Archived from groups: alt.cellular.fido (More info?)
Ok, it has been almost 6 months since I got that tiny puppy from Fido.
I have gotten used to its tiny size. Took about a month or two. But someone
with big fat fingers wouldn't be able to operate that phone.
The ON-OFF mechanism is really poorly designed. Outdoors, you don't really
know if you've pressed the button long enough to get the phone to "boot".
(first sign is a light blue screen with no text, so in bright sunlight, you
don't see any confirmation that the process has begun, and if you leave your
big fat finger on the button too long, it will then begin a shutdown procedure.
Also, while riding a bike, it is very hard to turn on the phone because you
first have to blindly press the button long enough to get it to boot, but you
then have to wait some time before the prompt for the pin, and afterwards, you
have to waiot for the useless movie to startt playing before you can press a
key to skip it, and then you finally get to the main screen, but that's not
all, you have to wait a good 10-15 seconds before the "MENU" button becomes active.
The shutdown procedure isn't obvious. If you press the button too long to get
out of a menu/application, it begins the shutdown procedure (also lengthy) and
if you see the Fido logo, you can't stop the shutdown.
While everyone claims that the reception is much better, and while it seemed
to be that way at first, now that the leaves are out, it doesn't seem all that
different from the 6190's reception. I would have to do my own tests to
really compare the two, but that is hard to quantify.
The lack of volume controls on the side of the phone are a real bummer. When
you call fido, you might get a decent volume while in the menus, and then when
you hit a furry 4 legged CSR, you may find it is way too loud or the reverse
and there is really no way to adjust it. It can be done, but you must take
phone away from ear, then press on the "right" key to get the phone menu, then
scroll down to get to the "volume" item which you then select and then you get
to use the arrow ketys to adjust the volume, but how can you adjust it when
you doN't have the phone to your ear ?
With my previous phones (Motorola and 2 nokias), the volume control on the
side allowed you to dynamically adjust the volume without taking the phone off
your ear.
The address book is really really much better than on Nokias (you can also
store adresses etc). Also, canada411 allows you to take an entry you just
looked up and send it to your phone via WAP and it gets stored in your address
book,. You can also store email adresses which you can then use when creating
emails. (so you don't have to retype long email adresses).
The email client is pretty good, However, when you reply to a message, it has
the unfortunate Microsoft disease of copyting the entire contents of the
message you are replying to below the text you enter, and it takes a long
while to delete that redundant text.
Also, even if you just want to send a message, it will still connect to the
POP3 server in your config (but do nothing). (I know this because I run my own
servers and I can see the logs).
Battery lifetime is acceptable when you are in good coverage areas. However,
if you are in a basement during summer, you need to turn off the phone because
the "network search" mode will drain your batteries in a matter of hours. (for
instance, leaving your phone overnight in a location on a desk where it
doesn't see Fido will result in batteries being almost dead in the morning).
Thankfully, it doesn't take very long to recharge. There should be a way to
disable the network search when you know you're in rural area, while still
keeping the PDA/email functions running so you can prepare emails etc.
The timeout for screen illumination is not configurable. It is annoying at
times to have he screen turn off and having to press a key to see it again.
The signal bars are not visible when you start a call nor when doing GPRS/WAP
stuff, so you have no idea in limit situation if you've walk out of range or
not. I was downloading my emails while riding my bike through the 200m patch
where there is service. There was no message/warning that it wasn't strong
enough signal to continue. It kept saying it was downloading the 6th of 7
messages. So I got smart, turned around and cycled back and then it continued
the download rapidly and got to 7 and finished.
The speakerphone feature is OK. However, it should become available as soon as
you've finished dialing. The M55 waits for connection to be established (phone
ringing) before allowing that menu to be accessed. Also, if you press any key
(such as voice menus at the other end, the menus disapear and you have to
clear all digits that you have pressed since the call was established before
you can again access the menus.
There is some solid software and engineering that went into that phone. Some
of the features such as the flashing lights (which thankfully can be disabled)
are clearly designed for teenage girls. But that was done at the cost of
having much more necessary volume control buttons on the side.
The email/wap/sms/mms portion is well done.
The alarm clock does work even if the phone is turned off. (compared to nokia
6190 which didn't)
The phone book supports vcard entries from WAP or emails.
The calendar supports the v-something format for entries.
The phone's profiles are totally useless. You cannot choose different
ringtones for a different profile (for instance, a quiet one for work, a funny
one for after work, and a very loud one for sports/cycling.)
Ringtones are not assigned to profiles, they are assigned to groups of
callers. Again, something for teenage girls who want their phone to ring
differently depending on if it is their mother, girl or boy friends who call.
But for adults who want different ringtones not based on who calls, but on
what the person is doing at the moment, the profiles are useless.
The only option in profiles is essentially to disable all ringing and put on
the vibrator. But you can't have different ringtones. Also, even if you
disable the vibrator, the vibrator still "rings" for the first ring (starts
before the actual sound is heard, so when someone cvalls you, first thing you
hear is the vibration of phone on your desk (bzzzzzt) followed by the ringtone.
