EVDO Phone or Card? Which Sprint Phone?

ccoggle · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 May 2006 Posts: 1

Hello all,

I know this question has more or less been asked in other postings, but not in the sense I am looking for I guess...

Am I better off getting a Sprint phone with EVDO or the card? I would prefer to save a few bucks, don't need to use the phone while on the internet. I will also be getting fairly decent signal in the place I want to use EVDO at.

Do you get the same speeds while tethering as you do with the card?

Of the one I should use, which card/phone should I get? Is there one better than another?

Thanks all,

Cody

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

I have the Samsung A-900, and having purchased it just recently I have done a little comparison, having also a Verizon KPC650 card, using them both on the same laptop. I have since terminated my service with Verizon.
First of all I was experiencing disconnects with the card at my job location; this does not happen with the phone. I did about 4 readings with the card, then with the phone and took an average of the sets of readings:

KPC650 = 529 Kbits/sec

A-900 = 427 Kbits/sec (USB)

A-900 = 229 Kbits/sec (Bluetooth)

Only yesterday I discovered there was an option similar to Venturi in the Sprint connection manager to set speed. Although there seems to be no measurable difference in readings, after setting the option to the fastest the web pages fly onto the screen. The interesting part is that there is no deterioration of photos or images like when I used to set Venturi on the quickest setting. I don't get how they do it but I am very pleased. Venturi has nothing on this. It's like having the speed of the card back again with no image rendering penalty.

So I am very happy to have made my switch from PC card to phone. The Bluetooth does not disconnect at either my job or home location.

Not to say the phone does not have disadvantages; the included USB chord will not charge the phone but I have one on order from Gomadic.
Guess I am kinda spoiled, having also a Motorola Razr which does charge via USB. And as you have already mentioned you cannot make calls with the phone while on the net, but I do not make/receive a lot of calls and do not mind this.

The battery life is not as long as it perhaps should be but I see posts saying there is an extended battery now available, so I will be looking into that.

Conclusion; at least in my case I prefer the phone over the card. I am only paying about $86/month ($30 voice and $40 PAM plus tax) for both a voice and a unlimited Phone-as modem (PAM) contract, whereas I was paying $80/month just for the Verizon card. Today I will be taking a hit of $140 for terminating my Cingular voice contract early, a small price to pay for saving about $45/month.
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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

The A900 is a good phone for USB tethering and can get up to about 1Mbps in ideal conditions. The S620 Merlin card is capable of up to 2Mbps in ideal conditions (I often get 1.4Mbps and sometimes 1.6-1.8Mbps). If just web browsing, phone tethering will probably be adequate for you. A laptop card is much more convenient though - laptop is always on the Net.

If you don't need voice/data at same time and don't mind calls going to voice mail when doing data, phone tething is a cheaper way to go.

$40/month to tether w/2yr agreement
$60/month for laptop card w/2yr agreement

BTW, there are new Sprint phones coming later this year that will do data over EVDO and supposedly voice at same time over Nextel's iDen network. The phones will also have nextgen EVDO Rev A, which has better latency and uplink speed.

curt504 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 07 Dec 2005 Posts: 16

Xenophon, thants for the tip. Can you give some details that I can be looking for a phone from vendor XYZ?

tnx curt

xenophon · EVDO Addict Joined: 30 Aug 2005 Posts: 2004

Do you mean the upcoming iDen/Rev A phones?

http://www.evdoforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=2504

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

Sure the KPC650 is faster but where's the fire? I don't smell anything...

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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

Update: The Gomadic powered USB chord arrived today. It is very good quality and will charge the phone and allow me to use the phone as a modem and surf the net at the same time. Perfect. Cool

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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz