T-Mobile Pulse no more PAYG?

[Guest CoRLiS]

Last Sunday I wanted to go to town and get me a Pulse on PAYG. After a little bit of irritation, they found out, that none was left in the store (good sign, usually only happens to good phones). After several apologies, I got told, that on Wednesday the next delivery is about to hit the store. Went to the T-Mobile-Shop again today, and no PAYG-Pulse available, as "one package was missing in the delivery".

So then I wanted to just go for it and order this thing online, and that got me worrying a bit: While a few days ago, the Pulse was still available as a PAYG-phone, it isn't today anymore. Only can see it with the contract-option (which is useless for me).

Can it be, that in the end, and probably due to a "too huge success for too little money for T-Mobile", they removed the PAYG for good?

Self-Update: Obviously the Pulse-PAYG was out of stock for a while, as I today (28th Jan '10) received my Pulse as a PAYG-phone from my local T-Mobile store

Edited January 28, 2010 by CoRLiS

[Guest blue-e]

Must be supply problems or removed altogether, its not showing on contract either

[Guest blue-e]

Just had online chat session with T-Mobile and its been discontinued

Dave: Where has the T-Mobile pulse gone?

Rachell: Unfortunately its currently been discontinued.

Dave: Any reason? Will it be coming back?

Rachell: It wont be coming back, its just we're having a revamp of phones.

[Guest Pully]

Nooooo!

Just as I made the decision to try and replace my XDA Zest with a Pulse at the end of the month :)

Cant understand T-Mobiles logic though as surely a popular handset gets people interested in their service :s

Fingers crossed it re-appears

[Guest blue-e]

Nooooo!

Just as I made the decision to try and replace my XDA Zest with a Pulse at the end of the month :)

Cant understand T-Mobiles logic though as surely a popular handset gets people interested in their service :s

Fingers crossed it re-appears

You could always go for one on ebay, seem to be a few floating still sealed

[Guest rjm2k]

Doubt we'll get an official Android 2.0 or even 1.6 then! Hopefully the 8230 or 8220 in other countries will be better supported than the pulse

[Guest jonathonf]

Ack - does this mean 2.0 isn't going to be released? That sucks,

[Guest rss2k]

Well since I think since most PAYG Pulses (in the Netherlands the phone is only available together with a T-Mobile contract) are being unlocked for different networks in UK it's quite understandable that T-Mobile stops selling it as PAYG option. They probably financed the phone in the hope to recuperate it's cost with network usage, that's why it was so cheap.

[Guest rjm2k]

Probably being dropped in favour of the new Google Phone?

[Guest blue-e]

Probably being dropped in favour of the new Google Phone?

Not very likely, the Pulse was a entry level PAYG handset and the nexus one is a top end phone.

I hope it either makes a comeback or is replaced by some form of 8230 variant

[Guest klutsh]

Seems T-Mobile are launching 2 other Android devices: LG InTouch Max (GW620) and the Samsung Galaxy Portal (i5700)

Either could be a PAYG replacement.

Although out of stock, T-Mobile now have the pulse priced higher on the Contract scale than the Hero.

Edited January 13, 2010 by klutsh

[Guest _melchett]

This is terrible news, i really love the Pulse, its a great and cheap way to get on to android! i think its time to start hounding them for the kernal source code. My first email is away i'll see what i get

[Guest Calamity James]

I'd be careful what you believe from those online T-Mobile assistants, they often tell big porkies! My friend was told a couple of weeks ago they were doing the T-Mobile Sale again to get the Pulse at £90, when they clearly weren't!

[Guest bencoder]

perhaps t-mob uk will get the HTC Tattoo, which is HTC's low end android phone (although from what I can see about the tattoo, the pulse seems better).

It'll be a real shame if this phone is discontinued so soon, it's a really decent phone for the price.

[Guest Shuflie]

I'll probably be sticking mine up on ebay next week when my Nexus gets here. I'll post up on the ebay forum when I do.

[Guest martinbrook]

Probably being dropped in favour of the new Google Phone?

