vB Easy Archive - Finally got my 7100g...

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Finally got my 7100g...
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Posted by: Alex_de_Large

And I am glad I did. The fiasco that is Tele-sales couldn't ship out a damned handset, despite the fact that I placed an order over a week ago, so I walked into the local corporate store and picked one up for $349 w/o contract. Not a bad deal.

So far, I love it. Great size and weight, great screen. The keyboard and SureType are obviously going to take some getting used to but, all in all, I am very glad that I went this route, so far.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Here's a question: is there any way to create a shortcut to the bluetooth features? I'm coming from a SE t637 and it was extremely easy to turn BT on and off.

thanks,
AdL

Posted by: mobilehavoc

Quote:

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
Here's a question: is there any way to create a shortcut to the bluetooth features? I'm coming from a SE t637 and it was extremely easy to turn BT on and off.

thanks,
AdL

Welcome aboard Alex.

If you use the vodafone theme, the Bluetooth on/off icon appears in the main screen and you can move it around. Try it out.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Yeah but then I have to look at the damned voda branding. Ugh. Any other ideas?

Posted by: ina-nyminute

Alex;
You paid $349 w/out contract, is that the going price that anybody can get or do you get a special deal?
In other words I'm interested in getting one and that price is pretty good (beings there isn't any contract involved)

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by ina-nyminute
Alex;
You paid $349 w/out contract, is that the going price that anybody can get or do you get a special deal?
In other words I'm interested in getting one and that price is pretty good (beings there isn't any contract involved)

I walked into the store and said "sell me a 7100g with no contract." $349 is the price they quoted.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

re adding a BT shortcut.

I loaded the default small icon theme. After pairing my 7100g with my Nokia HDW-2 headset, I now have a BT icon on my home screen. Cool.

BTW, this theme is far better than the list theme that comes with it. I wonder why it wasn't included...

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I walked into the store and said "sell me a 7100g with no contract." $349 is the price they quoted.

FYI, the store in question is on 16th street between Market and Chestnut in Center City Philadelphia (the former AT&T store).

Posted by: ina-nyminute

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I walked into the store and said "sell me a 7100g with no contract." $349 is the price they quoted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now that you have the 7100, how did you get it hooked up to Cingular,i.e. what type of arrangement (contract) do you have with cingular, did you pull a sim from another phone (forgive my ignorance of how Cingular works)
I called cingular and asked them if I could get a month to month contract as a new sub if I bought the 7100 as you did (no contract) and I was told that I would still have to get at least a 1 year contract in order to get phone service.
Also while on this topic maybe you would know;will cingular let me have just a voice plan on the 7100?
My goal is to get a small phone(7510 is too big for me as a primary phone) that has my outlook contacts list, outlook calendar & tasks in the phones memory. But in order to save money I want to do the sync at my desktop instead of over-the-air thus saving data costs, yeah I know this is not the norm, but I'm already paying for my full size 7510 berry ($118 per month w/ bes) and I can't/ won't spend another hundred for the 7100. If I get just a voice plan and do the sync myself at night then I'll be around $55 per month.
I'm also considering tmo 7100 with the $60 for non bes data & voice and doing a desktop sync.
If you think that sounds crazy stop in the HF smartphone forum and look at all the work these guys put into a MS smartphones (cingular moto mx220) just to make it work, I think I'll stick with rim for awhile longer.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by ina-nyminute
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Alex_de_Large
I walked into the store and said "sell me a 7100g with no contract." $349 is the price they quoted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So now that you have the 7100, how did you get it hooked up to Cingular,i.e. what type of arrangement (contract) do you have with cingular, did you pull a sim from another phone (forgive my ignorance of how Cingular works)[/i]

I have been a cingular subscriber for many years. I added unlimited BB data to my existing acccount, then slipped the SIM into the 7100g. Done. I didn't have to do anything else to my account.

Quote:

Originally posted by ina-nyminute
quote:
Also while on this topic maybe you would know;will cingular let me have just a voice plan on the 7100?
[/i]

While it's certainly possible, I'm not sure why you'd want to. The primary reason to carry a RIM device is e-mail and w/o data, you have no e-mail.

Quote:

Originally posted by ina-nyminute
quote:
My goal is to get a small phone(7510 is too big for me as a primary phone) that has my outlook contacts list, outlook calendar & tasks in the phones memory. But in order to save money I want to do the sync at my desktop instead of over-the-air thus saving data costs, yeah I know this is not the norm, but I'm already paying for my full size 7510 berry ($118 per month w/ bes) and I can't/ won't spend another hundred for the 7100. If I get just a voice plan and do the sync myself at night then I'll be around $55 per month.
I'm also considering tmo 7100 with the $60 for non bes data & voice and doing a desktop sync.
If you think that sounds crazy stop in the HF smartphone forum and look at all the work these guys put into a MS smartphones (cingular moto mx220) just to make it work, I think I'll stick with rim for awhile longer.

One more reason to stay away from MS smartphones (he says while typing on his Apple Powerbook...)

Posted by: dulcamara

I'm still confused on this deal. If I get a 39.99/month voice plan and the 49.99 BB unlimited data plan, am I good to go?

Do I need an extra data plan to use the requireless http browser? Do I need xpress mail to get push email via BWS?

Bottom line: can you do everything for $80/month?

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by dulcamara
I'm still confused on this deal. If I get a 39.99/month voice plan and the 49.99 BB unlimited data plan, am I good to go?

Do I need an extra data plan to use the requireless http browser? Do I need xpress mail to get push email via BWS?

