This phone has got many things I like and need - Bluetooth being the main one. It works well with my Bluetooth car-kit and I often transfer files to other people. No problems with the Bluetooth. With one exception. It doesn't do infrared and Bluetooth at the same time. If you can't think of an occasion when you'll need to use both together, this isn't really a problem for you.
The camera is nice although the screen is low quality so it's difficult to see your pictures! But link up to your PC and they're actually of a reasonable quality. The built-in flash makes it even better. But, as you will find in this review, everything has a down-side! There's two for me regarding the camera. Firstly, it connects to the recharge slot on the bottom of the phone. But it's a loose, flimsy connection. You have to hold the camera quite firmly into the phone whilst trying to line up your subjects for your picture! Loading the flash takes a few seconds and should the phone come loose, you'll have to load it again. The second problem is if the battery indicator shows around a quarter of available battery or less, the camera won't operate. Can be quite a pain!
What next? Well there's MMS - picture messaging. I've only sent a few picture messages to people, but it's good fun! However, they often don't send. Maybe every other time or less. I called my phone company who said "Well you've done better than we have. We can't get ANY to send!" So that was helpful. But it's heaven compared to trying to receive an MMS. I've never managed one successful message. Normally, if a phone can't display them, you get the option to view them on the internet. Not this phone! It SHOULD display them, but doesn't. So they just seem to get lost in space somewhere. Nobody seems to be able to tell me how tofix it.
To me, the phone looks quite nice. Feels good and the buttons are big enough. The battery cover can be difficult to remove though. Especially if you don't have any finger nails. And if you have, take care not to break them!
My phones always take quite a bit of abuse - getting dropped, thrown around, chucked in my pocket and getting scratched by keys etc. This has never been a problem with any other phone, but not with my Siemens S55! No, of course it has to be different. Dropped the phone one day, expecting maybe the battery cover to pop off - but nope! That thing is practically welded shut. What happened? The silver-effect display surround fell off leaving an ugly grey (but obviously ineffective) glue instead of the shiny surround. Since then, I've been losing around one button per week (BPW). It started with the power/call end button. Then the menu key. Then the four-way navigational key. The green dial key is going to be next. This morning, number 3 fell off. So I find myself managing to type whole text messages without the letters D, E and F!
There are some things about this phone which I haven't been able to fault yet! A reasonable quality dictophone, calculator, WAP, etc. One thing I particularly like is that you can use MIDI ringtones. That means I can write my own on my keyboard as well as download some from the internet. And there's still a few freebies out there if you look! Often full 3/4 minute songs as ringtones - for free. Bargain!
The battery life is average I suppose. But if you're a devout Nokia-ite, don't think about changing to this - charging is needed every day or two - instead of the 3-4 days I experienced with my Nokia.
Overall, the phone is....OK. It's got a few features you'd maybe not expect on a phone this price. Good reception, nice look and feel. But I still can't get over the fact that things don't work, fall off, should come off but don't, etc.
I wouldn't recommend it. Save your pennies and go for a nice Sony-Ericsson.
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I was really taken with this phone until I read you have to charge it every couple of days. I have a motorola that does that already even if I don't use it and it is a real pain. Welcome to ciao. Fionaxx
Mar 22nd, 2004
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