The following was something I posted regarding my dissatisfaction with Cricket's Motorola Hint QA30 phone. I wanted to share it here also.
I bought the Hint when it came out because I thought I would really benefit from the keyboard as I was trying to use the phone to organize and keep in touch while taking care of someone who was sick.
Lo and behold, after getting the phone in the mail, the keyboard really stinks. I was so shocked. It really would have paid off for me to go to the store to fully test it out.
4
Here are some really big challenges with the phone that I have. First with the phone and then with the Cricket service:
1) As mentioned, the keyboard is absolutely the worst. Like you are pushing down on metal studs with an atypical and not-so-great response. Very bad for texting and e-mail. The so called cheaper phones all appear to have better keyboards. My 11 year old niece got the Cricket TXTM8 for considerably less money and the keyboard feels like a dream compared to this Hint. Unreal!
2) The font choices for the display of the phone cannot be changed. Very hard to read. Hate it.
3) The toggle area in the middle of the phone has the same horrible stiff feel of the keys.
4) I have three way calling as part of my package but have found no documentation as to how to use on this phone. Unreal!
5) I am putting this in both areas as I can't say what is the problem but reception is absolute the worst I have experienced. I have to stand by one side of my apartment to barely get reception. My mobile connectivity, phone service... horrible. I feel like I am paying for these services but cannot use them at home. So, I have to "hog" all the time I can in order to use etc.
6) When texting, the keys to shift etc... the modes to capitalize etc. Because of the keys, are crazy! I was paying for mobile e-mail to be sent to my phone (one of the most important things) and it turned out that I could not create paragraphs when tping on the keyboard. The return key would not work. When I finally downgraded my plan to just have mobile access (since using the e-mail was pointless), I decided to take my chances accessing the mobile websites for Gmail and Hotmail. Lo and behold, the return key and all features worked!!! I was paying extra for mobile mail all that time and did not have access to those features but do when going to the mobile web site! Holy Moses! I felt like a fool.
7) No software with the phone. I paid close to full price for this junk when it first came out and their was no Motorola software allowing me to synch my to do note, calendar etc. What a rip if you are paying for the phone. That's how I feel about it. The software that I found on Motorola's site was just under $50!!! No thanks.
9) You can add things to messages, like your to do notes but they can't be opened when I get them in my work e-mail. File format unrecognizable. I then sent a test message to the phone with the same attachment and it wouldn't open even on the phone! LOL I was floored. Same with notepad etc.
10) Text messaging to groups does not work. When I try to send to more than two people, like when my Mom was in the hospital and I tried to send updates to 7 people in a group, I got messages that text failed to be sent. Why allow for group creation if you can't use? WTH???
11) The video camera is worthless. I changed the video settings to allow for it to take advantage of the memory card space etc. When I uploaded even 12 seconds snippets, the quality was horrible. I tried on Radar, 12Seconds and Flickr and they turned out WORTHLESS! Do not buy this phone if you think you are going to get quick usable snippets. They don't translate well to any service that I have used. I even tried pulling the file off the memory card, thinking that perhaps there was a challenge in data transfer through e-mail etc. It was still the same. WORTHLESS
Cricket's Service Challenges
1) This is a repeat of point 5 above - not sure if this is a limitation with the phone hardware versus software or service - 5) I am putting this in both areas as I can't say what is the problem but reception is absolute the worst I have experienced. I have to stand by one side of my apartment to barely get reception. My mobile connectivity, phone service... horrible. I feel like I am paying for these services but cannot use them at home. So, I have to "hog" all the time I can in order to use etc.
2)) This phone does not allow you to watch videos. I tried to watch videos and they can never play because of memory restrictions. It looks like it's doing the equivalent of buffering but it never does. I tried watching video previews in the Cricket store from the phone, just to see if perhaps they were optimized for use with their phones etc. I can never watch! The links don't do anything through the Openwave browser at all! WTH???
3) The Openwave browser capability sucks. I get so many errors. Their is no option to upgrade the browser that I know of. If this is what mobile web service is like, forget it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't when you try to post things on Twitter. Too many errors.
4) This phone is not set up through Cricket with links to social networking places like FB, Twitter etc. I see MySpace and some places listed from the Cricket area on the phone but with this version of mobile browsing, you have two things working to thwart your experience. I actually managed to get a person at corporate and explained how I could not get texts, use Twitter to get text updates etc. They didn't understand what I was talking about even though I explained clearly. I was going to post screen shots but then realized, they probably don't want this because again, network usage would be off the scale.
5) The network is undependable not only for reception in my apt but in general. There are times when I am outside in Chicago proper...and my phone is in a roaming status. WTH?? I called customer service and the rep explained to me, at the time before I downgraded, "Well, no worries because you have the 30 minutes of roaming should this happen." I mentioned to her that it was of big concern. When I am in the network coverage area, I should be able to make calls - NOT ROAM! I need my phone service when I NEED IT! If I was outside the coverage area, I would understand. Not in Chicago proper or two suburbs out!
6) No useful applications to improve your usage experience. When Openwave browser was giving me problems on the very basic m.twitter.com site, I dared to try "Twit-Twit" - a Twitter application in the store - and it sucked. Not worth the just under $5 bucks. No productivity items nothing.
7) I was a Boost customer first (tried it when I knew I was going to be laid off) - the rates included all charges. When I first switched to Cricket, I was shocked by the fees that were added. My $50 plan became a $63 plan. That means a lot when you are on a tight budget. I wish the people I talked to would have mentioned that.
8) For the most part, customer service is barely adequate. The times when it was good, I asked to speak to a supervisor and they put me on hold. When that person got on, they couldn't hear me because my reception was so bad because I walked away from my window! LOL When I went outside, in Chicago, the reception did not improve. When I tried to compliment that wonderful service rep, the service reception wouldn't let us communicate! Unreal!
***I understand that Cricket probably does not want to offer such great browsing experience on the regular plans that offer mobile web...because so many people might flock to them and overload their network...but I feel like the way this phone and service are being offered...well, that it is downright misleading.
I would like to share the positive experiences I have had with the phone and servcie here.
1) The phone itself is very durable. I like a heavier and substantially constructed phone. In the last few weeks, I have inadvertently dropped and the model holds up great. The slider is sturdy and on that front, it can take punishment.
2) The music players is pretty decent. The volume control and EQ settings are not the best but I can live with it and do enjoy as an on the go player.
3) Not only do I love the 2 megapixel camera but others have asked me what I am using. The quality of the base image is good. The onboard enhancement and adjustment tools are nice. Overall, I enjoy that immensely!
4) The screen resolution is nice but the experience is mostly moot when using the Openwave browser...but again, I like how the pictures look! Very cool!
Last Words On This Phone & Service:
Last Words On This Phone & Service:
I would not recommend this phone. With all the reasons combined above, it just is not worth it. I am so unimpressed with it that I have decided that instead of spending monies on the service any further, I should downgrade further to just phone and text. However, over the last four days, that I should just drop the service and go back to Boost perhaps. The quandary I have is that if I downgrade to a text and phone only plan here, I am still going to have crappy reception, dropped calls etc. If I go to Boost, I will still be paying $50 for their plans. I do see that they are coming out with some great new phones and... maybe I'll give them a chance. That Blackberry option looks great too. The trade-off in a higher monthly cost is that I will have all the organizational and communications tools that I need. And, still at a price that is a few dollars cheaper than what I was originally paying on the Cricket network.
