Help deciding: Samsung SCH-A310 vs. Motorola T720 (Cioni2k or anyone?) (Oh, and my complete story)

Neurosociety · Dec 30, 2002

Hello. Any comments/suggestions/advice welcomed!
I'm actually going to explain my little adventure here, so you know all the info.. I will title the sections to make it easy to read and/or easy to skip what you don't feel like reading.

Bought my Samsung SCH-A310 phone from Verizon
Yesterday, I bought a Samsung SCH-A310 from Verizon with a 2-year contract and insurance ($5/month). I signed up for the $50/month Nationwide plan for now.
(This plan includes 500 Anytime minutes, 1000 M-M minutes, and free nights and weekends)

Was told I could change my 2-Year contract to a 1-Year contract after 1 year is up - sounds fishy
When I told the person in the Verizon store (not a reseller) that I wanted to buy a 1 year contract, he told me that if I got a 2 year contract, that after one year is up, I could switch it down to a 1 year contract, so I still have the option. It made sense, and I had him write and sign that on one of the receipts, but now it's sounding fishy to me. Since I bought it yesterday, I know I still have 14 days. Maybe he wanted me to think that I could change it to a 1 year contract, meaning that it would already be ended, but maybe he just meant that I could cancel the rest the two year contract and restart the second half (the second year) as another 1 year contract. Any ideas?

Problem 1: Can't get a signal in my house. Ahhh!
Signal strength was good elsewhere, but when I got home it really started to fade. The worst is in my house, I have no signal, but I can get one or 2 bars if I lean over my kitchen sink into the window. Oddly, no other windows work. Well.. this is unacceptable for me because I need to use the phone in my house. If I can't solve this problem, I might switch service. ...but Verizon probably has the best service for me, which just makes my situation sad. (can't they just crank the nearest tower by half a watt!?)
Steps I've taken, so far, to solve this problem:
I spoke to Verizon tech support and, as advised, dialed @228, then chose option 2 to update my roaming. This didn't help. My situation is the same.
The second step I'm going to take is to go to Verizon with the phone to see if they can make any adjustments so that I can receive a signal better.

Note: I saw in some messages on this board that someone posted about a way to increase signal reception on this phone by doing something in service mode or something. Can anyone tell me more about that (I was looking here all night, and eventually drowned myself with all the info...) More specifically, how to do it, and what any disadvantages of doing it are, such as that the phone uses more power, and thus tha battery drains faster, that it makes the phone less compatable in other areas, or anything else (higher SAR, too I would guess).

Problem 2 - do I go with Verizon? Switch to Nextel? and/or Switch Phones to a Motorola T720?
This is a combination of a problem (pending whether I get service in my house) and two dilemmas: SCH-A310 vs. T720, and stay with Verizon or switch to Nextel.
First, I would like to try Verizon, because I think I like it better. I might invite my friend with his Nextel to my house to check things out. It's actually a whole other decision, but I would like to give Verizon a chance before I just switch. In addition to that, I would like to have Verizon for it's specific advantages. If anyone can list the advantages of Verizon vs. Nextel, or post a link to a post of a forum in which that is listed, that would be wonderful!

So, my other dilemma, the one at hand, is whether I stay with the SCH-A310, or switch to the Motorola T720. I know there are a few people here who could help me with that, specifically, Cioni2k, who owns and uses them both right now. (right?)
I know that the T720 drains the battery much quickly, but has extra features as well. Does it have any other disadvantages or quirks? Because I'm sure I can get a list of most of the advantages from the people at Verizon (I'm sure it would be more difficult to get a list of disadvantages - I think they'll only tell me about the battery.)

My Main concerns about the T720:
I want the ability to customize my phone - ringer tones, and graphics.
I especially want the ability to connect it to my computer to do this and to view/backup/organize/store data and settings without having to buy an entire connectivity kit - which I believe is sold at a high price because of the feature you get to access the Internet through your laptop with it. Instead, I want to buy the $20 cable that's supposedly available at radio-shack, download any software and drivers necessary, and customize my phone.

2 Questions I have about the T720 are:
1 - Can I disable color and lights so that I can save the battery? (More importantly, the energy draining color?)
2 - Is there anything that the SCH-A310 can do that the T720 cannot do?

Thank-you to anyone who can help me at all. I will check back and follow up on this post when I get back from Verizon.

(BTW - I live in Orange County, New York.)

Neurosociety

scottb · Dec 30, 2002

The contract thing sounds fishy to me too. Why would anyone sign up for one year if they could get the cheaper price on the phone with a two year contract and then change the contract to one year?

