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Sep 2010 I rely on Tmobile's hotspot at home service to get cell service inside my house where otherwise there is almost no cell reception. When my Samsung Katalyst died recently, it was disappointing to see the only Tmobile UMA (hotspot) phones sold new or refurbished are smartphones. I want a plain jane phone. Also, a phone is something that's easy to lose, break, or drop into water so why spend a few hundred on it? So paying less than $100 for a used phone even if I have to buy a replacement battery makes sense. After reviewing all the models phone models Tmobile supported for UMA, it looked like the Kayalyst and the Nokia 6301 were the best models. I had the Katalyst for almost two years and was used to it, but it has these problems: - No menu customization (every day it took about 15 keypresses to set the alarm) - Crippled bluetooth (only connected with headsets) - Slider would collect junk and it was sometimes hard to open - Speakerphone had limited volume - Proprietary headset connection, lousy OEM headset Otherwise it was a good phone I've had the Nokia 6301 for almost a month, here is my consideration of it: 6301 Pros - Smaller - Great bright display - Fully customizable user buttons - Superior sound quality to the Katalyst - Great speakerphone, good volume - Has standard headphone plug and standard USB plug - Great support from Nokia for PC file transfer and firmware updates - The charger stand is convenient 6302 Cons - Poor battery life. Needs recharging daily (on a new battery) - Keys are a bit small, requires attention as to not hit wrong key BIGGEST CON: Issues with wifi. 6301 has a history of problems connecting to wifi but those appear to be resolved now. Every now and again (usually in the evening) I will get transient cell signal inside the house, especially in my bedroom. Sometimes over the course of an hour I'll see the phone connected to cellular, then back on wifi, then back on cellular, then it won't go back to wifi. I have to try a series of things, turning wifi capabiilty on/off, restarting phone, restarting router, which always gets it back on. Problem is if I don't notice it was off wifi, there is a period of time where I'm disconnected from network completely or worse, I'll start a call on cellular and it will just drop quickly. - This problem is tolerable... I don't leave the phone near my bedroom window and this hasn't been an issue. Comparison with Katalyst The pros of the 6301 well outweigh it's cons. The user interface and hardware interface are so much nicer than Katalyst that it's well worth it. I can deal with the battery life and wifi-cellular issue. You may want to select a Katalyst if: - You need battery life of more than 1 day - You cannot deal with small buttons - You get cell reception intermittentlyRead full review
I am an out-of-contract T-Mobile user. I've been using a Nokia 5300 MusicXpress phone that has provided terrible call quality, and was going to drop T-Mobile as a provider, until the TM customer rep suggested this phone with its wi-fi capabilities. What I like about it... The UMA (wi-fi) capabilities. This phone, once networked with my home network security code, automatically hooks up to the wifi in my house to make phone calls. I DO NOT pay for T-Mobile's @Home service, nor am I being charged for minutes I use over the wi-fi connection. I have a very basic plan and was told I would need to upgrade to a smartphone with a @Home plan of $10 extra per mo to use wi-fi, but this is not so. At least not if you have the right firmware installed. I purchased a recycled (used) phone that apparently has the right firmware edition - I won't be upgrading it for fear of messing this up! The weight and size of the phone are nice, and the body of the phone is metal. I like that it has a charging stand too. The navigation is easy to use and texting on the phone is very easy. Voice recognition is also a cool feature. Hookup your bluetooth headset and it takes you through the set-up. Seems very intuitive and certainly easy to learn to use this phone. What I don't like... The camera. Forget about using it. Photo quality is very poor - cloudy, grainy - and yes, I cleaned the lens. Its internal memory is only 30mb, and I will have to hunt down the 'how to' notes for adding SD memory - although I don't see a slot for it. No MP3 player, but it does have a FM radio built in. There are a few other phones that you can get with UMA capabilities that don't require the @Home service, but after researching them a bit I went with the reviews and selected this one. I'm glad I did, as it does what I wanted it to do: gives me free wi-fi calls off my home network with clear call quality for both me and the recipient of those calls.Read full review
I bought this phone specifically to downgrade to a more simplistic handset for my everyday usage. By trade I use Blackberries, and other PDA smart phones. With that said I chose this handset because of its robust media features such as A2DP and AVRC bluetooth profiles as well as a build in FM radio and 2mp Digital Camera. I also like the large screen boasting 16.7 million colors on its high resolution screen. Overall this phone should not surprise any buyer with its feature or design, but rather be a simple straight forward handset to make and receive calls while listening to music and media.
Great phone.. Very slim. I bought this to eliminate my land line and use as regular home line, since T-mobile offeres unlimited Wi-Fi calling, which is great. The quality is of voice clarity is great, but as Wi-Fi signal is sometimes unstable, phone has tendency of disconnecting while in coversation once a while. The menu options are simple but not best of all. I tried to bring some picture as wallpaper, but still was not able to find out how. I consider myself a computer and gaget gru, but some minor Menu options on the phone doesn't seems to be friendly or widely exposed for easy access.
I owned the gold one when I entered the 1 yr contract with T-Mobile back in 2003, then I switch to the Nokia 6880 because I did quite a lot of txt msg back then. this phone is for you if you just need to make phone calls and do an occasional text msg. I'd say it's durable too, because old style phone doesn't really have fragile stuff that kills the phone when it's not handled right (current phone models mostly are mini computer, you mishandle it, you damage it in someway or pretty much "kill" it). the thing that I don't quite like from this great phone is the battery. since it's old technology, the battery life is always short for me (will always need to charge it daily after owning it for about a year). but I think if you know how to keep it up, it shouldn't be that bad. Nokia 3390 is a pretty "rare" phone since it's been more than 3 years from the time it came out. sure, time moves on, technologies are developing, but when you just need a simple phone that's durable and reliable, why look anywhere else? Nokia 3390 is the one!Read full review
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