Sprint and Bluetooth

OK, I've been reading through these posts over 5 pages and
am getting a bit confused.
I have a Sprint phone with no BT and would like to get
one to work with my Prius. Right now which phone is most
compatable? I read on the last post that the a900 with
an update solved the issues that the poster of the last message
was having, but I'm not clear on what all issues there are.
Reading through the board I was under the impression
that the Treo 650 was the most compatable with the Prius,
but from what I have read elsewhere, the Treo doesn't
have voice dial capability through a BT headset so I would
take that to mean that it wouldn't have voice dial through
the Prius either - if this is incorrect, please let me know,
but even if it will voice dial from the car and not a headset its
not what I'm looking for.
The things I want from a BT connection from whatever (Sprint) phone:
1) Good quality audio in both directions
2) Voice dial capability through the headset and car
3) I want the incoming ring sound to be passed to the car or headset
Not too interested in if the contact list has to be uploaded 1 at a time
or can be sent all at once... I have a short contacts list so thats
not a problem.
Do any Sprint BT phones now offer those 3 things?
Also, is it practical to expect to get a 30 ft range from a bluetooth
phone? I know that's about the outer range of what they are rated
for. I would like to be able to leave my phone in the car using the car
to link with the phone when I am in it, and when I leave the car
use a headset from a distance of about 30'. My car would be
parked in the garage and I would be wanting to use it about 30'
away with 1 wall in between. Is this feasible?

 

1) Audio quality will be the same no matter what phone you choose. If you live in a very urban area, a treo will have no issues.

2) For voice dial, the Prius would be in control. Just because a treo does not have voice dial, doesn't mean the Prius' is disabled. You're going to need to load the contracts into the Prius's memory for voice dial to work.

3) You want the same ringer coming from the phone to come from the Prius's speakers? Not possible. Bluetooth does not pass on the ringer sound when a call comes in, only that a call is coming in. You'll still hear the ringer from your phone directly.

4) 30 feet the MAX range. When you turn your car off, the phone will start looking for your earpiece when you turn it on. If start your car when your phone is connected to your earpiece, it will stay connected. You would have to turn your earpiece off or disconnect from your phone to get the Prius to connect to your phone. Sadly, there is no priority availability in BT 1.x. 2.0 has this, but the Prius isn't 2.0, and the ammount of 2.0 phones are extremly rare.

 

But I think I have also read in other places throughout the board that their Treo 650 didn't ring through the car. Maybe a firmware update difference or something?

Assuming it worked like I wanted in the car though, the lack of voice dialing
being built into the Treo 650 would be inconvenient for using it with a headset
if wanting to initiate a call if using it from inside while the phone was in the car.
Unless there are headsets that allow for voice dialing like the Prius does but
if there were I'm sure they would cost almost as much as the Treo.

Thanks though for the help

 

Guy's wrong. Probally doesn't realize the sound is actually coming from his treo.

 

For the "ring through" I believe they are talking about a standard ringer rather than the actual ringer that is associated with the Treo (or other phone for that matter). My wife has her a900 connected to her Prius and I believe it rings the Prius using the Prius' default ring (rather than her ACC custom ring). This could be due to a feature of the phone though. With my 6700, it passes the ring (including custom rings) to the bluetooth headset. Basically, it opens up all audio to the headset rather than phone only audio. However, I believe this needs to be both supported by the phone as well as the headset (or in this case car) with the proper profiles. I have not tried pairing my 6700 to the Prius, but if I can remember, I will try it tonight.

 

It's time to start a revolution!

With three major carriers in the U.S., Sprint, Cingular, and Verizon, only Verizon provides their customers with 'knowledge'. I'm am a present Sprint customer, and will never be a Verizon customer until the 'can you hear me know' guy makes it to my area (I'm sure you get the point Verizon's coverage SUCKS where I live). Anyway, it's now time for all the carriers to start offering the same thing from every bluetooth cell phone manufacturer. Here is what Verizon is doing for thier customers;

http://dts.vzw.com/how_to_use/bluetooth_car_kit.html

Now, by doing comparisions, this is what I came up with.

Both LG phones listed appear to be very compatible with the Prius. So, if Sprint comes out with the LG LX-350, then it should be just as good as these other LG phones as far as bluetooth compatibility.

Motorola seems to be mostly compatible, but Sprint offers zero moto bluethooth phones.

The Palm Treo 700w is Windows based and Microsoft does not support most of the bluetooth protocols that should be available in such a high end PDA phone which shows in the chart for the 700w.

ALL THE SAMSUNGS listed appear to be way behind bluetooth. Samsung still shows....'pending'...for most all the car kit manufacturers. I think Samsung needs some Viagra to get them 'up' to speed with other bluetooth handsets. Reason, I'm still wandering what this Samsung page is for; http://www.samsungwireless.com/techtrain/t...0/hfck_a900.htm.

The XV6700 is the same as the Sprint PPC-6700, and you can see for yourself it's mostly compatible.

Again, all the cell phone providers/carriers/manufacturers need to provide these idiot proof charts so that the buyer does not have to 'be ware'.

