This Awesome Phone is a Blast from the Past
Written: Jan 17 '04
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Pros: Great features, great tiny size, great battery life, great phone.
Cons: No "Vibrate & Ring" mode, Desktop Charger is too big for vacations.
The Bottom Line: Buy this phone if you want a durable, feature-filled, long battery lifed, nice looking, loud ringing phone.
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| beatleman's Full Review: Sprint TouchPoint 1100 |
INTRO:
Let me begin by stating that I've had this phone for over 2 years now. While 21 is considered to be late in life for getting a cell phone these days, I had always decided I didn't want to be "tethered down" by a cell phone that people could always reach me with. When I finally bit the bullet and decided to become a cell phone user, thank God I chose this phone to start with.
Just for comparison's sake, I actually purchased the Samsung N200 phone before this one and owned it for about a week (which is about the time it took me to realize that the flimsy keypad cover/earpiece probably wouldn't last me all too long). So in essence, I traded it in for the TP 1100 for peace of mind because the 1100 seemed to be more durable. While I can't say how long the N200 would have lasted me, the 1100 is in fantastic shape and could easily be mistaken for "nearly new."
When I went to trade in the N200, I was torn between the TP1100 and the TP5200, which was the new kid on the block. What swayed me towards the TP1100 is that although the rings on the TP5200 are really cool and sound more like a little jukebox than a cell phone, they were too quiet. Even on the highest setting, I couldn't hear the rings that well when I turned on the ringer in my pocket. The TP1100, on the other hand, had more cell phone sounding rings, but there are a few (like the Turkish March) that have some really high pitched tones and are easily heard in pretty loud background noise.
The SINGLE BAND issue:
I admit I was reluctant when I first purchased this phone because it's single band (digital) and all the other phones selling at the time were pushing the double band idea. Basically, single band just means that I can't use this phone to switch to analog mode and "roam" and pay extraordinary prices when I'm between big cities. And this is a negative? So I decided to go for it, and I've never had to look back.
Of course I've been in places where I don't get a signal (the drive from Kansas City to Eastern Oklahoma runs through some extremely barren areas), but I had my girlfriend by my side on that trip and her "high tech dual mode" phone wasn't getting signals in the exact same places. What this phone DOES do is allow you to "roam" on other digital networks if Sprint doesn't cover an area. Of course, you still pay those extraordinary prices, but it was worth it when I was in Argentina and able to use THEIR digital network to call a number by just dialing the local number!! That's downright amazing, if you ask me...
SIZE:
So this brings us to the main reason I chose this phone after returning the N200. This phone is small, and I mean really small. I don't have the size specs memorized (yeah right), but I can compare it to .... well, nothing is exactly like it in size, but just imagine a bar of soap and this phone is a little bit thinner, a little bit shorter, and a little bit skinnier. Okay, bad analogy, but let's just say I can put it in my pocket with very minimal bulge and have never chosen not to take it with me due to size.
FEATURES:
As far as features, I can put it simply. This phone is virtually flawless. It does everything I would want a phone to do and more. It's going to be painful upgrading to a new phone someday because I doubt it will be as well laid out as the TP1100. I can dial anyone in the phone book by pushing only two buttons. I can play Blackjack and some weird puzzle game to pass the time when I'm bored in the airport waiting for the delayed flight to leave. I can set the phone as an alarm to complement the other two alarms I have set to make SURE I wake up. I can use the phone as a calculator (okay, that's not all too impressive, but you'd be surprised how often you need one).
This phone is a flip phone, but the important thing is the external caller ID screen. I've read reviews in the past where people said that dust got into it and after a few months they couldn't read the number. All I can say is they likely got a defective phone, because while I can see a few specks in there, after 2 years of pretty heavy use, there's no obstruction to my view in any way, shape, or form. And not only does the screen show the number of the person calling (or the name if they're in your phone book), but it also shows the battery life, how much of a signal you're getting, whether or not you have voicemail or an AIM message, and if the phone is on vibrate or ring mode.
Speaking of battery life, it's really quite impressive on this phone. I've taken it to North Carolina before for the weekend without the charger (although, to be fair, it wasn't that I had that much faith in the battery... I just forgot it). It lasted the entire trip without turning it off once, although by the time I got to the airport at home it was beeping with a low battery warning like no other.
Of course, there's no camera on this phone, and the display doesn't have 250,000,000,000 colors like the ones selling today, but it does what a phone is supposed to do: it lets you call people and lets them call you.
WIRELESS WEB:
Don't get me wrong, though. This phone isn't an archaeic relic from the early 90's. It does have the wireless web, which I recently started using again since I'm out of town. You can stay logged onto AOL Instant Messenger 24 hours a day and then only use minutes when it tells you someone just sent you a message. I don't recommend it for long term chatting on AIM, though, because typing sentences with a keypad system is downright tedious. But again, this is a cellular phone, not a laptop computer.
FLAWS:
There are a couple things that cause this phone to get a "virtually flawless" rating and not a "100% flawless" one. This phone doesn't have a "Vibrate & Ring" mode. I really liked that about the Samsung and it would definitely make it impossible to miss a call if I could get it to shake and ring together. Fortunately, as I said before, there are rings that are loud enough to make this a non-issue.
The other flaw is that the only way to charge this phone on the road is to take the desktop charger with you. I suppose you could buy a car charger, but for a long trip it would be nice to be able to take just a cord to plug it into the wall instead of a desktop charger that's literally bigger than the phone. The rest of the time, though, the desktop charger is great and it takes less than a second to plop it into it once you get the hang of it.
CONCLUSION:
I'm not sure how useful this review will be since this phone is getting older and older, but if you're not looking for a new-fangled phone and you see this one available, go for it. I can assure you that you won't regret it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 0(with plan)
Recommended for: Adventurous Technophiles - Tough and Durable
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Epinions.com ID:
beatleman
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Member: Marcos Palmeri
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
25-year-old male medical student in Kansas.
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