Sharp GX30i

...e-bay to find a new sharp phone. After days of hunting and being out bid I finally got a sharp GX 30i for £75, I'd say it was around a year ago so not a bad price considering they are still about £200 to buy brand new.

When it arrived I was impressed it looked brand new, still had the protective cover on the screen and no scratches what so ever. So off I went to test the camera.

__The phone itself__

It ...
...just to be in the sharp club.
I think it is a great phone, it is easy to use and texting is easy too, the ear piece is clear and often too loud which can be adjusted, the ringer volume is plenty loud enough and the SD card is good because you can take loads of pictures and not worried about having enough room, I often had this problem with the old GX20. I have upgraded the SD card to 64 mega bite one and haven't even filled it half way yet.
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My boyfriend bought me a sharpgx20 and I loved it to bits, unfortunately I left it on the floor one day and he managed to pick me up twirl me round and stand on the phone, whoops, a great big crack going across the screen, I tried using it for a while but I couldn't even read a message on the screen. My boyfriend bought me a nokia 3300 for my birthday which was perfect for ring tones but it didn't have a camera, so it wasn't long before I was back on e-bay to find a new sharp phone. After days of hunting and being out bid I finally got a sharp GX 30i for £75, I'd say it was around a year ago so not a bad price considering they are still about £200 to buy brand new.

When it arrived I was impressed it looked brand new, still had the protective cover on the screen and no scratches what so ever. So off I went to test the camera.

The phone itself__

It is a small flip phone about three and a halt inches long and two inches wide, silver in colour with an external display on the front so you can see the time or who is calling, it has two little volume buttons on the side, if you press one of them the display lights up for a few seconds so you can see it. It also has the speaker on the front next to the camera lens and under that is the little light that acts as the flash or flashes when your phone is ringing. It is quite a hardy little phone, it has a habit of jumping out of my hand and bouncing on the floor, no damage apart from a few scratches, but I tend not to leave this one on the floor for it to be stood on, fingers crossed it stays that way.

Camera quality__

This is a 1 mega pixel camera which takes lovely pictures if you don't have a shaky hand. If you look at the screen before you take the shot you will see it is a bit blurry but if you wait a little bit longer everything seems to go nice and clear. There are a few options with the camera on this phone you can zoom a little, but I find it blurs the picture, not sure what the picture would be like once I download it to my computer. You can adjust the brightness and you can put it onto action shot so if the subject is moving it takes a better picture. I found it took me a while to get used to it but after that I can take lovely pictures, a few are still blurred but I just erase them and have another go.

I have taken a few pictures and downloaded them to my computer and you couldn't tell they were from a mobile phone. You can change the size of the picture you take which uses more memory the bigger the picture.

XXL (858 by 1144)
XL (768 by1024)
L (480 by 640)
M (240 by 160)

I tend to keep it on large all of the time. On the options menu for the camera you have
Picture quality (Fine or normal)
Change viewfinder (you can take pictures of yourself)
My pictures (Takes you to your saved pictures)
Delay timer (So you can be in the picture too)
Scene select (Automatic, action or night)
Light colour (You may choose any colour to take a picture in)
Sutter sound (Three different sounds that play when you take a picture including a normal shutter sound, but you can not have it silent, doh)
Save new pictures.

Video quality__

I'm not too keen on the video quality myself, but on the other hand it is visible what you record, it's ok just to have a laugh with but nothing serious.
You get a few options with this too,
Record size (one for message sending 95kb and one extended video 400kb)
Video quality (Fine or normal)
Change the view finder (so you can record yourself)
My videos (Takes you to the videos you have saved)
Voice record (On or off it's up to you)
Delay timer
Light colour
Save new videos.

Battery life__

I have found the battery quite annoying only because I like my battery to be completely empty before charging so I am quite often running out of power. Once the bar has gone down by one its down hill all the way, the camera uses quite a lot of power as you can imagine, I do spend quite a bit of time playing the games witch uses allot too. I would say the battery would last a good three days if you don't receive many calls and you are not snap happy. The good thing about it is it only takes an hour to charge up fully so it's not too bad. I have an in car charger which is handy.

Signal__

I am on vodaphone and have no problems with my signal anywhere, except my Mums which is a little village near Stansted airport; every one has this problem here not just me, no matter what company you are with or what phone you have. It even works downstairs at work in the cellar, not bad hey!! Oh yeah and down on the beach in Lowestoft it may have a problem, my old phone did but I haven't took this one down on the beach to ruin it with sand yet.

Extras__

With this phone you get Bluetooth, which I think is brilliant, you can send and receive pictures to other people with Bluetooth, although I have found the file size of most ring tones these days are too large for my phone, I haven't had a Bluetooth headset so I couldn't tell you what that is about, maybe I should look into it, and you get all the normal extras on your menu.
MP3 player
Calendar
Alarms
Calculator
Voice recorder
Melody editor
Phone help
Vodaphone live (which is free to browse on live as long as you have credit)
Games.
Infrared (you can send and receive ring tones to other people with infrared, aim not sure about pictures because I have never tried, but i'm sure you can.

My conclusion__

I would recommend this phone to anyone, the people I know who have one are pleased with it and I even no someone who went out and got one just to be in the sharp club.
I think it is a great phone, it is easy to use and texting is easy too, the ear piece is clear and often too loud which can be adjusted, the ringer volume is plenty loud enough and the SD card is good because you can take loads of pictures and not worried about having enough room, I often had this problem with the old GX20. I have upgraded the SD card to 64 mega bite one and haven't even filled it half way yet.
The battery will last you all day as long as you remember to charge it up before you leave. It will take lovely pictures if you wait for a second or two for the picture to settle on the screen before you take it. All in all a good mobile phone.

I hope you find it helpful but I say with phones it's each to our own.

Thanks for reading
 

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