city02 63 Report post Posted April 13, 2004 I’ve had this company provided CDMA (WLL) smartphone for over 1 year now. Despite all the fancy features, my 2 year old Nokia has a much better/intuitive user interface. According to the Phone -> Phone Info -> Call Timers menu, I have made/got almost 8,700 calls on the handset using up over 540 hours (32,600 min) of talk time. That works out to an avg of over 1 hour/day of calls (both incoming & outgoing). Got my first bills online this Jan! Price The Kyocera was around Rs. 50 K then and came down to about 35 K by Diwali. I would not personally shell out that much (even @ Rs. 25 K) for a mobile so I rate it as poor value for money despite the benefits of having a Palm PDA built in. I was really sad about being forced to return my trusty old company GSM. What I miss the most about my Nokia is the Auto-Redial feature if the line was busy/no answer. How could Kyocera forget such an important/basic feature in its fancy smartphone? Performance The software is a bit unstable even after an upgrade a few months ago so the ability to sync with my laptop via infra-red link is most valuable when I have to do a ’hard reset’ and remove the battery which erases all the data. Adding non-volatile memory to this phone would be a good step (but only after adding auto-redial first!). The large color screen is excellent and using it as a wireless modem is good. The theoretical max is about 200 Kb/s but the peak I’ve ever seen is about 128 Kb with a sustained throughput of around 50-60 K. Still better than a landline. Wish List I also need a way to track my incoming & outgoing min. It currently only tracks total min but since incoming is free for me, it does not give me a sense of my usage. There should be an app provided that automatically resets the counter at a user specified date (defaulting to the 1st) each month or week. It should also track the last 12 months or 52 weeks of usage min since there is enough space. A camera or radio as accessories would always be welcome. I would like to listen to MP3 without having to buy additional hardware (memory key/stick like addon is currently required) as long as I have the space in the handset. A customisable screen saver and banner like Nokia would also be an improvement since there seems to be so much valuable screen space going to waste. It should also allow the user to display the day & date (not just the time) on the main phone screen. An estimate of battery life remaining (like on laptops) would be very helpful in terms of standby and talk times. Cons The battery gets quite warm while surfing/extended use. Maybe the battery cover could be made of a different material. A voice mail app on the phone would be useful when the service providers (RIM) vmail is quite bad as an alternative. The recent calls list is confusing: duplicates should be automatically removed and for entries in the phonebook with multiple # (work, home, mobile, etc) it should specify which one since there is space on the same row. This would save us from clicking each entry to see which # the call was from/to. Pros The Palm games were fun to play especially the board (monopoly) and card (hearts) games. Since I make some international calls the free Palm world time app (downloadable) with map & customisable time zones is quite helpful. Here are the two most useful sites I found for downloading Palm apps: http://mrtaxi.karnt.com/ http://www.freewarepalm.com/ I can also store family/wallet photos in the phone but first have to change their format on a PC before sync-ing up. The phone came pre-loaded with MGI PhotoSuite (Mobile Album) and it can be downloaded from: http://www.photosuite.com/palm There is a slideshow option that allows you to preview all the photos in 3-5 sec intervals which is very handy for the older members of the family who are not comfortable with using a mouse or stylus to flip. Pros: Large color screen, huge 16 Mb memory, easy SMS typing Cons: Cost, buggy software, screen utilisation, auto-redial Sound Reception: Fair--Can't do much about it Usage Convenience: Takes some time to learn Looks & Style: Ugly but slim There is a huge roaming problem with the handset that I have not been able to resolve for almost 6 months and I'm just pasting my email to RIM below:I've been getting the run-around from all the regular channels for my handset problem.I was wondering if you happened to know whom I could escalate this issue to. RIM blames Kyocera since all the other handsets can roam in Delhi properly. Kyocera blames RIM/network since their handsets can roam in every other major city (e.g., Chennai, Bangalore, etc). Before unified licensing, the handset worked fine in Delhi with TSS. Thanks, ----- Forwarded on 05:13 PM ----- I feel that the level of service for the high end handsets should be improved. When customers are spending almost 4-5 times more than the base handset, some additional benefits could be made available. Currently the Kyocera handsets (provisioned in Mumbai at least) have stopped working in Delhi since full roaming/unified licensing came into effect. The