Averege life of a Cell Phone

Hello,

I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that died
(i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone.

What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
working?

I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I have
before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision services...
not as a modem or anything.

Thanks,
Eric

---

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"Eric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that died
> (i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
> people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
> will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone.
>
> What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
> working?
>
> I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
> recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I have
> before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision services...
> not as a modem or anything.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric

This a very broad question you are asking, as there are a lot of factors
involved, including the manufacturer, type of usage, battery life, how many
times the phone was dropped, the amount of phones which passed original
inspection and which failed on a firmware upgrade, and there are a few other
reasons why a phone would eventually fail.

There are some folks out there who still have the original Sony handsets
that SPCS offered which are still working. Same thing goes with the
Qualcomm, old Motos, and Nokia phones.

Bob

I don't think usage matter as much as how you take care of it. My
wife's last phone (Samsung) lasted 3 years and the only reason she got
another one was because it was needed a battery. Aside from that, it
was still in decent shape. My sister in law has one that you can
barely make out nay of the #'s on the key pad but, that works fine too.
Cosmetics go a lot quicker than the overall integrity of the phone.
Hey, both my phones are discontinued and, I still have a Samsung 3500
in good working condition as a back up.

--
Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap

I think they will die about 7 days after the warranty is up.

"Eric" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that died
> (i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
> people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
> will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone.
>
> What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
> working?
>
> I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
> recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I have
> before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision services...
> not as a modem or anything.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric
>

<<This a very broad question you are asking, as there are a lot of
factors involved, including the manufacturer, type of usage, battery
life, how many times the phone was dropped, the amount of phones which
passed original inspection and which failed on a firmware upgrade, and
there are a few other reasons why a phone would eventually fail. >>

You are right Bob, sorry for not being more specific. My 4900 has been
used for approx. five months now... just regular average voice and
vision usage (not used as a modem)... which includes downloading
ringers,games, screensavers and accessing news and email. It was
uploaded with the most recent software version upon purchase... and has
downloaded a new PRL (10020). It has never been dropped (I treat my
phones like gold) and I use the standard battery (although am thinking
about getting an extended battery) and official Sanyo/Sprint chargers.
I usually use the phone during the day, turn it off and let it charge
overnight -- rarely does it ever get a complete discharge, but there
have been occasions when it shows zero battery bars.

I guess I am just paranoid... once a phone is discontinued... it makes
me nervous about how much longer the phone will operate at an acceptable
level and how much support (i.e. software updates, etc) Sprint or Sanyo
will continue to give its users of that particular model.

Thanks,
Eric

My family can account for four Qualcomm 2700s which all died from
malfunctioning jog dials, after 2-4 years of yeoman service.
A fifth 2700 died in hot, soapy dishwater, but that's a different story.

I'm betting your 4900 will outlive our old 2700s by a large margin.
Moving parts seem to be the weak links in phones, and the 4900 doesn't =
have any of those.
---JRC---

"Eric" <[email protected]> wrote in message =
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
>=20
> I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that =
died
> (i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
> people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
> will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone. =20
>=20
> What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
> working?
>=20
> I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
> recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I =
have
> before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision =
services...
> not as a modem or anything.
>=20
> Thanks,
> Eric
>

"John R. Copeland" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
My family can account for four Qualcomm 2700s which all died from
malfunctioning jog dials, after 2-4 years of yeoman service.
A fifth 2700 died in hot, soapy dishwater, but that's a different story.

I'm betting your 4900 will outlive our old 2700s by a large margin.
Moving parts seem to be the weak links in phones, and the 4900 doesn't have
any of those.
---JRC---

I completely agree with John. I've had both the Sony 1201 & Qualcomm 2700,
and I too experienced that problem, although I don't remember which one it
was. Long story short, these new phones have no moving parts, and should
last a lot longer.

Bob

Depends on a lot of factors, but i have seen people generally reap about
1-2 years of life out of phones.....seems like this average life has
gone down over the past 10-15 years.

And I wouldnt say its because of equipment failure, but due to factors
such as:

lack of features
out of style / not cool
network end of life
superficial damages

--
Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap

i wouldnt be able to keep a phone till it "died". i CANT keep one phone
for more than 4-6 months. i get tired of em. i went from the 8100--->
vga1000 ---> 5300 within 4 months. i'm running out of phones lol

--
Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap

My phone is an antique compared to the phones mentioned. It is a Samsung
sch 3500. Will be 4 years old this December.
How do you keep changing phones Chrome?
Just buy a phone at full price and then ask Sprint to transfer your line?

