Buying a new mobile

[Broadback]

I have a very old Nokia phone, that is simply a phone and nothing else, I chose it because I have a hearing problem so need clear speech. Well I decided I should catch up with the world, I went into an O2 shop to select a device. Saw what I though would suit, however explained to the sales person that it was of prime importance that I could listen to a phone call first, to check its suitability, to be told that is was impossible.Tried to contact O2 on the net, the only way of doing so was by a chat line. I had 2 attempts, either my English has badly deteriorated or I was "speaking" to foreigners of limited English. In both cases I was disconnected, I suspect the operator was getting fed up. Now I have always used O2 and would like to stay with them, is this problem peculiar to them? If so which supplier might be best?

[Simon]

You can't make or receive calls on a phone without a SIM card, and the O2 (and any other) phone shops only usually have dummy units on display.  They can't really open a new phone to let you try it, as that would mean breaking the seal, and if you didn't buy it, they may not be able to sell it, so all you can hope for is that a sales person may have the same phone you are thinking of purchasing, and will allow you to try it, or that they happen to have one that's already been opened.  What phone are you looking at?

[Broadback]

All I can remember is it was a Samsung device.There is no way I am going to buy a phone without listening to the sound quality, why should I be expected to buy a pig in a poke?

[pctech]

As Simon says they won't allow you to try a phone in a shop.

Are you intending to take out a contract or do you want to buy the device SIM free and use your existing SIM?

If you buy online you do have a cooling off period so you could in theory test it then.

[Broadback]

The whole thing, to me, seems a con!

[pctech]

Like you, call quality on a phone is the number one priority for me when buying one as that is the real reason I carry one and I wouldn't disagree you should be able to try this out but unfortunately you cannot.

For the record the sound quality on my Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 is good.

[Simon]

I can understand why they won't let you try them before you buy one, in the same way that you can't try on a pair of underpants before you buy them!    But, I'm sure that phones of today have at least equal if not better call quality than those from years ago, although I have to admit the Nokia 6310i hasn't been beaten yet, in my experience, as a straightforward phone.

[Gary]

In all the years of buying mobiles I have never been allowed to 'try one out' as such tbh they all have pretty good  audio quality anyway, better than years before, phones on Orange/EE use a form of digitally enhanced call quality. Not sure about the others.

[Technical Ben]

As Simon says they won't allow you to try a phone in a shop.

Are you intending to take out a contract or do you want to buy the device SIM free and use your existing SIM?

If you buy online you do have a cooling off period so you could in theory test it then.

That's strange. I've seen live demonstrations in the past. Though without a sim. Can they not supply a store sim/managers/your own and do a demonstration? There is nothing wrong with them, and quite a few stores have live devices secured to tables etc. Again, it's silly for them not to.

It shows the attitude of people these days, that your expected to purchase things without checking them first. If you ask to see what's in the box, your considered "strange".
Hence why I watch Ashens reviews.
http://youtu.be/CSO1KWLGd50?t=5m34s

[Broadback]

I tried that youtu.be, but, of course, the speech was incomprehensible to me, surprise surprise!

[Gary]

I tried that youtu.be, but, of course, the speech was incomprehensible to me, surprise surprise!

Youtube is fine on all devices I have owned that had the ability to access it. I have never come across a device where I cannot understand what comes out the speakers. Do you have any hearing issues?

[Broadback]

 Yes, I thought that I made that clear at the start. That is why it is of prime importance that I listen before I buy. It's a b*gger getting old, but better that the alternative I guess, though as I have not experience the alternative I cannot be certain! 

[Simon]

Whilst I'm sure you'll find the call quality fine on most modern phones, if you do buy one and find hearing difficult, you could always use it in speakerphone mode, BB.  Not great for privacy, perhaps, but at least you'd hear the caller.

[Broadback]

The problem is not so much the volume as the tone. The reason I bought my present phone was the Institute for the Deaf recommended it as having by far the clearest tone, at that time.

[Simon]

OK, would it be worth asking the IFTD for a recommendation for a current model?

[J!ll]

        https://www.bootshearingcareshop.com/Action/FindECommerceCategory?pcid=1332239074008-467548&gclid=CO-xsN3dlroCFSTKtAodki8A-w

[Broadback]

They are not what they were. They renamed and revamped themselves a while back and now seem rather commercial, so I find their recommendations suspect.

[J!ll]

I will keep looking, I'm sure there is something.

