I upgraded last month from the Nokia 3510i to the sleek GD87. My main reason for the purchase was the integrated camera and good looks. Looking back, my first experience with the phone was painless - it was so easy to navigate as the phone uses a graphical interface. It feels light and although quite long (due to the display) isn’t too much of a downside.
Call quality is very good and has four volume settings. Sometimes you need an extra setting if you are working in a noisy environment, as calls can sometimes be hard to hear. On the opposite side if you are in an office, the phone offers a handsfree speakerphone – again not the loudest but adequate and a nice touch.
If you’re a text maniac, then this would be important to you… Sending text’s from the phone can be quite slow (dependent on how fast you can type!). I have to pause when typing to allow the phone to catch up! It’s not too much of a pain, but if you need to send an urgent text, this can hinder you slightly.
Moving onto the camera, which is as easy as 1-2-3! Quality is very good, and the images aren’t the biggest when downloaded 132x176 (68kb file size) but look good when set as the wallpaper on the phone. There are many features and things to play around with (see specification below for more info)
The phone uses 16-tone polyphonic ringtones; the ones included aren’t the best, but you can download midi files to your own taste. One thing I will say here is some ringtones are fairly quiet (even on the loudest setting), so you may have to find one suitable to hear.
The schedule is very handy for keeping track of events and if you are as forgetful as myself then this is gold dust! Plus you can import and export the schedule to Outlook on your PC via infrared or a data cable.
In summary; + Nice looks and a tidy phone + Camera picture quality + Very easy to use menu system + Schedule (my lifesaver!) + 1Mb to store your own wallpaper/ringtones/camera pictures - Lack of extra volume control - Slow text messaging - Maximum of 2 games
Technical specification
• Tri-Band technology • Built-in 110k camera *1 • 65,000 TFT colour display *2 • WAP 1.2.1 • Schedule • Games – 1 fixed (can’t be deleted) and space for 1 downloaded • Voice Memo • Calculator • Infrared
*1 ~ Built-in 110k camera providing the following; • Four picture formats (Full Colour, Black and White, Sepia and Negative) • Digital Zoom • Night Shot Mode • Framing Function
*2 ~ TFT = Thin Film Transistors. These are tiny switching transistors and capacitors that improve the brightness and clarity of the display screen
Extras
You will have read a few times in the op about a data cable. Personally I feel this is a must if you want to synchronise the schedule with your home PC or just like playing around with the wallpaper and polyphonic ringtones, plus you can download your own snaps via the cable to your PC. These cost around £30 – check out ebay for deals and I would make sure you get software included.
v1 ~ June 28, 2003
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Jun 28th, 2003
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