Quad Sim Quad Band phone now being sold

[Roti2000]

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!

[GadgetKen]

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).

[rfranzq]

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?

[GadgetKen]

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.

[GadgetKen]

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).

[PhotoJim]

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.

[rfranzq]

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

I got my phone yesterday.

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

[PhotoJim]

Originally Posted by rfranzq

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.

[rfranzq]

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.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by PhotoJim

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.

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