[sfla99]

Greetings all,

1st post on this forum, recently (2 days ago) got a 7100G as email phone to replace a razr I was using just for calls, but I cant live with out email at all times when I am away from a PC so I said what the hell, touch choice between the 7100 and a T650, but there are too many goodies coming in the next few months, made more sense to go with the 7100 and see what happens down the road.

Anyway, I have a few user questions if any of the guru's here might be willing to lend a hand.

1. Is there a way to quickly adjust the ringer volume on the handset ala normal phones? I do realize by placing the BB in the hoster it auto sets the handset to vibrate but some time when I just want to quickly turn the volume up or down or even set to vibrate its nice to be able to do so from just a shortcut.

2. I am trying to figure out what I can do to adjust the screen when in any form of natural daylight as it seems the 7100G completely washes out even in the smallest amount of sun.

3. Can I get some normal mono ring tones for the BB? The oldschool phone ring is cute and all but I am a more traditional user, I like having the plane jane digital cell phone ring, not some funky hip-hop or techno jingle.

4. I am noticing some hardships with volume levels of both the earpiece aswell as the ringer, I was in the mall today and tried my hardest on full volume to hear a voicemail and it was damn near impossible, its like the plastic shell of the 7100 causes some form of muffled echo when there is background noise (no cancelation maybe?), in place of business it works wonderfully and clean, but as soon as your in the car or in public its hard to hear things.

last question which is more of a general one but, is the 7100G supposed to be a full featured BB or is it more of an entry level BB? I see most people go with the full qwerty and all, are there any real diferenced between the 7100 series and the other model? I belive it is the 7290?

I am on cingular and not sure exactly of the model number of the black full qwerty model. All in all for retrieving email and making phone calls its a pretty slick device. Wish the BT wasn't so gimped but I understand the reasoning for corperate usage and all. I am not on a BES and just forwarding email from my server to my BB email addy to keep the speeds faster than the polling 15 minutes so it woorks pretty fine for me.

Anyways, thank you in advance for any help you could offer or suggestions to overcome the small issues I am running into. Unfortunately the documentation supplied with this unit is somewhat nonexistent, so its all forum reading to get the hang of things.

Cheers!

[NJBlackBerry]

Welcome to BBForums - I'll take a shot. I'm sure others will chime in...

1. Is there a way to quickly adjust the ringer volume on the handset ala normal phones? I do realize by placing the BB in the hoster it auto sets the handset to vibrate but some time when I just want to quickly turn the volume up or down or even set to vibrate its nice to be able to do so from just a shortcut.

To turn the volume up or down, use the trackwheel. Can't be easier than that To set the BB to vibrate mode, from the home screen I believe you press and hold the * key (bottom row). Not 100% sure (doing that from memory - I have a 7290).

2. I am trying to figure out what I can do to adjust the screen when in any form of natural daylight as it seems the 7100G completely washes out even in the smallest amount of sun.

You can go into Settings - Screen/Keyboard and fool around with the contrast or brightness. But you've hit on one of my major faults with the 7100. Screen is great inside, but washes out in the sun.

3. Can I get some normal mono ring tones for the BB? The oldschool phone ring is cute and all but I am a more traditional user, I like having the plane jane digital cell phone ring, not some funky hip-hop or techno jingle.

There are loads of sites with 7100 ringtones - check the sticky threads - and I'm sure there are some traditional ones. I kind of liked the oldschool phone ring myself.

4. I am noticing some hardships with volume levels of both the earpiece aswell as the ringer, I was in the mall today and tried my hardest on full volume to hear a voicemail and it was damn near impossible, its like the plastic shell of the 7100 causes some form of muffled echo when there is background noise (no cancelation maybe?), in place of business it works wonderfully and clean, but as soon as your in the car or in public its hard to hear things.

I have no words of wisdom on this one; I keep my BB in a holster and sometimes miss calls because of the low volume. Maybe one day RIM will address that.

last question which is more of a general one but, is the 7100G supposed to be a full featured BB or is it more of an entry level BB? I see most people go with the full qwerty and all, are there any real diferenced between the 7100 series and the other model? I belive it is the 7290?

E-Mail and PIM functionality are identical on the 7100 and the 7290. The keyboard and screen are the major differences. I classify the 7100 as a consumer BlackBerry, but not entry level.

Just my 2 cents!

[krisnut]

My phone rings only 3 times before it goes to the Voicemail box. This is frustrating because I miss calls that way. On the main menu screen, I went to "Profile" and then inside a specific profile I went to "phone", clicked the trackwheel, click Edit, and go down to "Number of beeps" to adjust it in the drop-down menu. The options there are only 1,2,3.

Is there a way to have more number of rings before incoming calls get to my voice msg?
Please help! Thanks!

[drlew]

I believe this is a function of the voicemail carrier and requires a call to their customer service to adjust the number.

[jasonb]

Yeah, if you call the provider thery should be able to change the number of rings for you.

[cjoshdoll]

7100 series = Phone with email support
All others = Email device with phone support

IMO. If you are more email based the other models are the way to go. However if you spend much time using the phone (and dont want to use a decent headset) the 7100 is the only decent answer.

[hughvh]

Originally Posted by krisnut

Is there a way to have more number of rings before incoming calls get to my voice msg?

I recently call Cingluar about this. They said they can ring your phone upto 30 seconds for free. (The default is 20.) They can make ring it longer, but then they would have to charge you airtime. Even if you don't answer the call and it goes to voice mail.

[xsw]

I have the same back ground noise problem as well. I am on my THIRD 7100g (yes cingular). I think it makes no difference, because it's not related to the network.

For those of you who say that they have never experienced the problem, do this: Drive in your car at about 40MPH w/ the windows rolled up, radio off, and fan low. Call your home/office voicemail and don't say much. You will hear a TREMENDOUS amount of background noise! This is what everyone hears when they talk to you. I did something further. On the same stretch of road, I left myself another voicemail from my cheap (FREE), 2 year old Nokia phone on Cingular. Same driving conditions, and it was so quiet that my voicemail would hang up because it thinks I am done leaving a message. This occurs w/ or w/o the headset.

This is the WORST cell phone I've ever had as well, and I've had cell phones since the TRANSPORTABLE (cell phone in a suit case) cell phone days! If we all complain to RIM, perhaps somebody will do something about it. I can't believe this is their new flagship product.

[penguin3107]

Troll. Look at this guys other posts.... exact same post in 5 different threads.
Probably a PalmOne employee.

[CodyMac]

Originally Posted by penguin3107

Troll. Look at this guys other posts.... exact same post in 5 different threads.
Probably a PalmOne employee.

Word.

I thought I had seen this before...