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Eug · Mar 27, 2003, 01:33 PM

OK, the local Fido stores has the unlocked T68 non-i GSM and the locked (Fido) T68i GSM, both for CAD$400 (~US$275).

Fido is a little unstable at the moment and the idea of a locked phone worries me. I assume I'd be able to use the same unlocked T68i phone with Rogers GSM if Fido gets bought out, no?

The other thing is that the guy at the store says he's flashed T68 phones to T68i and they continue to work fine. I noticed other people here have done this. Any problems because losing your calendar and phone book entries?

And what do people know about GPRS data support with Fido and Rogers? It seems to me to be FAR too expensive. ie. Cheap plans offering a paltry 2 MB data access and more generous plans costing $50 a month.

In the meantime I will continue to use my freshly painted 5 year-old Nokia 6190.

aaanorton · Mar 28, 2003, 09:10 AM

The "i" supposedly is a lot better. Not just s/w-wise. Better screen and such. That said, I had a T68i for a few days and returned it for another Nokia 8390 (AT&T GSM). I personally think the phone is junk, but others seem to love the thing. Go figure. I'm hoping the SE T610 will be considerably better, cause I do like the idea of BT and all.

Scooterboy · Mar 29, 2003, 07:04 PM

I agree about the T68i. I just bought one to replace my lost Nokia 6310i and compared to the Nokia the T68i is a P.O.S. I haven't tried syncing with Bluetooth yet (iSync compatability was the major reason for purchase) but even iSync I doubt very much will comensate for a toy-like plastic feel, an un-intuitive OS, crappy icons, and stupid blinking L.E.D.'s. I'm giving the T68i to my girlfriend (she can use the iCal iSyncing more than I), and buying a new Nokia 6310i. The Nokia is elegant, slim, solid, and has much better battery performance (17 days standby) and a far better OS which is easier to navigate and far better for daily use.
What I can't understand is why we Mac users have only one choice (Sony-Ericsson) for compatability with iSync.
I bought the unlocked T68i and previously the 6310i because I travel often.

Eug · Mar 29, 2003, 11:44 PM

Yeah, I noticed the T68 (non-i) screen was not so bright, but I wasn't sure if this could be changed because I didn't have time to fully play with it. I'll have to check out the T68i more too.

Any further comments welcome.

Yoda's Erotic Piggyback · Mar 30, 2003, 01:50 AM

90% of the people who have a t68i think it is the best thing ever. I am one of them.

Rogers sold me my t68i for $320. If you unlock it then it should be fine moving over from Fido to Rogers but I don't know why you would want to stick with Fido either way.

Unlocking costs you and you will have downtime.

I also don't know what rogers will tell you if you waltz in with a phone and say you want to use it.

I don't use data as it is a rip off. The thing I love about the t68i is that the battery lasts 10 days easy and that is with a good amount of talk time every day.

you don't have to worry about losing any info as iSync copies all your calenders address's and other junk over in a few seconds.

I don't need a PDA right now as I just enter the dates into ical and it shoots over to the phone, which is looks great on.

Eug · Mar 30, 2003, 08:32 PM

Originally posted by Yoda's Erotic Piggyback:
Rogers sold me my t68i for $320.

Did you have buy a plan for that? I assume not, but I don't want to be locked to Rogers.

If you unlock it then it should be fine moving over from Fido to Rogers but I don't know why you would want to stick with Fido either way.]

Seems to work fine. Lethargy more than anything else.

Unlocking costs you and you will have downtime.

Why?

I also don't know what rogers will tell you if you waltz in with a phone and say you want to use it.

AFAIK, with Fido they couldn't care less what phone you use. I didn't think Rogers would be any different.

nbnz · Mar 30, 2003, 10:44 PM

According to SonyEricsson's site and esato.com it is possible to upgrade the software in a T68 to a T68i. And there is no difference between the hardware except the colours.

Socially Awkward Solo · Mar 31, 2003, 01:00 AM

Originally posted by Eug:
Did you have buy a plan for that? I assume not, but I don't want to be locked to Rogers.
Seems to work fine. Lethargy more than anything else.
Why?
AFAIK, with Fido they couldn't care less what phone you use. I didn't think Rogers would be any different.

Rogers offers the phone for $289 with a 2 year contract.

If you want to unlock the phone you can't do it yourself unless you have balls so you have to send it to someone who will do it for you for a charge.

Fido doesn't work very well out of Toronto. I went 3 hours up north and I had a 3 bar digital signal the whole time, my friends Fido went to No service after an hour and a half out of the city.

Socially Awkward Solo · Mar 31, 2003, 01:01 AM

Originally posted by nbnz:
According to SonyEricsson's site and esato.com it is possible to upgrade the software in a T68 to a T68i. And there is no difference between the hardware except the colours.

