8900 KINDLY POST ALL NEW INFO/QUESTIONS HERE one thread please.

[Tony E!]

lol.......... wow i got a headache from going back and forth, let's just see if we can keep all new info and/or questions here.

[Crazyboy]

Ok...lol...I found this little review on the Howard Forum site...I went to my local store today and tried out the Audiovox CDM8900.

"I had the VX6000 for a few weeks before I returned it back in July, so I
compared the CDM8900 to it.
I can sum-up the 8900 in two words "Didn't like".
First thing I tried out on the 8900 was the camera, and compared it
to the camera on the vx6000. Major difference.
The 8900 has a 65K display, and the 6000 has a 262K display.
You could really notice the color difference between the two when using
the camera feature. The color on the vx6000 was incredible better, and not
washed-out looking.
The 8900 has almost no camera adjustments. All it had was
image quality and compression size. The vx6000 has that plus
brightness control, white balance control, and low-light mode.
Every picture I took with the vx6000 looked much better.
The 8900 also has that shiny chrome look around the display, very
annoying when bright lights (or the sun) reflects off it and get in your face.

The menus on the CDM8900 are horrible. They are not as easy
to navigate as the vx6000, and not set-up as well.

The external LCD display is very dim/faded. I took it in the back room at the
store to see what it looks like in the dark, and the LED Light is very dim.
I could hardly read the date and time, and my vision is fine.

One interesting thing, when you go to take a picture, and are facing the camera lens, the
external monochrome display shows your image in B&W. The vx6000 only has that mirror to use.

One thing I did like about the 8900 was the sound quality. It was very clear.
However, the speakerphone sounds so bad, I can't imagine anyone ever using it.

To me, it seems like the CMD8900 is a step down from the VX6000 in almost
every category. The only things the 8900 has over the vx6000 is a little better is the sound quality,
the flashing blue lights when you get a call or MSG, and it has a menu setting
to adjust how long you want the keypad to be illuminated (I still can't believe the
vx6000 doesn't let you do that).

Personally, I wouldn't buy either one. I owned the VX6000 back in July when it first came out,
and there were several SW bugs with it. The same bugs are even there
in the new SW for the VX6000.
I hope it doesn't take another 5 month for a "real" camera phone to come out, and not another piece of junk."........

I disagree with a few of the things like with the dim backlight on the outside display. I found it to be quite nice. It is a whiteish blue color.

[Tony E!]

from your experienced today, what are your comments Crazyboy?

[Crazyboy]

Honestly I think it is a greeat phone. I think I was a little exagerating when I said it felt weak when you lean on it a little. The ringtones are very loud. I called the phone from my phone and once again, the whole store looked at me. Even at the lowest setting they are pretty loud. Im not crazy about the Hot Air balloons going across the screen when you turn it on but that really dosent matter. I love that it has a speaker phone...pretty useful every once in a while. The color is less then the VX6000's 252,000 colors or something like that but honestly I liked the look of the 8900's screen. Very crisp and nice. The camera quality to me is about the same as the VX6000 when I took a picture of the same thing in the same place. One thing that I liked that I noticed most Verizon phones dont hadve is that you can choose music or a little "jingle" to alert you that you have a message or alert. I think its a cool little touch that the phone lights up blue on the side. The phone looks like it wont scratch that easy. Wow...the more and more I tlak about it the more and more I want it...lol

[Crazyboy]

Although I wish it did have a little more wallpapers...As I said before the phone comes a little bare, but its nothing GIN cant fix.

[Crazyboy]

On this page...Vox 8900 pics
Scroll down a little and there are quite a few good pics here.

[Dv8]

although i dont own one, ive sold 4 today on opening day and am not dissatisfied with them so far.

