The Battle of the Quadbands:
07/10/2006
By: Carlos Eduardo
Purchased From: Ustronics.com
vs. 
vs. 
Since T-Mobile started deploying 850 Mhz coverage via roaming agreements,
it has been increasingly difficult to justify buying/owning a 1900-only phone,
particularly if you live in an area where your coverage will have increased.
As great as this additional coverage is, unless you live in 1900-only urban
area, it eliminates many of the new phones that come from Europe that are
merely tribands. Thus, the objective of this comparison, is to identify those
quadband handsets that take advantage of both American bands and both European
bands.
Having several phones to choose from, I wanted to select one quad-band from
the big three manufacturers of handsets, and I wanted it to be a phone that
I would personally want to use. Some phones like the Moto V3i were of no
interest to me because of their similarity to the V3, and of no substantial
difference (except for the camera) from others within their range, such as
the SLVR. Therefore, the final selection ended up consisting of the Motorola
SLVR L7, The Nokia 6131, and the Sony Ericsson W810i.
The Motorola SLVR L7:
I chose the SLVR because of three reasons. First, because of the thinness
of the phone, allowing me to use it in a suit pocket without the unsightly
pocket
sag, second because the stated battery life was great, and lastly because
of it's non-flip design, which is less likely to fail due to stress than
the
Vx models.
I'd like to begin by confirming that the battery life of the SLVR is amazing.
Although I didn't make any formal tests because I ran out of people to talk
to, lets just say it's longer than any other phone I've used in recent history.
In addition, reception was decent, but not stellar. Unfortunately, that's
where all the good things end.
Unfortunately for Motorola, they've scored many a home-run with their exterior
styling, but continue to disappoint with their operating system and user
interface. The user interface is slow, iTap is obnoxious to use, menu lag
is unbearable, the phonebook is very limited and clumsy, iSync synchronization
(at least with mine) was only feasible via USB cable, and for that matter,
Bluetooth file browsing would crash the phone. The camera wasn't all that
great either... click here for a sample.
In summary, I didn't like this phone. I'd only recommend it for someone that
only made phone calls and needed to carry it somewhere where there was minimal
bulge. However, with other manufacturers such as Samsung coming out with
thinner models, it has become increasingly difficult to justify the purchase
of this phone.
The Nokia 6131:
I chose the Nokia 6131 to represent the Nokia camp for various reasons. The
first was that it wasn't that expensive relative to other newly released
quadbands, it had a decent 1.3 MP camera, it had a relatively thin and attractive
design, and it had the latest series 40 OS from Nokia (one of my favorites).
To begin the analysis, the OS of this phone is simply marvelous. Leaps and
bounds more powerful than others in its class (non-smartphone). With a standby
display that can show you upcoming calendar events, an address-book that
can have multiple similar entries (to see how I got it to sync via iSync,
see bottom of this entire review), and a wonderful text messaging application,
this phone delivers where it counts the most. In addition, the keyboard is
THE BEST keyboard that I've ever used on a phone (non-Qwerty). The tactile
feedback, spacing, and springiness of keys is just brilliant.
The camera on the 6131 is acceptable, but nothing to write home about. Bluetooth
works well, but can be a little choppy. Sound quality is excellent and one
thing I love about this phone is that the earpiece is sufficiently loud to
outdo any traffic while you walk. Reception is great to boot.
Aesthetically the phone is pleasing, albeit a bit bland. I could do without
some of the chrome accents it has. I received a few compliments on it, and
most people liked the rubbery bat-skin feel
of
it.
The flip push-button
works
well, but unfortunately the top lid does have a little bit of lateral play
to it, about a millimeter's worth.
So, what's the Achilles' heel of this phone? You guessed it, the battery
life.
Although not unusable, it's definitively an every-day charger. With Bluetooth
on, the most I got conversation wise without dying was 3h:20m. However, the
phone died 3/4 into my day. In order to have the phone last me all day, I
was only able to get 2h:49m of talk time. So, as you can see this phone is
a tad bit sensitive to long talks.
I see this phone as being a great phone for those that want an all-in-one
data organizer. Because of it's great calendar and standby display, you can
use this to check what's coming up, and make some quick phone calls. However,
this phone is not great for chatterboxes or for those without a charger nearby.
The Sony Ericsson w810i:
Sony Ericsson has released more and more Quadband phones as of late, but
none have really captured my attention feature-wise as has the w810i. The
w810i
has arguably the best camera (2.0MP) in its class and best audio features
(walkman), but can it stand up to Nokia in user interface and hardware usability?
