help for a dinosaur re: vision & phones

[chowder]

Hi.

I haven't been active here in a long time. So long in fact, that my older posts have fallen off, it seems. My Sprint Subscriber Agreement says expired 2003 on their website, for my account. My third Samsung A500 is about to give up the ghost. Yes, I've had a few of them just to avoid any hassle of change.

I need to move out of the Ice Age, at least into the Stone Age. I'm considering moving as far up as I can, safely, without having to change my plan, and without having to give up occasional tethering (free, non-PAM).

I know I can move up to a Sanyo 8200. I am not sure if my Vision (first generation, old school) allows me to move up to a Samsung A900. I don't want any Windows smart-phone.

Could someone kindly confirm the boundary line of brand/model for my needs?

I've done my best to catch up on reading here, but any overall guidance is also welcome.

Thanks!

[makavel]

Hi.

I haven't been active here in a long time. So long in fact, that my older posts have fallen off, it seems. My Sprint Subscriber Agreement says expired 2003 on their website, for my account. My third Samsung A500 is about to give up the ghost. Yes, I've had a few of them just to avoid any hassle of change.

I need to move out of the Ice Age, at least into the Stone Age. I'm considering moving as far up as I can, safely, without having to change my plan, and without having to give up occasional tethering (free, non-PAM).

I know I can move up to a Sanyo 8200. I am not sure if my Vision (first generation, old school) allows me to move up to a Samsung A900. I don't want any Windows smart-phone.

Could someone kindly confirm the boundary line of brand/model for my needs?

I've done my best to catch up on reading here, but any overall guidance is also welcome.

Thanks!

I'm amazed that your A500 has lasted this long! That's really incredible.

As for your question, you should definitely be able to move to an A900, assuming that you can get one somewhere. I used my regular old Vision plan with my A900 when I had it, and am still using it with my HTC Touch Diamond (Windows Mobile). I think many other people have had the same experience of being grandfathered into their old Vision plans.

I believe that the A900/A900M was one of the last phones that had the ability to disable NAI and get free tethering (I can tell you I did this all the time!). I'm not sure if any current non-PDA phones have the ability to tether for free, but hopefully someone else can help you out with that.

[chowder]

I should add that I'm by no means a Samsung fanboy. To the contrary, I really disliked the User Interface on the A500. That's why I'm interested in the model cutoff point in Sanyo's line.

That said, however, my first A500 lasted 2yrs until I dropped it and the battery wouldn't stay in. The second lasted 2yrs until I guillotined the antenna. The third is starting to have ribbon wear: the screen doesn't light whilst open, sometimes.

I'd be curious to hear your likes/dislikes re: the A900 vs the HTC. Thanks for the reply.

[makavel]

I really loved my A900 while I had it (for about 2.5 years). It was slim, had a beautiful screen, and lots of features. The only part that wasn't great was the battery life, but that was to be expected because of the huge screen and slim design. I'm not sure what the A500's interface was like, but I really liked the A900's user interface.

The HTC Touch Diamond is also a great phone. It's similarly sized to a closed A900, can do basically everything I've ever wished a phone could. I don't think this particularly matters to you if you've been happy with your A500 for so long though! Plus, it's a Windows Mobile phone and I know you said you don't want one of those.

As for Sanyo, I can't say that I've ever particularly cared for their UI, so I've never really looked into their phones.

I think that you would like the A900 and it seems like it'd fit your needs well (great for talking, EVDO internet, has real SMS rather than the shortmail that I believe the A500 has). Hopefully someone else can give you an idea about the Sanyo line of phones!

[chowder]

As it sounds like you fit a similar profile to me, I went to phonescoop and read up on the A900 and HTC Touch Pro & Diamond. Out of ignorance I was too quick to poo-poo smart phones. To my surprise, your old and new phones are both the same size.

I should have simply said:
I'm interested in a phone that does the basic duty well: reception, small size, durability, battery life. Tethering and not having to change my plan, are musts.

