My experiences with Barcelona Plus - bluetooth jsr 82 - sms reply

[VencaVenca]

I have recently bought this china mobile phone:

Barcelona Plus - Quadband Dual SIM Wifi Cellphone + DVB-T

Generally I like the phone and I can recommend it to most buyers however there are some problems I have found and still have no solution. This could be help for other buyers and maybe there is someone who can help me to solve it. I have send first review to the seller's web but it seems they censored my opinion without any response/feedback so I decided to bring the issue here.

Here is my list (for some other first time user problems I already found solutions):

- SMS reply does not save the message which was sent as reply - I did not find any settings where I can influence this behaviour. If you send the SMS as "new" message, you have the option "Send" "Send and Save" however when you reply to incoming message, there is now way how to specify that you want save this mesage. This is really big problem in my eyes as I require to archive important replies. Any help is welcomed as this is really big problem for me.

- JAVA does NOT support bluetooth. I am NOT 100% sure, but it seems that the java bluetooth support JSR-82 is not supported. This means that java applications what use bluetooth will not work or will be unable to operate over bluetooth.

- I don't know how to change the text font. The size of the font is too big. This is good for my mother however when the text font size is too big, some portion of the text is not visible.

[astrotech]

Hi All,

I have the same phone too, generally like what VencaVenca says, it's a good phone given on that price - Wifi, BT, DVB-T + analogue, dual sim - great! This is my second "China Phone" already and this one is definitely better then my old one.

Pros:
- Sound quality (MP3 + Voice) is pretty good (only when using with headphones)
- Java platform is quite stable - with MSN and FB etc
- Writing recognition is good and smooth - tested in writing Chinese and English
- Battery life is still pretty good even when Wifi is on
- Screen size is big even the resolution isn't that good
- Stable and smooth when playing video files - MP4
- Reception is pretty good for Analogue TV - even indoors,
- it's pretty good too for DVB-T - only when you are outdoor
- Able to record TV
- Dual Sim works fine
- Bejweled (a tetris-like game) built-in!

Cons:
But I also have found some problems that I am not sure whether it is the problem of my phone or it just happened to all owners:

<Radio>
- Not working properly - always starts with no signal until I do an auto search for the channel that I want - it makes the channel list useless as it cannot switch to the channel without an auto search

<TV>
- I need to plug in the headphone after the TV is started to make it work, otherwise, speakers won't be muted
- Bluetooth won't work with TV
- It comes with an SD tuner (i.e. no HD channels), but it will not skip HD channels, so screen will be frozen if I tune into a HD channel, then I need to reset the phone. (Analogue TV works fine)
- cannot remove channel from channel list

<Others>
- YouTube / streaming media is not working
- Cannot listen to radio / MP3 when java is running, and NO, java on this phone won't work with BT
- No wallpaper on "desktop" (main screen), only displays when screen is locked
- Bluetooth connection not stable if the handsfree is more than 1m away from the phone (even worse when Wifi is on)
- As with other "China Phones", ring tones are too loud

Can anyone confirm with me are those the problems that you are having too?

There are so many features that I have not tested yet, for examples built-in voice mail, adding background noise to a call, blocking calls etc. I might need to do another post here soon

Cheers.

[alibaba4]

Hello,
I leave in France and my phone Barcelona Plus can't receive DVB-T TV.
It can't connect to free hotspots with WIFI ( it say bad settings") but can connect on my personal wifi ?????
Is someone got an idea ???
Thank you for your answers and sorry for my poor English !

[madEPmaX]

hey all,

got this phone a week now and it's a good phone for the money.

I got it on chinavision.com.. quick delivery to the netherlands

some of the cons mentioned i have encountered too.

wlan via my home router works fine, ******** not tested yet.

TV option : analog not transmitted anymore in my country and dvb-t only available with (decoder) subscribtion with a provider

my question:

where can i download working java apps for this phone?

I'v tried some on getjar.com but don't seem to get 'm to work 100%, most touchscreen related..

My last phone was a Samsung d500, so i'm a newbie with these java apps.

[astrotech]

I am from Australia, and I bought this on eBay from an Aussie reseller.

I think this phone comes with 2 versions: one with DVB-T another one is Analogue only. So please double check.

There are not many free wifi hotspots in Australia, but I will try if I come across one and let you know. I guess it maybe because the wireless router used in the hotspots didn't work well with java-based browser (e.g. Opera mini this phone has), or didn't properly recognised the MAC address of the phone.

