[jprincipe]

Just curious how people are liking the 8320 compared to 8300 on att. Do you notice any network differences or internet being slower/faster? I'm currently comparing the two and I might port my number to T Mobile since the hotspot @Home would save me a ton of money while traveling overseas. What are your thoughts?

[pinhead]

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[Hemiolia]

I know someone who converted from the AT&Tingular's 8300 to T-Mo's 8320. I'll try to get him to respond.

[mas90guru]

Originally Posted by jprincipe

Just curious how people are liking the 8320 compared to 8300 on att. Do you notice any network differences or internet being slower/faster? I'm currently comparing the two and I might port my number to T Mobile since the hotspot @Home would save me a ton of money while traveling overseas. What are your thoughts?

Yes, I have an 8300 with AT&T that I'm contemplating giving up for the 8320 from T-Mobile. I was a T-Mo subscriber for about a year and ultimately switched because the coverage in my house was one to two bars (not enough to hold a call).

I'm presently about 7 days into evaluating the 8320. I'm not sure whether I'll switch or not. Here's my thoughts:

1. As a money saver, H@H seems on the surface to be very attractive. There are however several issues that I have run into which make it a bit less attractive than the advertising:

a. If you are in a strong T-Mobile area, I have trouble getting the phone to latch onto WIFI for the UMA (H@H) voice. I can shut off cellular service and leave WIFI -- that works. It's just that the logic in the 8320 seems to pick whatever signal is stronger -- and if the T-Mo signal is a lot stronger than wifi, you'll be using regular minutes. (Yes I have prefer wifi setup and I've fiddled with the settings a little bit without much success)

b. Hand offs from UMA to GSM when I am in a very low GSM signal area are unpredictable. I'm presently testing this (with better results) when moving from UMA to GSM in a stronger T-Mobile signal area. Unfortunately my house is in a very poor T-Mo signal area so if I start a conversation on UMA and then move to the car, as soon as I'm out of "router range" the UMA drops and I have not been rolling to GSM (which if that happens the call continues to be billed as UMA and free under H@H).

c. I've been able to pick up a signal in 2 out of 3 Starbucks I visited. I am presently researching why the Starbucks near me allowed me to attach to the wifi but would not accept any data connections. I have tested Panera and Brueggers - both have free wifi -- so long as I make a connection first then open the web browser to login, I have connected without problems. In Panera I was able to go from UMA to GSM without issues.

d. I believe there is a flaw in the 8320 (several other people have spoken of seeing similar issues) where if you travel from UMA to GSM while in a low cellular signal area and the UMA/WIFI signal strength drops because you've moved out of range -- the phone goes to SOS - and when coverage returns (regular GSM) the data connection reads GPRS or EDGE -- yet you cannot make a connection (you'll know this because your browser won't work -- it will complain about no data connection). Nothing I've found short of either (a) battery pull or (b) transferring back into UMA range has brought the cellular data back. So far this is sporadic and doesn't seem to happen every time. I have noticed a couple other people on the forum reporting this issue as well.


My preliminary conclusion is that H@H is a service that mostly works as advertised, though the concept of it so far outweighs the use in actual practice. If you are going to use H@H, then a Curve is the way to go since it is presently the only way to access open wifi connections requiring you to agree to terms and conditions via a web browser (the other two T-Mo phones will not allow this so you're stuck with using only Starbucks or other truly open confirmationless hotspots).

I think the strongest candidates for this service are those in fringe signal areas. Although this will reduce your bill by using UMA, I feel there is too much monitoring of the signal to make sure you are on the right connection.

There is also the issue of coverage once you get outside your house. UMA is great for overcoming gaps in home coverage - but if your town also has lousy coverage - unless you plan on hopping from hotspot to hotspot, the UMA/WIFI isn't going to really do much to improve T-Mobiles footprint.

It's still a very cool service and I plan to test it for another week before deciding whether to switch or send the 8320 back.

Functionally the 8300 is the same as the 8320 save for WIFI. The camera takes the same (good) quality pictures.

I have not found WIFI to be a speed demon browsing the web. It's probably a little faster, but the BB browser and processor seem to chug along trying to interpret and display the downloaded data.

[zGuy]

I switched from the AT&T 8300 (unlocked) to the 8320.
The main difference is that the 8320 is made for T-Mo users and therefore a lot "friendlier" and efficient (themes, browser and upgrades to mention a few).
Regarding wi-fi which is a big seller for the 8320, I do agree with the above post: the verdict is still out. All-in-all, the 8320 is a very solid and fun phone.

One more trivial: although hardly a scientific poll, this thread does say something about the wi-fi feature:
http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...isfaction.html

[ilguy]

I am in a very similar situation to MAS90GURU's post. In my case, I switched from an 8830 on VZW to the 8300 on ATT only to test the 8320 on TMO since it was released. The UMA has proven to be pretty unreliable in my home, at the office and in other "free wifi" areas. When using even a Blackberry bluetooth headset and the UMA, there is a lot of clicking and drop out of the incoming audio. The handoff between UMA and EDGE is hit or miss. Tonight I dropped 4 of 4 calls in my home office. Last night I dropped zero of two. I've also had full UMA coverage showing on the device and called it from a landline only to have calls go to voicemail. In short, if it worked as described and priced, I think UMA on this device would be awesome. Unfortunately, that is not the case so far. I'm leaning towards a return to ATT, but we'll see how the next couple days go.

BTW, I loved VZW service, but the background noise and low volume problems on the 8830 were dealkillers. The 8300 form factor is what pushed me to ATT.

[flash24]

all I can say is WiFi is faster than my EDGE. I've had the 8300 and now the 8320 for Tmobile... I just love the WiFi

[donthateme13]

I switched from an unlocked 8300 to the 8320 on tmo and im pretty happy with the move.

i have HORRIBLE Tmo service at home so i need the UMA for voice calls and it has worked flawlessly so far. i dont use the H@H service so im not worried about the hand off droping the call leading to usign regular minutes

Also like Flash said the WIFI is super quick and useful. despite reports and the bgr test u gotta remember there are differant page setting when surfing on EDGE and when surfing on WIFI i ran the same test using two tmo blackberry's (8800 and 8320) and the wifi blew the 88 away fwiw

but remember its basically the same device it all comes down to color preference and whether or not u need the uma which in my case i did

[greggebhardt]

Is anyone having any dust under the screen problems on the 8320?