Can you share:

1. If there are any features of the A900 that are missing/dilapidated in the HTC?

2. If you had to -- in any way -- reconfigure your old-school Vision plan during the time before the A900 and now with the HTC? I am pretty sure you answered this in your first reply, but I want to be abundantly clear on this, before I follow your footsteps further.

3. What is the most effective way to acquire an HTC (e.g. Ebay, taking the Sprint discount in exchange for a new term, etc.)?

Thanks for the continued assistance, for someone so out of touch.

[makavel]

1) There was nothing from the A900 that was missing on the HTC. In fact, the HTC has many more features! It's really customizable, and the good people over at ppcgeeks.com release new, updated software for it all the time that makes it quicker, more stable, and adds new features. It's really nice to have that!

Another cool feature of the HTC is that you can share your Sprint internet connection over the HTC's wifi connection (in addition to USB and bluetooth), essentially letting you walk around with a portable wireless router. It does require extra software (i.e. WMWifiRouter), but it's been really useful for me!

HTC also uses a charging/data port that is mini-USB compatible, which means that there is an abundance of cheap chargers available to you (mini-USB is used by Motorola phones and by digital cameras).

The only downside to the Diamond is that some features/settings are hidden away somewhere in Windows Mobile and aren't quite as easy to find as on a standard phone. This isn't a big deal though and only takes a little while to get used to!

I actually had to swap back to my A900 for a day after I'd had the Diamond for a month or so (I installed a screen protector that needed a day to dry), and I couldn't wait to get back to the Diamond because the A900 felt really restrictive!

2) I didn't have to do anything to reconfigure my Vision plan when I switched to the A900 (I had an LG 5350 before the A900) even though the A900 is an EVDO phone. I was certainly worried about it though. I remember the person on the phone telling me that my Vision plan wouldn't work with the A900 since it was a Power Vision phone. However, I had read on here that it didn't matter, so I told her I didn't care and wanted to leave the Vision add-on alone (I'm never giving up $5 internet!). She did, and I never had any issues!

Things have gotten much better recently though. With the Diamond, I actually just used the online activator (fairly new), which swapped the phones and didn't say a single word about my Vision plan. I think Sprint has given up trying to get people to switch to a newer Vision plan. You should be able to just use the online activator as well.

So, in summary, my Vision plan hasn't been touched since it was first added to my account for my LG 5350.

3) I ordered my phone from Sprint.com because I got it immediately upon release. It's up to you really, but if you do decide to order it from eBay, keep in mind that you will probably get a $50 charge on your next bill after activating it. This is because most of the phones sold on eBay actually come from people who have phone insurance through Sprint and have broken their phone. There is a $50 deductible for a replacement phone, so when you active the phone that you bought from eBay, you're charged that $50, even though you weren't the one who requested the replacement. It's a sneaky way that many of the eBay sellers can use to make it look like they're giving you the phone for less money than they actually are. I only know this because it happened to my brother! In that regard, Sprint.com is much safer.

Anyway, I think that answered your questions so far, but let me know if anything else needs clarification! It's not easy to catch up if you've been out of the loop for a while!

[chowder]

All I have to say about that exquisite response is: wow. You are a font of information, and I am much appreciative.

1. So my cost outlay to replicate your bundle is: $200 phone (+ new term), $30 WMWifiRouter, $30 ghost armor, and $? for what other cables / batteries / accessories?

2. You had stones for using some online form. I would have still had the call with CSR, and superfluous confirmations that they weren't mucking me up. I can see how a human could inadvertently do exactly that, though.

3. This I would never have known. Thanks for sharing your $50 warning.

After I do some hands-on testing at the store, I may be back to get more cliffs notes, and copy-cat you to the hilt (software config, etc). That is -- if you don't mind.

Thanks for saving me so much re-learning. If you need to take anything to PM, please do. Every tidbit helps.

