[comp.dcom.telecom] DiamondTel 99X Weakness

Tony Harminc <TONY@mcgill1.bitnet> (05/17/91)

A friend from a conference not on the Internet posted the following.
I volunteered to repost it here - comments are welcome.
 
Append on 05/15/91 at 14:50 by Bill Temps, First Chicago Corporation:
 
   I have identified what I feel is a design weakness in the
DiamondTel 99X portable cellular telephone.  The battery slips on the
back of the device, and is held in place by a leetle tiny plastic
thingy, which engages with an equally leetle tiny plastic catch on the
body of the telephone.  This plastic thingy is vulnerable to
mechanical stress and physical trauma ... i.e., de sucka breaks.

   Couple o' weeks ago, the plastic thingy on the battery broke.
Solution: new battery, at a cost of about 10x or 15x a set of four
double-A's.  Today, the catch on the phone itself broke.  Kludge: hold
the battery on with a rubber band.  I don't know why the two plastic
thingies are 3mm wide instead of, say, 10mm and made of plastic
instead of titanium, but that's the ... ah ... breaks.

   The device has not been dropped or otherwise (in my opinion)
mistreated.  Evidently it can't stand the stress of being carried in a
bicycle bag -- at least not with Chicago potholes.
 
 
Tony Harminc