Advice Needed: Moto 551, 557, or 635. Which one?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Otto Pylot - 08 Nov 2005 06:26 GMT

We've been an AT&T/Cingular family for so long that even though our
contract has expired, Cingular keeps honoring the original AT&T family
plan. Service has been good for us in the Bay Area and the pricing
can't be beat so we're staying with AT&T/Cingular. Here's where I need
some advice...

My oldest is going to India in December so she needs a quad-band,
unlocked phone. My phone is a Nokia 6200. The plan is to get the
quad-band for me but let her use it while she's in India once she gets
a SIM card. The phone comes back to me when she comes home and mine
goes off to the next child in line. She keeps her present phone even
though she wants a Treo 650 but that's going to be her dime.

i don't use or need all the bells and whistles that the current crop
of phones have. Clear and reliable phone calls and messages is all I
need so I know that these phones are an overkill to say the least.
Anyway, I liked the features of the Motorolas and the reviews didn't
seem to be any better or worse than anyone else so I settled on the
635. However, I got different stories from the Cingular stores I went
to. I just wanted to look and feel the phones but none of the stores
had them (the 635's). To complicate matters, one store said they would
be getting them in stock in December or January which is too late for
me but another store said that the 635's had been pulled for some
reason and replaced with the 557's which I hadn't even heard of. I need
to get a phone very soon to give us time to get used to it and make
sure it's realible. Price of course is a factor becase we are partially
subsidizing this trip to India so what advice do you all have? Thanks.

Signature

Deja Moo: I've seen this bullshit before.

My address has been anti-spammed.
Please reply to: scasse@invalid.net replacing invalid with sonic.

Reply to this Message

John Navas - 08 Nov 2005 06:53 GMT

AFAIK, Cingular hasn't sold the V635 or the V557 (a minor upgrade to the
V551). Also, I doubt that it will do so in the future because it hasn't done
so by now, and these aren't new handsets.

Thus I recommend you get the V551 (a very good phone. I've heard reports that
Cingular is no longer unlocking phones, and since I think you'll want to use
local prepaid SIMs in India, you'll either need to use an unlocking service,
or buy an unlocked phone in the first place.

>We've been an AT&T/Cingular family for so long that even though our
>contract has expired, Cingular keeps honoring the original AT&T family
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>sure it's realible. Price of course is a factor becase we are partially
>subsidizing this trip to India so what advice do you all have? Thanks.

Signature

Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

Reply to this Message

Fred - 08 Nov 2005 10:35 GMT

Cingular IS getting the 557, it will replace the 551. It is very similar
with one major exception, that really only affects heavy web users though.
It is basically an "always on" web browser. You don't have to logon
separately as you do now. You can be on the web & talking at the same time.
It also has many more multimedia features. It sounds like this person isn't
interested in that stuff though. I would also recommend the 551 for him,

Fred

> AFAIK, Cingular hasn't sold the V635 or the V557 (a minor upgrade to the
> V551). Also, I doubt that it will do so in the future because it hasn't
[quoted text clipped - 36 lines]
>>sure it's realible. Price of course is a factor becase we are partially
>>subsidizing this trip to India so what advice do you all have? Thanks.

Reply to this Message

Fred - 08 Nov 2005 10:37 GMT

The 557 is also push to talk which Cingular will be introducing very
shortly.

> Cingular IS getting the 557, it will replace the 551. It is very similar
> with one major exception, that really only affects heavy web users though.
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
>>>sure it's realible. Price of course is a factor becase we are partially
>>>subsidizing this trip to India so what advice do you all have? Thanks.

Reply to this Message

John Navas - 08 Nov 2005 16:57 GMT

While the V557 has push-to-talk, it's PoC (push-to-talk over cellular), which
is different from (and not as good as) the low-latency push-to-talk technology
from Kodiak that Cingular is expected to deploy.

To be "on the web & talking at the same time" the V557 would have to be
GPRS/EGPRS(EDGE) Class A, as compared to Class B (data suspended during voice)
in all other phones I know of. Neither Motorola nor reviews make any mention
of that, so I seriously doubt it. You may be thinking of SCREEN3, where
content is pushed from the provider to the phone's home screen, much like
(yawn) PointCast or Windows Active Desktop.
<http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/motorola/motorola-screen3-036666.php>

In essentially all other aspects the V557 is just a V551 (not even EDGE/EGPRS
Class 10), so I think it's a pretty big yawner, particularly as compared to
the new V360, recently introduced by T-Mobile.
<http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0,,92,00.html>

>The 557 is also push to talk which Cingular will be introducing very
>shortly.

>> Cingular IS getting the 557, it will replace the 551. It is very similar
>> with one major exception, that really only affects heavy web users though.
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>> person isn't interested in that stuff though. I would also recommend the
>> 551 for him,

>>> AFAIK, Cingular hasn't sold the V635 or the V557 (a minor upgrade to the
>>> V551). Also, I doubt that it will do so in the future because it hasn't
>>> done so by now, and these aren't new handsets.

Signature

Best regards, HELP FOR CINGULAR GSM & SONY ERICSSON PHONES:
John Navas <http://navasgrp.home.att.net/#Cingular>

Reply to this Message