Kyocera rep was aware of this problem as he had seen it before (the handset powers off after about 45 secs automatically). But there was absolutely no indication of when the problem would be fixed. Neither WebWorld or Customer Care have any clue about this and keep referring customers to each other. This high end smartphone becomes an expensive paperweight when roaming in Delhi. There is only one Kyocera service centre for all of the NCR (Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon) in Green Park. Its a tiny, dingy, and crowded room in the corner of a dusty old nondescript building up a couple of floors (where the elevator barely works). There is a single person to handle all handset complaints and a majority of the customers are from other providers/operators that are using the base level handsets. The wait is around 45-55 min on average and the ceiling is not even 6 feet from the floor so some customers have to walk around stooping! Maybe some thought could be given to having a 2nd service centre for the NCR that is dedicated for RIM handsets to reduce the wait time and ease the load on that single person. He is so busy handling customers that he does not even answer the phone next to him which keeps ringing constantly. When can the Kyocera handset problem be resolved? Its been almost 5-6 months since it first started. I would like to suggest making available temp replacement/rental handsets to which all calls get forwarded when the expensive handsets have to be given for servicing/repairs. This could even be directly billed to post paid customers or have incoming only until the billing can be modified. Since this is one of the flagship handsets, maybe some special attention should be given to the premium (or at least corporate) customers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Greens 21 Report post Posted April 13, 2004 good review...prices may even come down Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted April 13, 2004 Based on the feedback/questions I got, here are some more details about this RIM handset: 1. It acts as a wireless modem for your PC from the FaxModem utility that’s built in. You have to use a data cable (purchased separately) or the cradle with the USB port that comes with the phone (which is a bit bulky). This cradle can also be used for wired syncs/backups with your Windows PC if it does not have an IR port (like most laptops). Incoming Calls have to be set to ’Data until off’ despite what the instructions might say since the connection can get dropped multiple times in a single 1-2 hour session. The phone also needs to be plugged into an AC outlet since the battery will run out very quickly otherwise (30-45 min of heavy usage). If you have a driver (for your car!) and a laptop, your mobile office will be almost ready once you get the 12V car charger for the phone which I did. The only thing missing is a folding tray for the laptop on the back of the front passenger bucket seat (airline style). 2. It also has a built in Eudora client for POP3 mail accounts. I have successfully downloaded emails from a webmail work account (Net4India). It requires some upfront configuration/testing since it did not work simply the first time around. 3. It has a EIS web browser which is OK but a bit cumbersome to use with a stylus since the scroll bars are so narrow that it needs precision touching which may not be possible if you are a passenger in a vehicle. I wish we could add screen shots - pictures are truly worth a thousand words! 4. Simple things like editing a previously dialed number are not possible as they are in Nokias for the last few years. You have to retype the entire number to be called. The nice feature in voice mail is the notification text message that displays the phone number that left the vmail. Unfortunately the STD code appears incorrectly so you can’t just dial it back. It shows 22 for Mumbai when it should show nothing or ’022’ to be dialed correctly. The worst thing about the operator vmail is that it automatically deletes NEW messages after a few days even if you have space in your mailbox! That’s totally insane! Most vmail systems simply notify incoming callers that the mailbox is full and no more msgs can be left until some are deleted first. At least you don’t lose anything as a matter of course. Saved msgs seem to last for weeks and have to be manually deleted when these should be the ones that get automatically deleted (if at all). The max number of msgs (new + saved) is set at 5! This is truly useless vmail ... 