[MPW]

I bought a 7100t yesterday. I have been using a 7230 for the past year.

The signal reception is very poor. In many areas where the 7230 gets one or two bars of signal strength, the 7100t does not get any signal.

The screen is awesome. Being a heavy email user, I do not believe that SureType will cut it.

T-Mobile does not support the .jpg attachments that the documentation says is supported. No one in tech support can tell me why.

T-Mobile gives a 14-day trial period. This may be fine for phone users who want light email capabilities. For Blackberry veterans, it falls short!

[sempai]

1) I've seen reception be so-so. My Nokia 6600, 6310i, 3660 and such tend to really latch onto towers really well though. Maybe I'm spoiled. I never found the RF to be particularly amazing on the 7230, though it held calls well.

My 7100 shows good signal strength. -79dBm on the desk in my home office. That's pretty good. -83dBm in my daytime office. I haven't had it unexpectedly drop a call, so who knows.

2) SureType absolutely will cut it. I was thinking the same thing, but last night while I was fidgeting with it in bed I realized that I wasn't fussing with the completion anymore.

I still don't like HEY and GET being transposed. I start a lot of IM's and emails with Hey! and sometimes it comes up Get! Hah! Regardless, it's learning and getting quite good. I found myself touch-typing a few words today.

T-Mobile tech support is useless until you hit Wireless Data Group Tier 3. They're varying degrees of incompetent all the way up to WDG 3. On the other hand, they're the nicest and most cheerful of the inept I've ever had to deal with, so I've actually loved being told "I don't know," by T-Mobile people, rather than outright lied to repeatedly by people at AT&T Wireless or Sprint PCS.

JPEG attachments not working and I haven't tried that. Nobody sends me attachments because I threaten to kick their shins blue if they send me the stupid picture of the week they got forwarded to them at work. Hah!

I'm sure T-Mobile will eventually get it figured out - as I mentioned in another post, they didn't get enough training on the Charm/7100 before launch, and are paying for it now.

Trial periods are for wusses! And T-Mobile is industry average. You could always buy one from CarbonSystems, they give 30 day trials on the BigBerry's and probably would on the 7100 too. Maybe not, I don't really know.

I will say that if you don't get used to SureType by the third day, you never will. And it's probably because you don't want to.

[MPW]

Great Points! The signal reception is not great on my 7230 but it is acceptable. With the 7100t, it is unacceptable. This is my only real complaint with the 7100t so far.

Does anyone have any data on the quality of coverage between T-Mobile and Cingular in the Washington DC Area?

You are right about SureType. Once you get some practice, it is really very good. For me, Blackberry is a business tool. I am out on the road all day, every day and I depend on this tool to manage all my email and phone calls. As a result, your comment was right on target - I just don't want to give up the 7230 keyboard!

The display on the 7100t is great indoors. In direct sunlight, it is not as readable as the 7230.

It sounds like the 7290 will be a better choice for me. T-Mobile customer service is very nice even when they can't answer your questions. Has anyone heard if T-Mobile plans to offer the 7290?

[gmsmith]

MPW - I have not used Cingucrap since the tower sharing with ATT, but I was NEVER impressed with Cingular's coverage. I love T-Mo's coverage in DC...

[sempai]

I used AT&T Wireless in Washington DC when they first cut to GSM up until April 2003.

I never had a coverage issue but found their customer care atrocious and their calling plans overpriced, and their data services were ridiculous as well.

The coverage between the two Cingular|AWE is supposed to be quite good, but you will want a quad-band device like the 7100t or 7290 with either of them!

[StevenT]

I'm also finding the 7100t to have somewhat poor Rf performance. Not the worst I've seen, but definitely not the best either. I think if you live and work in areas of at least average coverage, then you will have no problems. But if you are in some weaker areas like myself, you might have problems.

My house has always had poor coverage. I'm always shopping for cell phones with great reception due to this fact. Best I've found are the Nokia 6310i (nothing else compares for Rf performance) and the Siemens S55, both of which are capable of holding onto a signal at my house without any breakup. My new 7100t unfortunately is not capable of holding onto a signal at my house. Calls keep breaking up unless I remain still in the one spot of my house that gets the strongest signal.

Definitely a bummer as I like this phone a lot.
Can anyone comment on the Rf performance of the 7230? Better than the 7100?

Thanks

[JesseRPI]

Sempai mentioned CarbonSystems? Who are they, and is their website? A 30-day trial definitley sounds better than 14.

[sempai]

I don't know who they are, but they resell BlackBerry devices.

http://www.karbonsystems.com/index.html

Sorry for the typo - KARBON not CARBON

[JesseRPI]

Thanks! Good to know about this one.