[J!ll]

Well I would make these people do the work for you, if they want a sale! http://www.hearingdirect.com/products/Amplified-Mobile-Phones/

[Simon]

It's a bit clunky, but there are things like this around:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geemarc-CL8300-Extra-Mobile-Phone/dp/B003WU1QJ4/ref=pd_sxp_f_r

[pctech]

Or what about a Doro http://www.doro.co.uk/

[Broadback]

Many thanks to you all for your help and concern. My first thought is why do all these companies think because you have a hearing problem you are thick and clumsy? My problem is not volume but clarity, I bought an amplifying phone and that is useless, to me it seems distorted, whereas a standard phone I have is as clear as a bell. Oh well I will just have to stay backward with my old phone. My daughter has just purchased a new phone, so when we next visit I will have a listen, then if I am in luck it will be OK for me.

[pctech]

I agree with you BB

Maybe you ought to write to JK Shin who is the boss of Samsung's mobile phone division.

[Den]

I am going to hold my hand up and admit defeat.     After having a nightmare with my Sony Xperia when using it at home with my Vodafone Sure signal, I went on Ebay and bought a 16month old Apple iPhone 4S. Now I have had quite a few phones over the years and have always been a Nokia fan, I then tried Samsung and then the Sony but I have never had a phone with such clarity as the iPhone even when using it with my Sony radio with Bluetooth in my van it blows all the others away. I am not one to change products just because a new one comes out and have no intention of upgrading in the near future. I was also surprised to find that the iPhone holds the signal very well indeed and works like a dream with my Suresignal.  Does this mean I will become an Apple Fan Boy. Please lord I hope not, I love Windows 8 and am looking forward to Windows 8.1 this weekend.   

[Simon]

If you still have iOS 6.3 on the 4S, I wouldn't upgrade to iOS 7 just yet, Den.  I've found several issues such as problems with music playback, Safari crashing, Bluetooth mysteriously unpairing, and iOS 7 just doesn't feel particularly robust on the 4S at the moment.

[Den]

It was already done before I bought it but seems fine, then again I run iOS 7 on the iPad. 

[Steve]

Bluetooth I solved by deleting the old pairings, music and remote libraries have been fine so far, touch wood!

[Simon]

With the music player, I find that connecting it to different docks, which I do all the time, messes with the current playlist, especially if in Shuffle mode, and it regularly goes back several tracks when I disconnect from one dock and connect to another.  Also, I've found that sometimes it refuses to be controlled by the dock at all, and I've had to resort to a Power + Home reset to get it to play anything.  After it losing the pairing in the car several times, I did remove and reset the pairing, and that seems stable now, but I still get quite a few crashes in Safari, mostly when trying to scroll through open windows.  It just feels as though the OS is struggling to function on the 4S (or vice versa), but hopefully future patches will sort things out a bit.

[Steve]

I struggled with Safari on the previous iOS with frequent freezes, however I'm now using a new 4S which may explain things. I'm always loathed to reset browsers as you lose all that 'saved' input.

[Simon]

I clear the history and data quite frequently, but it always seems to save my stored passwords, so it's just a matter of quickly logging in again on most sites.  I only have a few websites that I use the phone for, so it's never a big deal for me.

If I could find a cheap enough iPhone 5, I might be tempted to upgrade, but it would have to be a 32Gb, as I'm already running out of space on the 16Gb 4S.

[Steve]

I am going to hold my hand up and admit defeat.     After having a nightmare with my Sony Xperia when using it at home with my Vodafone Sure signal, I went on Ebay and bought a 16month old Apple iPhone 4S. Now I have had quite a few phones over the years and have always been a Nokia fan, I then tried Samsung and then the Sony but I have never had a phone with such clarity as the iPhone even when using it with my Sony radio with Bluetooth in my van it blows all the others away. I am not one to change products just because a new one comes out and have no intention of upgrading in the near future. I was also surprised to find that the iPhone holds the signal very well indeed and works like a dream with my Suresignal.  Does this mean I will become an Apple Fan Boy. Please lord I hope not, I love Windows 8 and am looking forward to Windows 8.1 this weekend.   

I think the 4S is a superb phone it ticks a lot of boxes for me, I'm not excited by any of the newer offerings they look 'tacky' to me, eventually I'll succumb but I'd like to think they'll make something with that build quality again.

[Steve]

Interesting you think of increasing your memory size next time Simon, I'm wondering whether I could cope with the opposite, it can  become a very expensive music player , but I'm not one talk about music players after my recent expense on HiFi.

[Simon]

You're right, Steve, Apple charge an extortionate price for additional storage space, which is why I didn't go for the 32Gb 4S in the first place, but I'm now in the position where I have to be very selective over what music I have on my phone, and am having to remove stuff to put new music on it.  Unfortunately, the only real time I get to listen to any new albums I buy, is when I'm at work, either driving empty or waiting between jobs, so in that sense, the storage is fairly critical.  I may actually think about buying a larger capacity iPod, and store music on that instead, but that means carrying two devices around, which is a bit cumbersome.

