Quad Sim Quad Band phone now being sold
 

I just ordered a quad sim quad band phone over ebay from Hong Kong. Couldn't resist the novelty of having all 4 of my sim cards (Jolt/AT&T, Tuyo/T-Mobile USA, E-Kit Simple Calling (Immix USA/Manx Telecom UK?), and Digicel Bermuda) working at the same time.

Yeah, I know it will run only 2G not 3G sim cards, it is GPRS (not EDGE, 3G or LTE), and it has analog rather than digital TV, but it should still be a lot of fun having a phone with 4 signal strength meters on the screen and a qwerty keyboard for SMS. Currently use an MFU V200 dual sim phone, but now I won't have to change sim chips when crossing borders.

Pictures of this strange little device:

The Latest F160 Quad Sim Quad Standby TV Java Phone with Qwerty Keyboard | Tri Sim Phones

Flying F160: The World’s first quad-sim smartphone | UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping

Very interesting. Those talk and standby times listed certainly cannot be real. At least not when all 4 sim cards are simultaneously active.

Agreed, it definitely will be a thirsty little toy. It comes with two 1000mah batteries so I can swap(unless it takes both at the same time, which I doubt).

Other option is the battery is reported to be a clone of the Nokia BL-4U battery so I could use a higher capacity battery pack. I've seen 1500 mah or 1800 mah aftermarket packs offered by several dealers on ebay(or I could probably get them at a mall kiosk or Radio Shack). If it runs down the 1000 mah packs too fast, then I'll get the higher capacity ones.

Does it also include a spare brain after your old one has been toasted by the four emitters?

While it's 4 sims active, only one of them can actually be on a phone call at any given time. Since I don't make a lot of mobile phone calls (<10 minutes/day; and often as little as 3 minutes) and the maximum output is only 6/10's of a watt, I'm not overly concerned. Plus if I use a bluetooth headset, the phone is not near my head (but then of course a bluetooth headset is also a type of weak wireless transceiver).

Excessive battery consumption I think would come more from using the FM radio or TV receiver, or the standby mode of having 4 GSM sim chips in the phone (mostly standby receive with very brief "I'm still here" data packets to the mobile phone network). Newer multi-sim Chinese mobile phones are using single transceiver integrated circuits from Spreadtrum and others so this may actually be fairly thrifty with battery consumption.

For a phone with truly questionable health benefits take a look at this mobile phone/cigarette lighter hybrid: 6208C Dual Sim Quad Band Touch Screen Lighter Mobile - eBay (item 260682246239 end time Oct-30-10 13:51:22 PDT)

i'd love to order one and put it in our EMC chamber and measure it :D cool stuff ;)

I'm sure you can trust the radio emission label on the device as well.

oh yes indeed. :)

If it has a SAR label, it's probably as accurate as the 12.1 Megapixel label on the camera :)

SAR output on Chinese mobiles varies considerably. The dual sim Beyond E-Tech Duet series that are sold in the US (one of the very few FCC registered multi-sim handsets in the US) actually were on the list of the 10 lowest SAR emission handsets. Some of the highest were actually popular brands.

What the SAR rating is of this handset is a question though. If it's really high the phone could be used as:

A handwarmer
To heat my lunch
To defrost my windshield

And it arrived by registered airmail today.

Setup consisted of turning off the noisy welcome and shut-down music, installing 4 sim cards and a 4 gb micro-sd card, pairing my bluetooth headset and my mac, and charging one of the two battery packs they sent. Still have to set new ringtones and screensavers.

Bottom line is "it does exactly what it says on the tin." It really will run 4 sim chips without any problems and has some fun functions like an FM radio, analog tv set, mp3 player, dual cameras with video capability, etc. It also has what has to be the thinnest extendable antenna I've ever seen on a device for the radio and the TV. In theory it can also browse the web, but a wap browser at GPRS speeds would be pretty slow.

It does eat batteries fairly quickly when you are using various functions on the phone. When just in standby it's not as thirsty. I'll probably get high capacity batteries...the batteries are Nokia BL-4u clones, so should have no problem finding them. I've seen 1500, 1800 and 1930 mah batteries instead of the stock 1000 mah batteries they sent with the handset.

In terms of size and weight it's heavier than the dual sim MFU v200 phone I've been using, but still it's much lighter and smaller than an AT&T Tilt/HTC TyTyn smartphone I used to use.

Bought one of these dual sim phone some time ago. Broke down just when visiting the USA. Did get my money back but the thing was really bad.

Battery life was good on standby for maximum 2 days. If making some calls down to 1 or 1.5 days. This reminded me of 15 years ago when batterlife was 20 hours and talking time 1 hour.

Never trust the specs for the battery. Even when they say 1000 mah most of the time this is false. Bigger battery, you will need space to stick it.

