I am looking for a new phone...

I don't really like this as a "phone" but this thing used to sell for $399 and the local sprint store has it for $99! It is a phone with built in 64mb player. I would prefer a TouchPoint phone, but what a deal!

Do any of you guys have an opinions on this phone/player? Would be nice to have while mowing the lawn/shoveling the snow...:)

I don't have any opinion on the phone, but I can tell you with some personal assurance that Sprint really sucks.

//matt

SPRINT customer service is the pits. I once had to wait in line when only one other customer was in the store and there was 10 yes 10 employees, but I did get $250 from them. Threaten to cancel ur service and they will give you anything, but dont sign into a plan.

Well that is one problem that I'm having... but I use my phone a lot and don't want to give up the number. I never tell THEM that when I'm complaining though! And not only does their customer service suck, so does their web site. It doesn't even have an easy to find "search" page.

My real problem is that I am trying to replace my old TouchPoint phone. That thing rocks. I've dropped it a million times with no problems and I can get a signal just about anywhere. IT seems like the newer phones are weaker.... no phone except for my old Touchpoint seems to work in my house. But,that phone is 3 years old and the battery life is too short. A new battery for a phone that old costs as much as some new phones.

I bought a used "newer" touchpoint 2200 on eBay - what a mistake! It is less than a year old and looks about 20 years old with scratches etc. AND it wont work in the house. I went to a service location and had a new software update applied to the phone - but it still drops calls like crazy. I've searched for sites that review phones, but havn't had much luck. There is a site called www.sprintuser.com but it has about 10 members on its forum and no one seems to be able to answer anyone elses questions.

Are new phones weaker due to RF=brain cancer concerns?

Try epinions.com.

I just checked, and they have three reviews on the empeg, and one of which pretty much trashed it.

Yeah but read that review. "The Empeg shorted out my amplifier." Yeah........

I've got one of the 5250 TP's... Frankly, it's one of the best phones I've had. It seems to hold the signal VERY well (one dropped call out of thousands.... and I pretty much forced it.) Long term durability... I don't know, but it's probably going to be the best sprint phone you can get. I went from a Samsung 8500 which was OK, but had some reception problems.

Signal strength is not a variable on the SprintPCS phones, as they are always varying the signal to be the bare minimum needed to hold a connection. It's actually a pretty nifty process. Thanks to the error-detection on the phones, they actually adjust themselves down to the point that one to two errors a second are being introduced to the call. The Error-detection takes care of that, so you don't hear it. This process occurs hundreds of times a second. You can try to force the higher power usage in some of the phones, but the tower will override it.

They do this so that A> battery life is longer, as the phone is using the smallest amount of power needed, and B> so that more phones can use the same tower.

Some chipsets are better at holding the signal and doing those corrections than others. The Old TP was one of the best ones made.... Period.

Don't get the "older" TP5200.. It did suck.

Usenet had a pretty good Sprint forum a while ago... It's gotten worse over the last 6 months.

If you're looking to combine your palm pda with your cell phone, look for the Samsung i-300 from sprint. I have one. It rocks. Comes with color web browsing. :-)

Calvin

If you're looking to combine your palm pda with your cell phone, look for the Samsung i-300 from sprint. I have one. It rocks. Comes with color web browsing. :-)

Checkout the Samsung Nexio. 800 x 480 resolution! I saw it at ces, although it's only available in Korea.

Tom

I'm a palm fan.

Calvin

Hey Synergy,

I have had my eye on the 5200/5250 for quite a while and just found out this week about the switch to the 5250. So, being that you say it gets good signal strength (that is the type of review i was looking for - not just a "the buttons are too close together" review) I went and bought one last night. I love it! I still think the TouchPoint phones (like this one) are the easiest to use. Most intuitive. A few points:

1. The outside display doesn't blank out when the phone is open... seems like blanking it out would save battery life and reduce distortion to the earpiece.
2. Whenever saving a setting, there is an odd ... image on the bottom of the display. I can't for the life of me figure out what it is.
3. The "snowflakes" in the background of the text/page view look odd at first (until you realize what they are supposed to be).

I don't have any use for a PDA (at least not yet! ) but I do love the new color phones coming out! I esp. love the "picture caller id". I wish the 5250 had it, and in fact, it does support custom screen savers etc. (but you have to pay a monthly charge for it! how stupid is that?!? and who knows if they stay in the phone when you cancel the service!)

Glad I could help. I was quite impressed with it myself, so I've been recommending it..

1> I agree it should probably turn the backlight off, but disabling the text itself isn't going to save enough power to even think about mattering... I'm not hearing distortion on mine.... That was a symptom of the 5200... you did get the 5250, right?

2> The image is a lighthouse, I believe... Why it's there, I have NO clue.

3> The Snowflakes are cute, but I wish I could just disable them... It makes reading my BB notifications a bit harder... But the extract number and email feature rocks.

I don't use the ringers and more stuff.. If you are using this on a personal account you can get it for free for 3 months. My understanding is that anything you download to the phone will stay there, even if you cancel service. So, sign up for it, find the crap you want, setup the phone the way you want it, and then cancel at the end of the three months. The catch with it is the fee for the service, PLUS the airtime on the wireless web (if you don't have that already)... They don't tell you about that...

I'm on a business account, and don't want to put this on everyone's phone... which, thanks to our rep, I'd have to do. No thanks.

I'll just stick with the little devil guy shouting the time at me.

I did get the 5250. There is a slight buzz (VERY slight) but only when the backlight is on. I have the backlight set to 8 seconds, so it is gone real quick.

I was thinking about signing up for the Ringers & More service after I get situated with the phone.... hmm.. I still think it is silly that I can't make my own or do it for free.

I ended up getting the plan with Web, Voice Command and all that other stuff thrown in. Ends up it was cheaper for me because of the minutes I needed.

Oh, what is BB notification and how did you set it up? I had web alerts through YaHoo! (News Breaks and Local Weather) set on my phone, but every time I do - after about a week - it starts sending them ALL THE TIME! So I figured, if I need weather, I can just go to weather.com on the browser.

Thanks again for the recommendation. You're the only other user I know to have noticed that the original TouchPoint had a great chip!

I can assure you that you won't be able to do your own. They control the network and the phone's firmware... It's their value add, and the entire protocol is designed around THEM being the only one capable of the downloads. Yeah, It sucks, but hey... it's a phone.

Voice command works pretty darn well for me... It makes switching phones much easier in the future.. no phonebooks to transfer.

BB is Big brother. Monitoring software for my networks. I've got it configured such that if I have a serious problem, it sends me a page with the information. Then, thanks to the WML, I can get to my main page, and ack. the problem, route it, or see what the real issue is.

I've never noticed the buzzing with the backlight. Maybe I'm getting old. I remember the original indiglo stuff would buzz, but haven't heard it on mine.. (just checked)