Planning to buy this week

[Relgoshan]

...but I have a couple of last-minute concerns.

If I buy direct from Sprint online, the list price is $200USD, and I'd be transferring an existing number away from T-Mobile (which should qualify for the $125 credit). There is also a special on the "Everything Data 450" plan that adds an extra 300 anytime mins per month.

1) Sprint claims to be running a $100 instant rebate program on all new phones, I assume that is already applied to the list price?
2) I don't like using permanent credit/debit cards when buying online, so does the Sprint website accept prepaid Visa?
3) Barring that, does the average Sprint store offer the same deal? Or is it online-only?

Several applications that would probably want immediately are:

1) Opera Mobile and/or Mini
2) Kindle for Android
3) Juice Defender (or equivalent)

Of those, I've seen several people claim that JD works fine. But I have heard pretty much nothing about Opera or Kindle.

I think I'll take the rebooting issue on faith, and I can probably compromise if I need to buy a certain way. But I would like to use Kindle and I definitely need to use Opera, so those are fairly important.

Thanks in advance to anyone who's already tried this.

 

[jasonkc25]

I can offer you nothing regarding the discounts and what form of payments Sprint takes. That being said, I did buy my Echo for 199 at the Sprint store and they gave me another 45 bucks off for my old phone (this was an upgrade from my a previous Sprint phone).

As for programs:
1. Opera Mobile: runs great, it's my primary browser on my phone.
2. Kindle for Android: runs great as well. The border between the upper and lower screens sometimes cuts a line of the text in two, but it's really only a minor annoyance and doesn't detract from my reading at all.
3. Juice Defender: I've run it, but don't really feel the need for it. I saw very little benefit from running it and don't like the idea of another program running in the background to control my data connections and such. But to each their own.

As for the rebooting issue, I have had my Echo since release day and have not had one reboot. This is not to say it's not occurring, but it's not affecting all Echo's.

 

[Relgoshan]

I was hoping to hear that. Since there's no articles about a big recall and there aren't piles of "me too!" posts here, it feels like there should be a limited batch of lemons. There was something similar with one of my netbooks, first failed in <48 hrs and second had a different HDD and new BIOS, not one issue since. Very glad to hear Opera and Kindle work, supposedly at launch the Kindle app had trouble.

I feel much more confident about the hardware, now if only some roaming Sprint employee had an answer about payment options...otherwise I'll have to make a detour for the nearest store tomorrow.

 

[davidnprogress]

You are correct that the price includes the rebate applied. Good that it is instant right now so you do not have to deal with the rebate and the port in credit for switching providers is a great bonus. The deal should be the same online as in the store but it is always worth checking. I am not sure about the credit card question.

 

[Relgoshan]

Well I got a repair call in the area and made a trip out to the store. Tried it, seems pretty nice. Guy in the store says that discount/extra minutes/transfer credit apply to in-store purchase also. They take nearly any payment option so that's settled. Phone was on 3G (not wifi), seemed snappy and I confirmed firsthand Android 2.2.1; also Opera Mobile 11 seems perfectly fine. Very pleased to see pinch-zoom works with a thumb on each screen.

Surprisingly, there's actually a Kyocera branded power-saver driver running on the system already.

Employee was fully cooperative, nothing bad to say about the device and let me fiddle with it however I liked. (You wouldn't believe how much promotional material there was, you couldn't escape the posters advertising what two screens can do) And for god's sake, there's at least FIVE phones there which were bigger/heavier in every way! I am completely floored by how it fits my hand. Should be closing the deal later today or possibly tomorrow.

 

[jasonkc25]

Sweet! Welcome to the club.

BTW, using Opera mobile and my Echo to read and write just about everything on these forums.

J

 

[Relgoshan]

So yeah. I bought one. Played with it for several hours to get the "feel", vueque seems good for mst3k and other multipart videos. Big question has anyone actually played the 3d "HD Games" that are advertised for this device? Definitely not required but I may get a couple if they have some quality in presentation.

Any clue what I need to do for Kindle to work? It seems not to like my current password...maybe it is too long.

 

[jasonkc25]

Nope, haven't played any of the games, thought about it though.

As for the Kindle app, no idea. It worked for me right out of the gate.

Sorry, not very helpful.

J

 

[Relgoshan]

Turns out the Kindle password reset screen has a character limit but the password input fields (online and in-app) don't. So the password that I typed was longer than what Amazon's site took. Then when I tried to sign in, the password was naturally too long and didn't work. *facepalm*

So yeah, that works too. Also Opera Mini and Mobile are using the tablet skin now...seems great to me! If I bite on a couple games I'll have to report back about it.