Personally, I prefer the a310 to the T720. I have not noticed a lot of difference in the battery life, but I think the a310 is a little better. The a310 seems to be more solid and has great sound in the ear piece. The a310 is also a little bit smaller, which makes a difference for me since I carry my phone in my pocket. The menu navigation is much faster with the a310. The T720 has a beautiful color screen, but there was not a lot else that was really drawing me to that phone. The ringers suck on the a310.

I don't think you can disable the color on the T720. The only thing I can think of that the a310 can do which the T720 can't is to light up with different colors based on who is calling you. This is for the external display.

I found the T720 a bit cumbersome to navigate, mostly due to the slow menu response. The a310 requires a few more keystrokes for certain functions, but is lightning quick in repsonse so it seems faster to me. Also, the a310 has a page down feature when reading a full screen (e.g. e-mail, news) where the T720 forces you to scroll one line at a time (very slowly).

I'm sure others will have more to add.

sahmad88 · Dec 30, 2002

Well, I can't speak to the A310, since I have never tried that phone, but I would actually like to.

I have the T720. It is a good phone overall. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

PROS:

-GIN. Yes, I think this is a pro. When looking at if over the A310 which you can't customize, then GIN looks pretty good. There are lots of ringers available. Hopefully soon we will be able to download pics to the phone as well.

-Color. I am spoiled by the color. Hey, it just looks nice. I use WAP a lot (mainly for email) and the large color screen makes it much nicer to read.

-Motorola. I like the name Motorola. And Motorola phones, including this one, are usually easier to find accessories for.

CONS:

-battery life, you pretty much have to charge it every night with the standard battery. I don't really have a problem with the battery over a one day period though. I use a headset which helps on the battery life

-earpiece. A lot of people on this forum complain about the volume. The volume is fine for me, but the quality isn't so great. If I do turn up the volume too loud, the sound distorts. But sometimes I need to turn it up all the way to hear.

-My phone (and previous t720s I have had) like to go into Analog mode when it doesn't have to. It also goes into Roaming mode when it doesn't have to. This is a hassle and a big drain on the battery.

-Menu Navigation Speed. With the original software, 17p, navigating through the menus was very slow. The new version, 19c or 19d, have fixed that problem. Make sure you get the 19c or d software.

-Reception. This is one that you will have to check for yourself. Most people, including myself. on this forum have reported worse reception with this phone. There are a few that say the reception is excellent. I am very disappointed in the reception of my phone.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have held on to my v60i and waited for a different phone to come out. Or at least I wish I had tried the A310. I think I would have been happier with it. Reading these forums, it doesn't seem to have so many quirks as the T720.

mattd2589 · Dec 30, 2002

first off...the 2 year contract thing is bullsh*t!
theres no way they would let you change your contract term after one year...its just a stupid theory..i don't care what idiot salesperson tells you this..theyre probably just saying that to get you locked into a 2 year agreement and then when the frist year is up and you go to change the contract length...they will simply laugh in your face.
change it to one year now and pay the extra set up costs..you'll thank yourself when you want to get out of verizon in a year... haha

the a310 issues
Cons:
the only cons i have found with this phone is the horrible ringers...i can't stand them.. they sound like noises from a child's toy..i will just keep it on vibrate until jcqs can help us hack the damn things...battery life, looks, external lcd, menu navigation...everything else is wonderful!!!

a310 reception issues
this should help your reception in your house...try it at your own risk and follow the directions closely...you could end up messing up your phone but that probably won't happen.

You can tweak the vocodor and slot cycle settings there. The vocodor is essentially switching your phones reception from bad to good and the slot cycle is changing how often your phone talks to the network when it is idle, ie checking time, date, voicemail, etc. This has the effect of extending the battery life.
Press menu, display (6) then *
Code is 000000
Then press right 3 times it will say programming complete or something
Then press left
Then press right 18 times
You can switch the NAV 1 ORIG SVC OPT from EVRC to 13k
This makes calls clearer, normally the phone is set to EVRC which allows more phones but less quality on any given network. Switching it to 13k makes the calls clearer. Verizon can switch it back if there are too many phones to operate in 13k but for the most part it won't matter unless you live in a heavily populated area. For comparison I live in Detroit and it works fine.
Press right 4 times
You will see SLOT CYCLE INDEX 1
This setting goes from 1 to 7. It reflects how often your phone checks with the tower when idle. Set at 1 it checks almost constantly, draining the battery life.
Setting it to 3-4 will give you moderately improved battery life. It will not extend talk-time or data-transfer time but it will extend standby time.
press end... and your phone will restart...hopefully it will help you out!

The Horrid T720c!
my best friend has one of these and it su*ks!!! battery life is terrible(thanks to the color screen), it looks cheap and is made out of plastic...the ringers and GIT is the only feature thats nice on this phone...and you still have to pay for it!!! steer clear of this..unless you like an overpriced piece of color plastic!

these are my opinions..you can follow them if you want

Neurosociety · Dec 30, 2002

Thanks. Your input has been helpful. Even on the reception issue alone, I would decide to keep the A310 instead of the T720 (remember, I have a problem with reception in my house). You provided even more.

