Cell Phone guys Siemens S56

[Rex]

Got a great deal on one of these last week. Anyone have one and want to save me the hours of fliping thru the book?

I've had lots of Nokia's over the years, but I'm pretty sure this is my first GSM, what's the diff?

[MetaOrbit]

Got a great deal on one of these last week. Anyone have one and want to save me the hours of fliping thru the book?

I've had lots of Nokia's over the years, but I'm pretty sure this is my first GSM, what's the diff?

I got the S56 about 4 months ago I think.

I absolutely love it. It's got pretty good battery life, color screen, bluetooth, InfraRed, polyphonic ringtones, Java support, voice recorder, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't really think of.

It was my first 850mhz band phone, which, since I've gotten it, have much better reception than when I had a straight 1900mhz phone.

The cool thing about GSM, is that A) Most phones in the rest of the world are GSM, so you have better phone selection, and B) It uses a SIM card that stores all your phone's info, phone book, etc. in it. If you want to change phones, simply pull the sim card out of your old phone, and slide it in the new one (provided it's the same carrier or unlocked) and voila! You're up and going.

The menu system on the Siemens is pretty cool, but nothing beats the simplicity and ease of use on a Nokia, IMO. It does have about the same weight and size as my old 8290, however, so that's a big plus. Really, I can't think of any downsides to the phone. My only complaint would be that it doesn't get very loud - earpiece or ringtone. That and the color screen is only 256 colors, but seeing as it's my first color screen phone, I'm more than satisfied .

[Rex]

Yeah, I've progressively gotten smaller - 5160, 3360, 8265 and now the S56. It's usually cheaper to get a new phone instead of replacing the battery, but I couldn't pass on this S56.

I like the speaker phone feature, now if I could just figure out how to get it to display the time with the screen saver.

[lessthanjakejohn]

What service?

[hudy]

I have Nextel service. The service is ok, I get reception in most places. I like the features of the phone. I just don't like motorola's products. The have poor quality in general.

[Rex]

Basic CincyBell Wireless provided by work. Don't plan on using for anything beyond calls, maybe MMS if more co-workers get a phone with those capabilities.

[Puchi]

I like the speaker phone feature, now if I could just figure out how to get it to display the time with the screen saver.

menu > setup > display > screensaver > style > analog clock < style > enable.

I have one too, I love it. Been dropped 6,000 times and still works!

[Kaioshin1982]

i know how the GSM phones work but its kinda confusing and long..... im gonna try to make it simple.

GSM Phones: they send 1 package of data to the signal to your phone therefore even if you have 1 signal bar in your phone, the conversation is still clear.

TDMA? i think phones, such as ATT, send bunch of little datas constantly to the signal so if you have 1 antenna bar, the conversation gets very bad and keeps on getting disconnected.

I dunno if I can even explain it right now lol Im tired.

[Kaioshin1982]

Oh so on a side note, the reason ATT that uses TDMA gets very good service on west coast coz there arent too many tall buildings to block the signal, however on East coast, like NYC, have too many tall buildings that are blocking the signal coming to the phone.

[Rex]

menu > setup > display > screensaver > style > analog clock < style > enable.

I have one too, I love it. Been dropped 6,000 times and still works!

Thanks, one less thing to figure out

[Puchi]

no problem, if you have anymore problems just ask me.

[Rex]

Okay, I figured out how to record voice commands, now how do I use them?? I read thru the whole pdf/manual, but it doesn't tell how to use.

[szh]

Folks, GSM is also a "TDMA" technology (the underlying radio technology is called "Time Division Multiple Access")! You have to distinguish these two by the underlying standards. The AT&T and Cingular (and other A side carrier implementations of TDMA) is called ANSI-136 TDMA by those who know, and GSM is coverned by many ITU standards.

ANSI-136 was designed to be "compatible" with the old Analog AMPS cellular, so it made certain trade-offs that compromised some service quality. GSM did not have such legacy issues, so its frequency allocation and mechanisms are a bit better. However, in all cases, it also has a lot to do with how well the carrier supports the technology, etc.

ANSI-95 CDMA (the Verizon, Sprint, Alltel and others) is a better overall technology for service conditions under which TDMA (whether ANSI-136 or GSM) does not work well. Which is why the long-term future of cellular is CDMA - the third-and fourth- gen future, even in Europe, is going to use "Wide-band CDMA".

See the January issue of Consumer Reports for a clear comparison of performance by the carriers in many big cities, BTW.

If you want to be bored by more missives from me on this topic, just let me know!

Z

[Rex]

Z - WOW, so my guess is right ... we are all freaks in our own disciplines .

Does the company you work with offer the S56 as a phone on their service? Do you have an opinion (knowledgable as above, or just your )? either is good by me.