Wellcom A88

[pilou]

My 2nd attempt to post this, sorry if the 1st one lands here sometime..

I am another happy iPhone's user , but I have been wanting to try an Android phone for a while now. I am interested in trying the Wellcom A88, which looks nice on paper, and on videos I've been able to find on internet.

It runs Android Donut 1.6, but I could not find anywhere whether it would be upgradeable to version 2.1

Anybody here owns one, or has any opinion ? What about Android , for those who have tried it ?

Many thanks.

Phil

How can I remove this double post ?

Edited March 27, 2010 by pilou

[pilou]

I have bought the WellcoM A88 in Chiang Mai, could not find it in Bangkok last weekend ( seems to sell quite well here), interesting little phone, I was not used to Android, and am still learning. It looks like a HTC Hero at a fraction of the price, but the finishing is quite good, and the screen and page browsing quite OK too.

First problem, when making a phone call, the screen turns off, seems to be a software problem from what I have found on internet. Also some issues with my Wifi,but it's working now. According to the seller, it will be possible to upgrade to Android 2.1 soon at WellcoM center.

Phil

[UberBraun]

I bought my WellCom A88 in MBK about a month ago.  It was not easy to find a retailer, but I eventually tracked one down via the internet.

My wife has an iPhone, so I am familiar with it, and frankly I do not like it.  The WellCom A88 is smaller, lighter and just as zippy (as far as I can tell).  Overall I am very impressed with Android, and so far, this little gem is the first phone that I actually like (previous phones I tolerated).

I was told that the phone could be upgraded to Android 2.1 when it became available.  Not sure I want to, as I really have no major complaints at this stage.  I also rooted my phone to get rid of some of the preinstalled junk.

One thing I do not like are the soft keys at the bottom of the screen.  It is just too easy to accidently touch one of them while trying to do something else (such as type or open the app drawer).  All too often I accidently touch the soft key that launches the browser and it tries to connect to the internet.  I wish there was a way to disable that particular soft key.

Very good phone for the price.

[grrr]

Another low cost Android phone available here is the Samsung Galaxy Spica (I5700). It's around 9,900 baht and can be upgraded to Android 2.1.

[Phil Conners]

Also check out HTC Tattoo, another low-cost Android phone. At the moment it sells for 8,500 baht or less.

[bryanlunadelacruz]

How do you find your new A88.

I am thinking of buying one too! There's a shop at The Mall Bangkapi and MBK.

Currently it's 8,890.

Please tell me it's downfall, if any!

[Changian]

I looked at Wellcome A88 before getting a Samsung Galaxy Spica a month ago. Just because the other Samsung stuff I've bought always works well.

Spica is listed at 9,900 baht but the shops I tried in The Mall Bangkapi immediately discounted to 9,000. 1.6 is installed on it but can get an upgrade to Android 2.1. What the shop doesn't tell you is that you have to go to the Samsung Service Centre in Fortune Town to get this done, Samsung mobile shops elsewhere cant do it for you. The alternative is to leave your phone at a Samsung shop for a few days while they send it there for you.

[bryanlunadelacruz]

First problem, when making a phone call, the screen turns off, seems to be a software problem from what I have found on internet. Also some issues with my Wifi,but it's working now. According to the seller, it will be possible to upgrade to Android 2.1 soon at WellcoM center.

Phil

Is there a way to solve this..I love the phone except this problem..Sometimes I need to key-in another number but then cant find the dial pad as the screen goes blank.

[pilou]

The problem on my phome was due to the screen protector installed by the shop, which was covering the light sensor , After trimming it and uncover the sensor, the problem disappeared .

Phil

[endure]

I recently bought one of these and am very impressed. They wanted 8900bt in MBK but I got mine for 7900bt at the Wellcom shop in Kad Suan Kaew, Chiang Mai.

[HAL9000]

This thread is a bit old, but it's one of the few in English that comes up on a Google search of Wellcom Android phones, so I thought I would continue posting here to keep a unified resource for others who may be searching for information on these phones.

My HTC Dream / Google G1 Android phone died. I have it in the shop, but I've been trying to learn as much as I can in case it can't be fixed. I had pretty much settled on a Samsung Android, but even on ebay it's tough to get a good one at an affordable price, even secondhand.

So I looked at the Samsung Wave running Bada OS. I thought it would be another obscure OS, but it seems like Samsung is wanting to position itself as an iPhone killer with their own OS while hedging their bets with Android at the same time.

While looking at Wave listings, the search brought up a Wellcom A88, so seeing there was another hope for a more economical Android phone, I started to research it as well. Apparently Wellcom is a new startup Thai brand. There's a brief comment on it at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellcom

The article is brief, and open licensed, so I might as well quote it here:

Wellcom (Thai: เวลคอม) is a mobile phone and smart phone brand by NewTel Corporation^[1] that is headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. The current market is expanding from Thailand to neighbor countries including Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia.

Wellcom smart phones are developed on Android OS.

While their smart phones are Android, the main Wellcom site shows no smart phones. This is actually the company information page. Click the product tab to see their range of regular phones. Note also the language toggle above the menu, allowing you to view in English, Thai, or Vietnamese:

http://www.wellcommo.../en/aboutus.php

Somewhere along the way, I found they are available through SiamPhone.com, and you can read about Wellcom Android phones there. The page is in Thai. Google Chrome automatically offers an English translation. Users of other browsers will have to navigate to the Google translation service off Google's home page. Here's Siam Phone on Wellcom Androids. Note there's now a successor A99 phone:

http://www.siamphone...wellcom/a88.htm

http://www.siamphone...wellcom/a99.htm

The A99 is a 3G phone, but the page only says HSDPA, so if you didn't know that was 3G, you'd overlook the feature. The phone also has HDMI output, which you normally expect on more expensive phones. It also has an accelerometer, but it is called a G-sensor.

Siamese Gear has very informative and visually attractive information sheets in their listing of an A88. Since ebay drops listings 90 days after auction close, it would do no good to link to the listing here, but I can link to the seller page and they may list them regularly or from time to time:

http://myworld.ebay.com/siamesegear

If anyone's interested in my comment on the new Samsung Bada smartphone OS above, this review has an interesting discussion of it:

http://www.gsmarena....-review-480.php

Edited March 24, 2011 by jkolak

[lomatopo]

The A99 is a very impressive phone, given the price. We've got several threads going in this sub-forum, and this model gets mentioned a lot. However I do not believe anyone posting here actually has one. In some Thai forums there are many complaints on this model, but this may be just a small set of users. After all most happy customers have little reason to post so often you only see the negative experiences?

[HAL9000]

I just found this page on Bada at the official Samsung site:

http://www.bada.com/whatisbada/index.html

[lomatopo]

I suspect "Symbian" means "ocean, or sea" in Finnish.

Seriously I'd hate to be the person who approved "bada"; now in charge of product marketing for the Antartica market. Now "badass" probably would have been OK.

Edited March 24, 2011 by lomatopo

[HAL9000]

I suspect "Symbian" means "ocean, or sea" in Finnish.

Seriously I'd hate the be the person who approved "bada"; now in charge of product marketing for the Antartica market. Now "badass" probably would have been OK.

That's "bad"!!!