mobile telephone questions and advice

[stevegong]

I'm now on holiday in asia and lots of my friends have fancy mobile phones. I am thinking I will probably need one when I go back to the US in the fall for school. now, I am thinking if I should buy one here. I have a few questions

1. It seems like tmobile and cingular tend to give or sell you their phones together with their service for very little money. Are there any drawbacks to this? It sounds like it's almost too good of a deal. the t6100 sonyericsson costs about 230 euros here in china and I remember with tmobile it would only cost about 60 bux. I know that these phones are locked. what's the deal here? can you unlock them, and under what circumstances would one want to do so anyway?

2. What kind of a phone should I be getting if I want good battery life, bluetooth and small enclosure but don't care about fancy things like camera, colour screen or polyphonic ring tones?

3. This guy wants to sell me his sonyericsson t68i (2 years old?) for 100 euros. Is this a good deal? (taking into consideration the tmobile/cingular deals)

Many thanks.

[thuh Freak]

It seems like tmobile and cingular tend to give or sell you their phones together with their service for very little money. Are there any drawbacks to this? It sounds like it's almost too good of a deal.
if its anything like sprint, which does the same kind of thing (and i'm pretty sure taht all the big players do the same deal), you gotta sign a contract for a year or two. so you have to weigh whether the plan your signing up for will be applicable in two years. the cost to kill the contract before it ends, iirc, is equal to the amount i saved on my phone. so if i don't like my plan, its not like i'm losing $150, its like i'm no longer gaining 150 that i didnt earn.

[LoCash]

I think a t68i for 100 euros is a little steep, imho.

[SKMDC]

buy your phone in america steve. that's where you're going to be using it.
most plans are giving thirty day tryouts, so take advantage of that.
since your a worldly sort you should get a tri-band phone so you can use it in asia and europe.
my wife's nokia 3650 worked flawlessly when we were in hong kong and guangzhou, it got a little spotty out west. but i'm told, beijing and shanghai it would have worked well.
first night in hong kong we called home to check on the boys and it was as if we were calling from around the corner. the sound quality was great, reminiscent of iChat.
i think you'd enjoy the photo aspect of it too.

[stevegong]

well, I was just told that my friend that wants to sell his t68i for 100euros,

the 100 euros includes the bluetooth headset.

what's the situation now? Is that a good price?

now, he's had it for a year and a half so should I be getting a new battery for it? how much would that cost?


thanks guys, any more advice is welcome.

[SKMDC]

tell your friend you can get a t681 (next generation) from amazon right now for $99. then they have a $170 rebate. so you presumably will have a 70 profit.
tell your friend you'll take his phone off his hands if he pays you 90 bucks.

don't buy a used phone. buy a phone when you get home.

heres the link to amazon's t68i (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009PRZ6/qid=1087226813/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_etk-phones/002-4462713-4350409?v=glance&s=wireless&n=301187) offer.

phones are the razor's. you should be spending your efforts looking for the razor blades. (the calling plan) because that's what you have to get right.

[SKMDC]

the sony t610 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/wireless/B0000AGRYX/rebate-info/002-4462713-4350409) is -$125 after rebates, which includes a 100 rebate from T-Mobile for starting a $40 buck a month plan, which may be more than you need, but even without the $100 your still up 25 bucks.

[HOM]

One thing to worry about with T-Mobile is that they won't give out an unlock code until you've been a customer for 90 days. There are unlocking services that you can use that will charge around $30-50. Cingular keeps their tri-band phones unlocked by default, but the T616 has 850MHz and not 900MHz so that might make reception is some areas of HK difficult, but I don't really know the spectrum issues there. Another thing to keep in mind is that at Euro 240 is most likely for an unlocked phone which is not an unreasonable price without a contract. With T-Mobile you would pay about $150 at the register and get money back via a rebate.

As others have said, don't buy the T68i. I had one and though it served me well it is old.

You can't really go wrong with the T610. It's tiny, has a giant color screen, bluetooth, amazing Mac integration, and a worthless camera. I loved mine, but alas needed a better portable email system.

Hope that helps, if you have more questions post them.

:)

[stevegong]

Thanks for the info guys,

I guess at this point the only thing that is making me interested in the t68i is that the 100 euros includes the headset...but at the end of the day I can't see myself really using it as it is an extra piece of equipment and a hassle?

The main concern i have for the 610 is the sort of short battery life. the actual standby time reported by my friends seems to be 2-3 days. Also, the tft screen is hard to read in the sun. furthermore, the camera is completely useless, why the fuck did they even bother putting it in? I had 2 frinds that had the 68i and they both got more than a week even at low reception places.

I hear the 68i is sluggish and a gen 1 sonyericsson. the 610 is nice but is it really worth all that money even when subscribed together with a service?

[SKMDC]

if you buy a phone at amazon, they give you 30 bucks off the bluetooth headset.
don't buy someone's used phone steve. it would be a mistake in so many ways.