*audio (earpiece) quality is great and loud, speakerphone on the other hand is poor (similar to the 8600).
*ringer volume is decent, there has been alot of talk about ringer selection, there are 3 "music" ringers and 5 "bell" ringers and about 10-15 song ringers, look for them if you cant find them they are there!
*menu style sux, if you adjust to "list" it is similar to the LG list menus which isnt bad.
*display quality is not bad, not as good as the vx6000 but i have to give props to the HUGE screen, it is definately nice
*sub LCD not to my liking, very similar to the 8600, weak lighting and very fine font make it hard to read.....most important thing though.... *it still switches from verizon to the time/caller*
arggghh! (it isnt as annoying as the 8600 is though)
*camera functioning is very easy, pix come out nice (as said above not as good as the 6000 quality) the sub LCD on camera mode is freaky looks like something out of matrix [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
camera options (as someone else posted) are slim to none, no zoom/no "negative" or black and white options/no "frames" available for the camera. at this time i am unsure of how many pix it holds.
*casing/styling... probably the best part of the phone. the phone looks and feels nice, even sturdy, except for the flip (when open) feels like it has some give to it (due to a rubber stopper between the flip and housing) camera lens placement is WAY better than the 6000, only problem is to get used to not having your finger in the pix [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]
battery fits inside the phone (have to see it to understand) no plastic cover and the battery is not part of the back per-say. best way to describe it is to say if you drop it your battery wont go flying away.
layout of the keypad is simple but effective, easy shortcuts for vib/ringer, silent modes via volume control on the side (does have vib&ring capability)
*not alot of accessories available yet (which is common for audiovox) there is a flash kit available but it says it cant be used on the verizon model.....go figure.

as much as this sounds negative, i really like the phone. there are certain things i cant stand about the 6000 that i could not own it, i would buy this phone. if it were available on my employee website (not till the 16th for me) i plan order one for my wife and i.

[NYCDru]

I have one now. My full review will be forthcoming...once someone responds to my PM's...Tony[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

[Crazyboy]

NYCDru...does the phone ring and vibrate at the same time. That is one feature I love about my Nokia. Also do you agree that the phone comes bare in terms of "custamizing," like with the wallpapers?
BTW...Congrats on the new phone.

[Tony E!]

DV8, thanks for sharing that info, Crazy, thanks for the links.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: Crazyboy
NYCDru...does the phone ring and vibrate at the same time. That is one feature I love about my Nokia. Also do you agree that the phone comes bare in terms of "custamizing," like with the wallpapers?
BTW...Congrats on the new phone.

Ok. It can ring and vibrate at the same time but only with the ringer at the highest setting....wich makes sence cause you usuasly set that setting when you absolutly want to piclkup the call. I wiil anser the "bare" question once i have explored some more.

By the Way, the RF is wonderfull. I ,managed to taslk for 1:30 in my basement mostly at the worst place possible with NO fading. I lost the call once but that was it. I n The bathroom at the studio (bad RF place) it worked flawlesly.

The phone sounds very clear and people say i sound clear to them.

The Ear piece volume can be not quite-too-loud on 5 to not-quite-soft-enough-but-still-soft on one.

The ringers can be realy loud.

The polyphonic ringers can be realy loud.

IT HAS FIVE NORMAL OFFICE PHONE RINGERS!!!!!!

Speaker phone can be reasonably loud.

Speaker system not good with alot of background noise.

Speaker outputs through both earpiec AND ringer speaker.

Speaker phone only available with phone open.

Belt clip is actualy VERY well designed. My friend couldn't pull it off my waist at all. It sticks to the holes for the handstrap and as such it is secure. Also you can charge while its in the belt clip. Also the clip is swivel and keeps the phone closed.

Phone Book has a 15 character limit Glen Hernandez is the longest name i have inmine so far and thats the limit.

In closing

I LOVE THIS PHONE!!!!!!!![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

........so far.

[Crazyboy]

So Dru...Why'd you go and exchange your LG for this phone? Are you happy you did?

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: Crazyboy
So Dru...Why'd you go and exchange your LG for this phone? Are you happy you did?

The LG vx 4400 is a great phone for 90-95% of people who would be looking at Verizon phones.

However, i have 2 very specific RF/phone call tests i perform on every phone i get and if it doesn't pass its going back.

The vx4400 failed both tests. In the studio calls cut in and out in the bathroom and in my basement, except for the 2 spots were geting RF SHOULD be imposible it would cut out in certain other areas.