Originally Posted by alibaba4

Hello,
I leave in France and my phone Barcelona Plus can't receive DVB-T TV.
It can't connect to free hotspots with WIFI ( it say bad settings") but can connect on my personal wifi ?????
Is someone got an idea ???
Thank you for your answers and sorry for my poor English !

[astrotech]

Hi,

DVB-T should be a free TV broadcast service given that you have the equipment (say a new digital TV, set top box or tuner), it is not a subscription server like cable TV, since I don't know where you are from, I can only give you basic info.

There's a bit of trial-and-error on whether a particular Java app would run on your phone, because there are so many variations on apps and platforms in addition to touch screen: screen resolution, required keys / buttons on your phone etc. So cannot give you a definite answer, but interestingly some websites recognise my Barcelona phone as Sony Ericsson W800i Anyway...

Cheers.

Originally Posted by madEPmaX

hey all,

got this phone a week now and it's a good phone for the money.

I got it on chinavision.com.. quick delivery to the netherlands

some of the cons mentioned i have encountered too.

wlan via my home router works fine, ******** not tested yet.

TV option : analog not transmitted anymore in my country and dvb-t only available with (decoder) subscribtion with a provider

my question:

where can i download working java apps for this phone?

I'v tried some on getjar.com but don't seem to get 'm to work 100%, most touchscreen related..

My last phone was a Samsung d500, so i'm a newbie with these java apps.

[tpk60]

Hi All i have a Barcelona Plus im in the land down under and with Optus the problem im having is MMS downloading the photos that have been sent to you it gives me a message when trying to get the photos downloaded GPRS Not Subscribed can anyone Help Please

[Syzygy2010]

Originally Posted by astrotech

Hi All,

I have the same phone too, generally like what VencaVenca says, it's a good phone given on that price - Wifi, BT, DVB-T + analogue, dual sim - great! This is my second "China Phone" already and this one is definitely better then my old one.

. . . .

Cons:
But I also have found some problems that I am not sure whether it is the problem of my phone or it just happened to all owners:

<Radio>
- Not working properly - always starts with no signal until I do an auto search for the channel that I want - it makes the channel list useless as it cannot switch to the channel without an auto search"


Astrotech, I have the same problem. It confused me at first, but the symptoms you describe happen to me as well.


<TV>
- I need to plug in the headphone after the TV is started to make it work, otherwise, speakers won't be muted
- Bluetooth won't work with TV
- It comes with an SD tuner (i.e. no HD channels), but it will not skip HD channels, so screen will be frozen if I tune into a HD channel, then I need to reset the phone. (Analogue TV works fine)
- cannot remove channel from channel list

Same with these problems. I had a bit of trouble on the first go in setting up the digital TV as the list of countries did not scroll when the phone was in the upright position. When I flipped it sideways, it then gave me the full list to scroll through and it appears to be OK since.

The TV app is a bit slow to start, so I have found that you need to give it a bit of time to fire up. Sometimes when I press the TV icon, the app will start, but the switch from analogue to digital double arrowed circle does NOT display and this is when I usually have trouble. Pressing the ON/OFF button quickly a couple of times as soon as I notice the circle missing gets it out of the app fairly quickly (even before the initial "blue screen" or actual program comes up to show it is working).

The HD TV channel is a real killer! SD cahnnels work well, but there doesn't seem to be a way to avoid HD channels, and that kills the app as you describe. I have found that if you press the ON/OFF button a coupls of times, the frozen screen will eventually go away. The home screen flashes up, and then the phone turns itself off. At least I don't have to remove the battery.

My other frustration is that I seem to need to re-search for the TV channels when I go from one part of town to another (as the frequencies that are transmited are different depending where you are located). There doesn't seem to be a way to lock in a given channel (and I assume this is also linked to the non-ability to lock out a channel - HD ones for example). The trouble is that, depending on the signal strength when you search for the channels, you may not get all the same channels each time you search. There isn't a way to associate frequencies with the channels.

Plugging in headphones does appear to improve the TV reception slightly! I am using standard MP3 earbuds (rather than the earphone and microphone supplied, as I find the earbuds somewhat uncomfortable).

Using this phone is a journey of discovery and finding gems as well as frustrations. I had a Sciphone I9+++ and liked it (especially the dual SIM feature). This phone is so much better (even with its little quirks and foibles).

. . .


Can anyone confirm with me are those the problems that you are having too?

There are so many features that I have not tested yet, for examples built-in voice mail, adding background noise to a call, blocking calls etc. I might need to do another post here soon

Cheers.

Astrotech, please see comments above.