[Steve]

My options for the car are limited it would appear that I can buy a kit that gives me an SD slot which would work with the Audio screen and steering wheel controls, 32Gb of SD card in comparison is peanuts. I could add to this a bluetooth adaptor but I've never been impressed with the SQ. A line is available but then control is via the device which I would like to avoid whilst driving.

[Simon]

I have a line in the Galaxy, but the sound from the bottom connector (on the 4S) is awful and distorted, so I connect it to the top socket, via a 3.5 jack extension lead plumbed in behind the dash.  Control is via the device, except for volume, but once I've set my playlist going on shuffle, I don't need to touch it again.  That's another annoyance with iOS 7, though, as the sound controls used to be available on the lock screen by pressing the Home button.  Now, you have to press the Home button, then swipe up to access the Control Centre, making it more fiddly. 

In the 'work' vehicle, I just have one of those radio transmitter devices which connects to the bottom of the iPhone.  Sound quality isn't marvellous, but it's perfectly listenable to.  I'd like to have a better set up, but I'm in and out of different vehicles all day, so it's not really practical, or economically viable, to go to great expense for each vehicle.

[Lance]

I'm still using my iphone 4 with iOS7 although will probably upgrade when the iPhone6 and iOS8 come out later next year.

Simon, for me the music controls are all available from the lock screen (at the top) once the home button has been pressed (without any swiping)- don't know why it would be any different for you!

[Simon]

Gary also said that, Lance, but they're definitely not there!  The lock screen just displays a huge clock, underneath which, the battery power level appears first, followed by the date.

[Den]

Being a second hand iphone 4s it informs me that I can not use iMatch for my music downloads for 90 days as it was used by the former owner and you can not register it for this period, is there a way around this?

[pctech]

it being Apple, prob not.

[Simon]

Like Mitch, I don't know, Den.  Have you re-registered the phone with your own Apple ID?  I assume it had been factory reset when you got it?

[pctech]

Sorry, my earlier comment might be interpreted as flippant, let me explain.

As far as I am aware all the logic for this sits on Apple's servers so the only people who could legitimately override it would be Apple support which would check the serial of the phone.

If you cannot register the phone with your own Apple ID then you will need to have a talk with Apple support.

[Simon]

That's more useful. 

But, assuming the phone has been factory reset, if it is now using a different Apple ID to the previous owner, having been re-registered with Den's iTunes, how can it still associate with the previous owners content?  If it hasn't been factory reset, then maybe that is the answer?

[pctech]

I would suspect it is done on serial or IMEI (same thing on most devices).

The 90 day thing might be to frustrate thieves and prevent them quickly turning round phones as outside of the UK I don't think there is a consistent IMEI blocking policy (The GSM Association operates a central database I believe but I don't think all operators have their systems set up to check this)

[Den]

I had the same problem when I bought a second hand iPad and after 90 days it worked fine, bloody Apple. 

[Simon]

Odd. It's not as through they're making any money out of the phone changing hands, so I don't really see why they would care about it going to a second owner. 

[Gary]

Gary also said that, Lance, but they're definitely not there!  The lock screen just displays a huge clock, underneath which, the battery power level appears first, followed by the date.

My iPhone shows the weather, date, what i am doing tomorrow when I swipe down. In lock screen mode just my wallpaper (fingerprint sensor to open) when listening to music all controls are as they were in iOS6. Maybe you should hard reset your phone. Going to Look at a Xperia Z1 on Saturday as that transfers all photos and music from iTunes with a native Sony app...have to say I'm tempted to leave the Apple wagon phone wise, and stick to tablets for my computing now full time and not iPad wise either. Or possibly get a Note III (will look at one of them too) and have both in one. New Android phones are really nice. I will miss the build quality of the 5s though, it is so much nicer to handle than the 4S for me personally and the plastics of Samsung, the glass on the Xperia Z1 concerns me being both back and front in a phone that size.

[Gary]

Being a second hand iphone 4s it informs me that I can not use iMatch for my music downloads for 90 days as it was used by the former owner and you can not register it for this period, is there a way around this?

Former owner did not remove the phone from their account properly I imagine.

[Glenn]

My iPhone shows the weather, date, what i am doing tomorrow when I swipe down.

So you are winning the Lotto tomorrow, or doesn't go that far?

[Gary]

So you are winning the Lotto tomorrow, or doesn't go that far?

Sadly no, but it said I would get a sarcastic post on IDNetters this morning, I guess some things are just so predictable