Cincinnati Bell Blaze Review

[pejk811]

Ok, I have had this phone for about 2 - 2 1/2 months. Lots of trial and error on both my part and the part of the staff at the Cincy Bell Store.

1) Lots of missed calls. Meaning the phone would not ring when a call was coming in. Yes, the phone was set to ring - it just wouldn't. Calls would just go to vm.

Brought it to the store and they had no clue. They did discover through checking things out that I had been given the phone with a "regular" SIM card as opposed to a 3G SIM card - so they fixed that. Not that it made any difference in why the phone was not ringing. This went on for a day or two more, then it was fine.

2) Phone will all of the sudden decide you are done with whatever app you are working with and close it.

This happens frequently and is highly annoying.

3) Also annoying is that the screen will go black when you are in call mode so if you need to enter in numbers or something it can be a chore to get the keypad back again. Most often happens when trying to access voice mail.

4) Likes to run a lot of applications that you weren't even using in the background - even after you may have close them out.

and the number 5 thing, or the number 1 thing however you want to look at it, that has pushed me over the edge:

Is that after 2 months of use, the phone no longer works! yup, that is right friends. It just up and quit Monday. I went to turn it on, the Cincy Bell screen came up, the Android screen came up with its cheery little tune, the screen went black and then it started all over and it cycled through this numerous times without the phone engaging.

Took it to the Cincy Bell Store - and they had no clue. (But at least they were able to reproduce the problem) So now I am waiting for my replacement. This will cost me "$10 processing fee" because according to the, oh so helpful, representative at the insurance company my problem is a warranty issue. If it had been an insurance issue I would have had to pay anywhere between $40 and $165 plus the processing fee" to replace it.

So am I thrilled with the Blaze? Not so much.

 

[Feh]

That is awful! I am surprised at CinBell for doing that! I had a Blackberry 8320 from them and it stopped working. Turned out it was a faulty memory card (which I replaced for $40) BUT they worked on it with my 11 times with no complaints from them until they found out what was causing it. Yes, I had to buy the replacement card and I also had to buy wireless care but they were decent about it. They even gave me a new Blackberry! The same model, freel. I think you were treated not so well. That Blaze looked really good in the store, and the price was right, too. Too bad the running of the phone was not so good. I am surprised and not happy to hear that about CinBell. I suspect that they had tightened up and gotten a good deal meaner since the first part of this year.

 

[Deleted User]

When your screen goes black, how do you make it come back? I've had the same problem, but have failed to rectify it, so any advice would be appreciated.

 

[jimmer]

The Blaze is terrible don't waste your time or money. The browser would not function on secure sites after mutiple calls to tech support finally found out must download the Opera browser.
Then the phone just stopped working within 10 days of it being purchased brand new. Would not come on at all, tryed to charge and the red light stayed on regardless of how long it was on the charger. The service at Cincinnatti Bell is also horrible. Save yourself some grief buy a different Droid from a different company.

 

[pejk811]

When your screen goes black, how do you make it come back? I've had the same problem, but have failed to rectify it, so any advice would be appreciated.

I would press the button at the top of the phone repeatedly, but this did not help much when you are trying to get your voicemail and it keeps squacking at you to enter your id or whatever. Unfortunatly, until you get the screen to come back on, you cannot get the keypad to come up to enter in the numbers you need to.

Has happened once or twice with this new phone, but it is still plenty annoying!

 

[cmandmc1991]

How much does the Cincinnati Blaze cost in the store off of the contract?

 

[steve860]

Wow, bad reviews. I have had for while. I enjoy it, never had black screen, I set my lock time screen time for 1 minute. Took a while to get used to key board but t his is my first touch phone. I surf, text, wifi etc. no problems. I have three friends that have same phone with no problems. Sorry you have had bad luck with it. I do dislike the battery life. Only con I have.

 

[NightAngel79]

The Blaze is terrible don't waste your time or money. The browser would not function on secure sites after mutiple calls to tech support finally found out must download the Opera browser.
Then the phone just stopped working within 10 days of it being purchased brand new. Would not come on at all, tryed to charge and the red light stayed on regardless of how long it was on the charger. The service at Cincinnatti Bell is also horrible. Save yourself some grief buy a different Droid from a different company.

While i'm not a huge fan of their network they really do have the fastest 3g in the area, i gotta give that to them. The Droid line at Verizon are vastly superior phones IMO though.

 

[pilotman]

If this phone were a person it would be mentally ******ed. This phone is horrible. First of all, it has a mind of its own. Whenever it feels like it wants to it calls a random person from my contacts. On average this happens once per day. The phone also turns itself off at random. Again, probably about once per day it does this. As far as texting or typing on this.. I would rather type on a 1950s typewriter. It is horrible! The auto text sucks horribly! And not to mention to type on this phone is (well, nevermind.. I cant use expletives in this forum). Thats just to do with the operation of the phone... Now, not sure if this part is the phone or the network, but lets start with emails. I delete emails from my phone and magically they just reappear. Then, when I do get an email, it comes in on average 1-3 hours after it was first sent. My phone will for hours on end, not ring. Those who call me let me know "I've been trying to call you for the last 6 hours man and it just keeps going straight to voicemail". This phone is garbage. No wonder it was free, or 20 bucks or whatever it was. I wish I had my blackberry back because this phone sucks!!

 

[Gregg in Cincy]

Well, I've had mine 3 days now, and I gotta ask, was this phone designed for ******ed monkeys, or by ******ed monkeys?

