Ed Hansberry

No clue, and I am really beginning to dislike it. The t68 has horrible reception and according to the .voicestream NG, I am not alone in this assessment.

Janak Parekh

Hmm. You might be in for a firmware upgrade then. I've found, comparing to several GSM phones, that the T68 has slightly worse reception; about a half-bar less. However, old firmwares were very unreliable in 1 or 2-bar situations; I upgraded to R5D and it was a massive improvement.

You're not going to triple your coverage by switching GSM phones, unfortunately. Part of the problem is that T-Mobile just doesn't have the coverage CDMA providers do. But you know that already.

--janak

Jeff Rutledge

I've got to tip my hat to you Ed. I gave up on maintaining a regular BT connection between my 3870 and T68 long ago. I got too frustrated with the constant soft resets. It seemed that I was resetting my iPAQ every couple hours, and resetting my phone nearly as much because it just sat in a loop when trying to connect to GPRS.

I eventually got to the point where I'd manually connect every couple hours, then disconnect. Only way to maintain my sanity.

Then I got a Blackberry and I haven't used my iPAQ/T68 combo in quite a while. Then again, my need was my corporate email; that made the difference I'm sure.

I still find my jaw clenching slightly whenever I think of the old BT days. :mecry:

Jeff Rutledge

Same problem here. If I'm at my house, no problem. But then again I live about two blocks from the tower so I always get 5 bars there.

Downtown Calgary isn't bad (about 70% of the time I'm OK). Downtown Toronto is a joke (more like 30%).

Ed Hansberry

So, how do I tell the ROM revision and how do I get it upgraded? The answer "Ask the tmobile store" isn't the right answer. They are clueless. "I don't know. Would you like to buy another phone?"

Janak Parekh

Believe me, I know.

"> * < < * < *" from the desktop gets you into the service menu (> means hit right, * means hit the star key). There's a option in there for the Phone Info, which has the firmware version (usually RXY, where X is a major version number and Y a minor version revision character). There's also a bunch of other cool things in there, but play with them at your own risk.

To upgrade -- Sony Ericsson upgrades firmware for free, but you have to send it to them in Minnesota. They also offer the MMS/T68i upgrade for a small fee. There's also a T-Mobile network engineer in Pittsburgh who does upgrades; he's a bit faster but also a bit more expensive.

--janak

Jason Dunn

There are also guys on ebay that perform the upgrades. It's only costing me $24 US (including return shipping) to get a T68m upgraded to a T68i.

Ed Hansberry

Thanks. I may try the Sony route first, but either way, by the end of March, I'll be a t68i. Is that what you did with your 68 Jason?

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Janak Parekh

Hmm, interesting. I do have to say that SE is probably in the same ballpark pricewise.

I also upgraded mine to a T68i while getting the R5D firmware upgrade. MMS is indeed cool... especially the fact that it's not limited to 160 characters, so I could forward large emails. However, the T68(i) is fairly slow at processing MMSes. You can see the little processor just suffering through them.

Ed - if you have R2 or earlier firmware, you should definitely try an upgrade. R3 and on have noticeably improved GPRS and voice performance. Like I said, you won't see a major reception change, but you'll probably find making and holding calls at 1 bar much better.

BTW, one very common tip, which you probably already know, is to never support the phone against your ear by pressing against the back top part of the phone. That's the integrated antenna, and you can cause reception to drop noticeably by shielding it there. I've supported the phone by holding it at the bottom with two fingers, and using my forefinger to prop it right at the battery lever.

--janak

Jason Lee