While my phone is gone, I borrowed my sister’s phone for the time being. It is an obscure china phone almost as big as the Nokia N70. It is a touchscreen phone that is also armed with keypad. It has expandable memory microSD, dual sim capable, Bluetooth, has mobile TV and radio, and supposedly 2.0 mega pixel camera that can be used for still photos or videos. It uses the same charger as other Nokia phone (the mini plug version).
And so, I began my new life on this phone M-ren model 777 and found some criticism.
The phone’s keypad is unresponsive. It takes a half millisecond before the phone responds. It’s cumbersome to use this for texting and anything else. The touchscreen is worse. It is inaccurate and sometimes doesn’t respond to touch.
The Mobile TV just sucks ass. It can’t receive any channel in our area.
The camera is supposedly 2.0 mega pixels. But everything I shoot at turns out to be pixelized abominations. And you can’t turn off that shutter sound. Yes, I know there is a law that requires it to make a shutter noise, but can’t it at least give me an option to turn that shit off or at least volume access?
The phone has three ports at the bottom. One proprietary USB port for data connection, one charger port that is the same as those in recent Nokia models and a 2.5mm earphone jack. I have to buy a 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm adaptor to be able to use my earphone I used to plug in my Nokia X3.
The media player is the worst I’ve ever used. It’s very unresponsive. You press the play the button and it will a play two seconds later. Press the stop button, wait for two seconds. Press the next song button, wait for four seconds. The menu is also unintuitive.
The media player only supports mp3 and won’t play WMA as far as I know. The MIDI performance is horrible. It drops notes on polyphony intensive parts. It even drops on a four channel MIDI that contains only a bass, drum, melody, and accompaniment. Sometimes, a channel won’t synchronize with the whole song, causing messy music. The quality is BAD. It sounds like a cheap toy instrument. It sounds like the samples are recorded in a low quality telephone microphone.
The user interface is OK. But sometimes confusing because the call button is used as the left softkey . Also, whenever one of the networks loses signal and returns, it will make an annoying sound that you can never shut up. Even silent mode won’t work with that annoying sound. WHY CAN’T I SHUT IT UP??
The battery is weird. It doesn’t last long and in intensive usage, it will only last half a day. I can say the battery is defective because it has a noticeable bulge. According to my research, this is caused of chemical build-up and there are cases that the battery will burst into flames or explode. Now that’s some scary shit.
And to top everything off, the phonebook is the WORST PIECE OF SHIT I’VE EVER USED. Considering this is a CELLULAR PHONE, don’t you think it should perform well on such basic task such as texting and calling? Texting is hard because of the unresponsive keypad. But phonebook management is even worse. How about this? YOU CAN’T EVEN RENAME A PHONEBOOK ENTRY??? AND YOU CALL THIS PIECE OF SHIT A PHONE?? DID THEY ACTUALLY TEST THIS MISERABLE PILE OF SHIT??
Can you see the rename option? Here’s a clue. There’s none.I’ve got enough of this.
I tried to exchange this with my dad’s phone (which is a myPhone that I forgot the model)
I got a test drive of it a few months ago and it is pretty decent compared to that PHONE SHIT above.
It is your basic budget dual sim capable phone and doesn’t with a camera, TV, or Bluetooth.
Texting is comfortable and hopefully, the phonebook has a rename option this time. File management and other stuff works fine and good.
The only criticisms I have for this phone are how much of the features are actually unusable. The Pinoy widget, the very heavily marketed feature, is NOT available unless you purchased the microSD that contains the files the widget needed. It is sold SEPERATELY. Some features also seem just for show. Some will show ‘Not enough memory’ even I have plugged a 4 GB microSD up its ass.
One more thing is the MIDI performance. The instruments are OK. But this one is choosy on which MIDI files to play like my old Nokia 2323. It prefers low polyphony MIDI and it plays fine.
Finally, I convinced my mom do buy me a new phone. We’re under tight budget so I chose to get a Cherry Mobile (a branded china phone).
For 1,600 pesos, I’ve got quite a bargain.
CHERRY MOBILE F16 FEATURES:
• Dedicated Music Keys
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• Dual SIM
• FM Radio
• Bluetooth
• GPRS
The package is pretty minimal. It includes the user guide, charger, earphone, and the phone itself. The user guide is too basic and won’t explain much. The charger and earphone plug into the microUSB port of the phone.
The phone is light and thin (I didn’t say slim) compared to the Nokia X3. It has only one micro USB port where you can plug the earphone, charger, and USB cable but not at the same time. Above the keypad is the dedicated music key which works and responds alright.
The user interface is OK. It is your familiar China Phone UI. That’s one thing about these china phones. They have similar user interfaces that basically if you used one china phone, you’ve used them all.
The keypad can be confusing sometimes. Because of the two extra shortcut buttons, it can be hard to press the softkeys.
The camera truthfully admits it is just a 1.3 megapixel camera. It can be useful for quick shots. And as an unexpected bonus, this camera can also shoot video.
The media player works OK. Though, I haven’t tested if it can play WMA and other format but probably, it won’t. It can also play video but I’m not sure in which format. I guess it would be 3gp or AVI format.
On other features, it has a Bluetooth, flashlight, and other organizer stuff like calculator, calendar, and alarm clock.
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