Motorola M3788

Excitement city everyone, here is my first foray into the world of electronics opinions!

I'm a student. Money is hard to come by, and even harder to pry away from the pubs, so, unlike many of my friends, mobile phones are not massively high on my list of priorities. Long have I been chided for having a less than stylish, less than exciting phone, but, never being one to go for style over content, I care not. That's right kids, your lovable spacemonkey is not a fashion freak, and so the Motorola m3788e is perfect for me.

I got this phone when my old one just gave up the ghost entirely. I'm still not sure why it did so, but it did, and so I had to find a new way to keep in touch in this modern, technology-as-God in which we now live. The phone came as part of an Orange Pay-As-You-Go package, which was by far the best deal I could find - just £30, and £5 credit thrown in (it had to be an Orange phone, because I didn't want to bother giving out a new number to everyone, so had to have a phone I could put my old simcard into). The old phone was lost forever, due to a Haloween night doll, to which it was sellotaped, a la Drew Barrymore in Scream, was stolen, and so I entered the brave new world of my newer, slightly smaller, brick. No turning back...

The m3788e is by no means a pretty phone. It's simply a black, no-frills phone, with none of the flip-down tops and screens that are so popular today. On top of this, the phone has no boredom preventing devices, like games, and there is, as far as I know anyway, no way that you can get new ringtones, so the very minimal list with which you are presented is all that you can have. Good and bad I guess - it means you can't compose your own, but on the other hand, if everyone in the world had this phone, then I would never again be forced to listen to a crappy version of "I Got High" by Afroman, which could only be a good thing. On top of this, the battery life is not the best - if you don't touch your phone at all, then it takes between three and four days to completely run down, and if you use your phone regularly, particularly for text messaging, the battery will run down substantially quicker. In fact, text messages seem to eat up an excessive amount of power. Also, due to the somewhat stubby aerial, the reception is not the best, particularly in buildings.

However, the phone does have many plus points. Firstly, it's cheap, very important to someone like me. Secondly, the display is clear and easy to read, and the large layout of the buttons, along with their spacing, makes the phone easy to use. Although most phones do have this feature, I should say that the fascia lights up when the phone is being used, so it is easy to use at night. Another advantage is that text messaging is extremely simple - the buttons are big enough to avoid any missed letters (unless you want them to be missed - hey, it's txt mssgng!). The menu system is easy to understand and navigate, with plenty of options (for good fun, don't forget to change the language on your friend's phone to Hungarian!)

This phone is also strong. I have dropped my phone on numerous occasions, and the very worst thing that happens is that it switches itself off. On top of that, I actually dropped it in a full sink last week, and, after leaving it for a couple of days, it is now fully back to normal, and working perfectly. Yeah, you might have to be quick getting it out of there, but if you are, you're unlikely to find that it's gone for good.*

Overall, I would say that, for anyone who only needs their phone to ring and be rung on, and who is on a budget, then you really can't go wrong with this one. It may not be as fancy as it's more expensive cousins, and it may not have a million and one useless functions that a lot of other phones have, but it does the job. For anyone who is brave enough to stand out from the crowd, and believes in value for money, you could do far worse than the Motorola m3788e.

*This is not a guarantee! If you drop your phone in a sink just to test it, I'm not going to buy you a new one if it decides not to work again!**

**Except Trampus, who can have a virtual £30 if her phone gives up the ghost (told you you'd get an update!)