Is the Universal worth $200 ?

[Harry Tuttle]

Like a lot of people I've broken the mini-usb port in my Uni, thank goodness for Blue tooth,. I called the HTC service number to see if I could get them to re solder the port back on they said I need a new motherboard. My Uni works fine except that the batteries are slowly dying, but luckily I have a stand alone battery charger. In a nut shell the mother board is $200 is it worth it? There are so many new phones coming out that it really doesn't make sense to spend the money on it, but on the other hand rumors that TMO 3G network may support it give me a good reason to keep it. I truly like this phone and really don't want to give it up quite yet, so I ask you what would you do?

Oh yeah when I asked the service rep if was a G3/G4 board he had no clue the good part about it is that the US service center is in my town so I could drop it off and pick it up almost the same day.

[orb3000]

Like a lot of people I've broken the mini-usb port in my Uni, thank goodness for Blue tooth,. I called the HTC service number to see if I could get them to re solder the port back on they said I need a new motherboard. My Uni works fine except that the batteries are slowly dying, but luckily I have a stand alone battery charger. In a nut shell the mother board is $200 is it worth it? There are so many new phones coming out that it really doesn't make sense to spend the money on it, but on the other hand rumors that TMO 3G network may support it give me a good reason to keep it. I truly like this phone and really don't want to give it up quite yet, so I ask you what would you do?

Oh yeah when I asked the service rep if was a G3/G4 board he had no clue the good part about it is that the US service center is in my town so I could drop it off and pick it up almost the same day.

Of course it worth!!!

Go for it!

[chasmanian]

how bad is it? and where do you live? send me a pm if you want to keep it private. the reason i ask is if the pads on the board are ok, resoldering the connector is easy. for an experienced tech takes 5 minutes with a coffee break in the middle. lol. if you'd rather, i'll fix it for a lot less. let me know. i'll need to see pictures to confirm too.

[vma]

Yes,

Soldering is quite easy. If you don't know how to do it, show it to someone with soldering experience.

The other choice is eBay: I bought my second unit for 142 Euro, which is about 200 US$. That was the price for a full functioning phone!

You might try to buy one with a broken screen for much less and exchange the board yourself.

I think 200 US$ for a new board is too expensive.

Cheers,
vma

[vivekdnb]

If its working it surely worth it..

[Harry Tuttle]

When I talked to the HTC rep he said it was $200 to replace the mother board; but another rep called me back and said that HTC no longer supports it. The North American repair center is in my area, so they said take it over there and see, i haven't had time but i will just to see what the quote will be. as for the device itself, it still works I need a new battery barely holds a charge for the entire day, but it still an awesome device. But there are some new ones coming out ie. SonyX1 Eten's dual sim phone the Omnia and a host of others

I've had it for about 2 years and very little problems. Thanks for everyone support and will definitely keep it.

[Black93300ZX]

You're with T-Mo US, personally, I'd get a G1. $180, and it has Android... It's sickkkk.

[orb3000]

"Not all the shiny things are gold"

At least now

Quote (in a year or two that Android OS gets mature & grows, and better devices made for it...)

[Harry Tuttle]

You're with T-Mo US, personally, I'd get a G1. $180, and it has Android... It's sickkkk.

Yeah, Android looks good but I've learned a long time ago wait for all the bugs to go away before diving in. When Android has a form factor like the Uni I'll be all over it, I'm not a slider fan.

[enigma1nz]

Me neither - either a candybar or a mini-laptop for me. Repair enough slides and flips not to ever want to touch one. As far as Universals are concerned, it's all in the definition. Once you will stop thinking of it as a cellphone and instead think of it as a mini-laptop and introduce it as such to your friends - you'll feel the advantages. You won't believe how many comments along the lines of "Wow, that's a tiny laptop you have there" and "How cool is that" I get every time I get my JasJar out. And then, of course, I go on and on about how it's so much better than a laptop, how I have everything I need not to use my computer, how I chat to my friends overseas on SKYPE, and on and on... haha

No doubt it is worth every bloody cent.

[Harry Tuttle]

So this will be my last rant on this subject. I call customer service to get an RA# I explained to the rep what the problem is (note I have an O2 Exec in North America), she said that they didn't support that model, So I explained that its the same thing as the Tmobile MDA Pro at which point she says they support that model and gives me the RA#, but explains that they may not have the parts for it? I go to the repair center give them the RA# and wait after about 20mins. this lady comes out and says that we don't work on that phone but will have somebody else talk to me. The Product manager comes out and tells me that my phone is European and they don't work on it , at this point I tell him that its a MDA Pro with just a different housing he still disagrees that its a different phone that its not an MDA Pro(I'm in disbelief) so I asked if he had a motherboard for an Imate Jasjar or a Qtek or Vodaphone, basically every derivative of the Universal. He still argues that those are all different phones and they won't work,well since I was on my lunch break and did want to get pissed off i explained to him that he needs to understand the previous product line and that when I come back I want to talk to someone who knows what they are talking about.:rolleyes:

[D.Apsley]

I too can repair the USB connector for you, I'm UK based.

If you want it fixing let me know.