I recently upgraded to the 7290 from the 6230.
I have experienced poorer reception as well, also the phone crashes randomly.
When the phone crashes, I have to take out the battery to get it to power on again. It takes about 8 minutes for the phone to come back to the main screen (I get an hourglass for the wait time). btw, battery is fully charged.
My s/w is also way newer that the previous posts (being may '06 !)
My experience with the 7290 has not been great. I got it primarily for the bluetooth, which seems to work, aside from complaints about quality of the voice, however I dont know if that has to do with the bluetooth headset (Scala500).
I cant deal with the crashes, and am talking to T-Mobile now...