Doorstops? Or expensive game consoles? (updated 8/21/00)
Written: Aug 16 '00 (Updated Nov 26 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Small, full-featured phone. Easy to use menus.
Cons: SprintPCS (SprintPCS is evil. Eeeee-vil!)
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| sprint_sucks's Full Review: Nokia 6185 Cell Phone |
** UPDATE: 8/21 **
The Nokia 6185 may be partially responsible for the problems I had with SprintPCS. According to SprintPCS, the upgrade Nokia provided for their phones was incompatible with the SprintPCS network. Alledgedly, without the upgrade, the phones couldn't communicate with some towers, and with it, the phones wouldn't work at all. And at Verizon, I learned that they use similar technology and after experiencing the same problems, opted to stop offering Nokia phones for service within their network (and for customers with Nokias, replacing them with another brand of phone). I'll be posting my review of Verizon and my brand new Motorola StarTac's soon.)
** ORIGINAL REVIEW BELOW **
The Nokia 6185 is designed for the SprintPCS network. I read the entire manual on Nokia's website before I decided to go with SprintPCS and this particular phone. I ended up buying two of them, one for myself and one for my wife.
As you may or may not have already read (link below), I am currently having serious problems with SprintPCS. Neither phone functions where they functioned perfectly before. While I disagree with their opinion, I was told today (8/16/00) by SprintPCS that because I've had my phones for over a year now, it could be the phones, that they might be malfunctioning. I don't necessarily believe that, but if you get these phones, you could end up dealing with problems like this.
But, back to the phones themselves.
I upgraded from a Nokia 100. It was probably twice the size. While the old phone was strictly a "carry" phone, this one is more of a "tag along" phone, fitting in shorts or shirt pockets with ease. It's very tiny, very light and fits easily in the palm of your hand. The downside is if you use it a lot while driving, you may want to get the hands-free kit as the phone is too small to hold between your ear and your shoulder.
One of the coolest features about this phone is that it has a built-in vibrating ringer. To get the same feature on the equivalent AT&T Wireless version, you must purchase a separate battery which contains the ringer element.
This phone contains 32 different rings. Some are interesting, most are a novelty that you'd never actually use. The Ericsson's I've seen have a better variety of useable music. A cool feature of the Nokia is that you can assign different rings to different entries in your phone list. Then, if that person calls, it rings in that distinctive ring (provided they are calling from a caller-id enabled phone and it matches the entry you have for them in your phone list.)
The battery needs to be charged every 24-36 hours in my experience. I've seen claims of people that can go longer between charges, but I must be using it more or something.
A feature of the phone I really like is the profiles. Profiles let you quickly change everything about the phone, from the volume of the ring to the type of ring, or the type of music played for the ring all by simply tapping the power button and then selecting the one you want. The first profile is called "Normal". I never use it. I set the second profile up to be my name, so that my name appears on the screen. Then I have a "Stealth" profile which doesn't ring, vibrate or do anything on incoming calls, a "Silent" mode which simply vibrates when calls are coming in, and a "* LOUD *" mode which is incredibly obvious. You'll know you've got a call in the middle of any crowded area, even if it's so loud that you can't hear the call itself once you answer.
Because it's PCS and not analog, calls don't fade out. They're either there, or they're not. My wife preferred the analog, where it might get fuzzy, but it didn't cut out. I prefer the digital because the calls seem clearer. But we do experience a lot of calls which get cut off.
After taking really good care of it for nearly a year, I recently dropped it. It skidded and bounced across the pavement before coming to rest on its face. The phone seems to work exactly as before (no, this isn't the cause of it not working in my neighborhood) and surprisingly, the plastic faceplate wasn't scratched. On the other hand, the cover itself got incredibly dinged up. The plastic is apparently very soft, the gashes look really deep, down to the next color of plastic.
The phones come in several metalesque(?) colors like "Ocean" or "Sky". I don't recall which color I have, but normally it's a blue-gray color, but it changes colors in the sunlight, shimmering. I've seen it a deep brick red in direct sunlight. This seems to confuse, puzzle and impress friends. I don't know why they didn't make them like the 5 series where you could change the faceplates. That was a great idea and I know they would have gotten a lot of money from me.
Because this particular model is attached to the SprintPCS system, I really don't recommend it. It's a great phone, but I'm not convinced that you're going to get decent service (calls dropped, customer service) out of SprintPCS anywhere. But if you're going to get it, get it from a SprintPCS store and not a electronics store like Good Guys (like we did). You'll have a better chance of getting them replaced or getting credit towards a new phone if you take it back into the place that sells the phones and service.
Related Reviews:
Verizon (Amazing!)
http://tvjames.epinions.com/elec-review-2050-272A6FDB-3A21A8BC-prod5
SprintPCS (Evil, Evil, Evil!)
http://tvjames.epinions.com/elec-review-5BFB-BED33AA-3985F823-prod1
Pacific Bell Pure Digital (why I didn't sign up)
http://tvjames.epinions.com/elec-review-6D62-15B85FFD-399F0BC3-prod1
Motorola StarTac ST7868W (Verizon)
http://tvjames.epinions.com/elec-review-39A2-6BE0566-39AB50D1-prod3
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
sprint_sucks
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Location: Seattle, Wash.
Reviews written: 108
Trusted by: 26 members
About Me:
Crikey.
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