Tuesday, January 18, 2011

My new Huawei U7519 phone from Videotron




I just switched from Rogers to Videotron for my mobile service.  I'm not a heavy cell phone user and don't have a data plan (with either Rogers or Videotron).  My cell phone bill was cut almost in half when I switched.  The service is basically the same in both cases and Videotron has much better technical support.  I also like their website which lets you see how many minutes you've used.

The one downside to Videotron is their lack of selection in terms of phones.  But this is getting better.  I went for the cheapest option at the time which was a Huawei U7519 phone.  Apparently they're the number 2 phone manufacturer in the world behind Nokia.  Who'd have thunk it!  But the phone is pretty useless if you want to use it for anything other than just a phone.  It comes with the sync software already on the phone.  All you do is plug the phone into your computer and it automatically installs it on your PC (no Mac support at all).  But the sync function with Outlook doesn't work.  It just keeps making duplicates of all your contacts.

The phone itself has no keypad.  It's one big touch screen.  But the responsiveness isn't there.  I also have an iPod Touch so I guess I'm biased.  The interface is clunky and not very user friendly.  I haven't found any applications that you can load on it, or even how to do it if there were any.  I should have spent the extra $20 or so and gone for a Nokia...

I went to the Huawei website to see if there were any apps or firmware updates, but I couldn't even find the phone listed!

I also had to go into a Videotron store and swap my phone.  The first one I got would shut down for no reason from time to time.  I would look at my phone to see if I had missed a call and it would be off!  There was no problem swapping it for another one since it was under warranty.  The new one has been working fine.

As a side note, there are new rules in Canada that limit the amount of penalty that you have to pay when you cancel any contract.  I didn't think that this applied to me since I signed the contract over 2 years ago.  But all you have to do is make a change to your contract so that its renewed as of the day of the change.  Then it falls under this rule and you can cancel it and only have to pay the smaller penalty.



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