It takes about 20 hours to charge the battery, and making a 6 minute call reduces it to 60%, so it's not really a mobile phone as you can't go any further away from a power source than the length of your charging cable. That would be fine to use in the car, but although Ford's "Synch" can connect to almost any device known to man, getting this one to work with it so far requires going through the setup procedure every time you restart the engine. Oh, and between the almost impossible to use keyboard and the fact that if you do manage to get a few characters right in about 3 tries per letter, the keyboard shuts down at random in the middle so you have to start over a few times.
Speaking of random events, I really think the only way to properly appreciate this thing's total unpredictability is to read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I left it sitting on the nightstand last night and it made 3 calls in the middle of the night. Really, unless the dog felt the need to call my doctor, my sister at work or some telemarketer who it chose to call back. I do like the irony of it calling people I don't like in the wee hours, but I think it was like noon in Calcutta or where ever the call center is, so it even screwed that up.
As I sit here now, 300 yards from a cell tower, it is searching for a signal, and when I tried to go find an app to shutdown all the useless background stuff it runs, using slightly more power to do so than an aircraft carrier generates when they shut down one reactor for maintenance, it gives me the "not registered on network" error.

Sorry if I sound like I don't like it, or even that I sound as if I don't appreciate all the wonderful bells, whistles, lights and sounds it makes to impress anyone around me, but I'm one of those people who buys a phone SO I CAN TALK TO PEOPLE ON THE DAMN PHONE which apparently something this thing cannot do.
I got it for free and I grossly overpaid at that. If you need a phone, I would suggest two tin cans and a string before this one.

 

[NightAngel79]

Try the milestone or that new Sammy, every one I know that got the blaze has had problems, not sure who makes it off top of head but you're better off with the Motorola or Sammy.....

 

[wbdennis]

Wow, I have had my Blaze for 9 months now without any of the problems everyone is talking about. Not a single one. Did any of you ROOT your phone is my question?

My gripe was when I bought it (july), I was told they was going to upgrade to Android 2.1 from 1.6 in a few months. In November, I called to check on that, and the India customer support said that it would never happen, that the phone would not support it. In January, I get a text from Cincinnati Bell to do the upgrade to 2.1. I goto the store to do it, and I found out that the 2.1 upgrade was available in November, one week after I had called support. That was BS. Seriously doubt the 2.2 is going to happen. Luckily, the community has made 2.2, I am just afraid to try it.

 

[NightAngel79]

Well howdy neighbor!! (i live in covington)
Glad to hear phone has been treating you well. Just talked a co worker into android and he went with the blaze....

 

[pejk811]

Wow, I have had my Blaze for 9 months now without any of the problems everyone is talking about. Not a single one. Did any of you ROOT your phone is my question?

I can't speak for anyone else but I am on my 3rd Blaze since my initial post and none of them have been ROOTed (whatever that means) Yes, 3 handsets so I don't know what the problem is - could it be that our local store has gotten a batch of bad handsets? could it be my aura affects the Blaze in a bad way? I have no way of knowing, but I am really tired of this.

I have been to a couple of different Cin Bell stores and called them when I was in the middle of Indiana and having issues (phone support = not so much!) I don't think anyone knows how this thing is supposed to work.

As soon as my maintenance agreement (HA!) or whatever it is ends, I am done with Cin Bell!

 

[NightAngel79]

In defense of cincybell we are getting a solid HTC and the nexus S. Both are WORLDS better than any other phone IMO. From what I've heard/seen the blaze is a total dud

 

[Gmash]

In defense of cincybell we are getting a solid HTC and the nexus S. Both are WORLDS better than any other phone IMO. From what I've heard/seen the blaze is a total dud

The Huawei Ascend X is pretty nice, too, but I'm thinking about getting the Nexus S. Thats a great deal for $300 off contract. I can't believe they are calling the HTC Panache (mytouch)4g when it is only listed as 7.2mbps HSDPA. At least the Ascend X is 14.4 mbps HSDPA, and even thats pushing it as far as being considered 4g.

 

[heaven p]

ive had my blaze for about a year now...within the first few weeks of having it....i couldnt get on the internet send pics or anything...i had service it jus wouldnt work...i took it into the store they gave me a new sim card an sent me on my way....a month later the phone decides when i turn it on tht it just wants to keep resetting itself....i take it back,they say they dont know what is wrong with it...they replace it at no charge same day right then and there....a couple months later the phone starts turning itself off atleast 6 times a day,whether im in the middle of a call or whatever im doing....ive been dealing with this problem for months now...figure eventually ill be on my third...ive also noticed in the store tht they have completly taken it off the shelve....they are done with it? i think so...problem is i signed a contract...pfft what was i thinking...the phone looked really cool at first...but actually having it im completly unsatisfied...i give the motorola blaze 2 thumbs down

 

[NightAngel79]

ive had my blaze for about a year now...within the first few weeks of having it....i couldnt get on the internet send pics or anything...i had service it jus wouldnt work...i took it into the store they gave me a new sim card an sent me on my way....a month later the phone decides when i turn it on tht it just wants to keep resetting itself....i take it back,they say they dont know what is wrong with it...they replace it at no charge same day right then and there....a couple months later the phone starts turning itself off atleast 6 times a day,whether im in the middle of a call or whatever im doing....ive been dealing with this problem for months now...figure eventually ill be on my third...ive also noticed in the store tht they have completly taken it off the shelve....they are done with it? i think so...problem is i signed a contract...pfft what was i thinking...the phone looked really cool at first...but actually having it im completly unsatisfied...i give the motorola blaze 2 thumbs down

Hmmm, didn't think it was a moto phone..... But yes Cincy bell failed with this one. They are however getting much better phones now

 

[jmkosh@fuse.ne]

Has anyone bought a new battery for the CB Blaze F800 phone. Is it possible??

 

[NightAngel79]

Has anyone bought a new battery for the CB Blaze F800 phone. Is it possible??

I looked around... doesn't seem like it