Bottom line: can you do everything for $80/month?

I think so, yes.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

UPDATE:

I used my new 7100g with my Parrot 3000k in-car bluetooth kit, and it works perfectly (albeit constrained by the limitations of RIM's BT implimentation).

Great combo.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

Alex,

Glad to hear you finally got your 7100g!

Since the 7100's screen isn't "always on" like the older blackberries, what happens when you receive a new message?

I am guessing the screen might turn on for a moment to alert you of a new message, then turns back off again.

Does the LED blinky act differently if you have a new message waiting? And is there any way to set the screen's backlight ONLY to turn off first, while keeping the LCD info ON, like you can on some phones?

Or does the screen just totally go black, no other choice?

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by WirelessAndy
Alex,

Glad to hear you finally got your 7100g!

Since the 7100's screen isn't "always on" like the older blackberries, what happens when you receive a new message?

I am guessing the screen might turn on for a moment to alert you of a new message, then turns back off again.

Does the LED blinky act differently if you have a new message waiting? And is there any way to set the screen's backlight ONLY to turn off first, while keeping the LCD info ON, like you can on some phones?

Or does the screen just totally go black, no other choice?

As far as I know, there is no way to alter the behavior of the LCD timeout, other than altering the time interval before which it times out.

As for the behavior, you are correct that the colored LED blinks red (instead of green or blue) when a message is received.

Posted by: dulcamara

How's the RF? Can you compare it to Nokias or Motos you've had before?

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by dulcamara
How's the RF? Can you compare it to Nokias or Motos you've had before?

So far it's on par with my v600 (which I thought was really good in terms of RF), but not quite as sensitive as my 6230 (which has th ebest RF if any handset I've ever used). The 7100g is also better than my t637.

Voice quality is excellent. One area I'm not entirely happy with is the following: when I am outside and it is very windy, there is a lot of wind noise is transmitted to people on the other end of the line. Shielding the device helps some, but it isn't perfect. Of course, using a BT headset cures that prolem, but I typically don't carry my headset around.

Posted by: dulcamara

Sent email to Cingular today asking about the 7100g. I got

"To purchase a Blackberry 7100G at retail price is $399.99 if the phone
is ordered through Customer Service. The rates could vary if purchased
at a retail store. If you keep a voice plan on your phone and add the
unlimited data feature this would be an additional $44.99 per month."

$349 is a good deal. I'll give my local corporate store a shot if I can't wait to go off contract in November.

Posted by: WirelessAndy

I've asked this before, but I don't think I ever got a black and white answer...

I've had the 6280 BB. I loved it, except it was a tad bulky as a PHONE, and the earpiece audio quality wasn't the greatest. Considerable, random noise (not hissing, I'm ok with that) could be heard, and you could clearly hear the backlight whine when it was turned on.

Now I've learned my local Cingular corp store has one 7100g.

I can certainly understand if you hear more "stuff" in the earpiece if it's windy or if you're in a noisy area (background noise). But what if you're in a totally quiet room, maybe with poor RF? Does the phone's earpiece audio go bonkers anyway, with buzzing, garbly-noises, etc?

Cingular 7100g users chime in!

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by WirelessAndy
I've asked this before, but I don't think I ever got a black and white answer...

I've had the 6280 BB. I loved it, except it was a tad bulky as a PHONE, and the earpiece audio quality wasn't the greatest. Considerable, random noise (not hissing, I'm ok with that) could be heard, and you could clearly hear the backlight whine when it was turned on.

Now I've learned my local Cingular corp store has one 7100g.

I can certainly understand if you hear more "stuff" in the earpiece if it's windy or if you're in a noisy area (background noise). But what if you're in a totally quiet room, maybe with poor RF? Does the phone's earpiece audio go bonkers anyway, with buzzing, garbly-noises, etc?

Cingular 7100g users chime in!

In my 1-week experience with the 7100g, audio quality is on par with the better non-BB phones I've used (I've found my Nokia 6230 and my Moto v600 were the best I've used in terms of SQ).

Posted by: dulcamara

There's a flurry of reports on blackberryforums about prolems with the 7100t. These seem to be related to blackberry os 4.0 and include

low bluetooth headset volume
resets on long phone calls
low headset volume

Are you having any of these problems on your 7100g? I 'm not hearing about any 7100g problems, and may get one of these dudes next week if I can find a corporate store that'll sell me one for the $350 price you got.

Posted by: riptorn

I've found it to be much better than my V600 (any of the 5 I had) and better than my v551 - in both sound & signal.

I would agree that in noisy environments, it doesn't seem to do too well -picks up lots of ambient sound.

And...the thing works - neither major nor mior quirks.

Posted by: mobilehavoc

Yes. The 7100g...last time I checked is shipping with 4.0.0.198 which is a very stable and solid version of the BB 4.0 software.

There are newer versions out you can upgrade to but it's very stable out of the box...

Whereas, the 7100t is probably shipping with an older version of the software which is why people seem to notice more problems with them.

Posted by: Alex_de_Large

Quote:

Originally posted by dulcamara
There's a flurry of reports on blackberryforums about prolems with the 7100t. These seem to be related to blackberry os 4.0 and include

low bluetooth headset volume
resets on long phone calls
low headset volume

Are you having any of these problems on your 7100g? I 'm not hearing about any 7100g problems, and may get one of these dudes next week if I can find a corporate store that'll sell me one for the $350 price you got.

I posed that same question over on the BB forums, as I have had none of those problems. MY bb is rick solid, and bluetooth volume is fine.