Disclaimer... If this has allready been covered then I apologize. I searched via google site search as well as searching with the forum search and only found a couple people asking but never an answer of yes or no. So here goes...

Samsung A900 (read more at phonescoops.com)
I just bought one today and it paired up with the car just fine. I do not remember seeing the phone stats on the display (batery life, signal, etc..) however it worked perfect to place/recieve calls.

I will be playing around with it a bit more over the next week and will try to remember to come back and update this thread.

 

Ok I used it a bit last night and today. I noticed last night that one call I was trying to make simply did not work. The phone was paired just fine and I got confirmation from the car that it was dialing the number however the phone itself was doing nothing.

That being said, ten minutes later I made a call just fine. That was the only incident so far.

I do not see battery and signal information in the panel either, too bad.

 

I too just upgraded my Sprint phone to the Samsung A900 "Blade"...An awesome phone but the bluetooth compatability with HFL (on my 05 TL) is a bit shaky. You can get it to pair up, and you can use the "Call" voice command to make a call from the HFL list, but hanging up the call with the steering wheel button doesn't work, and the "redial" voice command doesn't work. If you let the other person on the line hang up first the HFL will hang up the A900, but you can't initiate the hang up unless you hit the "end" button on the phone. I understand Sprint is doing testing on the A900 but I have no idea if there will be another firmware update to get full compatibility between HFL and the A900.

If others have this problem please call Sprint's technical help line directly at 1-888-211-4727 (not using your Sprint PCS phone) and get your problem logged...the more noise we make on this the better our chances are of getting the firmware updated. The A900 is an awesome phone...better than my Razr...but this slight problem with HFL is annoying.

 

I got the Treo 700p with the car, and I've had only minimal problems. It shows my signal strength in the dash, but sometimes I have to completely re-pair the two. No big deal. Pretty soon I'll be able to do it without opening the manual.

 

I just noticed the end call button not working last night. I guess the people I was talking the last couple of days have been hanging up before me.

Another one that I noticed last night is that the SEND feature does not work either. I tried to check my vmail when the system never recieved the passcode I was sending with the send voice command.

I have also experienced a loss of connection between the phone and the car before too. Where the car says its dialing but the phone is not doing anything.

I am calling that tech line now to ask for a firmware upgrade. Hope it helps.

 

I just called that number (which does not go directly to tech support by the way) and after a few minutes of describing what HFL is to the lady she decided to trasfer me to the tech support dept. When I got the guy on the phone (Brian) he told me that if it pairs up with the car then everything will work because its bluetooth. He went on to say that if it is not working then it is a problem with the configuration in my car and that I should call Acura. Needless to say the phone conversation was quite dull since the guy obviously had no clue what he was talking about. I had to repeatedly explain to him that I was not using a headset but rather HFL built into the car.

I asked him if he knew of an upgraded firmware coming soon and he replied that he doesn't have any way of knowing that but I could check for updates from the phone by going to:
Menu > Settings > Others > Update Phone Software.
I tried this but it said that no firmware updates are available.

The last thing that he said was to please hold for an undisclosed reason... and that is what I am still doing, sitting on hold now. It's been about 20 minutes and counting. I am at work and have it on speaker phone (there is no musack) so I am just going on about my business, just curious as to how long this guy is going to leave a customer on hold.

 

Did they ever come back? This was Sprint, right?

 

Sorry, I forgot to come back to update you.

Yes that was the "Sprint" technical support department I was talking about. I stayed on hold with the phone on speaker phone (no musack) for 30 minutes. Remember I never even got as much as a reason why I was being put on hold. I was simply asked, "Can ya hang on a sec?"

So I diligently continued my project for work while the speaker phone, however still connected, sat silent in the background the whole time. All the while I thought, this guys is sure to return sooner or later. I mean how long could he possibly keep the line on hold?

Oh well, I eventually had to leave my desk for a meeting, so I could no longer leave it connected. Not much of a loss, since as I stated above, the guy was clueless anyways.

AC

 

I have had the same problems as above but one time when i was about 2 call someone i noticed the singal and battery indicator come on and like flashed. It looked like it was trying to work. But i never saw it flash again. So mabey the next fireware update it will get everything to work.

 

Maybe there's a firmware that you can downgrade to? My SE w600i wouldn't work with the HFL (it'd pair, and I could dial out, but i couldn't receive calls). I then downgraded to the previous firmware, and now everything works...

 

Interesting. I doubt that would work with the A900, since the manual doesnt even say that it has the HFP. Besides the firmware updates are over the air and I am not sure how you would go about downgrading.

 

Your post is very helpful, as I am thinking about getting a900, but I want to make sure it works with my 06 TSX.
From what I gather, sprint and verizon, both limit the features on their phones hence the issues everyone is seeing. So its not a "bug", but rather a disabled feature.

So, is the a900 working finally? What features work/don't work. I am thinking the "base" feature of making the car working like a bluetooth headset should work, but anything else: initiaing calls, etc doesn't work.

I am strongly considering moving to cingular if Sprint phones don't work ... but dont' want to for the obvious hassle

So please let us know the latest! Also if you know any other sprint phone that works, do let us know.

Thanks.

Omer

 

The types of options you're talking about that some providers turn off on their phones have nothing to do with how your phone will work with your car. For example, Verizon does not allow the treo 700w to connect to a laptop via bluetooth because that would allow someone to get around having to buy a laptop card to use their data services - that's like $60 a month out of their pockets if they allow you to do that. Sprint, on the other hand, allows people to connect their 700p to a laptop, but I believe there are other handsets that Sprint shuts off bluetooth connectivity to a laptop to.

Anyway, regardless, that has NOTHING to do with how these handsets will connect to your car or any other headset. If one handset doesn't connect well with the car, it's the handset's fault (or, more correctly, the handset manufacturer's fault), and is contained to that specific handset or manufacturer. So, if Samsungs from Sprint don't connect well to your car, Samsungs from Cingular won't connect well either, and vice versa.

As I said above, I use the 700p (from Sprint), and I've had no major issues with the two together, so I promise that Sprint isn't doing something to handsets to stop them from working fully with your car's bluetooth setup.

 

The problem is as I mentioned above, the phone does not have a true HFL (Hands Free Link) bluetooth profile. So the only things that work are features that are identical in the other profiles that it does support.

The profiles are listed in the bluetooth section of the phone. Its a good idea to check for updates regularly... if you get one then check if they updated the profiles, specificaly adding HFL or HFP (whatever its called for hands free link).

If you do get a firmware upgrade that does this, please post it here so we can all run our updates too and enjoy the coolness of being able to hang up the phone in the car via the steering wheel.

 

Thank you for your reply. I made the assumption with Sprint/Verizon restriciting features on their phones because I have observed over the last couple of years that sprint/verizon phones lack features that cingular/gsm phones have and I attributed this to sprint/verizon doing this on purpose.

In any case, the phone that you mentioned, as well as the other phones listed on the acura compatiblity website, are all pda phones which are both very expensive and not in the form factor that i like.

So far all the reviews/forums I have searched on the web, I couldn't find a single sprint phone, non-pda that anyone has been able to get to work with their acura (or lexus or bmw for that matter ) ... ... looks like a long wait for sprint to push (or in my theory allow ) the handset manufacturers to do ...

 

I haven't purchased the phone yet (but if/when i do and if/when i have a solution, i will certainly make it available ... but right now browsing the web, i havent found one). I wanted to make sure it was compatible before I purchased it (since i already have a decnet phone).


BTW, do you, or anyone else know of a phone (non-pda) from sprint that is fully or mostly compatible with the acura hfl?

BTW, last night I tried the acura hfl with my friends cingular phone. took 10 mins to set up, and worked perfectly. voice quality was excellent, could send and recieve calls without touching the phone and having the caller id information appear on the dash was just way too cool the only thing missing was the "battery and signal strength", which i can live without ...

hope fully we all find a solutoin soon

 

Might be a little off topic, but anybody have luck pairing the Samsung D807 from Cingular? Feel free to IM me instead of posting.

thanks

 

Just got it paired. never mind

 

Just thought I'd mention that I know someone who paired their A900 with a Hands Free device in their Mazda 6, but it was an after-factory piece that the dealer put in. Still, it CAN be paired with HF devices, just maybe not the TSX's.

 

Some good news. Acura's HFL website indicates the Sanyo Katana 6600 with sprint is fully compatible .... so this is real good news, as finally a non-obsolete, non-pda phone with sprint is compatible ... the phone apparently even is has "signal/battery strength" compatibility.

Omer

 

But its possible to pair and use the A900 with the TSX however not all of the HFL features work.

 

Ah, I see. Well, I can tell you that I get signal strength in mine, and I never look at it anyway. Still, sucks that Samsung couldn't do a better job with this. Cross your fingers for a software update!