5. How could I forget SMS?! I’m one of those people who find ’txt msgs’ quite useful and love to get them but hate typing them out on numeric keypads. So on my GSM Nokia, incoming SMS would be about 80-90% of the total msgs. Most of my outgoing would be single word replies. Even the predictor function was not too useful for me. Now that it pops up a Palm touch keyboard for text entry its become a lot easier. Outgoing SMS are now about half my total msgs. The best part is that the Inbox & Outbox allow reuse of previously sent/recv msgs. So you don’t even have to retype them - just click/touch ’Resend’. An excellent feature. The new msg screen allows you to pull up all the numbers/names you have sent to recently so you can simply pick from the list and save time. It also has an ’Auto Text’ feature that allows you to edit your 20 most frequent text strings that can be pasted into your outgoing msgs. The only BUG with this tool is that once you DELETE, you cannot INSERT a new entry! UPDATES work just fine on existing entries. Maybe they’ll fix this in a future software patch/release. At this new price its FAIR value for money (VFM) but if they drop it further to Rs. 25 - 30 K, it will then finally become GOOD VFM. After about 6 months of use the screen gets quite grimy and needs weekly cleaning. It would be really helpful if the edges/border were more ’flush’ with the touch screen for easier ’single wipe’ cleaning. The most useful accessories are: - Car charger/12 V DC adaptor - Leather pouch (the hard plastic belt clip provided is a bit uncomfy to wear) - Extra AC charger (one for home & one for work for heavy users) - Data cable for internet access (if you have a laptop and don't want to carry around the bulky cradle already provided) I got this as a company provided phone so I like it but would not spend my own money purchasing it as an individual unless I REALLY need the extra functionality. Useful RIM numbers *333 = customer service (1 for english) *410-1 = Activate voice mail *600 = voice mail (when IN your home SDCA = Short Distance Charging Area) *444 = TSS (Temp Subscription Service when in other towns/cities) *480-xyz = MD# change (new 7-8 digit phone number! useful if you have not started handing your # out yet - also if you are into numerology ;-) I have not tested some of the above options. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chirag 5 Report post Posted April 13, 2004 damn good descriptive report!! If a kyocera executive bumps into this page, he'd definitely msg u pursuading u to write them a good review for their handset thanks for doing this for us! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted April 15, 2004 Couple of other points came to mind about this smartphone: They should add a stopwatch utility so we don't have to hunt one and download it We should also be allowed to create more folders for filing all our SMS (currently no additional ones can be created other than the 3 'hardcoded' folders = Inbox, Outbox, Saved) The call timer should be customisable so it starts say 5-10 secs after we dial instead of immediately since that always over estimates the call duration Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ssr 10 Report post Posted May 31, 2004 Hey any customisation can be done for this handset. Any SDK for developing application for this handset like the P800, P900 series phone for which and SDK is available from Sony erricson itself to write the application for those smartphone? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted June 1, 2004 There must be SDK but I have no idea - did you try the kyocera site? I don't understand what Sony has to do with this smartphone... Just write any app for Palm OS and it will run on this device. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ssr 10 Report post Posted June 4, 2004 is it better than P800 or P800 ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted June 4, 2004 no idea since i've not used the p800 (or the p800!) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vishal Gupta 4 Report post Posted June 26, 2004 hi guys i also tried to dial *480 and i received a message: "Dear Customer, You have crossed the time limit for number change - 2 hours. from dialing *228 Please contact Customer service on *333" please tell me guys what this number does? does it change the mobile no? if yes, then why can we change ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ashokjp 15 Report post Posted June 26, 2004 When you take a new connection and you dont like the no.. You have the facility to change the no. once If its within 2 hours of activation, it can be done thru sms else you have to visit web world and fill in the request Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Code 0 Report post Posted June 26, 2004 Dunno what it does .. Try this one *444 U will get a MMS to run Recent Calls list - Can anyone throw more light on this - my 7130 does not display this ("R - world Not Ready" ) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted June 29, 2004 R-World does not work on Kyocera - you have to browse to the pda website which has a limited subset of RW on it: http://pda.ricinfo.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
emmi 3 Report post Posted June 29, 2004 R-World does not work on Kyocera - you have to browse to the pda website which has a limited subset of RW on it:http://pda.ricinfo.com does this mean we can browse any wap site. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
city02 63 Report post Posted June 30, 2004 No idea - never tried it. If you have a Kyo - give it a try ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
