me avoid the $200 contract termination fee, but bought back the phone and refunded me for 10 months of service.
Also, avoid the places offering "free" nights and weekends on 3G phones. They all play the AT&T game. The calls are "free," but only to the folks willing to put up with sounding as though they're calling from a reverberating sewer tunnel.
Lastly, get a business plan. These get preferential bandwidth, and usually for the same price as consumer phones. You don't need to show a business license or do anything other than requesting the business unit. You get better phone support and better call quality. I'm guessing that their thinking is that if they make a business customer happy, it's likely to mean hundreds more phones, whereas customers always buy on price alone and will put up with being jerked around.
Also, while I'm at it -- try to deal with a small dealer, the places that specialize in phones and car stereos are the best. You can just about always get the unlock code with the phone from these guys if you make it clear that you're only buying the phone under those conditions. They'd rather break a Sprint/AT&T/Verizon/T-Mobile rule than lose a sale.
the radioshack's that i've been in, both in boston and pennsylvania, have fully working models of samsung, ericsson, and nokia phones, possibly others. perhaps there is a radioshack in your area which might also have working models as displays?
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Return it if it doesn't meet your needs or expectations. Do it enough, and you have created an incentive for them to provide working demos again.
A number of manufacturers provide website demos of their phones. For example, I bought a phone this week, for the first time doing so on-line rather than in a store. I was comfortable doing so because Sony provides a demo of the phone (the T610) on their website. In addition, the provider to which I have switched, T-Mobile, provides demos of the phones on their site.
It ain't as good as the real thing. Just yesterday -- after ordering my T610 but before getting it (I'm anxiously awaiting its Monday delivery) -- I saw a T610 in person for the first time. I was surprised at how tiny that it was. But there were no surprises -- it functioned just as the demonstration showed that it would.
-Waldo Jaquith
Every Sprint Store I've been to had working models. Not those little kiosks in the mall, but brick & mortar stores. A link to their store locator.
I hate this TOO!!!
I hate phones with slow loading menus. Half written call logging and poorly designed SMS interfaces.
If I were you I'd take them back on their 30 day guarantee's and make it cost them money for not letting you try out the phone yourself.
Its a hassle, but if everyone did it, it'd cost them less to show some display models.
I have noticed in the past that some smaller independent dealers will let you play with the phones.
Good luck
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When I was recently looking for a new phone, the first thing I did (after narrowing the list to phones with features I wanted) was to find friends/coworkers with the models I was checking out and ask them about it. After that, I messed around on their phones a little bit, looking through the menus and whatnot.
If this isn't an option (one of the phones I was looking at wasn't owned by anyone I knew), you might try RadioShack. You wouldn't have to buy there, but last I checked them out, they had working models, attached firmly to the counter by about 1.5 feet of cord. I don't know if they were configured to allow calls or not. Unfortunately, they didn't have the model phone that I still needed to check out, so I didn't mess around in the store too much, and that phone was eliminated from my list.
Another option would be to go to the service provider's stores, or booths in retail places. A couple of years ago, I remember they had deals going where you could make a 5 minute phone call to get a feel for the reception and clarity they provide, etc., etc. But if the phones were live enough to make calls, they would certainly be live enough for you to operate for a few minutes. The biggest drawback there would probably also be the selection of phones they provide - they likely choose the best phone for transmission/reception, and only have those available to try.
It certainly was a lovely model of a phone, small and nice weight. But when asking to see a working version so I could check out the PIM features, he replied 'We only do last-minute ordering because the prices are always dropping and we don't want to be stuck with inventory that costs too much'.
Bit annoying really, but understandable.
I haven't seen any store with working demos on display, but if I ask nicely they always let me try the phone out before deciding. I bought two phones last year, one in Sweden and one in France, and I think I played with at least 5 to 10 phones in the process.
Good luck!
so you can buy a phone, try it as you wish,
and if you don't like it you can return it.
I have done this *many* times with them,
and each time the return process was easy,
fast, no questions asked, with a full refund.
Hope this helps!
Cheers, Joel
p.s. I'm not affiliated with Verizon,
just a sastisfied customer.
CompUSA (aka: CompUSSR) has working models of cell phones on display.
Yes, they are attached to the table with those little steal-proof bungie cord thingies. But the phones themselves are fully working models, powered on and sitting in their chargers / docking stations.