"chrome8teenz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> i wouldnt be able to keep a phone till it "died". i CANT keep one phone
> for more than 4-6 months. i get tired of em. i went from the 8100--->
> vga1000 ---> 5300 within 4 months. i'm running out of phones lol
>
> --
> Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
> Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap
>

webbynow wrote:
> *My phone is an antique compared to the phones mentioned. It is a
> Samsung
> sch 3500. Will be 4 years old this December.
> How do you keep changing phones Chrome?
> Just buy a phone at full price and then ask Sprint to transfer your
> line?
>
> "chrome8teenz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> >
> > i wouldnt be able to keep a phone till it "died". i CANT keep one
> phone
> > for more than 4-6 months. i get tired of em. i went from the
> 8100--->
> > vga1000 ---> 5300 within 4 months. i'm running out of phones lol
> >
> > --
> > Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
> > Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap
> > *



no, i walk into the sprint store and tell them i want to change my
phone. i pay full price, because i cant get any discounts...ive been
with them since december. when i had my 8100, i told them i wanted to
"upgrade" to the vga1000. then the vga1000 turned out to be the worst
peice of sh*t i owned, and i didnt want to go back to the 8100, so my
only choice was the sanyo dildo phone, as deval calls it.

--
Posted at SprintUsers.com - Your place for everything Sprint PCS
Free wireless access @ www.SprintUsers.com/wap

In article <[email protected]>,
"John R. Copeland" <[email protected]> wrote:

> My family can account for four Qualcomm 2700s which all died from
> malfunctioning jog dials, after 2-4 years of yeoman service.
> A fifth 2700 died in hot, soapy dishwater, but that's a different story.
>
> I'm betting your 4900 will outlive our old 2700s by a large margin.
> Moving parts seem to be the weak links in phones, and the 4900 doesn't have
> any of those.


It may be fun in a year or two trying to find a new battery for a 4900.

And then of course Sprint may turn it off, saying "We can't support a
Vision phone, we use Vision Plus 3 now.", like some of them want to do
now with a Nokia 6185.

Cell phone manufacturers companies all use unique sizes and shapes for
their batteries, so they can charge you $59, $69 or whatever for $15
worth of battery power (as compared to standardized batteries that many
still cameras use). Seems like a provider like Verizon or SprintPCS
could get phones made to use standard batteries == IF THEY WANTED==.

In article <[email protected]>,
"webbynow" <[email protected]> wrote:

> My phone is an antique compared to the phones mentioned. It is a Samsung
> sch 3500. Will be 4 years old this December.
> How do you keep changing phones Chrome?
> Just buy a phone at full price and then ask Sprint to transfer your line?

When your contract expires, go to a SprintPCS company owned store, and
negociate for a deal.

When you work for a place that has business discounts from SprintPCS,
from time to time, the Sprint rep may be trying to push phones.

To get the new phone working on your existing line its called an ESN
Swap, with ESN being the internal electronic serial number of the phone.
Its free for business customer, or retail customers that do it over the
web.

Apparently there are some issues with web activation.

Eric wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that died
> (i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
> people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
> will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone.

Never had a phone "die" on me so to speak. I've had phones as long as
two years, and as short as 10 days.

I have had phones that stopped working due to damage (getting dropped,
or otherwise involved in accidents) and plenty of phones that I've lost
or have been stolen. And I've had phones that I haven't used in years
and, just out of cusiosity, have checked to see if they still work, only
to find the battery no longer works (probably through lack of use).

> What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
> working?
>
> I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
> recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I have
> before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision services...
> not as a modem or anything.


Honestly, it depends on how much abuse you give it. I don't really
think a phone "dies" per se. If a phone survies its burn-in period
then barring any design flaws, it will work as long as the environment
it's in will allow it to. That could be several years, if the phone is
well taken care of.

The other consideration is obsolesence. Conceivably there might be a
time where Sprint will have moved on to other network standards and will
no longer support your phone, though could be at least a few years with
the 4900.

I've never had one that just died. However i have been forced to buy
many many many new ones. I have yet to find out the source of the
force, but somehow i just find myself at BestBuy with credit card in
hand and all of a sudden i own another new phone.

--
Dan W.
North Texas
hominid7 "AT" hotmail "DOT" com
Provider: ATTWS-TDMA



[email protected] (Eric) wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering how many of you have actually had a cell phone that died
> (i.e. stopped working). I recently posted a question about how many
> people used discontinued phones... now I am wondering how long a phone
> will last before it dies and you are forced to buy a new phone.
>
> What phone was it? When did you first buy it and when did it stop
> working?
>
> I own a 4900 which I am very happy with, and I also know that Sprint
> recently discontinued this phone. I was curious to see how long I have
> before it dies. I only use it for average voice and Vision services...
> not as a modem or anything.
>
> Thanks,
> Eric
>

[posted via phonescoop.com]