Report?
 

Well, you have had it a week now, anything to report?

I haven't had time to use it too much but so far it works quite well. The user interface requires a bit of learning. Right-menu * is the lock/unlock key combination, which I didn't see documented anywhere but managed to figure out by accident.

Call quality seems to be fine.

So far I'm pretty happy with it.

I'll throw my Rogers SIM into it this weekend and give it some use.

One thing I've noticed is that the signal strengths vary among my SIMs (even though there is only one 2G GSM provider here). I'm guessing that a couple of the accounts were parked on GSM 1900 and the other two on GSM 850.

The TV works reasonably well (if you have analog broadcasts). It's quite snowy in my home. The weather has been malicious here of late so I haven't tested it outdoors.

Band and SIM slot question
 

Can you see what band you are on in any way or turn off any bands?

When one does a manual search for networks does it have various symbols to say whether it is say: home, roaming or forbidden?

I have an A008 that shows a green house for home, a red circle for not permitted and blank for roaming on a list [where the green and red showup after a successful or not search.

This hypothesis of the 850 not working on SIMs 3 and 4 is interesting. If you were in the US with a T-Mobile or Truphone SIM you could never know. It could only be tested with an ATT or ATT MVNO SIM if you knew they did not have 1900 where you were testing.

I'm not aware of any way to tell what bands are in use, or what bands a carrier is on while using this phone, unfortunately. And I can't tell very easily here in Canada what band I'm on, because every Rogers tower (to my knowledge) that has 850 MHz 2G coverage also has 1900 MHz 2G coverage. (The reverse is likely not true.)

The best way I can tell (unless I happen to find myself in a US location that has 850 but not 1900 - I wonder if some of the former Alltel roaming GSM in western North Dakota might fit that description) will be to find some fringe Rogers coverage. If I can find places where SIMs 3 and 4 won't work but 1 and 2 do (with weak signal), I've probably confirmed it. I'm in Saskatchewan, so there are locations that have rural coverage from distant towers where 1900 MHz won't perpetuate far enough but 850 will.

Unfortunately the weather is a bit brisk at the moment so this won't be a tomorrow project, but I'll keep it in mind in case I find an opportunity.

weather
 

I almost asked you on the weather thread if the quad SIM phone kept you warm enough!

Heh. Actually I haven't noticed it getting all that hot, but I haven't made any long calls on it yet.

Finally I have received this phone too. Works nicely. Quite surprised how well its build. So far all well. TV is not working in my current location, coz we have here now only DVB-T.

That is because all the GSM units have different antennas in the casing. Its the same with my dual sim phone. If you have two SIM of the same network inside you will often see different fieldstrength. Try to hold the phone different and you will maybe also see a reverse of the fielstrenghts (not as extreme as on the iPhone though ;-) )

Chris

Now that you have had your phones a while........
 

Well, are you happy or sad with your purchase?
Does it work as expected?
Are there performance differences between SIM slots? [verified, highly confident, anecdotal]
Would you buy it again?
Are there any other quad SIM phones out there?

Thanks for responses.

Has any one heard or got a K160?
 

My confession
 

I ordered a K160 last week. In a couple of weeks, we will see..........

One problem to report. On the SIM slot 3 and 4 if you get any special letter like for example č, š, á ř in incoming sms messages. They will be shown on screen as chinese characters.

locked keypad non mention in manual
 

Had that happen to me today. Luckily, I kind of knew where my fingers were before it happened.

Initial impressions of the K160
 

Some observations about the K160 a latter model. It comes with a 1500 and a 1800 mAh batteries. When I put a Tru SIM card in slot 4 it would say nothing for the network or SIM 4. When in slot two it says T-Mobile. When an ATT MVNO SIM was in slot 2 it said the name of the SIM card MVNO but in slot 3 and 4 it says AT&T.

Some other stuff in response to comments by GadgetKen:
Not using an ekit card, I get a 'soft reboot' where the screen goes white and then black and then starts searching for the networks.

That might be true on this one also. The SIM1 slot has 4 pairs [8] of electrical contacts vs. the other 3 have 3 pair [6]. What does that mean? Does one have to use menus to dial out with SIM 3 and 4?

Just got it today. Not much time to play with yet. Please look carefully at the SIM card holders before you break them trying to figure out how they work. It says lock and unlock on them.

The instructions are terrible. And not very well done.

Perhaps the 8-pin slot is an R-UIM slot (think SIM-look-alike card for CDMA phones - often used outside the Americas in the few non-western hemisphere countries that use CDMA)? I saw one on a Korean CDMA-only phone once.

But it is GSM, of course.
 

But it is GSM, of course. And I would think they would mention it if it was a wonderful 'feature' of the phone. And some SIMs do seem to have more contacts on them and one wonders if they will work or not.

I am starting to understand the phone more. But I learned more from this thread then from the manual.

Is this month 'Februray' on your phone?
 

My K160 says it is 'Februray'. Does the F160 say the same?

Yes it does!

I think the K160, F160 and Otech F1 are all one and the same phone made in the same factory in Shenzhen, China.

Is the phone perfect? No, but it has a lot of cute features like quad sim, stereo fm radio, analog tv, java, customizable ring tones, mp3/mp4 player etc.

If you go on a mobile game download site, you can download ebooks or games in 320 by 240 pixel format and install them. Some java stuff will work and other stuff doesn't.

Do you have a common battery type listed on one of your battery packs? Mine came with two 1000 mah packs, but not sure what Nokia pack it is cloning (obviously pseudo-Nokia from the battery connector).

They both say BP-4L. one is 1800 mAh & the other 1500 mAh.