Also, i new that if i didn't get a camera phone soon i would regret it. I originaly was going to get a vx600 when i walked in the store friday night. Then i saw the 8900..... Then i played with the 8900....and i fell in love. Best part was when i got home and did the basemen test and had no audio cut out anywere and only dropped the call when i stood in the absolute worst place for rf in m bsement and talke for 10 minutes.

[Crazyboy]

Wow...the 8900 seems like a great phone. Did you happen to try Get It Now yet or the web?

Your right about the Camera deal. I planned on getting the 8600 in the near future but once I went into the store and played with the Camera phones I knew like 2 months later I would want one.

[NYCDru]

Ok....Phone book quirks on the phone.

A little Strange ...not bad though
When entering a name in "Abc"(note the capitalization of A Please) text mode, when you enter the first leter which is normaly capitalized, if you don't wait for the cursor to flash over to the next character slot, the next character will also be apitalized even though it is in "Abc" mode and not "ABC" mode.

Some thing realy good to more than make up for that little quirck.
when you hit contactys, it displays 5 names at a time. Below the 5 names is the number of the person selected and what tye it is. The default order of preference is
Mobile
Home
Office
pager
Fax
So if someone has multiple numbers you will see whichever number is the first of those.
Whats REALY cool is after you have scrolled down to the name you want. If they have multiple numbers and the number you want isn't the one on the bottom were the numbers appear, scrol left or right to choose it. When you scroll left or right oit goes through the available numbers for the selected contact.

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: Crazyboy
Wow...the 8900 seems like a great phone. Did you happen to try Get It Now yet or the web?

I had downloaded P.I.M.P. on my 4400 and i thought it sounded cool. On the 8900 it sounds even better. The polyphonic ringtones are 32 chords on this phone.

Oh yeah,

IT HAS 5 NORMAL OFFICE RINGERS!!!!!!!

[Crazyboy]

Thats good. Is this pretty much the first phone in a while on Verizon to have more then 1 normal ring?
O yah...Do you happen to know how many pictures this phone can hold. I didn't like that the LG had only a 20 picture limit.

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: Crazyboy
Thats good. Is this pretty much the first phone in a while on Verizon to have more then 1 normal ring?
O yah...Do you happen to know how many pictures this phone can hold. I didn't like that the LG had only a 20 picture limit.

This would be the first PHONE that Verizon has released in a while with at least one Normal ring.

I am going to Guess 50 his res pics.

The reason i guess 50 is beacuse whenyou are looking through the camera mode there is a little bar at the top. I took 15 pictures just now and the bar want form about 1/4 to 1/2 the with of the screen and i noticed it change the appropriate incriment for every shot i took.

A few more points and me bing nit picky.

The side butons can be used to silence an incoming call but they won't shoot it to voice mail. I guess thats an LG thing.

For call volume, it is set to go from 1-5 during calls hen adjusting the volume. There seems to be a volume level above 5. It doesn't say anything about it or point it out but once you get to five if you try to up the volume one more time it does up it one more time. But thats it.

It switches between Verison Wireless or the clock of your choice (Analog clock looks very cool but digital is more practical for me.) eveery 4 seconds. I haven;t been able to figure out how to change that. There doesn't apea to be a way.

Getting the handstrap in is an excercise in Futility. I have given up...for now.

The swilvel clip doesn't swivel all the way to perpendicular. It swivels bot ways to 30 and 60 degrees.

Headset Jack on top of the phone is new, and diferent to me.


By the way, I realy appreciate you asking these questions. Feel free to ask away. If anyone else wants to Join him in Grilling me please feel free.

[Crazyboy]

lol...have another question for you.
On the ringtone I think it was La Travita (or something spelled like that) did u happen to notice any distortion or was it supposed to sound that way?

[orioles150]

aww man Dru you are making me jealous over here! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] oh well! Congrats, and I am glad you are loving your new phone!!!!

[NYCDru]

Originally posted by: Crazyboy
lol...have another question for you.
On the ringtone I think it was La Travita (or something spelled like that) did u happen to notice any distortion or was it supposed to sound that way?

Its called "Opera from La Traviata" , It sounds realy cool, spececialy the part were the mussic plays while P