After a long production delay (not mine), my story (which includes reviews of ca. 24 - can't remember the exact number) is now online.

Click here to see it.

I am going to be adding more phones soon.

 

Please note that the telematics units in the cars used for testing were the U.S. units and the results are therefore largely meaningful for the BMW NA market.

 

Jonathan, my quick read through probably hasn't entirely done your hard work justice, but that's an excellent article.

 

Great work, Jon, we appreciate it much. Maybe already done but you should add the link to the sticky on the bimmerfest forum as well. Just a thought, identifying which compatible models also have snap-in adapters available and sources for those could be helpful. Regards,
Cal

 

Outstanding article, and nothing less than I would expect from a fellow BMWCCA member. Any info on the Samsung SCH-i760? Let me know!

 

Excellent Information - Clearly a lot of work went into collecting and sharing it.

It appears as you say the Morotola KRZR k1m fared quite well on Verizon. And the Samsung SPH-A900 fared well on Sprint.

Well I have Sprint and will need a new phone to use with my 535i when it arrives in a few weeks. I checked and Sprint doesn't offer the SPH-A900 any more. However, they do offer the Moto KRZR k1m. So I'm curious... Is it likely that if the KRZR on Verizon works well, the same phone on Sprint network should as well?

I guess I'm trying to understand if the Bluetooth implementation in the phone is more "phone" specific, or "service" specific. I would think it has more to do with the phone hardware and the version of software on the phone.

I may try the KRZR from Sprint when the car arrives. My wife has a KRZR and likes it. She is on Verizon so I would expect hers to work with the 535i from the get-go based on your review.

Thanks for any insight.

J.

 

Nothing in this area is "likely".

I will be testing the Palm Centro on Sprint so stay tuned.

To answer your question, it's both phone and mobile operator specific since the "same" phone going to two different mobile operators is, for all intents and purposes, two different phones.

 

which bimmerfest forum?

 

I don't know if the SPH-A900 is a different model than the Samsung A900 I had from Sprint, but I would not call it a good match with the BMW system. At least in my experience. It would pair nicely and work great until the car was off for an extended (more than 20 minutes) period an would go into sleep mode. The car would then "forget" the previous pairing and I would have to pair all over again. Finally dropped the A900 and got the RAZR V3 from Sprint and it works great.

 

It's possible it's the same model but keep in mind that the one I tested could have had a different software level than yours. We tested the phones over a six month period of time (off and on, not continuous of course) and it didn't give us any trouble.