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?