T-Mobile phone- Common problem? (I'm in Seattle)

[Danwer]

Hiya,

I have been with Sprint for 2.5 years, but just moved to a new apartment on Capitol Hill in Seattle where I can't get service, so I have to switch. I initially signed up with T-Mobile for their excellent Get More plan and ordered the Samsung 225, which I think is an awesome looking phone. However, I found that I got no coverage as soon as I walked into my building at work. This is something I can deal with. I had several bars of service at my apartment, but when I tried making a call, I was told that I was breaking up constantly and that the sound quality was terrible! My first thought was that T-Mobile's service was no better than Sprint's on the Hill, that GSM was having a hard time with the geography and/or coverage, and that the bars on my phone were simply lying. So I sent the phone back and switched to AT&T, which works OK in my apt and work but not great, and I don't like their phones much.

The thing is, the next weekend I had some friends come over who both have T-Mobile, using Nokia phones that I don't think T-Mobile sells anymore. They both had excellent coverage in my apartment! I even called them on the landline in the other room to test it out and sure enough, the phones sounded great.

What I want to know is, does this mean that my poor reception experience was the fault of the phone? If so, could I have gotten a defective phone, or is that Samsung model just generally bad when it comes to reception? I wouldn't be aversed to trying T-Mobile again (I'm still within my 30 days on AT&T), perhaps with another 225 or the Q105 or N105. Also, does T-Mobile have a TDMA network that they no longer sell phones for?

[thisisme]

It could've definitly been the phone that you were using. I live in a different part of the country than you but when I got my T-mobile service, I originally had an ericsson T28w and the reception was above average, everywhere I went. Even in my house and the basement. I switched to a v66 and the reception seems to be some what poorer than my T28 but not by much. I miss that aspect of the T28, but the screen was too small and I use SMS way too much to use that phone. It also seems (too me at least) that phones with external antennas perform better than phone with internal antennas.

T-mobile does not use TDMA, just GSM. TDMA carriers such as AT&T and Cingular are currently switching over their TDMA networks to GSM. There are phones that are in the works to use both networks, but im not sure which (one is a Nokia). Siemens makes a phone that can use both GSM and TDMA, but it doesn't switch networks seamlessly so you'll drop your call while the phone switches networks.

I hope this helps...

[CaliphoniaBoy]

Same experience over here:

A friend of mine has the Samsung 225 and I have the Motorola P-280. Sometimes I (P-280) can make calls without problems when he (225) gets ____ty call quality.

The Samsung looks cool but is known to be a bad phone. I guess that is why it's free.

Hope that helps

C.

[ehcruzan]

Samsung seems to put looks before RF performance. I would give a Motorola a try.

[IdiOTeQnoLogY]

samsungs phone's on sprint are the same. where other phones in the same spot will do fine the samsung will suffer. my samsung dvd drive that came with my dell is having problems......i just bought a new cd burner...i stayed away from samsung...dont like their quality...though i heard their LCD monitors are great and I am sure that they make some good products I am not risking it.

[ZaphodB]

The Samsung R225, to put it bluntly, sucks. It's horrendous. Yes, it looks pretty but I'd rather have the function than the form. I initially got the R225M when I signed up with T-Mobile, and used it for about a week before I demanded the unlock code on my old Cingular GSM Moto V3682. That's what I'm using right now.

I just went on eBay and bought a P280, because I really would like to be able to use the minibrowser (movie tickets, train schedules, etc.) and unfortunately Cingular burned their settings into my V3682 so I can't switch the settings to T-Mobile.

I don't doubt that you have a bad phone. If you're past the point where you can return the phone for a new one (14 days in California), just go on eBay and get yourself a phone. The Nokia 6190 is actually a really great phone and stood up to a long time of me beating the hell out of it, and they go on eBay for about $20-$25. Just be careful to get one that is a) never-locked, b) unlocked, or c) locked to VoiceStream/T-Mobile.