Here is a comparison of signal strength pulled in by the nexus and pulse both on my desk with the same SIM connected to the same base station

Nexus One -109 dBm

Pulse -89 dBm

Making the Pulse far superior in radio and antenna design than the flagship HTC/Google offering.

RIP the Pulse.

[Guest doivey]

You could always go for one on ebay, seem to be a few floating still sealed

I just sold one of mine on ebay ( for not a very high price I hasten to add). Was brand new and sealed, went for only about £115.

So you can still get them on there if you like. Maybe I should have held out !

[Guest pulser]

perhaps t-mob uk will get the HTC Tattoo, which is HTC's low end android phone (although from what I can see about the tattoo, the pulse seems better).

It'll be a real shame if this phone is discontinued so soon, it's a really decent phone for the price.

The pulse is a better phone IMHO. Tattoo has a resistive touchscreen, but pulse has capacitive (possibility for multitouch in future).

[Guest le_lutin]

Here is a comparison of signal strength pulled in by the nexus and pulse both on my desk with the same SIM connected to the same base station

Nexus One -109 dBm

Pulse -89 dBm

Making the Pulse far superior in radio and antenna design than the flagship HTC/Google offering.

RIP the Pulse.

Very interesting indeed, thanks for the test!

[Guest chris1991]

If anyone still wants a pulse i have 1 thats about 2 weeks old not a mark on it but iv just got my hero working again so thinking of selling mine for about £125

p/m if your interested

[Guest martoto]

I was asked T-mobile for Pulse, and they told me the same: "It has been discontinued". They could not answer to my question if they will offer it again in the feature.

The only reasonable explanation for this could be if they want to include Tatoo in their products range. All of us perfectly understand that Tatoo has not any chances if there is Pulse. That’s because the Pulse is better in every aspect, for cheaper value (actually it is almost in pair with Hero for better than half price). In addition it is generally known that T-mobile has strong relations with HTC. So the reason for ignoring Huawei could be only the HTC!

The bad news for us is that Pulse won’t get any further official updates. It remains only the hope if someone will manage to make a custom 2.0/2.1 ROM. I am considering asking Huawei about this situation, and are they planning further present of 8220 in the market, as SIM free for example.

[Guest Paul]

This is a real shame! :)

I guess they sold through their ordered allocation from Huawei... hope they release a replacement budget Android offering tho!

P

[Guest Sam0ht]

It did seem at the time like the Pulse was being sold crazy-cheap; introducing it at £176 was good enough, but within a few months it was briefly down to £96 with £15 cashback, as mentioned here. As low as £81 PAYG for something that stands direct comparison on features with the iPhone ?

My guess at the time was that T-Mobile felt that it was the year of the mass-market internet phone, and wanted to use the opportunity to pull in as many new customers as possible with an unmatchable deal, hoping they would stay with T-Mo in the long run and use lots of internet.

When I got mine at New Year, they had officially put the 'min top-up' up from £10 to £20 on the Pulse, which suggests they were concerned about unlocking ?

So possibly the Pulse was put out cheaply, and either they decided their promotional budget had run its course, or realised a lot of us were unlocking our Pulses (don't know if a significant % of customers really do this though), or just that they weren't realising the benefits from the Pulse that they had anticipated and couldn't continue to justify the subsidy?

Alternatively, Huawei may have decided to move production on to something new ? Seems odd tho. Or T-Mobile broke up with Huawei over contractual or quality issues ?

Anyway, the Pulse was apparently very popular so I expect by the end of the year we will see multiple networks offering sub-£200 PAYG Androids. But maybe those of us with Pulses now have got something more valuable than we initially thought ? :)

[Guest le_lutin]

 

The bad news for us is that Pulse won’t get any further official updates. It remains only the hope if someone will manage to make a custom 2.0/2.1 ROM. I am considering asking Huawei about this situation, and are they planning further present of 8220 in the market, as SIM free for example.

Surely it only means that it won't get any official T-Mobile updates? Another carrier in another country could take the Pulse on and they might have official updates which we could use.

[Guest robot1000]

Surely it only means that it won't get any official T-Mobile updates? Another carrier in another country could take the Pulse on and they might have official updates which we could use.

A number already have

http://wiki.modaco.com/index.php/Huawei_U8220#Sightings