Quite playable-with, although you'll probably have to talk to a salesperson if you spend too long prodding buttons.
You might have to dig for what you want though. It might be helpful if you had a couple of models in mind to start with and searched for reviews on them.
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Ask the person that is working if they can get a phone from their stock, power it up and show it to you... Simple as that.... Cell Phone Demo's are a waste of stock for them, and the only real time I have ever seen a demo, was when Sprint was introducing their new Camera Phone...
Just me
I just bought a phone at Radio Shack. They have what looked like actual phones in the display case, but it was locked. I just had the salesperson bring out two actual phones, open the boxes, and let me use them until I decided which one I wanted. I bet most places with salespeople on comission would gladly give you the same service.
That's the worst load of bull I've ever seen. By 3G I assume you mean GSM, which, as far as I know, does _not_ support any sort of "rate throttling". GSM's TDMA multiplexing method means that there's a hard limit on the number of calls per cell and they each get a dedicated amount of bandwidth for good quality. What kind of phone did you buy from them? It probably had shit for RF.
Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
Any celluar engineers out there that can validate Darl's claims that during peak congestion periods a lower quality of service is provided in order to allow more calls to be terminated? I was under the impression that GSM used TDMA (Time Division Multiplexing) as the physical carrier, and as a result there are a finite number of sessions established at the same time; one per timeslot, correct?
If AT&T is able to throttle bandwidth (wait, voice is circuit switched...) do they really offer higher quality service to businesses? I'd like to get confirmation of this from an actual accredited engineer rather than taking Darl's speculation as fact.
If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get away immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.
Most all Verizon Wirless store have working demos, that even have activated service so you can call around on their time.
The AT&T stores in my area (southwestern PA) all have working demos of their phones. I will stay out of the debates regarding service, and instead answer the question as asked.
Eschew Obfuscation
AT&T Wireless is presently a dead company walking. The deal is signed, they're on the way of being folded into Cingular. So, I wouldn't expect any major upgrades to their network... they're not going to get any better.
Just go to a store location, preferably not a mall kiosk, and ask the rep there.
That's what I did when I wanted to find out if the carriers had a signal in my apartment.
I simply asked to borrow a unit. They let me take one home although they did take a deposit that was refunded when I returned the phone. You probably wouldn't have to do that just to try it out in the store.
Cingular was the coolest about this, it's a shame they had the crappiest reception in my apartment. They had the phone I wanted too. Sigh
Cheers,
Lasz
3G is not GSM, it is UMTS. Completely different, so that is probably not a load of bull
Well, he said 3G, not GSM. 3G is UMTS
Just as an opportunity to plug a friend's business: CNY Digital sells nextel phones and provides demo models for customers to try. As far as I know the owner buys several of each unit as a business expense because, like the poster argues, its hard to sell someone on a 500$ phone they've never seen.
Most mobile phone stores I've been to either for my own stuff or as a helper for a friend that doesn't want to get screwed, will pull a real unit out of a box, put it together and plug it into the wall for power if you want to try it. Often there's a box already opened with a phone that has some juice in the battery. The N-Gage I bought was being demoed to someone when I turned up at the store.
As far as I know AWE has no UMTS service.
Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
Maybe I'm just super-lucky, but the ATTWS store nearby (Ann Arbor, MI), had working demos of every single one of their phones. Eh.
I have seen some pretty comprehensive demos on the vendor's site. You do not see them for every phone or every phone maker, but they are around. I remember a really good one for a new Series 60 phone... cannot remember which though. It was an almost perfect emulation of the phone and a lot of its functions.
Not sure how rare they are- I haven't been shopping for phones- but it may be worth checking for.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I worked in an internet cafe back when Sprint rolled out their PCS system.
They came by, set up a booth in our store and gave all us Cyberguides training on how to sell the phones.
They also left us a nice working phone with no restictions on calling.
We made many an international friend that summer.
Sipping on Jolt and Dew. Laid back. With my mind of my cubicle and my cubicle on my mind.
IAACT:
AT&T's new systems are GSM, they're not 3G. The base TDMA technology that underlies 3G yes, has a hard limit. 3G (3G CDMA, almost used by Sprint and Verizon but not quite yet) is a soft-limit technology.
AT&T has never to my knowledge claimed an actual 3G network.
10 months of service refunded? Did it ever occur to you to return it within the first month if you didn't like it? Jesus!