I went to Verizon. They were closing early - I just made it. I didn't really get to have it checked out, but the guy just told me (as per reception issue) to dial *18 when I'm home and it will connect me to the tower. I'm not sure what that means, but from looking for it on the web, I think it means to ask the tower to force to keep me on it even if the tower is full to capacity (priority?).
I tried it and it didn't seem to do anything. haha..
I bought one of those As Seen On TV internal antennas. I didn't seem to do much. It helped *slightly* I think, but not enough to make a difference. I got it at the "As Seen On TV" store in the Palisades mall for $6. I didn't take off the tape and stick it into the phone because A) I don't need to, and B) I want to still have the option of returning it if this doesn't work out. It is very disappointing to be unable to make or receive calls from my own house.

Oh, the tech at Verizon (amid his rushing to close the store) also told me that if that still doesn't work, to dial *611 for Verizon customer service and tell them to "track my phone" because of the problem, and they will keep track of what's happening so they can see if it's possibly a problem with their equiptment or in my area. I'll try that. I sure hope they do something. (They may be losing customers, including myself - otherwise.) I hope I don't have to cancel for something as minute as this. Come-on, a tower costs less than a million, right? Should be much less, I think. Oh well. The Verizon tech support girl I talked to chuckled when I told her the least they could do was boost the tower strength by half a watt. I think that would do it.

Anyway, more when I go to Verizon again.

Thanks,
Neurosociety

Neurosociety · Dec 30, 2002

MattD, thanks for the info.. the programming you mentioned.. I saw last night, as I was falling asleep, a forum post about programming the phone for clearer reception. Maybe it was from you. It said that when you turn your phone off, then back on, that it resets to the normal setting. It that true of the programming you posted? Because if it is, I'll print it on a card and keep it in my pocket in case I have to turn my phone off.
The 13k refers to the data bandwidth that the voice is carried on, right?
Thanks,
Neurosociety

Neurosociety · Dec 30, 2002

By the way, everyone, I'm definately looking into this contract thing, and will change it to a two year once I'm sure. I'm going to ask Verizon on the phone, not just the store. (& I'll ask a bunch of people, and the billing dept.)
I have no problem paying extra for the 1 year, what made me want to do the two year was
A) $100 coupon at the end of 2 years toward the purchase of a new phone, and
B) Ability to end it after 1 year if I want.

Well, if I lose B, then it's too much of a risk for me.

Thanks guys,
Neurosociety

stratfink · Dec 31, 2002

Hello, when I first hooked up with Verizon a few months ago, one of the sales guys told me to go with a candybar style phone if I want to have better reception. I don't know how true it is about the candybar phones having better reception but I ended up getting the Motorola T720 and returned it three days later for the Samsung A310 mainly for the loud earpiece volume it has.

wood · Dec 31, 2002

My experience on T720 and A310 so far..

I also had to return T720 twice because 1) volume problem - if I raise the volume, I can hear my voice over the phone as echo. I complained about echoing problems ane verizon rep told me to lower my volume (and...I couldn't hear what people say over the phone), 2) keep losing the calls - the signal changes from full bar of digital to one bar of analog all of sudden and calls are lost, 3) battery life.

Finally, I switched to A310 and it feels more solid and no echo problems. It from time to time gets switched to analog but as I forced it to the digital mode, it stopped the analog problems.

Question on A310 - when the phone is in charging mode, my hands-free set doesn't seem to be working. Has anyone had this problems?

Thanks!

Cioni2k · Dec 31, 2002

Hey thanks for the Mention in your post Makes me feel important. Heh

Ok so some general answers/comments to your original post.

Bought my Samsung SCH A310 phone from Verizon
How much did you get it for? I bought mine for $230 with a 1 year agreement the first day it came out I usually dont do that, but I wanted Verizon service and that was the only phone I liked. I heard you can get them pretty cheap like $50-$80 now.

Was told I could change my 2-Year contract to a 1-Year contract after 1 year is up - sounds fishy
This does sound fishy. THe VZ worker might have been confused and meant to say that you are entitled to discounts after one year.

Problem 1: Can't get a signal in my house. Ahhh!
Unfortunately, I dont know an answer to this problem. But going with the T720 isn't going to help. I now own the T720. It has generally the same, if not a little less reception then the A310. I noticed that my A310 was able to hold reception a little better in basements.

