By the end of this month, I will have this phone for 18 months. And it's time to write a review on it.
I bought this phone from 4U store on 18months contract at 3G network. Before that, I was using a pay as you go phone. At that time the main reason to buy this phone is because the cheap price and free talking minutes every month. On the 18 month based contract, I pay 15 pounds per month for the first 6 months and then at the end of that I got around 220 pounds check back. The rest of 12 months, I pay 30 pounds a month. For these price, I got 500mins voice talking time and 100 text message per month. And 6 months later, I changed my price plan as there was an offer at that time. I have been using it at 30 pounds a month for 750mins voice talking, 50mins video talking, 150 text messages, 50 picture messages and 5 pound free download to games, ring tones, songs or anything provided by 3. Somebody may laugh at me and say that's not cheap at all. As there are many cheap deals nowadays especially when you purchase
a mobile on line, but at that time I think it was a fairly cheap deal.
Now let me tell you some features of this mobile.
******** Outlook ******** This is a double-screen, flip phone and a bit thick. One good point to have a flip phone is you don't have to lock the keyboard to avoid miss dialling. And at the same time, there is a bad side which is the aerial. Sometimes, you may think that makes the phone look ugly. Among the group of 3G phones, this one is quite light weight and easy to carry. There are cameras both outside and inside, therefore it's easy to take pictures in both direction. The one I'm using is grey-silver colour.
******* Keypad ********* I would say the keypad is very neat and useful. When the phone is fold, there are three keys in the left side that are for managing ring style and volume. There is one key in the right side that is a short key for taking pictures. Just three simple click let you take a picture and store it in the phone. I found it's very convenient.
When the phone is open, there are two main groups of keypads. The bottom one is the basic number and character keys and the top one is function keys. Some of these function keys allow to quick access the message, recent calls. As with 3G network, one key I found is particular useful is the browse key which gives the recent update from 3 (which are free to browse, but most of cost you to view the details), the account information, the billing information, the usage for the current month, etc.
****** Functions ******** 1.Voice and video call No wonder, voice talking is the basic function of a phone. And recent day, people start to use video talking as well. Since I have 50mins video talk time each month, sometimes I use to call my friend in 3G network. It's very good way to have fun with the friends, but I would say the quality is not that good especially the image. I can hardly see the clear face. I think this should not only be the mobile problem, most time is due to network quality.
2.Text (SMS), picture (MMS) message and email The message centre in the phone is managed quite well. You can easy create message, view the number of messages in inbox, outbox and draft. You can also use the email service, but I have never tried. It also provides quick note and MMS templates.
3.Contact management In the contact menu, you can add the basic information such as contact name, number and address. In addition, you can add picture (when the contact call you, you can see the picture appears on the front scree, I found it's very interesting), voice name(haven't tried yet), birthday. And you can add contacts to different categories and store in different types (including work, home, main, mobile, video and fax). I got a fax number when I got this phone, but never got chance to try it. You can also easily add a number from incoming call to the contact list.
4.Video/photo camera As the phone has both sides cameras, it's easy to take pictures even for yourself. And also it has 4X zoom, you can take most pictures you want to capture. The photo quality is good. With the provided cable link, you can download to your computer or upload your favorite to the mobile and save as screen. The same functions can be done for videos.
5.Calculator/Calendar/Alarm These are general functions you may find useful, such as remind friends' birthdays, set appointment date or a morning alarm to get up.
6.Games The phone does provide the game function, but I couldn't find any game in the phone. You have to download from the browser link. As I have 5 pound download each month, I use some of them for games just to kill some boring time when I am on the train.
7.Other functions There are some other functions such as setting, call divert, view phone status and connection.
******** List of shortcomings *********** 1.Battery: The battery doesn't last quite well especially for long time talking. I need to charge it almost everyday. So I would not recommend this phone for people have lots of travel and enjoy long time talking.
2.Network: I don't know whether this phone works with other network. With 3G network, the service is getting better than I first used it, but there is still no network connection or very weak sometime.
To sum up, I think this is a quite good phone for me in the last 18 months because the money and talking time provided each time. But due to many new phones on the market, I may not recommend you to buy it if you're thinking to buy a new phone.
Anyway, thanks for reading, rating and commenting.
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3 brings together video calling, video clips, location based services and amazing content to browse and download. 3 has great offers and a huge range of the 3G handsets. Visit the 3 Shop to find more info. on offers
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Advantages: light, large screen, easy to access functions, efficient backward key, web 2.0 features Disadvantages: may feel confused by so many functions
rosycn1979 21.02.2007 (21.02.2007)
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