Kind of strange to have the same battery name.

I just looked on eBay and there are Nokia batteries with that number. I wonder if they will work? I recall you got some batteries that did not work for your phone. They don't happen to be BP-4Ls, are they?

No, it was a different Nokia battery number I ordered a clone of from China. Connector correct, but battery wasn't wide enough.

I'll try ordering a BP-4L and see if it fits. Phone is a bit thirsty so would like a bigger battery pack. Plus will have a source for batteries if they stop selling Fly-Ying accessories for that phone.

Does the F160 have a touch screen??
 

Does the F160 have a touch screen??

The K160 does not.

Yes it has a touch screen but I hardly use it. Easier just to use the keyboard for me (particularly since it's alphanumeric). They shipped the phone with a little stylus with a screw on cap.

More quad band quad SIM phones
 

On eBay, more kinds of quad band quad SIM phones are coming into view. [There is even at least one quad SIM dual band 900/1800 phone I have come across.] One is even priced at about $60, though this one is "Four SIM cards, Three standby" however that works. I suspect that 4 will be the limit [unlike razors] for phones. SIMs with multiple phone numbers are starting to become common and lessens the need for so many slots. Search eBay using the term 'four SIM' will find you a few of the $60 ones.

Has anyone figured out how to do USSD commands on this phone? Every time I try, the phone tries to make a call to that number instead and I get a recording that the call cannot be completed.

I'm also puzzled on how to enter a + for international dialing.

I have a K160, but I think the software is similar [minus touchscreen].
Slim slot 3 and 4 do not do USSD commands. SIM slots one and two do.


For the '+", [and 'p' and 'w'], try the asterisk key [= '*'] multiple times. On my phone if you hold down the asterisk key it will lock the keyboard ALSO. to unlock, press the 'right software key' [is that its name?] and then the asterisk.

Having a Tru SIM in slot one seems to cause many reboots. Having it in two or 3 or 4 stops that behaviour. ATT and T-Mobile SIMs and [their MVNOs] do not seem to cause this issue. I have not played with any ekit SIMs in any of the slots----yet. May be when I have a trip out of the US planned I will start playing, otherwise the phone will be staying in the US and no need to play yet.

The BP-4L pseudo-Nokia battery packs work fine in the F160. Ordered a 1500 mah pack from an ebay dealer in Hong Kong for only a couple of USD with shipping. Fits OK, but is very slightly thicker than the 2 1000 mah packs that came with the phone so the back cover is a snugger fit and it's also a bit heavier. Might order the 2150 mah packs I'm seeing on ebay now that I know the part number is correct. There's also external battery chargers that can take the battery packs directly.

On the ekit simple calling sim, recommend in sim slot 2(or slot 1 as the alternate). Seems to work best also if the US side is activated even if that part of the dual IMSI chip is not being used. I used it in Grand Cayman in the F160 with a Digicel Bermuda chip as backup. Needed *126*number# USSD number in Grand Cayman to dial out with ekit (no big deal since I just stored this in the sim card memory).

Do try loading some 320 by 240 pixel games, wallpapers or ebooks into the phone. Many work nicely. Ringtones also import nicely. Read some books this way (might spring for one of those Kindle 3g/wifi models in the next month or two; only reader I've seen with 3g international roaming...not just wifi).

battery and chargers
 

I got one for my K160 today from HK. If you search ebay for 'Universal Battery chargers' there are some interesting ones. The ones kind of shaped like a turtle I got for $2 and it works on many different phone batteries. Then there are the ones that look like penguins. They are slow but thorough.

Mine's the F-160, correct. And thanks for the help.

I've got (right now):
- eKit US/UK in SIM1
- eKit US in SIM2
- T-Mobile USA in SIM3
- Red Pocket Mobile in SIM4

I can't check my balance with Red Pocket (*777#) but it seems to work alright otherwise.

SIM slot 1 loses its mind every few hours ("No SIM") and I have to reset the phone. It may just be a seating problem. I reseated the SIM last night and we'll see if it's more reliable. If not I'll move the SIMs around and see if that improves anything.

It would be simpler if the phone worked about the same with any SIM slot, but there aren't exactly a lot of quad-SIM phones. It's certainly increasing my convenience.

I haven't tried GPRS yet - I'll have to do some configuration and that's low priority right now (I'm on holidays in San Diego).

I have not put ANY ekit SIMs in my K160 yet. I have two single number SIMple Calling SIMs that should not be an issue, but I wonder about the dual IMSI SIMs and their wanting a PIN number on startup. I have had no problems of mystery reboot whit the T-Mobile SIM is in slot 1. So that might be the slot that causes issues. [Mine has 8 sensors on that slot and not 6 like the other slots.] Yesterday, I had a Tru SIM in slot 4 and it would be blank rather than saying T-Mobile as in slots 1 & 2. Tru and H2O [using an XE Mobile SIM cause problems in slot 1. The XE Mobile SIM says XE Mobile when in slot 1 but AT&T when in slots 3 or 4. [When I do not mention a slot in the above sentences it is because I have not had the 'right' SIM in that slot to observe the behaviour.]

As multi-IMSI SIMs come into broader use, the usefulness of a 4 SIM phone will probably decrease. Let's hope they perfect the 4 SIM phone before they decide they are not needed any more.

I have pins on almost all of my SIM - and no problem. The 5-digit pin code for the dual number eKit SIM works fine.

eKit shows T-Mobile, AT&T or Rogers for me when it's on one of those networks. T-Mobile always shows T-Mobile, even when roaming on Rogers. Red Pocket shows AT&T here in the US, and nothing in Canada since it won't roam in Canada.