Problem 2 - do I go with Verizon? Switch to Nextel? and/or Switch Phones to a Motorola T720?
Correct, I own both phones. (Well, my mom now has my A310, but techincally I still owned both). I read before that you really wanted to customize your phone with graphics, ringtones and games. The T720 hands down is the only way to go if you want that. After I conditioned my battery, its surprisingly Very average (And thats a good thing!). I think it is about equal with the A310 now. Battery really isnt an issue unless you use your phone 24/7. But if you're used to the A310, its not a huge step down at all. I love my T720 right now mainly because I really wanted a color screen and Verizon'z Get It Now service, while a tad expensive is very cool.

My Main concerns about the T720:
If you want customization, this is the phone to get. Sadly, you can't customize the A310 at all except for the standard ringers and backrounds.
1 - Can I disable color and lights so that I can save the battery? (More importantly, the energy draining color?)
You can keep the status light (little light that blinks when you have service) off to reduce battery life, you can change the LCD screen to go dark in 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds (Its on this by default), and Never.
2 - Is there anything that the SCH-A310 can do that the T720 cannot do?
Honestly? I dont think so. But the Call quality definitly sounds better on the A310. The earpiece in the T720 is kind of soft.

Good luck with Verizon. Either phone is great. I hope you can get all your problems solved and start enjoying it. If you need any help, IM me (AOL instant messenger), my Screen name is SeaOwnKnee

mattd2589 · Dec 31, 2002

on my a310, when i turn the phone off then back on, i won't lose my settings...i do know that verizon can actually switch the 13k off if there are too many people on a tower at once..that may be what you read. try it out..turn off your phone, turn it back on, go back into the service menu menu-6-*-000000, and see if the settings are different. mine aren't. the 13k call setting is the quality of the call..and it also increases reception. did you try to change it yet?? if so, did your reception increase??

scottb · Dec 31, 2002

Originally posted by: sahmad88
Well, I can't speak to the A310, since I have never tried that phone, but I would actually like to.

[snip...]
-Color. I am spoiled by the color. Hey, it just looks nice. I use WAP a lot (mainly for email) and the large color screen makes it much nicer to read.

...snip]
Click to expand...

You don't have color when using the browser - it's only shades of one color.

Cioni2k · Dec 31, 2002

You don't have color when using the browser - it's only shades of one color.
Click to expand...

Yeah but it's much more appealing with a white backround and black text.

Neurosociety · Jan 8, 2003

Hi. Thanks, everyone, for your help. Here's what's going on:

I learned that the Verizon technicians at my local store don't know that much about my kind of problem. In fact one of them, disappeared into the backroom for every question that a customer asked (thank goodness I didn't get him, & I hope it was because he was just starting; but still!!). They told me to dial *288 and *18, and then told me A SECOND TIME (ignoring that I told them I did it already - they just said "it will work". Well.. up yours, too, Verizon in-store tech support...) Sorry...
OK...

I like my phone my plan, my prices, etc.. If reception weren't an issue, I might buy the T720. But that's out the door. Thanks for your help on that, all..

(I like their prices, except for their messaging fees - they are REDICULOUS! ...charging for messaging ...can you say 3000% mark-up? I'm thinking of buying a pager, too, if it's not too expensive)

I spoke to another sales person in the store - the changing the plan from a 2 to a 1 is BS. I will change it to a 1-year if I decide to keep the Verizon service.

My neighbor, who has Nextel, get's full reception in my house. I think that the power of his phone might have something to do with it (newer phones have to meet lower SAR levels)

Ooops.. sorry guys.. I have to get going - can't finish this post. I'll post what I've got.

The person in the Verizon store said that my phone doesn't support some certain mode - I forgot what she said, but it was something with an X in it. I think only older phones support it. That's what she said when I explained that my neighbor with his Nextel phone could get full reception in my house. She said none of the phones in the entire Verizon store have that mode. (Maybe it's just that Verizon doesn't support it - not sure.)

Anyway

mattd -
I tried 13K - I haven't used it much, but it didn't really help with reception in my house. At least not that I was able to observe, so far. At least it didn't help with getting a signal. It may have made calls clearer - but it was hard to tell while I was dropping them.
My phone didn't lose its settings. I rebooted, and it kept them, but I found that it's easy enough to change them when I want to. That's all I was worried about. It looked complicated (the instructions) but I remember them, now. They're actually pretty simple and easy to remember.
Thanks.

Spoke to Verizon tech support - am trying to get out of them whether they plan on putting a cell tower in my area. Maybe I'll try the local verizon building with the Verizon vans. Someone's gotta have a schedule.

What else? Umm.. I found these two websites

Great explainations of frequencies:
http://www.criterioncellular.com/html/frequencies.html

Explaination of EVRC:
http://www.arcx.com/sites/EVRC.htm

Cioni2k, thanks for all the info..

More when I'm back.

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