Okay, it's that time again - New Phone!

I am looking to acquire the best Bluetooth / TCH compatibility without sacrificing battery life.

I have searched all the threads but wanted to start one specific to Cingular.

Thoughts?

 

I can speak with certainty that my Blackberry 8700 from Cingular would not let you transfer an entire phonebook at one time. I've yet to try it with the 8800, but I've heard that does work.

In general the battery life is cut by about 40-50% by using bluetooth connections, with Cingular phones. I've seen that on my wife's Nokia 6012 as well.

I have noticed that my TCH doesn't properly display the battery life either, and as it gets weaker, the bluetooth begins to cut out. As it should. Many times though, my 8700 would have 3 bars on the phone, and 1 bar on the NAV display, and that was the border for the calls to begin cutting out.

 

The Blackjack only lets you transfer one entry at a time, and does not display signal strength or battery level. In addition, if you use a BT headset when outside of the car, you have to go to a settings menu to set which device the Blackjack uses. And every so often you have to power cycle the phone to re-boot it - it is a Windows device after all.

I hope the Apple iPhone eliminates these shortcomings.

 

Are you saying that some phones will transmit their battery life to the TCH and it will display that? Is this true on the non-NAV models? If so, where would that appear? Thanks.

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Sync and TCH? My daughter has had one for a few months and in general, as a phone and MP3, loves it. She hasn't really used the BT features though.

 

The NAV TCH has a display for battery level and signal strength in the upper right corner of the first telephone screen. I have a NAV, and know not if or where such things are displayed on a non-NAV. I also decided to try a Blackberry 8800 instead of the Samsung Blackjack, and it works very well with the TCH.

The Blackberry 8800 transfers the entire contact list to the car's phone book in one transfer, shows signal and battery levels, allows you to dial through thr car or the phone, and the call quality is decent ( and so far better battery life and no re-boots like the Blackjack). And the toyota.letstalk.com site incorrectly reports that you can't transfer contacts to the car's phonebook. When I tried it, the battery was fully charged and the car showed a fully charged battery.

The 8800 will connect with multiple BT devices. I can get in the car and get an immediate connect, and leave the car, turn on my Motoroloa H800 headset, and get an immediate connect. The H800 headset even supports the 8800's voice dialing feature. Sweet!!