Broken RAZR
 

First, this phone bites, but it was free with Cingular.

The round directional navigation button broke, so the phone is basically useless.

Going to take to Cingular store today to see if it can be fixed.

But RAZRs on Craig's List are $25 to $150, but there's a mish mash of Cingular, Verizon, Sprint, unlocked GSM, etc.

I know nothing about this, so what should I be looking at? Cingular and unlocked?

If unlocked, do I then have to take it somewhere to be locked in Cingular? Cost of that?

cingular or unlocked.

normally when you get a phone from ______, it's locked to only work on their network. If you get a phone that's unlocked, then that phone can be used on any network that uses the same frequencies/communications. So unlocked may be more expensive than just cingular, but fortunately for you either will work just fine.

I dont know one person that is happy with thier RAZR. The phone sucks. The battery life is terrible. Built pretty flimsy.

Im tough on phones. I go through them like water. Either breaking, or losing them. Dropping them in water is a common occurance. I recently picked up the G'Zone. its and awesome phone. water proof shock resistant. very good battery life.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1190119840.jpg

I will never buy a flip phone - way too easy to break. I currently have the SLVR - basically the same setup as the RAZR, but better and has Apple iTunes built in. AND it's not a flip phone. Had it I think 2 years now without any problems.

Sorry to go against the grain but I bought one of the first Razr's and its still going strong almost two years later. Batteries last about a year, I just bought 3 spares on Ebay and cycle through them as needed but to tell the truth a charge still last 2-3 days for me with one battery.

I had a guy in San Diego who unlocks them and mine works on any SIMM in the world, so will never buy a "branded phone" again.

My heartburn with taking the phone back to the store is for almost anything they want you to sign a new contract, something which I refuse to do. Been with ATT for almost 10 years on the same 1 year contract I signed years ago.

+100 THE BEST PHONE. Get's dirty (like phones do from skin contact), a little soap & water is all you need. I dropped min down stairs 1/2 open. Picked it up & made the call. My friend is in the chemical business. On my recommendation he got one. One day he tells me one of his guys dropped it in some liquid caustic. He took it out, rinsed it in a bucket of water. No effect. Go GZone.

Can that guy unlock my SIM? I hate looking at their stupid "HelloMoto" logo when the thing starts up, not to mention I'd like to be able to dump Cingular at some point.

OK, thanks for all the good advice. I've got another few months before getting out of Cingular and will buy a new phone then. I wonder if my chip will work with a SLVR?

Vinny, Joe, sorry I missed you guys yesterday. Crazy, hectic day and very long, but very good. Will let you know when I'm down again, hopefully late next week or following en route to Chennai again.

Shaun,

Your chip will work with a SLVR or any other Cingular phone for that matter.

Ed

I like my RAZR a lot and it works like a champ with the $5 extended battery I got on eBay. Shaun, Cingular phones are usually GSM and when I had Congular, my RAZR was GSM with the SIM card in the back. That is excellent for overseas use. Verizon only offers GSM in one model and it's crazy expensive. I kept my old Cingular RAZR just for overseas travel, though I cancelled my service long ago. You just have to buy a SIM card in whatever country you visit, program it and you're live.

For you Moto guys, motomodders.net, the Pelican of the Moto world.

Any unlock, mod, hack that you want to do is listed there.

Site is a bit slow but a TON of info.

I can get this for $75 and she lives down the street from work.

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/ele/420674893.html

For some reason, I have this uneasy feeling that I'm going to give someone $75 and get a phone I can't use.

If you intend to buy from her, pop your SIM card in and make a call before you finalize the transaction. It's that easy.

Excellent, thanks Ed! That's exactly what I needed to hear!

Why are you guys buying phones? I haven't paid for a phone in over 10 yrs.

Shaun,

If you put your SIMM in ANY phone and it works, you are set to go. If you put your SIMM in a phone and it pops up with a menu asking for a code, then you are screwed unless you want to get it unlocked.

Jeff,

The guy I know can unlock phones, but not SIMM chips. I should say that he may be able to unlock the chips but due to legal issues will not. I just want to buy a phone from a store or Ebay and pop my SIMM chip into it and work, and any totally unlocked phone will do this.

BTW guys, I unlocked my Blackberry recently. They are supposed to be difficult to do but its now been hacked. Got the code off of a site on the internet and after figuring out the way into the system I unlocked it. It was a T-mobile setup and now works with ANY phone/data chip in it. Do not toss your old Blackberries as now you can hack them!

Cool, thx. I'll check that motomodders site and if I still need anything else I'll let you know. I've been wanting to unlock the phone (and sim, ideally) for a while. .

