I got one of these from them last go around as a backup phone. It's a good no-frills phone with some quirks.
The Good:
- Reception is excellent here. One of the better phones I've had (if not the best). - Voice quality is excellent. Very clear and loud both in and out. One of the better phones I've had. - Speakerphone sound quality is about the best of any cell phone I've used. - Battery life is very good. Not quite what they claim but pretty good (several full days from a single charge with typical use). - SIM card plugged right in and picked up the network no problems. - Size and overall design is very nice. - Seems well made, not flimsy. - Display is very easy to read even at a distance.
The Bad:
- Forget it if you do any text messaging. - No camera, color, images, nothing like that - it's a phone. Period. - Limted ring tones (4 total, 2 of which I can't imagine anyone using). - Rings start out at a very low volume and then get progessively louder. Problem is that unless you're in a fairly quiet place to hear the first couple, then you only get about two more before it rolls to voice mail. Sometimes I can't dig it out of my pocket or otherwise get to it fast enough. - Alarm is LOUD but only works sometimes. - Time is set in the phone (i.e., like a watch) not from the network. There are a lot of things like that the reflect the lack of any memory on the phone itself. Limited messages, limited history, etc. If the tiny memory on your SIM card can't hold it, then it won't do it, save it, whatever. - No USB or other way to plug in to add contacts, etc. Copy contacts to your SIM card first. - Call history only shows the last call answered. If you miss a call, you have no idea who called. - The accuracy of the voice mail waiting icon was kind of hit or miss for a while but seems OK now. - Butt dialing is absolutely ridiculous. Remember FUNCTION KEY+LOCK KEY. You'll need it! lol - Constantly shows a number representing the network that you're on.
The manual that comes with it is in Spanish only but you can find an English version online. Likewise, the language and voice prompts are set to Spanish by default. You can change to English easily.
It's been fine for my intended purpose as a cheap backup with no contract but be sure that you're going to be OK with a very limited phone (only).
winton said: Any comments on the quality? How's the display and general ease-of-use, Specially for older people?
This is good for T-Mo?
It's fine as a phone but it's ONLY a phone. I bought it at the time just to hold me over between good phones and as a backup to have around so I wouldn't be under any pressure to have to find something fast if mine was lost, broken, whatever. Reception, voice/sound quality, and battery life all are very good. All about as good as or better than any other that I've had. The display is a large blocky font so in that regard it would be good for an older person and it's a fairly simple phone as far as not having many features to be confused by. Forget trying to do texting on it or much of anything else - it only displays a few letters at a time and it would drive you nuts. It uses voice-based prompts to walk you through the different settings, so you don't have to learn much about setting things up (which again isn't much anyway). Nice and very thin and light. Easy to read disply even in full sun and at a distance. Build quality seems very good and they have a good reputation for durability. They're really intended for "Third World" markets so simple and durable by design.
They do have some quirks. The biggest thing that I don't like is that it's very easy to hit keys when it's in a pocket and it's constantly beeping when you do even when locked. And one of the easy presses to hit turns the ringer off. The other thing that I don't like is that the ringer starts out very low in volume and then gradually increases with every ring. Sounds OK but the problem is that it starts out too low so by the time that you hear it at times, you're already two or three rings into it and if you don't get it right then it rolls to voice mail. Between that and accidentally turning off the ringer I was missing some calls. Some other little stuff... The time isn't set automatically, it's done like you'd set any other clock. The blocky font makes for some strange caller IDs and directory entries. The voice mail indicator didn't work properly at first but seemed to fix itself later. The manual and default voice for prompts are in Spanish but you can change it easily and you can find the English manual online. There's zero memory built into the phone so unless it fits in the very limited memory of your SIM card, then it won't be stored and that limits messages, call logs, directory entries, etc.
Should be OK on T-Mobile or any other 850/1900 GSM network.
Not bad for what it is and it did what I wanted it to at the time, but I wouldn't want to have to use it all the time as my main phone myself.
(Shoot, I should have just copied my previous post. I forgot I'd posted that. lol Oh well, at least I'm consistent.
So I take it: - you can't disable voice mail, or increase the number of rings before the call rolls to voicemail - you can't change the ring pattern to "loud ring" only - you have to select one of practically only two sensible ringtones (are they "rings"? or music?) - you can't check missed calls
Even though I am looking for "just a phone", these cons, if true, are deal-breakers for me.
winton said: Very nice and detailed response. Thanks!
So I take it: - you can't disable voice mail, or increase the number of rings before the call rolls to voicemail - you can't change the ring pattern to "loud ring" only - you have to select one of practically only two sensible ringtones (are they "rings"? or music?) - you can't check missed calls
Even though I am looking for "just a phone", these cons, if true, are deal-breakers for me.
- I never tried disabling voice mail but I couldn't figure out how to change the number of rings before it rolls. It's not obvious anyway. There are some "hidden" functions that you can access and change through a special key sequence (search and you'll find them on the Interwebs) and it *might* be possible to change it that way but I don't recall seeing that as one of the options.
- Even if set to loud as possible, it still starts out at a low volume. Again, may be possible to use some special key sequence set it differently but I couldn't find it.
- Yes, they're "ring-like" electro-beep-type thingys versus music. I don't remember now what they other two were. I listened to them once and said forget that. lol
- Supposedly you can check missed calls but mine didn't seem to work reliably. Part of the problem is the blocky font which makes it hard to tell what the heck it's showing at times, but I know in some cases I'd get a call and there seemed to be no record at all of the missed call. Sometimes it did. Just a guess, but it may relate to the limited memory as I'd mentioned above. I could see how that might be the case if it didn't dump the call log on a first in/first out basis but rather once the memory allocated for the log is full, it just doesn't record the new call. Again, I didn't really test that theory but just thinking back to how it seemed to work (or not work as the case may be).
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