Raaaaiiiiiidddddddd!!!!!!!!

Raid kills bugs dead. Seems like Accenture emptied an entire CAN of Raid on the VERY REAL HSPA+ bug that terrorized Nokia 808 PureView users worldwide. Here is a little back story via a true and emotional comment that I wrote over at AllAboutSymbian: Pardon my openness, I was at my wit’s end with no hope of a solution and no guaranteed help from Nokia.

Last Week:

Steve, thank you for linking and posting the article. I appreciate it and thank you all for the comments.

Since that post, I have received a second 808, this time purchased directly from Amazon And I verified the U.S. warranty. Unfortunately, the 3.5G hardware issue persists with this new device and is even worse as the device now restarts when I am using it. I have had restarts mid call, playing music, showing people pictures and browsing the web.

Also, I experienced what would normally be a deal breaker, silent lost connection error. I was home this weekend with my family out-of-town. A day went by and l noticed that I had not gotten any message or phone calls. Looking at the phone, it wasn’t frozen, I had full 3.5G bars and all seemed well. I noticed that a text I sent the night before was listed as having failed so tried to resend it about 4 times and it wouldn’t send. As a last resort,  I restarted the phone and immediately, 8 messages came in, an important one, that my family arrived safely. I had not gotten any calls or messages for a whole day!!!!

I say silent as there was no notification that I was not connected to the network. For this to be an important communication device, it really is devastating, scary and potentially unsafe in unfortunate circumstances. No one could reach me. Am I supposed to make random calls and test and see if I have a connection since every normal UI piece shows as being connected?

Honestly, with my experience with 2 808s and other people’s experiences around the world, I would return my 808 and never look back IF it wasn’t for the factual marvel that is the 41MP sensor, Carl Zeiss, Xenon flash combination.

You know, just being honest, it feels crazy to put up with it all. I liken it to that unreliable friend that some of us may have, that frustrates us sometimes but you won’t get rid of her because with all of the issues, there is a redeeming quality, that you can’t find anywhere else, that draws you back, that makes you take her back one more time…and then several one more times until you realize that there is no going back (Ed. to a lesser friendship).

In my Hulk inspired rages, after 5 resets a day, in my despair of living in the U.S. without a Nokia Care center or a guarantee that my issue will be resolved, even with a valid U.S. warranty, as I gaze at the 808 and my fingers are inches away from requesting a refund and parting ways…..I remember the pictures I took of me pouring sugar and being able to see individual grains of sugar, frozen in 38MP of Xenon lit glory, I remember being able to check the price of gas from a block away by zooming in, I remember being able to hunt for noise and not find it where I normally would, I remember listening to audio recorded from seminars and it sounding just like I was there all over again and I look at my 808, cycling through the 4 or so “I just reset myself” dots and I sigh, wipe the screen, check for missed calls and messages, sigh again and move on with life. There isn’t a better mobile camera, I am stuck in a photo quality vacuum where the only way out is to go back to lesser photos, video and sound that will fill my captured moments with noise, grain, limited distance and missing audible tones.

It may sound dramatic but that is honestly how I feel. I can’t go back to the N8 and until Nokia releases an equally or better equipped camera phone, I am stuck.

To ease the pain, yes, I could limit it to 2G but that is just another sad tale within itself.

At the end of the day, my flaky, 808 is capturing incredible pictures and making dull moments look simply amazing. So much so that all that I have said has become routine and accepted, whether I would, like to or not.

Does all that I have said sound crazy? Maybe. Is it true? Definitely so. What I get from the events from the past 3-4 weeks is that Nokia has truly crafted a mobile camera marvel that is so amazing and flexible that even the worst user experience cannot prevent some users, some photo buffs from departing from their devices. If it was any other phone with regular camera, I honestly believe those of us with this issue and other issues would have returned the phone and got a refund and never looked back.

Thanks goes to Nokia’s imaging team for delivering on their camera promises and I look forward to seeing what the future of mobile imaging holds for us all. Pardon me while I check my 808 to see if I am still connected to the outside world.

Steve and all, have a great day and enjoy your devices and keep up the great work in all that you do.

Today:

After installing the 3G Network Compatibility Fix, I have been using 3.5G exclusively for the last 3 days and have not had ANY resets, reboots, freezes, crashes or any other 3.5G related issues!!!! NO MORE HSPA+/3.5G BUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!  No more 2G, no more unreliability, no more moments of despair, frustration, disappointment, Hulk smashing, feelings of $500 worth of crashes, no more missing calls from family, friends and business partners!!!. Words cannot express the gratitude that I have towards whomever is responsible for fixing the issue, hardware or software related or not, all I know is that my 808 has been transformed to a stable device just like my previous Nokia’s, just like a phone should be.

I’m ecstatic! Anyone who has had an issue, please download the update as soon as possible and I hope it eliminates your HSPA+ bug issues as it has done for my 808. This update is available for other FP1 and FP2 devices so it is NOT exclusive to the 808. Let us know if you have the update and if it has eliminated the HSPA+ bug on your device. If you do not get the update on your device or via Nokia Suite, there are alternative methods online where you can download the sis file and install it.

Thank you Accenture, random developer, unsung hero, team equipped with 3kb can of Raid! You have changed a miserable experience into one that is so refreshing, so relieving that it makes all the past frustrations seem like a dream or a distant memory.

Sincerely,

Deaconclgi

Images and original article: Published by Steve Litchfield at 15:09 UTC, April 24th 2013 AAS

Tags: Bugs, HSPA+, updates

Category: Nokia, Symbian