 

[sabbys]

Look in the Sprint Zone app, a few headlines down. There is a special offer from Gameloft for a buy-one-get-one-free offer. I believe the offer only comes through that link, I've never seen it on Gameloft's regular Android section.

BTW - the Gameloft games are very cool. They split the screens between game screen and controls. So it pretty much turns the Echo into an Xperia Play (which it is afterall, considering the Play has two capacitive "gamepads"). And you do not have to see your game through your fingers, etc. Overall, an excellent execution.

sabby

 

[Relgoshan]

That sounds most encouraging. Now I have to check it out.

Pity that Firefox is still crap. I mean extensions are nice, and their UI concept isn't bad. But Opera Mobile just works much better. And even the stock browser has that trick with two different pages. Also very pleased that Flash works VERY well indeed.

 

[jasonkc25]

That sounds most encouraging. Now I have to check it out.

Pity that Firefox is still crap. I mean extensions are nice, and their UI concept isn't bad. But Opera Mobile just works much better. And even the stock browser has that trick with two different pages. Also very pleased that Flash works VERY well indeed.

I love the sync function mobile.

 

[Relgoshan]

...? Firefox sync? Or Opera Link? Because that's the other thing. If I am cruising along in Mini, and hit a page that doesn't work, I can just bookmark it and open the same page in Mobile later. Is there any way to do that with Firefox and another program? Maybe if some other proxy browser supports XMarks...but I don't need an extension in Opera.

I was surprised to see how smooth the graphics were in tablet mode in general. The standard crap like browsing, Angry Birds etc are all laser smooth. It's better than the original Galaxy Tab in my opinion, and that's despite fitting substantially more pixels. Feels like Kyocera polished the drivers.

What does the fourth button in the power widget do? I understand wifi, bluetooth, GPS and backlight. But does the circle control Google sync? Data connection? Simultask?

 

[jasonkc25]

Not sure about the power widget, I don't use it. In regards to sync, I meant the Opera Link function. I wish I knew about that when I was flashing various Gingerbread versions on my Hero and constantly losing my bookmarks!!!

 

[Relgoshan]

I have noticed that Opera Mobile has issues with the browser session. Sometimes it gives me a black program window and I can only resolve it by stopping the program and clearing its local data. Then I start up, type in my Link password and everything is fine. It's to be expected since I think 11 Mobile is still beta, but I shall have to investigate further. Maybe I need to clean up my bookmarks more...I have noticed that the bookmarks pane will disappear about halfway down the list, must be an architectural limit.

So, two other questions: Has anyone found a working flashlight app yet? (to use the LED flash) And are there any decent media players? Onboard video is definitely limited, but a third-party app should improve this a bit.

 

[Relgoshan]

I shouldn't really double-post, but there's this nagging suspicion: I installed the Flash 10.3 update apk immediately after activating this phone. Perhaps my issues with Mobile have been caused by that...? Or is Flash 10.3 working fine for other people?

 

[jasonkc25]

Flash 10.3 is working fine for me. Every once in a while I do come across a flash video that won't play and causes the Opera to stop working, but it was doing this prior to flash 10.3 and I don't know if it is a flash issue, an opera issue or an Android issue.

As for media players. I have been using Winamp with good results. It has a wireless sync option that didn't work real well for me, it seemed to get confused with what songs to pull over from my desktop.

I haven't tried any Led Flashlight apps yet, haven't really needed one.

 

[Relgoshan]

Moboplayer is excellent but there is audio desync on most files that use software decode. (not a cpu limit, just audio desync) Works better than most and files downloaded from youtube are very smooth even at huge quality. Try the 720p mp4 of jax panic's "dinosaur" to see what I mean, hardware decode rules...

Seems the resets for Mobile were caused by my tons of bookmarks. Should be fine if I clean up the list a bit.

No reboots! Seems this phone is a keeper. Such sturdy screens, there is no color distortion or flexing even when playing a game. Up to 500MB seems a bit much for space, but the custom games look great.

 

[jasonkc25]

I've actually gotten really accustomed to the weight of the phone. I was messing with my wife's Moment last night, and it felt so light and cheap (which maybe it is) compared to my Echo, which feels like a tank in comparison, very solid.

I did have another reboot last night, but this was after being up for almost 5 days, so I'm not real concerned. It could even be related to some app I have installed that has a memory leak or something. No idea.

 

[Relgoshan]

Yeah, that strong frame is encouraging. It's very easy to put a lot of pressure on the screen while playing, and for cheaper phones this may cause a disaster. Granted how thin each screen must be, it was a major concern before I fiddled with one in the Sprint store. Doesn't feel big or heavy to me, more like "just right". Plus the speaker doesn't totally destroy good audio. My ringtone is now the fifth song in the Deus Ex game soundtrack, sounds great even at max volume.