BEETROOT

b/c mine blows. I think on average I have about half the signal strength that I had with my normal phones before this, and I'm out of service or on roam at least twice as much. I used to have perfect reception in my office, now I have zero. I had good reception in my gym, now I'm on roam. I can't remember ever not having service before this, in 5 years living here, now it seems like at least once a day I am somewhere I can't even make a call.

Anyone else having these issues?

kensteele

How long has the been going on?

Sarlacc

Mine is pretty damn good. Not AS good as my sanyo was I dont think (but I was always told the sanyos got the best reception.)

My 3 biggest complaints regrading the 650 are the earpiece volume doesnt get loud enough. The speakerphone volume isnt that great either...neither is the speaker they use. AND finally, how come the screen has brightness control BUT the keyboard does not?

hmm, I'll make a 4th. The lag that occurs when the phone is processing information. like the time its takes for the phone to actually start dialing a number from the time you hit dial. I've had to redial a lot because of the lag and then i accidentally end up canceling the call. that is really annoying.

other then that I still love the phone.

BEETROOT

Ken - its been going on since I got the phone. One of the biggest reasons I've had an eye open for something new...

Sarlacc - The earpiece volume and the call lag were both supposed to be fixed in the firmware update. I installed it, and it definitely helped with the lagging issue. I'm not sure if the volume really changed, if it did it wasn't much.

Sarlacc

Ah...I never installed the new firmware. I kept hearing that it was screwing up the phone. Perhaps I shall install it afterall.

BEETROOT

well it did delete everything on my device without warning me.... luckily I had it all backed up on my pc.

mikeymobiles

service was a big issue when i had mine for a week....that was def a big thing why i returned it...I think that is with all palm devices...

srika

BEET - sucks about the reception issue... after all that is probably the most important thing about any phone. If you can't make calls, it kinda defeats the purpose. Anyway, what service did you have again? Sprint? Mine has been fine over here, I mean literally no issues. I hope the upcoming merge with Nextel (??) doesn't affect that negatively though... that's what I've been hearing some people complaining about 'round these parts...

Sarlacc - earpiece volume... this is what Ive read time and time again at the forums, etc. Mine is too loud. I have to turn it down. What I noticed early on is, if you don't hold it to your ear the right way, you don't hear it well. Have you tried adjusting the position in relation to your ear? There appears to be quite a small "sweet spot" there, where you get the best sound.

I agree the speakerphone design isn't good, with the speaker on the back of the phone - but, I've still used it with success a few times.

The bright-ass keys really bugged me when I was in dark places - there is no dimmer add-on that I have seen, but there is the keyshades.prc add-on that allows you to turn the key lights on/off by just pressing the small side-button. Have you seen that? Works like a charm.'

I'm still very happy with mine. I would only complain about one thing - I wish it was a little slimmer, in terms of thickness. The overall shape is fine.

srika

backing up your data by doing a sync is one of the steps of the update....

BEETROOT

aha!

BEETROOT

25 minutes on hold to call the cable company... 1 minute after I'm finally talking to someone and it drops my call

w1n78

the best way to test is to find another phone with the same service provider. take note at the current signal bar on the treo. swap sim cards with another type of phone. take note and compare the signal bars. if they're the same, it's the provider. but if there's a significant difference (2 bars or more) then it's the phone.

this test should work on GSM. not sure about CDMA or TDMA

as for my treo, i'd do the test but i'm too lazy . i too get half bars mostly. i have t-mobile. had better reception with cingular but the phone works when i need it to so oh well

srika

one big complaint I have about my 650 is... right now, a full charge is lasting me about a DAY.... that is just terrible. When I first got it a full charge would last me a FEW days... I mean like FOUR or so. Is it the battery going bad, or is it applications I am running that is causing the rapid drain? I suppose I could check the Treo forums... :,0

BEETROOT

no sim cards with sprint (another complaint of mine)


but I could do this just by comparing the treo to someone elses sprint phone...

BEETROOT

my battery lasts at least 3 or 4 days, but thats with minimal use, and I don't have any programs installed that I use.

Sarlacc

srika, thanks for that keypad app. I'll look for it later today.

Sarlacc

Beet,

I guess this is similar to that test, but after living and driving aorund the same areas in LA for over 3 years. I havent noticed a loss in reception compared to my old phone. Dead spots are dead spots where they always been. I actually get better reception in my garage, I dont have to worry about dropouts there anymore.

kensteele

how does it compare to another sprint treo?

srika

hmm.... I wonder what is up with mine. I recently ran the updater - and I had to hard reset to do that - the big apps I am running are SnapperMail and Verichat... nothing else really - Tetris, and a couple other games... but does the battery drain quicker if you have more apps installed? dunno... I don't even have the keyshades prc installed right now, I didn't reinstall it after the update.

w1n78

verichat? there's the reason right there. my battery last longer if i don't log in to verichat. if you set verichat to always connect then the treo will try and maintain it's internet connectivity, similar to having the bluetooth on discovery mode. if you disable both of these you'll notice a big difference in battery life. by the end of the day, my battery will have about 10-20% left

BTW have you downloaded the Dope Wars yet. classic in my book guess i'm easily entertained

srika

^^^ I only login to Verichat when I wanna chat with someone, or if Ive asked someone to contact me on there. Most of the time, it's off. Same goes for Bluetooth.... oops I had it on. ..... ok I turned it off.... gonna see how long it lasts tomorrow..... thx

BEETROOT

wtf is verichat

srika

well.... looks like Bluetooth was the culprit... I used to always be careful with it before but lately I got lazy and when I'd turn it on I'd leave it on... but I turned it off the other day and battery has been behaving normally...

Verichat is multi-IM real-time chat software - connect with your AIM, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo simultaneously. Multiple Chat windows, you even receive (but can't send) IM's while you're talking on the phone. Saves logs of chat sessions and forwards them to specified e-mail account at intervals you specify, then deletes them from device. Very well featured. BUT as mentioned - will drain the battery quicker if you leave it running in the background.

thatguy

got the 650 today, reception is pretty good where I am, but this isnt my main phone.

w1n78

you should look into it if you have multiple IM accounts. i have AIM, yahoo, and msn that's why i got it. make sure you have unlimited internet access or a high MB/month coz it uses the internet to connect. it also has BOTS where you can enter a zip code and it'll tell you movie times, weather, directions, address, phone number, etc.

not free though $35-40/annually but it's worth it so far

www.verichat.com there's a demo there for 7 days i think. but remember it uses the internet

w1n78

i just leave mine on. i just renamed my phone name to "stop snooping around a$$hole". wonder what people think when they pick up my phone. even if they connect, they need the pin, and if they guess the pin and send anything over to me, i still have to agree to receive it.

srika

I want to add - the other day I was talking with someone and carried the conversation into an elevator and went down 4 floors, got out, and was still talking to em with no break in the connection... no static, nothing. Flawless. This is something I could only dream about doing with any other cell phone I've had. But I think this has more to do with the service - Sprint. This is the first phone I've had with Sprint.

oh yeah my office building is 3 blks from Sears Tower... is that a factor? Word is its got a collection of Sprint antennae?