vB Easy Archive - Poor 3125 Reception

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Poor 3125 Reception
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Posted by: Da Rippa

I bought the Cingular 3125 phone a month or so ago and have to say the reception SUCKS! I used to have (and still do) a Moto V3i... It was okay but I noticed it getting a little flaky... Dropped calls, etc. so I switchedd over to the 3125. I read where a lot of people said that the reception was the best they had ever had. Now I'm starting to wonder what phone they were using before if they think the 3125 gets good reception.

I just ordered a new V600 off of ebay. I had the best reception of ANY phone I have ever had. That and the fact that it is analog/digital instead of just digital. My old V600's, especially when fitted with one of my custom antennas, got 3-4 bars in my living room and 1-2 bars in my basement. The 3125 gets 1-2 bars in my living room and nothing in my basement. As a matter of fact... The 3125 sometimes gets NO reception in my living room.

I am severely dissappointed in this phone and plan on selling it on ebay along with my old V3i. Is anyone else having reception problems with their 3125???

Posted by: Tyl3r

my 3125 reception is fine, i also had a v3i and it seems like they both have about the same reception.. everyone says that with the 3125 i sound diffrent because its so clear

Posted by: SHoTTa35

v600 anolog and digital? huh... GSM there is no anolog at all.... it's all Digital. MY 3125 works great and even works better than the Mpx220 that i still have.

Posted by: Da Rippa

Unless you live diretly underneath a cell tower... The V600 reception will blow away the 3125... Guaranteed!

Posted by: amheck

I've had a Moto v551 for 2 years and have been having really bad RF troubles. I tried the 3125 hoping it was just the Moto that was the problem, and I had the exact same troubles with the 3125. I returned it within my 30 days trial.

I'm going to try a Nokia next and see if that clears it up. I hope so. I really don't want to try another carrier.

Posted by: alexasha

I was in the same situation. Had v551 and had a lot of trouble. 3125 is not superb, but it is definitely better than v551. Plus it offers much more helpful options. I wanted Nokia 6126 but it was canceled. I do like flip phones. Maybe N75 will survive Cingular approval

Posted by: Da Rippa

Nokias (most) have pretty good reception. (I never had a problem) Prior to Motorolas I had a Nokia candy bar type for 10+ years. I switched to the clamshell design and, for some reason, can't go back to the candy bar type. I started with the V400. It was okay... Better reception than my Nokia by a little bit. Then I went to the V600 and started making custom aluminum antennas for my phones. The reception went up dramatically! (There's a thread around here somewhere about how to make your own Vxxx antenna.) I just wanted a smarter phone. I got the Razr when it came out which was pretty much a repackaged Vxxx type phone. BUT... I couldn't play with the reception by making a custom antenna! I have bought several smartphones and don't use the apps they brag about. (I thought I would but don't.) Anything I need I can find an application that works with Java.

Anyway... I'll be putting my V3i and 3125 on eBay soon!

Posted by: seeyabarney

The Cingular 3125 is a disappointment to me as far as reception. I can be driving by a tower and get one or two bars whereas before with another phone I got four bars. I am getting rid of it and getting another phone.

Posted by: Tampa8

The 3125 for me is neither as bad as some are saying, nor as good. First, you can't go by the bars. This phone is very stingy in showing signal strength, but that doesn't mean the signal is not good. As a comparison, with my Nokia's at one bar reception was dicey, with the 3125 just the one dot under the E or G allows for making a call with no problem.

On the other hand, when the Nokia has a very minimal signal and might lose it , the 3125 often as none, or has it and loses it more often. But really, other than in the most minimal signal location, the 3125 is good, maybe not great but good.

Posted by: SockMonkey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tampa8

The 3125 for me is neither as bad as some are saying, nor as good. First, you can't go by the bars. This phone is very stingy in showing signal strength, but that doesn't mean the signal is not good. As a comparison, with my Nokia's at one bar reception was dicey, with the 3125 just the one dot under the E or G allows for making a call with no problem.

On the other hand, when the Nokia has a very minimal signal and might lose it , the 3125 often as none, or has it and loses it more often. But really, other than in the most minimal signal location, the 3125 is good, maybe not great but good.

I think you're onto something there with "This phone is very stingy in showing signal strength". I've noticed the same thing. With my old Nokia 6230, if it had one (and sometimes even with two) bar of signal, you might as well not even try to use it..calls were choppy and unusable, but with this thing, I can have just one little dot under the tower indicator, like you said, and I can call just fine with little to no choppiness. It kind of reminds me of my even older Siemens S56. I'd have to be right under a tower for it to show full signal strength, but I never really had trouble with calls. The only reception beef I have with the 3125 is that if I got to an area I know has NO reception (like deep in the concrete structure of my building at work) and return to civilization once again, it takes forever to find the Cingular network again. It just sits there on searching.

The Nokia 6230 also has like 7 bar indicators vs. the 3125's 4 bar indicators, so translating between the two is a bit difficult. The only real way would be to test the actual signal strength in dB. On that note...I know how to get into engineering mode on my 3125, but there is no dB reading as far as I can tell. Is there a Wm5 program out there to do this easily?