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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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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 have noticed in the past that some smaller independent dealers will let you play with the phones.
Good luck
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
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.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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/
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.