12 December 2008
ZTE T165i regional 3G phone
Posted by Mick under: Equipment .
During the middle of this week, i finally purcahsed a new phone after my old Motorola RAZR got a crack on its front screen. After being on a really frequent upgrade path and always having the latest and greatest phones between 2000 and 2006, the RAZR was a really good simple phone and survived everything i threw at it.
So…in looking for a new NextG phone three things were on my list of must haves:
- A phone that worked really well in regional and remote areas
- A phone that could be connected to a computer and used as a modem
- A phone that could have an external antenna attached to it
After visiting the new T [life] store in Melbourne, i found all the things i was looking for in the ZTE T165i.
The phone specifications are:
Durable candy bar design with extendable antenna for maximum coverage. Ideal for all users offering top coverage performance in a durable case. Includes FM radio, daylight viewable QVGA display and 2 megapixel camera.
Main features:
Daylight viewable TFT LCD display
FM radio, MP3 player and ringtones
A-GPS (Assisted Global Positioning System) support
Tri band UMTS, Quad band GSM
Extendable antenna
Bluetooth 1.2 with stereo headset support
2.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with digital zoom
Dual camera design for video calling
T-Flash memory up to 4GB microSDHC
Personal organiser / calendar
Speakerphone
Java MIDP 2.0 for games and applications
USB connectivity included
Compatible with handsfree car kit with external antenna
Predictive text and built in dictionary for easy SMS
Large Li-ion battery for long lifeComes with:
USB cable
Windows 2000 (SP4), XP (SP2), Vista compatible PC software
MAC OS drivers and Dial Up Client
Personal handsfree kit
AC charger
User manualTechnical Specifications:
UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
HSDPA 7.2 Mbps*
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
250 hours standby, 3.5 hours talk time
TFT display 240 x 320, 262K colours
Java MIDP 2.0
Bluetooth 1.2 – FTP / HFP / A2DP (Stereo) / DUN
Size 117mm x 51mm x 16mm
Weight 119g (including standard battery)
The phone was apparently designed by ZTE in Australia, after Telstra’s request for a good regional NextG phone, and manufactured by ZTE in China.
At the country property, about 100km east of the Melbourne CBD, i have never been able to get my mobile phone to work or had any luck getting a working internet connection (except with a very funky modem and high gain antenna from work). I can’t get ADSL or ISDN because the place is to far from the closest exchange, the standard NextG modem won’t work accorsing to the NextG website, so that left me looking at a possible dual satellite setup. Even with the government rebate, the cost is excessive…for $500 a month you et a 4GB plan (15c per MB on excess) and speeds of 800kbps for downloads and 128 kbps for uploads.
Well…the T165i works fine as a NextG modem (with the external antenna) as i wrote this post with it from the country property :)
3 Comments so far...
Karen Says:
29 December 2008 at 14:08.
Hi, am looking at T165i and was wondering how good its rural coverage is. we travel a lot in the rural areas where my existing next g phone (motorola q9) is totally useless. Talking to the phone guys is useless because they only want to sell a phone. Also what have you found pros & cons. All I need is reliable coverage, good battery life. Cheers
Karen
Mick Says:
31 December 2008 at 23:02.
Hi Karen,
Since i picked up the T165i i’ve done a bit of travelling in the mountains east of Melbourne from the Upper Yarra Valley though to Licola and the coveragehas been pretty good. Obviosly the best coverage happened on top of mountains, but places that have never had any sort of mobile phone coverage, like the town of Noojee, still appear to be sitting a black hole. Using the external antenna certainly helped in getting good coverage as well.
With its ability to act as a modem for my laptop as well, and its rural capabilities I’m certainly glad that i picked the T165i.
Hope that helps
Mick
Michelle Williams Says:
23 April 2009 at 19:42.
This phone really is the best for communication in remote areas – we travel Arnhem land and Torres Straits constantly and it works where other phones won’t go. However its design of the keypad is awful. the text on the keypad is about 1pt and is silver on white – you can’t read it. Its mode of operation is not standard either so you have to change all your habits – get it together telstra.
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