When 2 active sims are active 2 days, imagine 4 sims. I love the concept of dual sims but no chinees crap for me. Have a nokia e75 single sim but it has wifi so I can access my voip server when there is free wifi.

Wow! Please keep us updated.
 

Wow! I am breathless. Please keep us updated.

Too bad analog TV is all but dead in the US. [I actually still get 3 stations. 2 are HSN.]

As things change quickly [WiFi/VOIP], perhaps this is an idea whose time will never come. If only it had been out
two or three years ago.

Well I have 2 SIM cards phone for 2 years, still works fine. With original batteries stays stand by about 5-7 days.

BTW Ken, how much you paid for your Quad SIM monster?

I was really looking forward for the Nokia C2-00, a high quality dualSIM phone with one SIM slot supporting hot-swapping (i.e. changing the SIM without needing to switch the phone off), until I recently found out that it is dualband only. This is so 1990s!

at aliexpress they are around 85$

@meir, I paid about US$109 that included registered airmail to the US from an ebay dealer (with cash value of ebay points earned and redeemed, mypoints and airline points earned real price is probably closer to US$100). Took only 1 week to make it from Shinzhen, China to Connecticut on the US east coast, and there was online tracking.

I think my particular model was made for export to Russia and the Baltic Republics because the keyboard has both English and Cyrillic characters on it.

@rfranzq, analog tv tuner works on a local low power Spanish language station. Might be useful to me when traveling to countries where still analog or doing both analog and digital transmissions. It's a multi-standard tuner (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) that you switch standards by choosing the region then country from a menu. There is an automatic scanning tuner and manual channel selection. The extendable whip has to be the thinnest rod antenna I've ever seen on any device.

@bbob, battery capacity on 2 standard (Nokia BL-4U clones) packs they included was 1000 mah. Just ordered an 1800 mah battery over ebay yesterday, and that should be more than adequate for a days use. Don't mind putting it on a charger each day, but would prefer not to have to switch battery packs. Size of the battery pack appears to be the same from the pictures and the battery codes printed on it, think it will fit OK. Even if a few millimeters thicker, there's still enough room (I hope) under the battery cover. Think difference on higher capacity packs in this case is using higher capacity cells in the same size (or very close in size) case.

The phone does have a touch screen, but it's faster for me just to use the directional keys and keyboard rather than drag out a stylus.

Also an oddity is the sim1 position has a flip up style combination microsd card holder and sim card holder where you slide the cards into the flip up piece and then push it down and lock it. Sim2-Sim4 are more traditional flip up the sim card holder and place the sim directly on the PC board.

I like the idea of a Quad sim phone. I recently purchased a Chinese Dual Sim / Dual Standby, Quad Band, Windows Mobile 6.5 (HTC Touch Diamond 2 clone). It has built in GPS with a popular Sat Nav program and maps already installed, Wifi and 2 batteries. Battery runs for about 3 days (less when using Sat Nav). This is my second dual sim/dual standby phone, first one I bought 2 years ago is still going strong. Only downside is no 3G, just GPRS/Edge which is good enough for wap friendly pages using the Opera browser, I use Wifi when available. Happy with it so far.

@MobileMan Your WinMo dual sim phone has more advanced capabilities than this phone. Doesn't have GPS, WinMo, Edge or Wifi in this handset, although I don't have a personal need for it. Does have Java, TV set, fm radio, etc.

Noticed battery life is *much* better today than yesterday...charge indicator is at full charge after 6 hours. Suspect it could either be the battery didn't take a full charge on the first couple of recharges or the ekit simplecalling sim might have run it down faster (occasionally get a repeated phantom reboot of some phones with the ekit sim; get it to disappear by just shutting off the phone fully and restarting it; don't have a clue why).

Still, I'll switch to the higher capacity battery when it comes in. Even if it's a bit heavier, I'd rather have a heavier duty battery pack in the phone.

Thanks Ken for your kind reply. I guess I can get it for similar price. But the most important is the phone works. BTW I bought for friend of mine touch screen, dual SIM, DVB-T i-Phone clone phone and really loves it. HK and Shenzen rules on these gadgets.

I can have it around $90 with shipping included.

Now at 40% battery capacity after 8 and a half hours. Made or received 4 calls for a total of 16 minutes, changed a few settings on the phone(changed to US date standard), and ran the TV set on an NTSC local channel for 5 minutes for the novelty factor. The bigger capacity battery I'm getting from Hong Kong should increase the amount of time the phone can run (ideally want 12 hours with light usage before need to recharge or swap packs).