It's been a while since I've used a Sony Ericsson phone... mostly because
I tired of their earlier inability to have multiple instances of one kind
of contact type within an address book. For example, I know people that have
one work cell phone and one home cell phone, and SE's phonebooks will not
let you have two mobile phones assigned to one contact... you can either
rename one as 'other' or you'll have to create a new contact for it. In addition,
Sony Ericsson has had a long history of highly variable reception across
their phone ranges. Some have been good and some have been horrible (T610
anyone?).
Unfortunately the phonebook issue is still there. You can't have two mobile
phones assigned to one contact.. but that aside.. I was pleasantly surprised
at how much has changed at chez Sony
Ericsson.
First of all reception is great. I'm also not getting the call-drop issue
many people experienced with earlier software revisions (I have R4CK003).
Battery life is great, although it feels like it's slightly shorter than
that of the SLVR. The animated graphics and applications have vastly improved.
The camera is stellar, the walkman is fine (I prefer to use my iPod so that
the battery drain doesn't affect my cellphone talk time), and the calendar
is acceptable.
The only complaints aside from the address-book are that the buttons and
the earpiece volume during a non-bluetooth call. The buttons aren't that
easy to push (particularly the top buttons which share functions depending
on whether you click the top or bottom), and this
greatly reduces the typing speed relative to the Nokia 6131.
The w810i is a great all-in-one phone, and would recommend it to anyone that
didn't have issues with small buttons. Click here for
a photo sample taken indoors.
--- Rankings ---
Screen:
1) Nokia 6131 - Beautiful and big, but with a little bit of ghosting
2) Sony Ericsson w810i - Beautiful but small, very crisp
3) Motorola SLVR - Average and Average
Operating System:
1) Nokia 6131 - More customization, powerful address book, standby screen
with events
2) Sony Ericsson w810i - Much improved, still some bugs, but very nice
and friendly
3) Motorola SLVR - I know some freshmen at Carnegie Mellon that could code
this while drunk
Battery Life:
1) Motorola SLVR - This thing is the Lance Armstrong of phones
2) Sony Ericsson w810i - A very close second to the SLVR
3) Nokia 6131 - I'm tired... can I go to sleep?
Keypad & Text Prediction:
1) Nokia 6131 - This thing set my world record for texting. Amazing
2) Sony Ericsson w810i - Too bad about the lilliputan keys, otherwise not
bad
3) Motorola SLVR - looks nice, but error prone. iTap must die, it is just
annoying
Construction:
1) Sony Ericsson w810i - Solid
2) Motorola SLVR - Solid but dents easily
3) Nokia 6131 - Nokia needs to work on its flip phone construction a little
more
Camera:
1) Sony Ericsson w810i - excellent
2) Nokia 6131 - Average for today's standards
3) Motorola SLVR - sub par
RF:
No discernible difference between all three of the phones. They all have
good reception.
Applications:
1) Sony Ericsson w810i - Ease of install (no issues with internet connectivity)
and cool apps
2) Nokia 6131 - decent apps, but hard to install internet connectivity
(requires additional settings aside from those downloaded via Nokia's website)
3) Motorola SLVR - Took me for ever to get this stupid thing to work with
Opera and Google, I can't even remember how I did it, but it took me for
ever since the setting for the wap browser and mms are separate from those
of the Java apps. What's more annoying is that the setting called Java
apps, doesn't work!
Conclusion:
Of the three phones, I've decided to keep the w810i. It has a great camera
so I don't have to take my big-a-pixel camera with me, it has good reception,
and dependable battery life. Conclusions may be different for you, please
consult your physician before taking any new phones into your life.
--- Nokia 6131 iSync workaround ---
To get the 6131 working with iSync, I tried several online sites that had
advice on how to do it, but none of them worked. In the end, I experimented
on my own and found a solution that worked. I'm including that solution
below, but I do not take responsibility for any screw ups you may cause.
0) Make sure iSync is not running, and un-pair the phone from your Bluetooth
preferences.
1) Go to your applications folder and right click on the iSync application.
2) Click on 'Show Package Contents'
3) Navigate to -> Contents-> Plugins-> ApplePhoneConduit.Syncdevice
-> Contents-> Plugins -> PhoneModelsSync.phoneplugin -> Contents
-> Resources
4) Within this last folder there will be a file called Metaclasses.plist
5) Copy this file and rename it something like Metaclasses.plist.bkp, if
you do not know how to do this, you shouldn't even be trying this.
6) Once you have made a backup of the file, open the original file in a text
editor and do a search for the Nokia 6111. When you find it, you will see
that it is a Series 40 v3 device.
7) Look at all the stuff that precedes it and follows it and make sure to
copy only the stuff that pertains to the Nokia 6111 and copy/paste it right
below it. This will give you two Nokia 6111's in a row. Then on the second
Nokia 6111 change every instance of the 6111 with a 6131 and save the file.
8) Pair the phone with your mac, and then launch isync.
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