I've had my Philips C12 for well over a year now, so thought it was about time I tried to do it justice here on Ciao.
Look The C12 standardly comes in a matt black finish. Admittedly it's not the most stylish of phones, but it's not that bad either. Perhaps the worst feature looks wise is the aerial, which sticks out a good inch over the top of the phone. (Not that uncommon when these phones first came out on the market, but certainly nowadays there are options without such an obvious aerial.)
Size The dimensions are (in approx inches) 5 x 1 x 1 which are rather bigger than some of the more modern options on offer from other manufacturers such as Nokia, but the C12 does fit in a small handbag or your jeans pocket (unless they are skin tight, in which case realistically what phone would fit?)
Weight The C12 weighs around 100g (excuse my inaccuracy, the kitchen scales aren't up to much). Not the lightest phone on the market, but hardly what you would call heavy either. It's weighty enough to know that you've got it, but not in the extreme.
Battery Life I leave my mobile on 24/7 due to the home phone being tied up with my Net activities for a large percentage of the day. If I'm making/receiving a lot of calls I have to charge it around twice
a week for a few hours. Just on, but not actively being used, it needs just one charge a week of about 3 or 4 hours. (The official stance is 250 hours Standby Time and 240 minutes Talk Time).
Durability My phone has been dropped on numerous occasions, thrown a few times, and sat on more than once! My cats are partial to playing with it too. Although I wouldn't recommend that as an appropriate treatment, it's still in good working order with no battle damage sustained at all. For 18 months of ownership, I reckon that's pretty good.
Display The standard display when the phone is on is a clock face, battery life indicator (1-4 bars), reception quality indicator (1-4 bars) and a network symbol. The screen is clear and easy to read, but could do with being a bit bigger as it displays only two lines of text at a time, and just 11 characters across.
Address Book This facility stores 90 names/numbers, so for the average user I'd imagine that to be plenty. The input name is restricted to a maximum of one line (11 characters), but the number can be longer. The address book is accessed through the menu button on the key pad, and the contents are displayed in alphabetical order. You can search for specific names though which is a handy alternative to scrolling through the entire contents.
Text Messaging. You can send messages up to 160 characters in length, and there are 25 icons such as happy and sad smilies, and animal pictures that can be sent along with your message. The down side of the icon service is only other C12/Savvy users will receive them in their sent form. A Nokia owner, for example, will just see assorted symbols that cannot be made out as anything comprehensible.
You are alerted to an incoming text message by a short trumpet fanfare like bleep, illuminated key pad, and an envelope symbol on the screen. The phone will store just 10 messages, and the envelope symbol flashes when your message archive is full. After a message has been read it automatically stores it (if there is room), but the option to reply/forward/delete appears at the bottom of the message.
Voice Mail You can record a personal message to greet callers when you are not answering your phone, but should you not wish to, callers will be greeted by a standard one from BT Cellnet. Your phone will call you when it's picked up a message, and should you not respond to that, it sends a text message telling you that there is voice mail to be retrieved. (Voice mail is picked up by dialling 901)
Quick Dial The key pad numbers can be programmed to quick dial, allowing speedy access to your favourite/well used numbers rather than having to physically input a number or rifle though your address book to make a call. Standardly, 1-3, and 7-9 are pre-programmed with facilities to access the credit top-up line, your credit balance, the last call cost, and such like. These can be altered, allowing up to 9 chosen quick dial numbers, but I do find these features handy, so use just 4, 5 and 6 for my personally chosen quick dial numbers.
Extras As well as the above mentioned features, you can use 1471 to check the time and number of the last caller, and you can view the last 20 calls made/received. The phone also has an alarm clock, stopwatch, calculator, and bio calendar (a method of predicting your love, chance, energy, and success levels on a given day). Admittedly not as enthralling as some of the features on other makes and models of phone, but if you're looking for full functionality in the games dept. perhaps you'd be better off reading a Gameboy review?
Ring Tones You have the choice of 20 ring tones and if you don't like them it's basically tough. You cannot get additional ring tones for this phone, but with the likes of Old MacDonald Had A Farm and some classical pieces from Bach, Mozart and Liszt why would you want any others? (Did I mention the sarcasm tone?)
Volume You have the choice of 3 volume settings, high, medium and low. The C12 doesn't have a vibrate option, but the ringer can be muted all the same.
Accessories The Philips C12 (as far as I'm aware) does not have any official covers, but you can pick up compatibles online at www.mobilefaces.com and on market stalls. Changing covers is a nightmare though, with loads of tiny screws to be removed, but it is possible, I have done it. You can also get flashing aerials, which simply screw on, and are realistically the cheaper and easier option for jazzing up the phone a bit.
As for phone cases, official products are rare but the C12 does fit into a Nokia 5110 case without any trouble at all. Around markets and online at www.mobilefaces.com you can pick up the cases that allow you to use the phone without removing it from the case (they are a tight fit though).
Reception More of a network issue probably, but the Philips C12 is only available on the BT Cellnet service, so it's a relevant point. Reception is fantastic! I have had no trouble making and receiving calls from a jam packed M25, and various other congested areas of the UK. I can think of one occasion when I lost reception altogether, which was on a remote, hilly, country road in Scarborough, but the weather was extreme with driving rain and thick fog. I only lost reception for about 5 minutes though.
Price The Philips C12 is likely to set you back between 30 and 40 on a Pay-as-you-gotariff. There are a few different deals available, with initial free credit on purchase, varying call costs, free minutes each month to a nominated landline number, and minimum credit top up requirements, so shop around for the best package to suit yourself. (Supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury often have the C12 on special offer).
Conclusion All in all, this phone is great. I'm not a technically minded person, but I found it very easy to get to grips with. It is not a top of the range up to the minute model, but it is reliable, affordable, and does what a phone should. A real bargain, well worth considering.
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Advantages: Good selection of features, choice of colours, ability to send pictures to other Savvy users. Disadvantages: No interchangeable colours or line breaks in messages.
sy2kgbr 11.08.2000 (13.10.2001)
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Review of Philips Savvy C12
Advantages: Lightweight, Stylish, Unique, Colour Screen, In-Built Camera With Shutter! INFUSIO Games! Disadvantages: No Bluetooth, No Java And Does Not Have A Rotating Camera!
anya_lahiri 30.04.2004 (30.04.2004)
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