Beware! Water soluable phones

[PabloPicasso]

I had a brand new Sony Erickson phone 3 months ago. very pleased with it's performance and took it cruising with me during the sunny weather in june without incident.

It now will not charge and, on closer inspection, one of the contacts where the charger plugs in has come unglued from its base. The guy in the shop says this is 'water damage' and not covered by warranty.

It seems the glue holding the contacts in place is water soluable and they simply come off in damp conditions. This lad that served me in the shop told me this had also happened to his Sony erickson phone.Again not covered by manufacturer's warranty

This is simply unforgivable. To glue phones together with glue that fails when exposed to the slightest damp conditions!! I mean, it never really rains in Britain or Ireland so would never be damp!!!!

 

[Searush]

Item "not of merchantable quality" springs to mind. Sale of goods act isn't it?

My £400 sexy phone fell in the sea while switched on. I didn't bother to wait for the tide to go out. It would need to be fully waterproofed to survive that & still probably wouldn't, but cameras & phones need to be useable in damp or rainy weather. I think your advisor is using a common cop-out to avoid responsibility.

 

[Bobobolinsky]

Apparently there is a mark inside phones, that changes colour if the phone has been immersed and thus the warranty void

 

[Searush]

Apparently there is a mark inside phones, that changes colour if the phone has been immersed and thus the warranty void

Yeah, but it's a bit sensitive to the caller's hot breath isn't it?

 

[andymcp]

Apparently there is a mark inside phones, that changes colour if the phone has been immersed and thus the warranty void

Certainly on the iPhone there is - a coloured band inside the headphones socket.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Yes on my sony erikson there is a white spot on the battery which turns red if immersed. But it was still white (ie; had never been wetted!!).

Anyway the phone has been sent away to the technicians and should be back in 5 to 7 days. We'll see what S/E experts say!!

But yes, I can't help feeling that phones that fall apart in damp conditions are not fit for purpose

 

[catalac08]

Dropped my old Nokia in the oggin - fished it out flushed with fresh water, dried it out and it worked fine. A while later it failed but this was only a little corrosion on the (gold plated?) contacts and fine since then.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Yes I'm baxk to using my brick like very old nokia. Perhaps nokia don't use water soluable glues in their phones, unlike some

 

[elton]

Mobile phones are engineered to be fragile. They need you to keep buying. If Garmin can make a submersible GPS there's no Earthly reason why phones can't be waterproof, and cheap.

 

[shmoo]

I fell overboard with mobile in side pocket. It got so hot I had a phone shaped scald on my thigh for days.

 

[planteater]

I put a Sony Ericson phone into the pocket of a fleece which I threw down into the tender and missed. It never worked again.

 

[Babylon]

Old Nokia Good, New Nokia Bad

After years and years of using the old blue Nokia 'builders phone' - almost bulletproof it was - I traded up last Autumn to a new Nokia 6700 Classic, mainly because I could back it up properly (its become my primary address-book) but also because it has a 5 mexapixel camera and does high-speed internet.

One week after the Orange 6mth warranty expired I dropped the new Nokia from a height of a few inches onto a wooden table and it wouldn't fire up again, despite having an anti-shock rubber sheath over it. It took a month for Nokia to repair it under their 24mth warranty. Two weeks later it has suddenly failed again.

I can send it back to Nokia again, but they won't replace it only have another go at repairing it. The guy at Orange says that for £60 they'll replace it (they cost about £180 new) but I must then take out £5/mth insurance. He added, off the record, that this model seems to have a pretty high failure rate.

As someone else has pointed out, the whole thing is a setup to get people to constantly upgrade - AND pay for insurance which shouldn't be needed if the products were properly fit for purpose.

FWIW Nokia and others do much more robust (anti-shock, anti-dust, properly water-resistant) modern mobile phones, but none of these are available as part of a contract upgrade, and they also tend to have limited features (ie slow internet, poor or no cameras, etc).

 

[agurney]

Student son's Nokia had a session in a glass of water (vibrate alarm did a walkabout off the bedside table). Worked fine after drying out.

Six months later the same phone was subjected to a soak in a two litre bottle of orange juice. It still works after a quick rinse.

Another for Nokia.

Alisdair

 

[wotayottie]

FWIW Nokia and others do much more robust (anti-shock, anti-dust, properly water-resistant) modern mobile phones, but none of these are available as part of a contract upgrade, and they also tend to have limited features (ie slow internet, poor or no cameras, etc).

So what you are really saying is that the phones you get either heavily subsidised or free in return for your monthly contract are the cheapest versions they can buy. Are you surprised? I'm not.

The real problem is that you have the phone and the contract bundled. If you went out and bought a phone for cash then decided who to make your calls through you would be in a much better position.

You dont buy your TV from the BBC do you? Or your car from BP.

 

[Babylon]

So what you are really saying is that the phones you get either heavily subsidised or free in return for your monthly contract are the cheapest versions they can buy. Are you surprised? I'm not.

The real problem is that you have the phone and the contract bundled. If you went out and bought a phone for cash then decided who to make your calls through you would be in a much better position.

You dont buy your TV from the BBC do you? Or your car from BP.

I don't disagree with this analysis at all, and if I could find what I need I'd be happy to pay good money for it and separate out the hardware from the contract.

But what bothers me most is that the modern 'robust' phones still lack the functionality and features that the main market lightweights offer - ie the 3720 which is Nokia's current 'builder's phone' only has 2G internet speeds and a **** camera. If they can fit 3G or better and a 5MP camera into a lightweight, then they can fit it into a robust unit.

I just can't be doing with phones that go on the blink at the slightest tease.

 

[powerone]

Okay might been stupid right now.

But why dont you get a cheap pay as you go phone unit. They charge about £10. Then swap you sim card for this phone when near water, people, mountians etc.

Then when home near water & people use the fancier phone.

 

[fisherman]

Keep mine in this

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDwQrQQwAg

and it floats

 

[webcraft]

Mobile phones are engineered to be fragile. They need you to keep buying. If Garmin can make a submersible GPS there's no Earthly reason why phones can't be waterproof, and cheap.

I've got a Samsung - can't remember the model - that is waterproof, dustproof and shockproof - cost me £99 SIM-free. The sales assistant referred to igt as a 'builders phone'. Great battery life too.

- W

 

[ricky_s]

I dropped my Sony Ericsson into a frying pan full of oil, not hot though.

Wiped most of it off and all looked fine. But next time I got a text if sounded horrible, I think the speaker got wet.

Over the next couple of months it returned to normal!

 

[PabloPicasso]

So I'm gonna gget a tough phone. Not sure which one. But will avoid the marketing of the major cell phone companies , at least to some degree