Ok, it has been almost 6 months since I got that tiny puppy from Fido.
I have gotten used to its tiny size. Took about a month or two. But someone
with big fat fingers wouldn't be able to operate that phone.
The ON-OFF mechanism is really poorly designed. Outdoors, you don't really
know if you've pressed the button long enough to get the phone to "boot".
(first sign is a light blue screen with no text, so in bright sunlight, you
don't see any confirmation that the process has begun, and if you leave your
big fat finger on the button too long, it will then begin a shutdown procedure.
Also, while riding a bike, it is very hard to turn on the phone because you
first have to blindly press the button long enough to get it to boot, but you
then have to wait some time before the prompt for the pin, and afterwards, you
have to waiot for the useless movie to startt playing before you can press a
key to skip it, and then you finally get to the main screen, but that's not
all, you have to wait a good 10-15 seconds before the "MENU" button becomes active.
The shutdown procedure isn't obvious. If you press the button too long to get
out of a menu/application, it begins the shutdown procedure (also lengthy) and
if you see the Fido logo, you can't stop the shutdown.
While everyone claims that the reception is much better, and while it seemed
to be that way at first, now that the leaves are out, it doesn't seem all that
different from the 6190's reception. I would have to do my own tests to
really compare the two, but that is hard to quantify.
The lack of volume controls on the side of the phone are a real bummer. When
you call fido, you might get a decent volume while in the menus, and then when
you hit a furry 4 legged CSR, you may find it is way too loud or the reverse
and there is really no way to adjust it. It can be done, but you must take
phone away from ear, then press on the "right" key to get the phone menu, then
scroll down to get to the "volume" item which you then select and then you get
to use the arrow ketys to adjust the volume, but how can you adjust it when
you doN't have the phone to your ear ?
With my previous phones (Motorola and 2 nokias), the volume control on the
side allowed you to dynamically adjust the volume without taking the phone off
your ear.
The address book is really really much better than on Nokias (you can also
store adresses etc). Also, canada411 allows you to take an entry you just
looked up and send it to your phone via WAP and it gets stored in your address
book,. You can also store email adresses which you can then use when creating
emails. (so you don't have to retype long email adresses).
The email client is pretty good, However, when you reply to a message, it has
the unfortunate Microsoft disease of copyting the entire contents of the
message you are replying to below the text you enter, and it takes a long
while to delete that redundant text.
Also, even if you just want to send a message, it will still connect to the
POP3 server in your config (but do nothing). (I know this because I run my own
servers and I can see the logs).
Battery lifetime is acceptable when you are in good coverage areas. However,
if you are in a basement during summer, you need to turn off the phone because
the "network search" mode will drain your batteries in a matter of hours. (for
instance, leaving your phone overnight in a location on a desk where it
doesn't see Fido will result in batteries being almost dead in the morning).
Thankfully, it doesn't take very long to recharge. There should be a way to
disable the network search when you know you're in rural area, while still
keeping the PDA/email functions running so you can prepare emails etc.
The timeout for screen illumination is not configurable. It is annoying at
times to have he screen turn off and having to press a key to see it again.
The signal bars are not visible when you start a call nor when doing GPRS/WAP
stuff, so you have no idea in limit situation if you've walk out of range or
not. I was downloading my emails while riding my bike through the 200m patch
where there is service. There was no message/warning that it wasn't strong
enough signal to continue. It kept saying it was downloading the 6th of 7
messages. So I got smart, turned around and cycled back and then it continued
the download rapidly and got to 7 and finished.
The speakerphone feature is OK. However, it should become available as soon as
you've finished dialing. The M55 waits for connection to be established (phone
ringing) before allowing that menu to be accessed. Also, if you press any key
(such as voice menus at the other end, the menus disapear and you have to
clear all digits that you have pressed since the call was established before
you can again access the menus.
There is some solid software and engineering that went into that phone. Some
of the features such as the flashing lights (which thankfully can be disabled)
are clearly designed for teenage girls. But that was done at the cost of
having much more necessary volume control buttons on the side.
The email/wap/sms/mms portion is well done.
The alarm clock does work even if the phone is turned off. (compared to nokia
6190 which didn't)
The phone book supports vcard entries from WAP or emails.
The calendar supports the v-something format for entries.
The phone's profiles are totally useless. You cannot choose different
ringtones for a different profile (for instance, a quiet one for work, a funny
one for after work, and a very loud one for sports/cycling.)
Ringtones are not assigned to profiles, they are assigned to groups of
callers. Again, something for teenage girls who want their phone to ring
differently depending on if it is their mother, girl or boy friends who call.
But for adults who want different ringtones not based on who calls, but on
what the person is doing at the moment, the profiles are useless.
The only option in profiles is essentially to disable all ringing and put on
the vibrator. But you can't have different ringtones. Also, even if you
disable the vibrator, the vibrator still "rings" for the first ring (starts
before the actual sound is heard, so when someone cvalls you, first thing you
hear is the vibration of phone on your desk (bzzzzzt) followed by the ringtone.
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