Only glitch was the ekit sim caused a phantom reboot condition (not unique to this phone, have seen this happen in my MFU V200 dual sim phone). Just turned off phone, pulled and reinstalled battery, and restarted it. Working just fine right now. Not sure phone plays really well with dual IMSI and/or 3g sim chips. Might just keep the ekit chip out of the phone other than activity to keep the sim card current, or when traveling somewhere I need it (like on small US GSM providers my T-Mobile or AT&T mvno chips don't roam on, Canada, or an upcoming trip to Grand Cayman). Not a big deal to me, but anyone considering the purchase of this phone, should be aware of this potential issue.

Thanks for update. Just hope the battery capacity will get better after first a few recharges.

yeah, as the dual sim phones usually last a week nowadays it should be at least 2-3 days...

Chris

yep...
Wholesale quad band four sim mobile phone F160

$93.81

Chris

And I found it even for less.

Buy Flying F160 - World's First Four SIM, Four Standby Mobile Phone at a great price!

It's $75 in choice of black or red. $5 less with online coupon by email list. Postage to US varies from $8 to $27 depending on carrier and service class; will vary for other countries. Never used this vendor before so you may want to do a quick background check.

Buy F160 Quad Sim Quad Standby TV Java Phone with Qwerty Keyboard Black compare price at pandawill.com

Here is one and I have used this shop before.

There was one in focalprice.com as well, but cant find it now. Sorry here is link http://www.focalprice.com/MHH72B/FGF...ard_Black.html
This is very reliable shop. Use it almost every month.

Or when in HK go to SSP.

A couple of usage comments on the phone now that I've played with it more.

Found out why the dual IMSI sim ekit card didn't work that well and an easy solution. The third and fourth sim slots are more for just plain 2g voice and sms cards. The first and second sim card slots support full USSD commands, gprs web and system selection. Just moving the sim cards around (ekit into slot 2 instead of 4) suddenly made the ekit card much more stable, and could also get balance check/expiration date USSD commands working on my Digicel card.

Now for the really neat thing..the phone runs full Java apps. Downloaded some free mobile games over my MacBook Pro and a Verizon/Millenicom key, transfered the files via bluetooth, installed them to the 4 gb microsd card rather than the phone memory (phone memory is very small but it will take microsd cards up to 16 gb). Both games I downloaded (a pinball game and an Alice in Wonderland game) run perfectly.

Also has a built in Microsoft Word program and an Excel type spreadsheet program.

Analog TV set does work. Got 3 different low power Spanish language network channels when I tested it briefly. Tuner is very sensitive but needs to be held just right to get a clear color picture.

Thanks for update.
 

Thanks for the update. Did it say anything in the instructions about which slots might be better for different uses? How good are the insturctions?



Low power analog TV stations are really low power. I suspect that if you drove 10 miles from where you test, results would be different. No stations or better reception.

The instructions look like they were made for multiple phones, and they change them slightly for every model. Nothing about the sim slot uses. The sales materials on the web did say that it's not meant for 3g sim cards so I expected some minor issues.

Apparently putting the ekit sim card into slot 2 instead of slot 3 or 4 *greatly* increased battery life. Have full battery strength bars after 12 hours of standby and only a few minutes of calls. The choice of sim card location I think depends on whether the chip is more advanced and if you need bluetooth headset functionality (BT works best with slot 1). I put the AT&T/Jolt MVNO chip in slot 1, ekit in slot 2 (for phone stability and battery life), Digicel in slot 3 (more just to see if I have text messages in the US, voice is expensive off the Digicel regional network), and the T-Mobile/Tuyo in slot 4. When outside the US I probably would switch the Digicel chip to the first position so it has all the bells and whistles functionality.

On the low power analog, yeah it's working with just a scrap of a signal. I could attach it to a DTV box and/or a rooftop antenna for more channels, but then it would lose it's portability. Will see if analog broadcasts are still in Grand Cayman when I'm there the beginning of next year. Wonder if it will also pick up Cuba just to the north or Jamaica to the south (sometimes unusual signal skip in the Caribbean). Room will have over the air or cable tv, but curious what the tv tuner on the phone will pick up by itself.

Ken thanks for update. Look much better than expected. Just ordering 2 phones.

I've ordered one, too. We still have full-power analog TV here in Canada (in fact, my province doesn't even have any digital or HDTV broadcasts at all - you need cable or satellite to get them) so I can give the TV functionality a good test.

After 22 hours of standby yesterday and today plus 4 phone calls and some java games and TV set watching, I've got about a 40% charge left on the battery. Will charge it up tonight. With the higher capacity battery on order it should be even better.

Tried adding more low power analog tv stations near my office (closer to a major city than my home), and got 2 English speaking tv channels (one a CBS affiliate and the other a CW affiliate) plus the 3 Spanish speaking tv channels I previously had loaded in. Main reason for getting the phone was just having all my sim cards active simultaneously, the analog tv set, dual cameras, fm radio video/audio recorders, and java capability are just nice extras. Plus I don't have to pay fees for using any of those extra features.