 

I've been drinking so I'll just point out one thing that stuck out to me on this and I'll get around to the rest later, maybe I'll be sober at that time. There's a reason why Verizon has to put out these guides on their BT products. It's because they're so damn crippled people need a roadmap to figure out what little they can actually do compared to what the rest of the world does with their BT technology.

Verizon crippled the BT on the 700w, not Microsoft

 

To add to that, I have a 6700 (Sprint) which is a Microsoft device (actually an HTC Apache that runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 to be exact). Bluetooth is perfect on that. If you are wanting a carrier just based on Bluetooth, for now you would need Cingular or T-Mobile. The GSM carriers don't cripple their phones... and even if they did, you could just purchase the un-branded/un-locked version of the phone.

 

I've had the A900 for about six weeks and have encountered the same frustrating results. The BT pairing indication has apparently little to do with whether or not I'll be able to make or receive a call. If I have the time/inclination, I'll try re-starting the car and cycling power on the phone to attempt a resynch. This works about 30% of the time...then I give up and somehow (magically) the connection works. Incoming calls sometimes seem to "trigger" the connection, but I'm unable to get the rhyme or reason behind what will consistently work.

Although not a Sprint expert like Vagabond (and mad props to you, V, for all you've contributed to this forum), I do have 24 years in electronics and engineering...and the core issue here seems to be what Vagabond has touched on already: life on the bleeding edge can be dicey. I went into this A900 relationship with my eyes wide open after reviewing this thread and decided I was willing to eat the pain. With the phantom ringing issue resolved, Sprint is headed in the right direction. I'm oddly pleased to read that someone else has encountered the same pairing oddity that I have. Doesn't resolve the problem, but at least I'm not alone out there...

 

Yea, mine does this do. It happens, oh I'd say 1 out of 10 times for the first outgoing call. Bluetooth isn't perfect, this happens every so often with other BT phones I have had with earpieces. So when this happened it didn't suprise me, I was allready pretty much used to it. The rate that this happens is indeed higher with the car than it is with my Moto 700 earpiece, so it's a sign that the phone is not totally comfortable with the car. If the failure rate is really bad I'd consider a phone swap.

Make sure your phone is fully updated. There are no updates for the Prius' sadly.

 

Thanks.

I don't expect any more updates for the a900 on the BT issue. This latest one fixed 99% of their problems. While I can't get details on what exactly was changed with the update, I'm assuming one thing they adjusted was how the car connected to whatever it was paired to since the phone seems to 'sorta connect' to the car but not really until the user actually wanted to do something. If it does bug, call customer service or check your voicemail when you get into the car.

 

I have a "Sprint Pocket PC". I think the model number is 6610.

1. above, same applies.

2. above, does NOT applies. I can make calls both from the PDA and from the interface on the car's MFD screen. As you know, the number digits are not available on the car's MFD screen while driving. Speedial buttons are, so I have, in the past, hit the speedial button for voice mail, then when voice mail comes on and is listened to, make the choice to erase or save on the PDA's keypad, since I can't on the MFD while driving.

When the car is on, ALL calls I make through my PDA come through the car's audio system, while I am inside the car. I have these need headphones with a special microphone, with which I can be very clearly heard when on the phone through the PDA, which do not work, whenever the PRius is on.

When on the phone through the PRius's audio system, sometimes people say that they are having trouble hearing me, and sometimes it sounds like something is echoeing everything I say.

4. With mine, in the middle of a call, if I turn the car on, it will switch to the car's audio system, in the middle of that call.

 

His 2nd question is about the voice control button of the car. As I stated before in the thread, I said that the car's voice dial pretty much sucks so I use the voice control built into my phone directly. You however, are a little more unique since like the Treo your phone requires additional software for voice control. You would have more control than a Treo because the software you need was written by microsoft and they only sell it seperately to make more money off of you.

 

Actually, my Bluetooth phone was provided me by my employer - which was and still is my 1st and only experience with Bluetooth. However, I am looking for a Bluetooth phone to use on a Verizon account, with that car.

 

okay - to make more money off of your employer, my bad.

 

Sigh.. I'm in a similiar boat as tetris. I'm on Sprint and am eligible for $150 credit towards another phone (but have to sign another 2 year commitement). I don't want Treos or Pocket PCs. It seems my choices are:
LG PM-325
Samsung A900, A920, A940 (can't even find it on Sprint's site)

Are there others? Anyone care to put up a compilation of what the bottom line is for each of these (like limitations, quirks, etc.)?

Sounds like the A900 has some serious BT probs per mretc1. Someone else said that PM-325 doesn't let you send the entire phonebook? Do any of the others let you? This is the sort of info I'm looking for.

As an alternative, I might switch to Verizon, so I'm gonna try to gather similar info in a Verizon thread.

 

I am waiting to decide between the Nokia 6165 and LG LX-350 when Sprint launches them (April?). From the details on phonescoop, they both seem evenly matched. Hopefully, both phones will have all BT features (incoming caller id, meters) when paired with the Prius.

 

My 'source' http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthrea...ighlight=2%2F27

 

The 940 is no longer made. The 325 is no longer made. The 900 with the current firmware has no problems. None of Sprint's or Verizon's phones (not pda's) will allow you to send the entire phonebook. (There's one nokia will allow it, but good luck actually Finding it)