iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 63 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Nice Design. Blasted price point engineering"
Pros: Sleek design, good price, good reception, wireless headset capability.
Cons: Inaccurate signal strength meter. Monitor (speakerphone) does not work as defined in the manual. Don't call it Bluetooth if you don't support the full feature set.
Summary: I like the design and the price is good. I've had good reception in a wide variety of enviroments. The signal strength meter seems to almost not matter because I get a clear signal even when I have one bar.
The full manual for this phone available online describes a monitor feature that sounds much like a speakerphone. However, when you select that option during a call, it mutes the phone. I wasn't clammering for a speakerphone, but it's a mistake to keep suggesting the feature exists in an online PDF that can be corrected.
The thing that get's under my skin the most about this phone is the deletion of OBEX support that allows one to sync MS Outlook contacts and calendar events with this phone. This would have cost Sprint next to nothing, and they must believe some users would not purchase an expensive SmartPhone or Blackberry if they could wirelessly sync a phone with Outlook. This might make some sense on Sprint's part if this capability wasn't available for free from AT&T/Nokia via IR transfer.
There is a third party data cable/software solution that is supposed to work, but why should this be necessary when Sprint could simply have left the file transfer capability in the Bluetooth feature set?
Using Sprint's VoiceCommand service is an additional $5/month, but it's often rude to loudly speak the name of the person you're calling in public. What's more, VoiceCommand supports ACT! natively, but requires multiple steps to transfer Outlook contacts. I stress 'transfer' because despite Sprint's description, the unautomated VoiceCommand file transfer process could hardly be called syncing.
Sprint/LG really missed an opportunity trying to dumb down this phone to not compete with its SmartPhones. True PDA phone users wouldn't be seen with a device this inexpensive. On the other hand there are many users who can't justify $300 for a complicated PDA/phone, but would be willing to pay a little extra for a feature that Sprint's competitors provide for free.
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