How is the Nokia 3585 doing so far on the Sprint Network?

[Nokia 6188]

Is there any of the dreaded bugs that plagued the earlier firmware versions of the Nokia 6185?

In terms of the "core functionality" of the 3585 (ie. RF performance and audio quality), how does the 3585 perform?
Can it pull in weak digital signals in the -107/-108dB range without dropping the call? Does incoming/outgoing audio sound like a landline phone?

The reason I ask is because Telus Mobility is believed to have a policy to carry only qualcomm CDMA chipsets. However, if the Nokia 3585 performs well on the Sprint PCS network (which also was believed to have a qualcomm only policy), and has negligible return rate, there is a possibility that Telus Mobility might put Nokia CDMA based phones back into there testing grounds and hopefully into the market upon test approval.

I for one, am a big fan of Nokia, and would like to see a Trimode CDMA 1xEV-DV version of the Nokia 6650 in the Telus line up.

[ConceptVBS]

I'll always have some suspicion about Nokia's CDMA chipsets. I doubt they'll be as good as Qualcomm's.

[WBOOPA]

Hopefully nokia has improved their cmda chipset. But I think Nokia and Sprint will rekindle their relationship, if all goes well with the 3585. I look forward to see what nokia cdma phone come out next year.

[Nokia 6188]

When I was in the U.S., I had the chance to test my Nokia 6188 roaming on Sprint (SID 4126) against a Sanyo 5300.
The Sanyo obviously blew the Nokia away in terms of features, but in terms of core functionality, here were my observations:

RF performance:
When I put my Nokia in Field Test mode screen 1, I noticed I can hold a call to all the way to the back of the store to -106/-107dB at 20-40 frame rate loss, and would not drop the call.
With the Sanyo 5300 (don't know how to enable Field Test mode, so I'll just go by signal bars), calls would be clear but as soon as I walk to the back of the store I get 0 bars and the calls would drop. This leads me to suspect that the Sanyo's 1x chipset does not perform as good as my Nokia's non-1x chipset.
(Note, when I roamed on Sprint, calls would not go thru to my Nokia at 2 or less bars. However, when I roamed on Verizon SID 0021, calls went thru even at 0 bars and my web service worked where it did not with Sprint).

Audio quality:
With the Sanyo 5300, it takes getting use to in order to find that sweet spot with the earpiece. Having found that, the sound was a bit harsh but not bad. People complain about the volume of the Sanyo, but in the environment I was in, it seemed OK. However, the Nokia sounded more natural most likely because I'm use to the sound. The EVRC codec has the negative effect of blotting out "s" sounds, but with both the Sanyo and the Nokia, I found they can reproduce "s" sounds reasonably well.

In conclusion, both the Nokia and Sanyo are definitely not the best RF and audio performers in the market, but are definitely above average, the Nokia moresoe in RF according to my tests.

I would like to see still the new Nokia 3585 vs other phones from Sprint in terms of core functionality. This would be a more appropriate comparison since it's a Nokia 1x chipset vs. a Qualcomm 1x chipset (unless comparing against a Motorola 1x chipset).

Users of the Nokia 3585, please give your comments on its RF performance and audio quality on the Sprint PCS network. Thanx...

[WBOOPA]

We will have to wait and see how the 3585 does on the Sprint Network. Testing may have went well in order for Sprint to consider Nokia again. I think the 3585 Nokia will do great.

By the way when is the 3585 due for release?

[Nokia 6188]

WBOOPA, on NokiaUSA's Press Release, they said it'll be available in Radio Shack stores nationwide.

So far it's been 2 weeks since the press release. Has Radio Shack started selling these yet, cause so far I have seen no user reviews on the SprintPCS forum. As soon as anyone gets one, please review the "core functionality" aspect of this phone.

Thanx....

[ImmerStark]

the sku is now in pos terminals at rs, so the phone has hit the warehouse, i would expect that we see it too little too late for the christmas season, the earliest it will arrive in stores is next week, and there are only a precious few days left for the shopping frenzy. the sales may be poor because the phone is not redily available and since the instant rebates require instore activation many people will avoid activating phones in a very crowded busy store.

[Nokia 6188]

Thanx for the update ImmerStark

Hmmm, it seems to me someone at Sprint/Nokia/Radio Shack (more likely the Sprint/Nokia Marketing Exec) should be fired for not planning the release of this phone effectively to coincide with the start of the holiday shopping season, thereby comprimising the sales.