I don't know anyone who ever sells the t68 anymore. The t68 looks different, it has ugly silver buttons, a rubber battery back and a gray faceplate.

superd · Mar 31, 2003, 07:02 AM

Eugene,

I strongly recommend that you don't go with Rogers. They suck there service is terrible (customer and coverage). Fido is the way to go. My sister works for them and though they do have some financial problems it will not affect customers (t-mobile or verison will pick them up)... If you want the best coverage in Toronto I suggest Bell... but I'm not from Toronto. I'm from Vancouver...currently in Japan. When I come back in July I'll be using Fido without a doubt.

I'm just afraid that I won't be able to tollerate the shitty phones we have back in North America again

Dave

Socially Awkward Solo · Mar 31, 2003, 04:13 PM

Originally posted by superd:
Eugene,

I strongly recommend that you don't go with Rogers. They suck there service is terrible (customer and coverage). Fido is the way to go. My sister works for them and though they do have some financial problems it will not affect customers (t-mobile or verison will pick them up)... If you want the best coverage in Toronto I suggest Bell... but I'm not from Toronto. I'm from Vancouver...currently in Japan. When I come back in July I'll be using Fido without a doubt.

I'm just afraid that I won't be able to tollerate the shitty phones we have back in North America again

Dave

So in other words...

1) You don't live in Toronto
2) You don't have a Rogers phone
3) Your sister works for the compition
4) You say Rogers has the worst coverage (when infact they have the highest and Fido has the lowest)
5) You mention that if Fido is bought it will be by some companies that are currently not in Toronto, god knows what there service is like
6) Fido is in trouble for a reason.

SuperGenius · Mar 31, 2003, 04:54 PM

I just bought an unlocked t68i off of the buy/sell forum at howardchui.com and it is excellent. I didn't want to get into a contract with Rogers (and get the subsidized phone) so I decided to go with Fido but get my phone elsewhere.

The phone was being used on Rogers and all I had to do was get a sim card from Fido and activate using their web site. I just grabbed a sim card from Future Shop. It was very simple.

My reception has been fine though I haven't been too far north of the city. One of my coworkers has a t68 that has been flashed to t68i. It is also on Fido but his reception isn't quite as good as mine inside of our building.

I believe the t68i is a trimode phone so it should work on any gsm carrier that is curently available. Certainly no problem moving between Fido and Rogers.

The ability to sync this phone with your mac and/or ipod and/or palm via iSynce will prevent any problems with contacts or calendar entries being lost. I was quite impressed with the ease of syncing everything together.

All in all the t68i is an excellent phone.

Scooterboy · Apr 1, 2003, 08:30 PM

I've had my T68i for a week now, and here are some more observations. My chief gripes about this phone are: battery - nowhere near what my Nokia 6310i was getting per charge,(17 days standby, which is more than 7 days of hard use texting and phoning and using the PIM), texting using the tiny handset is poor, the menus and icons still seem cheesy, the OS still feels less intuitive (and more Windows-like) than the Nokia. The handset has a cheap, plasticy feel to it as does the keypad. The navigation pointer (not unlike the eraser mouse thingy on IBM laptops) is imprecise and again feels cheap for a phone of this price. The green blinking led is less disturbing than at first but when Bluetooth is turned on there is a very bright blue strobing led that is very annoying. Even the games suck. In all, I can't say that I'm all that impressed with the Sony-Ericsson T68i, beyond its feature set, which is good but no better than the Nokia 6310i. The Nokia 6310i beats the T68i hands down in looks and feel, menu navigation, texting, GSM reception, and battery performance. I travel internationally and am often without access to power for a week at a time.

Now, does anyone know if iSync will sync with anything other than a Sony-Ericsson phone, or will I have to buy Virtual PC just so I can sync with my next Nokia?

aaanorton · Apr 1, 2003, 08:37 PM

Right on, brother. I'm all over that. I just hope their upcoming SE T610 fares better for real-world use.

Socially Awkward Solo · Apr 1, 2003, 10:10 PM

Originally posted by Scooterboy:
I've had my T68i for a week now, and here are some more observations. My chief gripes about this phone are: battery - nowhere near what my Nokia 6310i was getting per charge,(17 days standby, which is more than 7 days of hard use texting and phoning and using the PIM), texting using the tiny handset is poor, the menus and icons still seem cheesy, the OS still feels less intuitive (and more Windows-like) than the Nokia. The handset has a cheap, plasticy feel to it as does the keypad. The navigation pointer (not unlike the eraser mouse thingy on IBM laptops) is imprecise and again feels cheap for a phone of this price. The green blinking led is less disturbing than at first but when Bluetooth is turned on there is a very bright blue strobing led that is very annoying. Even the games suck. In all, I can't say that I'm all that impressed with the Sony-Ericsson T68i, beyond its feature set, which is good but no better than the Nokia 6310i. The Nokia 6310i beats the T68i hands down in looks and feel, menu navigation, texting, GSM reception, and battery performance. I travel internationally and am often without access to power for a week at a time.

Now, does anyone know if iSync will sync with anything other than a Sony-Ericsson phone, or will I have to buy Virtual PC just so I can sync with my next Nokia?

Funny, everything you have said I would have to say the opposite.