Sony Ericsson T616 released only $300

[MJGunn]

Originally posted by: 'BARtMAN'
I finally stopped at one, and they had two left. They wanted $371 without a contract?!? What's up with that?

you were probably at a dealer, not a corporate store

 

['BARtMAN']

how can you tell? the place was called "cingular" heh...

 

[MJGunn]

Yeah, I know, around here, a lot of the dealers look just like a corporate store. The fact that they were charging you $371 for a $300 phone is a good sign that it was one though (they can set whatever price they want)

Edit: Also, if you don't have cingular, you might want to try your sim in the phone before you buy. Some of the phones are coming locked now.

 

['BARtMAN']

I've got a service cable (got it for my t68is) so I'm not worried about it being locked...

 

[riznick]

If you get a locked one, all you need is a T28 service cable and a T610/T616 unlocking log credit. What is nice about that, is you can unlock the phone yourself at home.

 

[50]

So will cingular start carrying these phones for their own plans? And do you know if this is a west coast only thing or is it nation wide...cause it pisses me off, they give the east coast the nokia 3595 and the west coast the Sony erricson t610 for 30 dollars less!

 

['BARtMAN']

They do carry it with their plans, you get $150 off from the corp store with act. or $50 off for an upgrade (depends what you have now, I don't remeber what you needed). I was just there and picked up the T616
It was unlocked too, I checked while I was there...

 

['BARtMAN']

I just sent my phone into globalmob.com to get firmware upgraded. The new uncustomized version gives better RF signal, and faster menus... Plus it'll get rid of all that cingular crap...

I also picked up a krusell case. It's a good idea to buy one if you don't have one already, since you have to pay the shipping back for your phone away. There was also a $5.50 off coupon you can find on that front page, under 08.01.03 to 08.10.03 - Krusell Sale!. So for 45 bucks, you get a really nice case, and your firmware updated. (you still have to pay shipping to them, for UPS from me it was $4.77 with insurance)

 

[supernancy]

Can you add your own little programs to this phone?

 

[dethman]

my sis just picked up one of these for only $50 with a 1 year contract with cingular at one of those chinese places in monterey park. after the $50 rebate for sending in her old phone, it's a pretty sweet phone for free.

 

[BarneyFife]

Originally posted by: rasputinj
Good deal for the T616, glad to here reception is better than the T68i, that phone sucked, looked good, but worked just better than the dummy phones they have on display...

I agree about the t68i. I bought one last year because I heard so many great things about it. I still have it but I can say that I've never been too happy about it. The voice quality on my friends Sprint is much better.

 

['BARtMAN']

I just got my T616 back after being flashed, the RF signals seem to be a lot better. Where I use to get one bar, I get 2-4 now! It still doesn't pickup a signal where I had no signal (which no phone seems to be able to get a signal on AT&T). The earpiece is a lot louder, I can actually hear people when in a crowded room or outside in the wind...

 

[pmoa]

well you could still get a t316 with an $80 rebate with a trade in phone at cingular. If you sign a two year contract the t316 is 79.99 so it would be free! plus tax of course. AND right now you can get teh camera attachment for 50 dollars with a 50 MIR. I think its pretty steamy. I have the t316 and its great

 

[halik]

this is my next phone,
my att contract expires sometime in the early fall so ill ebay my t68i and get a different one (i even have the mp3 player for t68)

 

[Savarak]

you can also remove _almost_ all Cingular customizations with a 13 second(i did mine at ~8 seconds to remove ALL Cingular customizations) trick... just start a memory reset, and after you press Yes, count to 13 seconds while it says "please wait", and pop out the battery. When you restart the phone, let it finish starting, and all the junk themes and sounds that you won't use will be gone... at ~8 secs, even the cingular startup/shutdown logos are gone, as well as any games sounds and themes! It also frees up a ton of memory(777 Kb free on my T316... much more room for games and sounds and pictures)!

 

[MJGunn]

On the t616, the 13 (or 8) second trick works to stop the sounds/pics/games from being lodaded, but does nothing for the cingular customizations

 

[sngryng]

if you buy from at&t wireless on-line, the price for new subscribers is $119.99. plus they have a web special where you get an extra $50 off, and free shipping and free headset. seems like a great deal considering cingular sells for $300 (albeit unlocked)

 

[IgoByte]

This is a nice deal.

 

['BARtMAN']

that's 300 without a contract, and the deal for at&t is with one... I doubt at&t will sell it without a contract like cingular either...

 

[sngryng]

total cost for at&t including a one year contract (300 anytime, unlimited NW, free nationwide long distance and roaming) is

$70 (phone)
$30*12 (plan)
$36 (activation)
-----------------------
466.00

which means that the plan is adding $166 on top of the cingular cost for the phone only. this amounts to about $14 per month for the plan, which is pretty hard to beat if you were going to take the cingular phone and shop for another gsm provider.

of course, if you are a current subscriber, then probably none of what i says applies. i'm just bringing it up b/c my contract with cingular expired two months ago and i'm ready start as a new subscriber with attws

 

['BARtMAN']

yeah see that's where I was sol, I bought service with attws got a free T68is with a 1 year plan about 3 months ago. I couldn't stand that phone. I unlocked it and sold it off for 100 bucks after I got the T616 from cingular, couldn't be happier!