[barjohn]

I just returned from a trip with the 7100t. I took along a 7230 and a Verizon phone LG4500. Trip was from LA area to DC and down to Quantico Virginia area. I stayed in Crystal city area. Here is what I found:

1. 7100t shows the greates variance in signal strength with units side by side. Anything below 3 bars is very unstable with signal strength varying and as soon as you try and actually use a data connection it is likely to go to no signal. With voice, it will have erratic connection and drop the call. If you can get above 3 bars, the voice is clear and great and the data connection works well for a 40kb system. I used it as a modem and when the signal was good it worked very well.

2. The 7230 usually showed a 1 bar better signal with less variance in signal strength. No modem capability so I couldn't really test data in the same way. I have never been impressed with the browser function on the 7230 even after the mod.

3. Verizon phone always showed a good strong signal (3 plus bars) but lately their service has gotten flakey and even with a strong signal there is a lag between the connection and the other party being able to hear you. Voice quality is not as clear and much to my surprise it drops calls even with a strong signal.

I also tried with the ATT voice only SIM and got a consistently stronger signal, even on the 7230 that only has 900 (not 850) band. This is a major switch for ATT as in the past their signal was always crap.

Finally, I had a major problem with the 7100 where it didn't want to boot up. I am not sure if it was caused by my adding the two new themes posted on this board or the games I added. It took me an hour of playing and finally wiping the unit clean and reinstalling the OS before I could get it to boot up. Maybe it was just an anomally, I don't know. Just a word of warning to make sure you have a backup to restore to.

One other observation to share. Syncing with Outlook has resulted in various strange deletions and changes to my outlook data with users being deleted from my address book and appointments removed. It especially likes to remove appoinments after they have passed, even though I like to keep them to refer back to them. I don't know how to change this behavior.