What I've been waiting for...
Written: Jan 23 '01 (Updated Apr 25 '01)
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Pros: Great sound and clarity. Great reception. Pocketnet feature
Cons: Lack of a vibrating option. Poor battery life
The Bottom Line: If you want internet service from your cellular phone, Pocketnet is the only way to go and the Ericsson R280LX is the only phone that is available (for free).
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| ashi_the_cat's Full Review: Sony Ericsson R280LX Cell Phone |
I have eagerly awaited the availability of AT&T’s Pocketnet service to my area since June, 2000 and along with that the Ericsson R280LX Pocketnet compatible phone. Luckily for me, AT&T acquired CellularOne and finally started offering the Pockenet service to the San Francisco Bay Area in November, 2000. I received my phone courtesy of Charles Schwab so my cost was zero. The phone is widely available now through retail outlets with a rebate so your net cost will be zero or you can actually make some money in some instances.
I will not attempt to go into detail about the technical specs of the phone as that can be found on other epinions. I will try to detail my experience with the phone over the past 2 months and elaborate on any point that may be of particular interest to the average reader.
My first reaction to the appearance of the phone was how similar it was to the Nokia 51xx/61xx phones. The face plate of the R280 has a metallic looking finish with a purplish tinge that changes in the light. The buttons on the phone are made of rubber instead of hard plastic so they sometimes have a squishy feel. The screen is fairly big compared to previous Ericsson phones. The screen has enough space for 5 lines of text of which the bottom line is usually your status line i.e., signal strength, battery life, type of signal, etc. One thing I like about the screen is when you are typing in a phone number and the number is abnormally long, the font size with shrink so the number will appear all on one line.
The phone comes with the ultra slim battery so it is quite slim and overall, about a half inch thinner than the Nokia’s. The battery is rated at about 4 hours talk and 160 hours standby. Don’t believe it. I tested the standby time by leaving the phone on and recorded a standby time of only 80 hours. This included about 20 minutes of talk time. I was very disappointed. Perhaps I got a defective battery. Doubtful because I performed the same test with my wife’s identical phone and got virtually the same result. At least it was consistent. The M.O. on the battery meter is that it stays full for about 40 hours and then will fall dramatically. Sort of like the fuel gauge in your car. When you are down to that last sliver of a bar, charge the phone quick.
Moving on, the phone itself is very light and fits very comfortably in your hand. The back of the phone fits flush with the battery and there is no place to attach a belt clip of any kind. You will either have to buy a case with a clip or buy one of those self-adhesive clips which attach to the back of the battery with glue.
This is my third Ericsson phone and I have to say that the sound quality and reception on this phone far surpasses my previous two phones: the DF388 and KF788. I live in a hilly area so the reception in my house has always been between 1 and 3 bars on the signal strength meter. With this phone, the signal strength always registers a 4. The sound quality is superb with volume and clarity being rated as excellent. I am very happy with this since this was not the main reason that I wanted this phone.
I wanted this phone because it is compatible with AT&T’s Pocketnet service. I was very tempted with Sprint and Verizon and their wireless web offerings but both of these carriers charged surfing time against your monthly minutes and charged you for the access. The AT&T plan allows unlimited surfing…for FREE. You do not use up your monthly minutes. This was the kicker for me because I am on a corporate plan which gives me 45 peak and 300 off-peak minutes for $19.99. I didn’t want to end up paying $40 or $50 to get the extra privilege of the wireless web.
The Pocketnet service (I chose the free basic plan) itself works pretty well in the San Francisco Bay Area. It does not work in Carmel but does work in Monterey. It does work in Napa but cuts out when you get near St. Helena. The service is free anywhere you can get a signal. This is very convenient for the frequent traveler. You can surf at the airport while waiting to board your plane and not worry about using your minutes. You can also check to see if your plane is on time.
The sites that are offered are pretty good ones. My favorites are Ebay, Yahoo, Mapquest, and Find It! For Ebay, you can log-in and check out your bidding, selling, and watching pages. You can also bid, but I have yet to do this. The Yahoo page is cool because if you set up a MyYahoo page, you can access your favorite sports, news, auctions, and stocks. You can even read the Yahoo message boards for your favorite stocks. Unfortunately, to read your Yahoo mail, you will have to pay for the Pocketnet premium service. Mapquest has come in helpful on a few trips. It works the same conventional way. You type in your origin and destination and it will calculate the directions all in text. A great feature. The Find It! Page lets you search for people or places through the Yellow or White pages. Once you find the right person or place (restaurant, store, etc.) all you have to do is press yes to dial the number. The site even has a reverse look up feature so you can look up whom a particular phone number belongs to.
These are just some of the sites available. To see all the sites, go to www.attws.com.
One thing that I have noticed is that the phone will freeze up occasionally after heavy surfing. I usually surf when I’m waiting in line or something (post office, Costco, etc.). The phone will freeze and the only way to reset it is to take the battery off. I believe it has to do with the software and the amount of cache that is available. Another thing is that you cannot receive calls when you are surfing. The reason is the voice and data networks are different and therefore, incompatible. The voice network is TDMA whereas the data network is CPCD. In the near future, TDMA will merge with GSM to form the EDGE standard that will provide voice, data, and perhaps video over the 2.5G network. I work for a wireless company so this will probably happen within the next 1 or 2 years before we can even talk about 3G.
The glaring feature that was overlooked for this phone was a vibrating feature. Unlike, Nokia, there is no battery that is available that has a vibrating option either.
The phone only comes with a standard charger. If you need a car charger, I would recommend buying it from someone on Ebay. You can usually get a car charger, leather case, and handsfree headset for about $10 total.
Overall, I really like this phone. The pluses are the sound quality and clarity along with the pocketnet feature. The dislikes are the short battery life and lack of a vibrating feature.
The only other phone that is coming out that will use the Pocketnet is the Nokia 7160. It is starting to hit the market now and it has the vibrating feature and longer battery life. The downside is that Nokia's phones are never free...especially when they first come out. Get the Ericsson first, since it is essentially free.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
ashi_the_cat
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Location: San Carlos, CA
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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