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-   -   The Mobile Phone Thread - Queries, decisions, discussions all here (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/gadgets-computers-software/63048-mobile-phone-thread-queries-decisions-discussions-all-here-476.html)

It is not even enforced in EU/US. Its fairly easy thing to do and security agencies should be aware of this ground reality.

Was in US couple of months back. Got few Android tablets with GSM for testing, all of them were made specifically to be friendly for hardware mods.

IMEI is supposed to be a hard wired number on the phone. Changing it is illegal. It is used to identify the hardware just line a VIN number. Now someone can change the VIN number too.

It was mooted to prevent network access from stolen phones. Terrorism/lawful interception was not the motive.

Whatever US does is not the last word in technology or security in fact US is a late adopter for several things and quite lax since they have better border control and other methods to monitor networks.

In my experience the R&D samples have modifiable IMEI that is IMEI in flash, but in factory process IMEI is written on OTP area as in few markets it is mandated.
I remember this clearly way back in 2001 when I was working on first UMTS commercialization we had a some problems becuase initial samples we got had IMEI written in OTP.

May be some manufacturer do not bother much about these things as markets they are serving have no such requirement, India is second biggest market and pays no attention if IMEI can be modified or not so to cut cost manufacturers will cut on OTP area to save few cents.

:Shockked:
This is my only reaction.
I had pre-booked the N8 at the Nokia website the very same day that its pre-booking started in India and now my Nokia Priority dealer in Chennai (to whom I also paid a 2k deposit) is offering me the phone for 24.3k or N8+BH108 for 25k.

I simply am not able to digest the fact that even after pre-booking and paying an advance deposit I will not be getting the best deal. Any suggestions??

peace,
~kg

kapilvgupta:

Per our understanding, pre-booking is for that class of consumer, which seeks out first boasting rights for ownership of a new product. They paid the Rs. 2,000 pre-booking amount, even before Nokia announced the maximum retail price (MRP). After some had pre-booked, it was reported, that Rs. 26,259 was that highest price.

Small low overhead phone stores across the nation, have always been able to afford and offer lower prices than the Nokia Priority stores. A substantial section of savvy consumers stay away from the premium prices charged for every item by the Nokia Priority stores.

Our guess always was, that the small phone stores would sell the device for around 12% to 15% below MRP, a few days after the official launch. What do you think ?

Ram

Any N8 user kindly review please?
And is it worth the price?

In my experience this is true for almost anything you purchase on web in India be it a hotel room booking or any other product. Companies see e-commerce as additional overhead cost rather then cheaper medium :Frustrati

In India best deal is always to bulk customer ( dealer who can bring max sales) as dealer manpower cost is low he passes benefit to customer.

You guys could take a look at this at flipkart.com.

I was looking for a site I was once told about for books, and had forgotten. I see they do mobiles now too.
The whole retail thing, in India, seems to me to be upside down :Frustrati

I agree on the first boasting rights but in addition to that I have always considered pre-booking to be an assurance for getting the item on time and at the best deal.

From another post at tbhp, I got to know of a Nokia Priority Dealer in Bangy selling the N8 for 24.3k (without pre-booking) and N8+BH108+Nokia car charger+N8 screen protector for 25k. (with pre-booking), I called him up and he offered me the same price over the phone....guess its true for Nokia "Never buy a newly launched Nokia, wait for a month or so"

Neway, will get my N8 today evening, price immaterial now..will post my experience over the next few days.

I paid the deposit in cash at the Nokia Priority Store. The Nokia website had provided me only with a pre-booking id that was used as reference.

Though the best way that I have found for hotels is to check up on the web and then call and negotiate to get prices:D

peace,
~kg

it's true for every electronic product and every company. e.g. my Fuji camera dropped by around 10% within a month of release in price.

+1.

I bought my X10 from UAE even before it was launched in India for 36000 indian rupees & 1.5 months later, the phone was being sold here for 32000 & two days back, i saw the X10 being sold in Croma for 29000!!!

:Frustrati

I own the following mobile phones:

1. HTC P3452
2. Nokia N72

I am fed up of these phones and want to buy a new one. Right now confused between iphone 4 and HTC Evo 4G. Major problem with iphone is you need to SIM card. Does it make SIM card unusable for other handsets? also any suggestions on which model is better - iphone 4 or HTC Evo 4G? please:

HTC Evo 4G is an android OS phone and i believe android is the best OS available now.

The iphone 4 uses a micro-sim. Micro-sims are not avaialble in india so i guess u'll have to cut ur existing sim to make it a 'micro-sim' and yes that will render it unusable in other phones (unless u somehow are able to get it back to its previous size)..

iphone4 and Evo4g are both very good devices and both have their merits and demerits...finally choosing either would be a matter of personal choice, mine would be the Evo4g (better hardware and not dependant on the apple universe!!)

peace,
~kg

Finally got my Nokia N8 and even the final buying process was a comedy of errors…
Called my Nokia Priority dealer at 4pm and asked him if I could come to collect my phone, after receiving confirmation reached the store at abt 4.40. At the store was amazed to find that the N8 was available in every color other than black!!! I had preordered black and had even confirmed before coming to the store. I was offered to take the black N8 in 2-3 days or take any other color right then, after some huffin n puffin the store ‘big boss’ came up and told me that he has one last black piece that is reserved for some MLA but can give it to me. Amazin but am finally happy that I got my phone :)
I paid 24.3k for the N8 and 3.5k for the BH-505 and left the store soon after than as was in a hurry, did not get time to interact with the Nokia representative there or download some software/apps in the phone. On my way back I realised that I had not adjusted the 2k advance in the final price n thus ended overpaying for the phone!!!! Promptly called the dealer who assured me of the refund on my next visit..phew