Oh well, perhaps they would rather release a perfect phone late rather than make the same mistake that they did with the early release of the Nokia 6185/88 (first ever trimodes), which ended up having a high return rate due to firmware bugs and not optimized well for the Lucent/Nortel network at that time.

So hopefully, well have a success story with the Nokia 3585.

[tigerwolf]

Here's a link for a little review/impressions thing I did for it on US Cellular's network. IMO it's one of the better CDMA phones, though for me the sound quality just isn't good enough.

[Nokia 6188]

tigerwolf, your link is broken.
Here is the complete link.

Thank you for your mini-review tigerwolf.

It seems to me the new CDMA 1x Nokia's have pretty decent RF performance according to your review. Were you able to put it in Field Test mode and get some RSSI, FER, and Ec/Io values for us?
By what you have said, it doesn't sound like you dropped a call, even in places of poor reception.

Too bad you weren't too impressed with the 3585 or any other CDMA phone's sound quality for that matter. Yes, it is true, it deeply pains me to admit that CDMA phones still sound un-natural. Most cell phone audiophiles would say the best sounding cell phone is the Motorola P280, which sadly enough, is a GSM phone. I am hoping Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Sanyo, LG, etc.. put better speaker earpieces and mics in their upcoming phones, and implement the new SMV CODEC. Maybe that will put CDMA phone on par with the Motorola P280 in terms of sound quality.

BTW, what firmware update is needed on the 6385/3585?

[WBOOPA]

Doesn't sound qaulity vary person to person. What may sound good to you may not sound good to me. How do you know if a phone sounds good or not.

[saukriver]

Is this a 1xrtt chipset? Frankly, I would not touch a Nokia phone, especially what it is trying to palm off as a Nokia CDMA phone.

[Nokia 6188]

WBOOPA,
It is true that sound differs from person to person. However, there is no doubt that landline phones produce the best sound in voice reproduction, and therefore, using our own landline phone as the benchmark, we can compare that to our cell phones.
I am, by no means, an audiophile as the likes of Steve Punter or maybe even Howard Chui, but what I can tell you is both these two cell phone gurus give high marks to the sound reproduction quality of the Motorola P280. From my own tests with a friends' Motorola P280 from Fido, I had to swallow my pride, and concede that Telus CDMA phones such as the Nokia 6188, SE T206, Moto V60, Samsung A520/540, as well as many other CDMA phones sound inferior to this particular GSM phone. (And this is coming from a pro-CDMA, pro-Nokia, pro-Telus user who bashes GSM/Motorola/other carriers whenever given the opportunity).
Needless to say, CDMA phones are still excellent RF performers, as I've shown countless times with my Nokia 6188, and by tigerwolf's review of the Nokia 3585.

saukriver,
Yes, the Nokia 3585 has a 1x chipset. tigerwolf has shown the 3585 as a good RF performer on US Cellular network.
Please read Steve Punter's re-review of the Nokia 6188
here, and you will see that even this non 1x CDMA chipset is on par and even outshines some of the latest and greatest 1x CDMA phones of today.

If other SprintPCS users of the Nokia 3585 can please contribute your assessment of the core functionality of this phone, it would be greatly appreciated. Please be objective, and use Field Test mode in your review. Thanx...

[tigerwolf]

Thanks for fixing my link Nokia 6188!

It seems to me the new CDMA 1x Nokia's have pretty decent RF performance according to your review. Were you able to put it in Field Test mode and get some RSSI, FER, and Ec/Io values for us?
By what you have said, it doesn't sound like you dropped a call, even in places of poor reception.

I stuck it in field test mode once, but I didn’t bother recording any values since I didn’t have another phone using the same network to compare it to (I figured it probably wouldn’t mean much). Sound quality stayed identical though all the way down to 2 out of 7 bars reception, and was usable even below that. So if you’re on a decent network, I’m assuming the 3585 would work pretty well for anyone.

…and implement the new SMV CODEC. Maybe that will put CDMA phone on par with the Motorola P280 in terms of sound quality.

There’s a newer CODEC than EVRC? That sounded like exactly what it needs. A higher bit rate and better CODEC probably would make CDMA really kick-***. Right now for me it’s just missing too much “stuff” to the sound. It’s like hearing a Quicktime stream that’s been recorded at too low a bit rate-which is what it is, essentially.

Unfortunatly, I don't know why US Cellular's stopped selling these phones, but I don't think it could be anything too serious.

[WBOOPA]

The 3585 seem to get good reviews on phonescoop from a few users. Other then the firmware upgrade, the phone seem to work fine. http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=128