vB Easy Archive - NEC N412i L1

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NEC N412i L1
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Posted by: M-THIS

Hey guys,

I'm getting bored of my Sharp903SH and am tempted to give this NEC a run.

How are they?

how about compaired to the V3's?

Anyone know the best place to pick one up for cheap? Ebay?

Thanks!

Posted by: shadowfax1007

Ive been using mine for about 3 weeks now.
Im rather happy with it.

My only complaint is it doesnt do MP3 ringtones, yet it does video ringtones lol. But it has a MP3 player, and you can always use AMR ringtones instead of MP3.

The battery life is fairly good, as long as your not excessively using the camera/video cam/mp3 etc.

But overall, its a good little phone.

I got mine for 200 bucks at the post office.

Posted by: M-THIS

Hey thanks...

$200 bucks from the post office is pretty good! can you use it on any network?

how much are raza's these days in australia?

Posted by: shadowfax1007

Unfortunetly its locked to Telstra.
You can also get it on a plan for 400 I think it was, but I just got it pre-paid

You can get a Razr V3 prepaid for 200 bucks, and the V3i is around 800 bucks on a plan.

Posted by: aw614

the battery isn't removable on it?

Posted by: shadowfax1007

correct, you are unable to remove the battery.

Posted by: scotttttttttt

shadowfax, the phone is actually free on plan. when it first came out, i got it on a $40 plan, which includes $35 voice calls and $5 i-mode data, and no handset repayments. Now it's been moved down to the $20 plan, which means $15 voice calls and $5 i-mode.

Posted by: M-THIS

are there places in sydney to unlock this phone from telstra, so i can use it on my optus sim? how much will it cost?

Posted by: scotttttttttt

check the terms and conditions with telstra too, most of the prepaid providers say if you top up with $100 credit or something, you can call for the unlock code and they'll give it to you.

Posted by: uhoo

Just got mine from the post office today. It's now $149 . . and strangely, mine's unlocked. Using an optus sim with it. Only downside is no gprs/wap.. Guess I'll have to resort to telstra's freakin' expensive imode.. although I'm positive I saw somewhere that someone had gotten optus gprs to work . .but not without lots of sweat and tears..

Posted by: AL9999

I get the feeling it's only a matter of time before Telstra kills off i-mode altogether anyway. It seems to have been a big flop for them and it doesn't tie in with its Bigpond Mobile strategy either (which would favour WAP over i-mode)...

Going into a Telstra store the other day I only saw one i-mode handset on sale, so yeah.

Posted by: yangj08

I was wondering about i-mode outside Japan- are the phones the same as those sold by DoCoMo, or if a DoCoMo phone is capable of using foreign i-mode services? It seems like if the i-mode experience was the same as it is in Japan (handsets and everything) then it shouldn't be any kind of flop...

Posted by: uhoo

Well. . . we don't get the ultra slick FOMA handsets in Australia, if that's what you mean. What we do have are 5 or 6 crippled 3G/GSM handsets with an imode browser replacing the WAP browser. They're so p1ss weak that I doubt they'd sell at all alongside normal mobiles.

The imode sites work the same, as far as I can tell, we just have fewer sites. The killer bit is the outrageous pricing. I just spent half my starting prepaid credit on trying to setup imail.

Posted by: AL9999

Yep i-mode is far from the same service as that in Japan. DoCoMo handsets don't work on other providers' networks, and the level of content in those networks is rather stagnant, compared to DoCoMo's partners' content which is changing all the time.

Uhoo summed it up quite nicely. I don't see i-mode handsets in Telstra shops anymore, and with their new Bigpond Mobile strategy, I think it's only a matter of time before they drop i-mode altogether. DoCoMo's i-mode service continues to evolve and improve (and they get better handsets), while out here it's still the same content, same level of Java games, same features, no changes. It's a pathetic shadow of the service in Japan.

And yes, it's a rip off. In Japan they have flat rate data plans; out here it's all pay per use, and even with the data plans Telstra provide you'll still spend a heap if you're an avid user of the service.

So yeah, steer clear of it unless you need Japanese-style email on your phone.

Posted by: GerryGraf

Hi, just joined.