Now for the N8

Initial impressions:
• Neat and sleek look
• Not as heavy as expected
• Camera part seems too big for a phone and sticks out (more on this later)

A bit more in detail (no pics for now as my lappi is kaput)
Charger – nifty little thing, but the 3rd pin (earth) is plastic but can be extended to fit multiple socket sizes-neat….+1Nokia
Starting – the N8 gave me an option to transfer my old phones data and effortless paired with my old phone and transferred all data (contacts, calendar, messages & audio/video) in abt 20-30min. All without using anything else other than the N8 and my old phone!!....+1N8
Phone – as this was a Nokia, I did not expectn or face any issues making a call, messaging or with the sound quality on either side….+0N8(no idea what rating to give as the N8 is primarily a phone and it does it main task as it should)
UI/OS – the Symbain^3 has a UI pretty similar to the Symbain60 and this made it a bit easy for me to navigate around. This is 2010 and the N8 is a smartphone and am not sure if the Symbain^3 is upto the mark, its better than the Symbian60 but not in the league of Android, iOS4 or WP7. It’s slow and un-intuitive at times and makes the phone seem slow. The best thing abt the OS is that it supports multitasking in its truest sense and the N8 handles all this pretty neatly, I had Opera Mobile 10 with 4 tabs, Music player, Fring, SMS and 2 more apps open at the same time without any speed difference….+1-3+3N8 (+1 for familiarity, -3 for dated/slow UI, +3 for multitasking)
Screen – nice size screen and pretty good clarity, very high readability even in direct sunlight. As for text, was able to clearly read all the text displayed on all the webpages that I browsed.
Buttons – volume and camera buttons are well placed but the Menu button placement is a bit odd and is a bit of a problem when using the phone with one hand
USB2Go – needed some music on the N8 but was in a soup as my lappi was kaput. Remembered the USB2go feature n thought of checkin it out. Plugged in my 1.5tb hdd in the N8 and black screen…disappointment I thought but 10sec or so later voila!!!! I could view all the data in my hdd from the N8…awesomeclap: Promptly transferred abt 1gb of songs onto the N8….+5N8 (amazing feature and pretty useful too)
Video – with my hdd plugged in I tried playing a couple of movies on the hdd. The N8 was able to flawlessly play most of my movies (mkv, avi, xvid..) though it could not recognize the m2ts format. The N8 also handling 720p movies without any lag or stuttering….+2N8 (did not expect a phone to play 720p movies or to support a wide range of video codecs)
Camera – a mixed bag for me. Some pics were great while the others seemed a bit blurry. Love the half-press to focus and full-press to click feature in the camera button. The flash is pretty powerful and takes decent night pictures. The camera attachment that bulges out of the phone makes the phone seem a bit bulky but as I discovered enables one to hold the N8 easily and helps while pulling out of a jeans pocket….+2-1N8 (-1 for the blurry pics)
Speaker – nice speakers with a good top volume and clarity, enough for a small quite room. Only thing the speaker is right next to the camera and so the sound is seriously muffled when the phone is placed on a soft surface….+2-1N8 (-1 for the muffling). As per me the speakers should have been placed next to the HDMI port
OVi store – nice interface and found some neat apps. The unlimited OVI music download is also pretty neat but overall in comparison its ranks below the Android marketplace or Apple App Store….-3Nokia (not a N8 feature but as a smartphone part of the package)
Battery – pretty powerful and has good amount of juice. Lasted more than 30hrs for me. I had the phone’s WifI (off), Bluetooth (on), EDGE (on) and played music and surfed the web pretty much most of the time. Also did a decent amount of downloading from the Ovi store and my regular amount of calls (2hrs or so) and some messaging.

Some other points
• The numpad keyboard in the portrait mode is woefully slow, it also does not support T9 at some places and is lately showing wrong inputs
• The standby clock looks cool in the dark
• One can simply turn over the phone to snooze the alarm or silent an incoming call
• The supplied wired headset did not work properly (random sound and non-working buttons)…Nokia needs better quality control

The BH-505 sounds nice and pairs easily with the N8, currently have not found the proper fit so my right ear pains a bit :(

peace,
~kg

Friends, Samsung users, Gurus.
Please leave your comments on this phone that I am planning to buy.

I will be a first time user in touch screen, GPS and Samsung mobiles (been with nokia till now)

This phone has more or less all the features that i require (Wi-Fi, GPS, big screen and is in budget @ around 7500 +/- Rs. 500)
more details here
Samsung Wave 2 S5253 Price in India: Metallic Black Color | Flipkart Mobiles
how is the BADA experience?
Any software problems with this phone?
Is the side sliding qwerty phone (i think the wave 2 pro) launch very far?

please feel free to add any useful comments


Also yesterday I saw a new phone by Samsung on similar lines WAVE 535?? any pointers on this? It has the same BADA OS and similar specs and price like this phone.
cheers!!