If everyone did the same, it would be impossible to get good, cheap service. Rethink your actions. It's not "cool" to get a 10 month refund for something you could've figured out after the first day. Yep, you sure ripped them off.. sigh
Maybe Cingular will make things suck less. Hey, it could happen!
The Cingular store here in Independence, Missouri has a working model of every phone they sell. This was really helpful when shopping
Full Verizon stores (not kiosks) have working demos of most of their phones, at least the ones I've bought mine from (4 in the past 6 years because I'm a geek, not because they suck). And their claim of having the best nationwide network seems to be true - drove from Boston to LA in January and very rarely lost service.
Well, as it's probably well known, I am a radio shack store manager... and in my store, the sprint phones are dummies attached to a cabinet type display, with real ones locked inside my glass cubes at the counter. The verizon display is currently live phones attached toa cabinet type display, but as soon as Verizon can get dummies for all their phones, I am going the same route that I have gone with Sprint.
:(
If little punk bastards wouldn't steal things that don't belong to them, we wouldn't have to have dummies
The website I use for all cell phone model information:
phonescoop.com
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
I know it's not the geek thing to do but when you see a phone that you think you might like, walk up to the sales guy's desk and ASK to see a working one. I've yet to come across a place that doesn't have them there and a battery charged up ready to demo. They just put the $5 shells out in the open so kids won't swipe a $200 cell phone.
Seriously, I've gone through a bunch of phones with bad UI, unused features, or just too fragile, only to find out later from friends that I had made a mistake.
On the plus side, this can lead to job leads, dates, whatever! (I'm serious.)
If you especially ask people in your area, your more likely to get honest answers about coverage area than the guys at the local store.
As a parent of two tikes, I personally would like a phone that could take a few drops and keep ticking. Those leather cases provide a little cushioning, but not enough.
Note: my current Nokia 3650 causes really bad EM interference all around me - once every half hour or so, the monitor will shimmer, speakers will chirp, etc. The running joke around work is that either my head or my "guys" are going to suffer. The keys are in a non-standard arrangement, with several numbers pivoting off the same key at times, making dialing by feel or in the dark STILL nearly impossible. Also, color screens tend to have lower contrast than the BW ones, so it's not a great feature unless you end up buying a camera phone or something.
3G GSM is UMTS, which is a form of CDMA.
This is why AT&T shot themselves in the foot by rolling out 2G/2.5G GSM when 3G was on the horizon - They rolled out an entire new network, when they knew that 2-3 yeards down the line, they would have to roll out YET ANOTHER network because UMTS and oldschool GSM use entirely different modulation techniques and band allocations.
Meanwhile CDMA2000 (2.5G/3G) and cdmaOne (2G) are entirely forwards and backwards compatible. cdmaOne phones will work with CDMA2000 towers (just without the CDMA2000 functionality), with no impact on the towers' ability to service actual CDMA2000 phones, and a CDMA2000 phone will work just fine with a cdmaOne tower.
End result, network providers who are smart and choose CDMA can upgrade their network piece by piece as needed, and not have to force customers to upgrade phones, plus people with CDMA2000 phones will have (at least) voice and low-speed data service in areas that only have cdmaOne coverage, whereas a user with a UMTS phone will be SOL trying to communicate with any of their provider's older towers.
My advice - if service quality and coverage mean anything to you, Verizon is the only choice. VZW has never ceased to amaze me with some of the places I've been able to get a digital signal. (miles and miles away from the nearest AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, or Sprint coverage.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
1. mMode is ATTWS's brandname for their GSM implementation. It's not 3G. USA doesn't have 3G yet (unless you count Verizon's recently launched 1xEV-DO, technically 3G by IMT 2000's definition, but it's data-only).
2. AFAIK, the adaptive codecs are primarily designed to improve voice call reliablilty when signal strength is low. It does allow them to put off constructing new towers, but it's an issue of coverage/signal strength rather than capacity. If all they wanted is capacity, they could've default the whole network to a half-rate codec and call it a day.
3. Agreed. Free nights + weekends = congestion. u get what u pay for.
4. Preferential bandwidth based on the type of accounts you have? That's nonsense. So suppose I have a business account, I make a call during a totally congested time, somehow the tower can retrive my account information, see that I have a business account, then it throttles down ALL OTHER CALLERS just to make enough room for me to make the call? Think about how ridiculous this sounds. I'm skeptical.
