Next-G - AGAIN!

Ian,

Although the 6120 does not provide for "direct" connection to an external antenna, with the use of the Force Technology cradle, an external antenna can be connected and interfaces with the mobile via an inductive coupler built-in to the cradle.

The antenna lead attaches to the cradle and the inductive coupler sits behind the phone when it is located in the cradle.

I don't have any technical details as to losses incurred for the coupler solution, but as the Nokia has a very good internal antenna anyway, the loss would be minimal.

Bill

Your salesman wants you to buy the antenna kit or get rid of a less popular brand. the blue tick is not about antennae but a better handset.

I would go for the blue tick and get the antenna kit later if you reallly need it.

From what I have read about Telstra, you cannot rely on anything they say and thats from personal experience too.

But some one else may have a better informed opinion than mine cos thats all it is.


Owen

Although the 6120 is a reasonable phone, many in our company have found the 165 has slightly better reception in marginal areas (NE Vic) when the external aerial is put up. Can't help with a reception comparison with the LG & Samsung phones as we don't use them at work.
Cheers Craig.......

Refer Thread 56772.

Talked to a tech today about the lack of coverage with my phone lg550, and he was great as he told me the next G coverage was bleep e, he said hope it gets better but he can't guarantee it.

Also when CDMA is turned off they don't know if the signal will be any better

All the blue tick phones have to have an external antenna.

The 6120 is a fantastic phone and it has been noted that it does out perform the other phones.

The Force cradle with the passive antenna connection does work because we have tried it.

I would look at the E51 over the 6120 as the E51 is a much better phone to use and the functions it has.


Regards Richard

I have 3 brands of NextG mobiles (personal, work, family members), and the coverage for all of them is about 50% of the coverage on my old CDMA phone. Having said that, they are all equally poor, so no brand stands out as being "better". I'm hoping the signal will improve once the CDMA signal is turned off, but I'm not holding my breath!!

Cheers
John

I think there is some sense in that advice Ian.

We have LG550 ,A411 & 6120 and 6120 is a good phone, its more sensitive than LG but I have not yet been able to see a clear advantage over the Samsung or my still operative CDMA.

The Samsung with external aerial clearly beats 6120 without.

The Samsung is clear winner in the value for money stakes particularly if your mostly after a phone ours was $134 and our 6120 was $300.

Its speakphone isn't as good as 6120, but the means of using and holding this flip phone is growing on us and the natural way to hold it delivers good audio level to the ears and keeps the radiation into one's brain down.

Its fixed 54mb of memory and VGA only camera are wonderful if you don't use these features and its much larger keys and very large text when entering a number combined with small size when in your pocket make it easy to live with.

The 6120 candy bar style fits more easily into a holder on the dash and scrathces more easily when in the pocket.

Its has much better camera and the ability to expand the memory to store large files and more gadjet features.

OK I have a cheapo much maligned ZTE .

When linked to my 7Db CDMA aerial it has better GSM coverage than my wife's fancy Nokia GSM with all the singing and dancing bits without an aerial.

It held a signal at Cotter Dam in a gorge near Canberra with no bars, long enough to have a phone call when the Nokia had no hope. Same happened at Winghan Inlet in East Victoria.

It's strange but in both places there was no Next G signal but there was GSM so I cannot comment on Next G performance.

But the moral is that even a crap phone performs well with a good aerial.
Regards Philip A

Some of the info here is just plain wrong.

To be a Blue Tick phone you do NOT have to have an external aerial connection.

I have the Nokia N95 v3 and it is blue tick and has no external aerial capabilities.

Peter

Thanks to all who have responded. Looks like the 6120 is a pretty good bet if you aren't interested in an external antenna. And we have managed OK without one on our GSM and CDMA phones to date, so...

Looks like we have no choice now but to bite the bullet and get a Next-G - but it still annoys the hell out of me that we have to continue pouring money into this mob of lying shysters. Oh, for some real competion to the big T outside the major cities.

Thanks again,
Ian