I understand unlocking the codes, but don't you still need a provider like ATT, verizon, etc. to actually use the phone and have a working phone number?

Meet her at the phone store. The will run a check and move your service over.

You can request unlock codes from any carrier. After a certain contract period, 6 months IIRC they are legally obligated to give it to you.

Just tell them that you are heading to Europe and want your phone unlocked. No further explanation or conversation is needed or should be tolerated by you.

Yes. Remember that it's the SIM card that stores the account/carrier info, not the phone.

Let's use AT&T as an example. You started with a 2 year contract. Once it's up yo automatically go into a perpetual monthly renewal.

If you want a phone upgrade they will give you one but they want another two year contract.

If you buy an unlocked phone out of pocket you have the flexibility of moving to another carrier at any time without encurring an early termination fee.

I have AT&T, the wife T-mobile. Let's say she drops her phone and breaks it or the battery is dead and needs for some reason to use her T-Mobile account to make a call. We just swap out the cards. If my phone is locked to the AT&T network you can't do that.

Kurt,

You are simply unlocking the phone to work with anyone's chips. You then can use an ATT chip in a T-mobile phone and vice versa. You still need the phone companies chips, just that they no longer have the monopoly on having to use their phones.

The other beni to an unlocked phone is a Dual SIM adaptor.

I carry two phones, one for work and one for personal. But I don't want to carry both.

With an unlocked phone yo can insert a Dual SIM adaptor that will allow one phone to operate on two different numbers from different carriers.

You can't have both numbers active at once yet. (You can buy phones that allow this)

But to get around it you forward one number to the other, if you are active on card 1 and need to return a call on card 2 you software switch the phone.

Here is mine
 

This is the RAZR V3x. I got back in February and is a great phone. 3g speed and amazing service. I don't know if it is sold in the U.S yet, but cingular stil supports it. I had one of the earlier razr's and I must admit that it was pretty flimsy. I was always afraid it would snap in half, but this phone is built better. It weighs more and is slightly larger, but definitley sturdier. The camera is 2 megapixels with a focus feature.

Review:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.mobile-review.com/review/image/motorola/v3x/pic020.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.mobile-review.com/review/motorola-v3x-en.shtml&h=477&w=450&sz=65&hl=en&start=14&um=1&tbn id=Z_BOm1a403mvqM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=122&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drazr%2Bv3%2Bx%26svnum%3D30%26um%3D1%2 6hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rls%3DDMUS,DMUS:2006-38,DMUS:en%26sa%3DN

Pic
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1190140838.jpg

Sample picture take from one of the phone's two cameras by me:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1190141139.jpg

S-Monkey and Joe, thanks for the education. I am a cheap mofo and I use a t-mobile pay as you go phone I bought at Target. How can I tell if the phone is locked? Actually what I want to do is get one that is bluetooth capable, but right now they don't carry one with that option for the pay as you go folks. What should I be doing?

Kurt,

Find a friend, anyone actually, who has any other phone that uses a SIM chip that is NOT a T-mobile system. Take the chip out of their phone and put it in your phone, then turn it on. If the phone turns on fine and dials a number (try the house or like) successfully then its unlocked.

To tell the truth I doubt that the phone is unlocked. Most sold in the states are locked.

Also, you might have a phone that does not use a SIM chip, just have to pop the battery out to tell. Assume you know what a SIM chip looks like? Be careful handling them.

T-Mobile and AT&T both have pay as you go plans.

AT&T have a RAZR which has BT that works with the pay as you go.

Day one with the SLVR, $80 for an L7 with box, docs, all cables...

1. Sucks that my numbers are still on my old phone. Need to look at how to transfer.

2. The SLVR is WAY better in terms of speed, sound, etc.

3. Wish it were 1-2 ounces lighter.

4. Overall, much better than my 1.8 year old RAZR.

5. Realized I will NEVER buy an iPhone. I make calls. that's it. I can't be bothered to even change the ringtone on it, a tone that I despise, and loved my old one on the RAZR.

Shaun,

If you can get the old one into Bluetooth mode and pair it with your computer you can use iSync to get everything off the sync it to the new one.

Word of warning on the SLVR, if you have a couple of days worth of stuble it can get snagged by the number keys. Also the mic is low up front so stuble also causes a bit of noise.

The one thing I could never get used to is the numbers on the SLVR do not line up on a horizontal, the middle column is offset, so when you dial blind you misdial.

Brilliant! You are a lifesaver man, I owe you one! 10 minutes and my entire old phone is now on my new phone. Can't believe it was so easy via my Mac.

phone PPI? ;)