5. Very few dealers are capable of on-site unlocking. It's misleading to suggest that specialized phone/car stereo dealers are more likely to be able to do that. You also suggest that they can unlock phones for you by giving you an unlock code, which is also very misleading. Only the carrier and/or the manufacturer has the unlock code for a given phone, the dealers will have to either:
a. call the carrier to get you the unlock code (and u think the carrier would give it out for a new sales?)
b. unlock the phone for you on-site using cables (which means the dealer has to be VERY SPECIALIZED)
The exception being Nokia phones, whose unlock codes can be calculated by IMEI. Once again, I won't count on any local dealers know anything about that.
1. Go to a corporate store of the particular carrier. An offical-looking store may not be an actual corporate store. Use their website or customer service # to locate one. 2. Go to the one downtown. Some corporate stores have working display phones, some don't. But the ones downtown usually do. It's best to call the stores and find out. 3. If a corporate store has dummy phones on display, ask the sales rep to show you a working one -- they usually have them behind the counter. (The exception here is Cingular, in my experiences.) Non-corporate stores probably won't have working models tugged behind the counter. 4. You won't really find out how a phone suits you by playing with them for a few minutes. Ask your friends who have different models/manufacturers and ask them for their opinions. Best of all, these are first-hand opinions you can trust. If you use GSM, ask them if you can trade phones with them for a day. (Thank god for SIM cards.) 5. Here are some good phone sites I read (mostly GSM)... http://mobileburn.com/ (US) http://threegmobile.net/ (HK) http://mobile-review.com/ (RU) http://howardforums.com/ (CA, forum) MS Smartphones/PPC: http://msmobiles.com/ (US) http://modaco.com/ (UK, forum) http://mpx200.org/ Symbian smartphones: http://allaboutsymbian.com/ http://my-symbian.com/ I strongly recommend you to start at HowardForums, it's a very active and knowledgable community.
1. Go to a corporate store of the particular carrier. An offical-looking store may not be an actual corporate store. Use their website or customer service # to locate one.
2. Go to the one downtown. Some corporate stores have working display phones, some don't. But the ones downtown usually do. It's best to call the stores and find out.
3. If a corporate store has dummy phones on display, ask the sales rep to show you a working one -- they usually have them behind the counter. (The exception here is Cingular, in my experiences.) Non-corporate stores probably won't have working models tugged behind the counter.
4. You won't really find out how a phone suit you by playing with a working phone for a few minutes. Ask your friends who have different models/manufacturers and ask them for their opinions. Best of all, these are first-hand opinions you can trust. If you use GSM, ask them if you can trade phones with them for a day. (Thank god for SIM cards.)
5. Here are some good phone sites I read (mostly GSM)...
http://mobileburn.com/ (US)
http://threegmobile.net/ (HK)
http://mobile-review.com/ (RU)
http://howardforums.com/ (CA, forum)
MS Smartphones/PPC:
http://msmobiles.com/ (US)
http://modaco.com/ (UK, forum)
http://mpx200.org/
Symbian smartphones:
http://allaboutsymbian.com/
http://my-symbian.com/
I strongly recommend you to start at HowardForums, it's a very active and knowledgable community.
Are you sure there's no 3G in the US? My Sprint LG 5350 phone says Qualcomm 3G CDMA on it and supposedly all my data connections are supposed to be over the 3G network.. I could be wrong... but i had a huge battle over the data connection and kept getting 2G connections because of the type of cable I was using (serial) and finally got a usb cable that allowed 3G calls..
I rather imagine at&t had been committing a crime in their false reassurances to the client. They probably bent over backwards to avoid a complaint to the state utilities and trade commission.
I had no idea!
1xRTT (currently deployed widely in the U.S. by both verizon and sprint) is technically 3G. It is, however right down at the bottom of the definition, barely scraping by, in much the same way that many definitions of broadband may include ISDN. Most people refer to it as well as GPRS as 2.5g IIRC, GPRS just missed the cutoff to be termed 3G, whereas 1xRTT just made it.
Either way, Many people, especially those who pride themselves on knowing too much about cell phone technologies, like to make themselves feel superior by considering 1xRTT 2.5g and lumping it in with GPRS. While for the purposes of deciding which one to use, as they are rather close, the definition works, in reality, one is "3G", the other is not. If people looked at real world numbers rather than ITU "G" definitions, the whole issue wouldn't matter