[KTee]

1) There was nothing from the A900 that was missing on the HTC. In fact, the HTC has many more features! It's really customizable, and the good people over at ppcgeeks.com release new, updated software for it all the time that makes it quicker, more stable, and adds new features. It's really nice to have that!

Another cool feature of the HTC is that you can share your Sprint internet connection over the HTC's wifi connection (in addition to USB and bluetooth), essentially letting you walk around with a portable wireless router. It does require extra software (i.e. WMWifiRouter), but it's been really useful for me!

HTC also uses a charging/data port that is mini-USB compatible, which means that there is an abundance of cheap chargers available to you (mini-USB is used by Motorola phones and by digital cameras).

The only downside to the Diamond is that some features/settings are hidden away somewhere in Windows Mobile and aren't quite as easy to find as on a standard phone. This isn't a big deal though and only takes a little while to get used to!

I actually had to swap back to my A900 for a day after I'd had the Diamond for a month or so (I installed a screen protector that needed a day to dry), and I couldn't wait to get back to the Diamond because the A900 felt really restrictive!

2) I didn't have to do anything to reconfigure my Vision plan when I switched to the A900 (I had an LG 5350 before the A900) even though the A900 is an EVDO phone. I was certainly worried about it though. I remember the person on the phone telling me that my Vision plan wouldn't work with the A900 since it was a Power Vision phone. However, I had read on here that it didn't matter, so I told her I didn't care and wanted to leave the Vision add-on alone (I'm never giving up $5 internet!). She did, and I never had any issues!

Things have gotten much better recently though. With the Diamond, I actually just used the online activator (fairly new), which swapped the phones and didn't say a single word about my Vision plan. I think Sprint has given up trying to get people to switch to a newer Vision plan. You should be able to just use the online activator as well.

So, in summary, my Vision plan hasn't been touched since it was first added to my account for my LG 5350.

3) I ordered my phone from Sprint.com because I got it immediately upon release. It's up to you really, but if you do decide to order it from eBay, keep in mind that you will probably get a $50 charge on your next bill after activating it. This is because most of the phones sold on eBay actually come from people who have phone insurance through Sprint and have broken their phone. There is a $50 deductible for a replacement phone, so when you active the phone that you bought from eBay, you're charged that $50, even though you weren't the one who requested the replacement. It's a sneaky way that many of the eBay sellers can use to make it look like they're giving you the phone for less money than they actually are. I only know this because it happened to my brother! In that regard, Sprint.com is much safer.

Anyway, I think that answered your questions so far, but let me know if anything else needs clarification! It's not easy to catch up if you've been out of the loop for a while!
WOW.. I have never heard of #3, of being charged the $50 deductible. I have activated an ebay phone once, and was lucky enough not to run into this. Thanks for sharing that information.

[makavel]

1) Those costs sound accurate. You technically don't even need WMWifiRouter if you just want to do USB tethering. The phone's software gives you the option of "Internet Sharing" when you plug a USB cable in (or at least it does with the modified software). WMWifiRouter is really useful for bluetooth or wifi tethering though because it'd be a pain to set that all up manually for each time you want to use it.

There isn't really anything else that you'd need besides maybe a car charger, which you can pick up on eBay for literally $10 shipped (just look for one that'll charge a Motorola RAZR/one that has a mini-USB connection).

2) You don't have much to worry about with the online activator! On the last page before you confirm the swap, it confirms your plan and all its addons, so you know exactly what it'll look like when you swap (basically, no changes). I totally understand why you'd want to call though. I just want you to know you have options!

I don't mind at all! Keep the questions coming.

WOW.. I have never heard of #3, of being charged the $50 deductible. I have activated an ebay phone once, and was lucky enough not to run into this. Thanks for sharing that information.

You're right, it definitely doesn't happen all the time. I bought a replacement A900 from eBay after 2.5 years and also didn't have this issue. It did happen with my brother's most recent HTC Diamond purchase though! I probably should have mentioned that, but it was late and I was tired so I wasn't thinking clearly hehe.