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stars
"Nice phone, needs work" on by Sunfell
Pros: Lovely design, easy to use features
Cons: Wonky browser and firmware problems
Summary: I purchased this phone less than a week ago as a web-enabled upgrade to my old Nokia candy-bar phone, and put it through its paces. Internet access was simple and easy, but in spite of my purchasing the Power Vision plan, there were a lot or 'premium' features that required payment to use.
The display was colorful and very readable- even the tinier fonts.
Unfortunately, the browser had difficulty rendering some pages- even their 'mobile' or 'text only' versions. And a particularly frustrating problem was the inability to read entries on moblogs after writing and posting them. The phone came up with a 'too many redirect' error. I found that odd, because on the computer, there were no redirects at all. It went straight to the "format=light" page.
The firmware error came up when I attempted to access my email- no matter what route I took to get to it, the phone would lock up, and required my removing the battery in order to reboot it. Two hours of head-scratching with customer service determined that this was a firmware error in the phone. It's a doozy, though. I got it mainly for email and moblogging. I can't do either, which made me down-rate it.
One feature that I liked was the wireless contact backup feature offered by Sprint. I don't know if it was exclusive to this phone, but it's very useful and extensive. For $2 a month, you can enter your contacts online through your computer, then exit the application and have it instantly update the phone. Considering that I am going to have to swap out this phone, the wireless backup is a handy thing.
All in all, it's a nice phone with all sorts of bells and whistles- but you'll have to pay for a lot of them.Updated
I had my phone replaced with one that did not have the firmware problem, and I am happy with the phone now. If I could, I'd move my rating up to an '8'. Just make sure that you have the Power Vision option turned on before you leave the store. Sprint forgot to do that with mine, and I got hit with $75 in data overage fees. Yes, they fixed it, but it always is good to double check your plan.
I also got the firmware fix code:
On your phone's keypad, do the following:
##36245778#
Select 'yes'
Option 1
Exit
- 5 replies to this review
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NO PROBLEM AT ALL,,,,,I LOVE IT, NO DROPPED CALLS, I CAN HEAR THE OTHER PERSON..MY RED RAZOR SUCKED,,,,I WAS GOING TO SMASH IT TO PIECS,,,,THE PICTURES ON THIS PHONE ARE SO CLEAR,,,THE VIDEO IS WONDERFULL,,,THE INTERNET IS PERFECT,,VERY PRETTY, AND WORKS WONDERS......DON'T GET A RAZOR FROM SPRINT,,,STICK TO THIS,,,YOU WILL LOVE IT,,,,,
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I had the same problem with the phone. It would freeze up using the email option. I took it back and got another katana. It had the same problem. I really liked my first katana, it was tough and simple to use. This would have been a great phone if not for the technical problems. I got the lg musiq, it is a little flimsy, but the features are similar. I like the phone.
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Sunfell if you are having issues with the regular browser in the phone try the opera mini browser (mini.opera.com). It is a pretty good browser for pages that do not display properly on the phone's regular browser.<br><br>A good resource for information about this phone and other sprint phones is www.sprintusers.com. They have a lot of info about the phone. I found the fix you described for the e-mail app problem right there.<br><br>Another FYI, you do not need to pay sprint to backup your contact information to one of their servers. You can backup the contact list to the Micro SD memory card your phone has and then even stored it in your computer at home. If you need to transfer it to a different phone in the future all you would need to do is take the micro SD card to sprint and they can get the file from there. You really don't have to pay them.<br><br>To backup your contacts to the Micro SD card:<br>Go to Menu<br>Go to Tools<br>Go to File Manager (5)<br>Go to Micro SD Options (3)<br>Go to Save Phone Book (4)<br>It will ask you:<br>Save to Micro SD <br>All Data?<br>Yes (1)<br><br>To veify that the file saved:<br>Go back to File Manage <br>Go to Micro SD (2)<br>Go to SD_PIM folder<br><br>You should have a mm/dd/yy.vcf file there. That's you backed up phone book... and it is free.
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I had the same issue, froze up when I accessed email. Replaced phone, same thing.
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I had the same trouble with the phone locking up when I went to access email. They ordered me a new one, same issue. Any way to resolve it that you have found?
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