Only because I saw this thread though.

I've also bought the N412i from the post shop ($149), and am using an optus simcard, the woman at the counter even said it would work.

Anyway, I have afew question: (1) Do I-Mode and Optus Zoo differ that greatly, because I read that I-mode charges 55c per 25Kb block, and optus 2.2c per 1kb (i.e 55c per 25kb still) (2) Can I-Mode work on the phone if i'm using the optus sim (3) If I use Optus Zoo, would it be at all possible to remove the I-Mode software.

Thank You for any help you can give me.

Posted by: AL9999

1. i-mode has a lot more content available than Optus Zoo does, but then again, Optus Zoo has its content all easily accessible from the main portal, while i-mode is like the internet - each service is provided by third parties directly through their own pages. I guess ultimately on i-mode you're going to find more obscure things that you wouldn't normally find in an operator-run portal like Optus Zoo.

2. No it can't - all Telstra i-mode phones only support i-mode webpages and not WAP ones, which is what Optus Zoo runs on.

3. You can't use Optus Zoo, and in any case you can't remove the i-mode customisation. The N412i will allow you to make calls and use SMS with an Optus SIM but that's it - MMS, i-mode mail and internet access work only on Telstra.

Posted by: yangj08

I see- is it possible to access DoCoMo's i-mode from a foreign i-mode phone then?

Posted by: AL9999

I doubt it... I don't know for sure but the likely answer is no. You'd need a 3G phone for starters (apart from the NEC N600i there's like one or two other 3G i-mode phones around), and even then I don't know if it supports the exact same protocols as DoCoMo's network. We need someone to try

Posted by: GerryGraf

Thanks Al, didn't matter that much to me anyway, just useful to know if it's there I can use it. Still got the phone cheap, and works with Optus sim, so no real disappointment.

Hey, has anyone had any luck using video as a ringtone, I can't seem to get any video on the phone let alone use it as a ringtone. It say it uses MPEG4. I've tried that and 3GP, but niether will transfer:

"File(s) Highlighted in green could not be transfered"
"File(s) are not supported"

Anyone know what files ARE supported?

Posted by: yangj08

So is there a web address that could be typed into a foreign i-mode phone to get access to DoCoMo's i-mode portal, then? I wouldn't mind the lack of FOMA (but I think that having those FOMA phones would certainly persuade more people to pick up i-mode outside Japan) but I want to get to the Japanese content (you said that i-mode phones can't access normal WAP pages, right?).

Posted by: AL9999

GerryGraf, just an idea, how big are the 3GP files? Chances are there's a (very small) file size limit on those that the phone will accept. Try dropping the file sizes to below 300KB, or even 100KB if that doesn't work.

yangj08, I doubt it, the i-mode portals are located within a network's internal intranet and aren't accessible over the internet (Telstra's is like that and I'll bet DoCoMo's is the same). Even if you could access it, you still wouldn't be able to get the content as the fees you'd need to pay for them get routed straight into your phone bill, and not being one of their subscribers, the system would stop you going in (again, tried this with Telstra's i-mode already).

Posted by: GerryGraf

Ok, i'll try that. One thing that is interesting though, I tried to put an mp3 file on my phone, and it wouldn't work because of the whole "file(s) not supported etc." however it was still a small enough file to load, so then I changed the bitrate from 320 to 192 (it was only a 30 sec file, original was .WAV) and it worked fine.

Just strange I think.

Posted by: AL9999

You'll find most phones have trouble trying to play any MP3 with a bitrate over 192kbps, and some have trouble with VBR files too. Particularly Japanese phones like NECs and Sharps have this issue.

Posted by: GerryGraf

I can get the 3GP files onto my phone now, i can't remember how, but the phone will accept the files as long as they're under 1MB, which is good, but it won't allow me to use the files as a ringtone, which is what i'm trying to do. Any ideas?

Posted by: AL9999

Only what I said above about the size. If that's not the problem then maybe it just doesn't like the idea of video ringtones, I'm not sure.

Posted by: GerryGraf

Accept they can be used if they're recorded on your phone, though I haven't tried downloading a video with an AMR audio format.