Added some more Java games including an Atari game set that includes Asteroids, Centipede and Tank, as well as PacMan and Tetris. Also put in a java based freeware French/English dictionary. Might also add a multi-language phrase dictionary I saw online. Add Java applications by a bluetooth transfer from my MacBook Pro that uses a Millenicom/Verizon modem.

Newbie Question re:Multiple SIMS
 

These are great posts. Very informative. I've read about these sorts of phones, but have never seen/used multiple SIM phones before.

Here's the question, on the aliexpress site this phone is advertised as "quad standby."

I am assuming this means that you turn on the phone and have to choose ONE of your SIMs for the phone to monitor? If someone calls on the other SIM numbers does it go to voicemail?

I have heard of "active dual SIM" phones before, which I take to mean that you are monitoring both SIM numbers simultaneously, i.e. assuming you are not on a call, you can get calls from either SIM line.

I would really like one of the latter--I'm headed to Mexico and I already have a TELCEL Amigo with free incoming, but I wanted to get an AT&T Prepaid US SIM to get the occasional US call.

I am assuming that the "standby" phones don't work this way.

If anyone can clarify just how the multi-sim phones work, that would be greatly appreciated!

The number of sims listed as standby are the number of lines that can be monitored for receive at the same time. On some phones it equals the number of sims, on a few multi-sim phones, it may be less.

If you are receiving a phone call on any of these standby sims, then it would ring and you would answer. However, some phones only have bluetooth on one of these sims (in the case of my dual sim MFU v200 it's on both, on the case of this quad sim phone it is only advertised as bluetooth on line one). Answering from the handset without bluetooth would be on any of these lines. Likewise with a wired handset.

For placing phone calls, there are multiple send buttons on the phone. If I bring up my phonebook (a composite of all sims with a sim card number indicator next to each phone number), I can then specify which sim I want to dial the call. Or I can manually dial a number and then press the send 1/2 or send 3/4 button to specify I want to call with one of those sims (and then specify which of those 2 sims I want to dial from a menu either on the touchscreen or with the directional keypad).

Note that not all sims may work in all countries, and rates will vary by country used. In the US, all 4 sims would be active for me (although roaming rates using the Digicel card would be high). When I am in Grand Cayman early next year, the Digicel and Ekit sims would be cheapest for calls, while the AT&T/Jolt and T-Mobile/Tuyo would only work in emergency call mode since they are prepaid sim chips without roaming in that country.

Thanks!
 

Thanks a lot Ken--that makes a lot of sense. I have one of those ekit SIMs also (Passport) so it will be interesting to see how that whole callback thing functions with various multi-SIM phones.

If only this quad sim had WIFI!

There is such a thing a microsd wifi card: Spectec Computer Co., Ltd but I can not guarantee it will work in this phone (caveat emptor).

Hey! Everyone getting this phone.
 

Hello all. Could everyone that is getting this phone report back after you get it with your experiences? Also, is this the only quad SIM phone out now?

The Fly-Ying F160 is also being private labeled as the Otech F1, but there is no other quad sim phone that I am aware of.

There are some triple sim (either GSM/GSM/GSM or GSM/GSM/CDMA(ruim)) and loads of dual sim phones, but this is the first I've seen with four sims. Don't know if competing phone companies in China will come out with quad sim phones because this is sort of a niche product.

Got the Nokia BL-4u battery clone in the mail. Smaller than the Fly-Ying battery although connectors the same, so not compatible (despite what the phone ad said). No big deal because I can just use it for a Nokia phone or open it for the lithium cells.

Will just swap the two included packs when needed. Might try at a phone kiosk in a shopping mall some time to figure out what the phone battery is the equivalent of (if anything).

I got my phone yesterday. I haven't done much with it, other than to install some SIM cards (eKit Simple Calling, the eKit US/UK number SIM, Orange UK and T-Mobile US). It's a little useless in a sense here in Canada since all four are roaming on Rogers :) but the phone works. I'm guessing the radios aren't always on the same frequency since the signal strengths vary. (Rogers has 2G coverage at both 850 and 1900 MHz here.)

The TV works - we have four SDTV analog broadcasts here. Picture quality isn't very good, but because I'm several kilometres away from the broadcast sites, a person needs directional antennas to get good signal indoors. I'll play with it outdoors and see if it's better. It's certainly watchable.

The radio works well. More distant signals are prone to noise but still listenable. A 100,000 watt signal broadcast from 70 km west of here was a bit staticky but not overwhelmingly so. (It comes in perfectly in my car.) Local stations are fine.

I haven't actually made a real call with the phone yet, just called a busy signal to be sure the phone works. I'll play with it over the next few days.

So far I'm pleased. For the money the phone does a lot.