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- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 264 reviews Back to product review
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Full user review
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49 out of 49 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"Excellent phone with only a few minor issues"
Pros: Chocolarte flip, great reception, many features, mp3+wma+id3tags and art, mp3 ringtones
Cons: camera is VERY slow, no flash, touch pad is too sensitive
Summary: Time owned = 3 weeks.
Style - 9/10 - Love the piano black finish but the smudges can be unbearable. However, they do clean off easily. The chrome accent around the phone is a nice touch.
Initial Durability - 9/10 - Only worries here are the little plastic flap covers for the MicroSD and MultiFunction Port. Case is plastic but feels rugged enough for me. Nothing is loose or feels out of place. I have dropped it a few time and all still works.
Usability - 9/10 - I personally dont like Verizons menus, but that is not the phones fault. I wish it would flip open a little more easily when using one hand, but that is the nature of this style. Closing is easy with one hand. Opening the little flaps is easy to do, but getting out the MicroSD card could be difficult for someone with big fingers or not long finger nails. It is small enough to put in shirt pocket without bulging out.
Keypad 8/10 it is flat and does take some learning to get used to, but not a whole lot. However, there is a distinctive button feel to them unlike some other flat keypad phones. You can assign the four directional buttons too making it more useful.
Speakerphone 7/10 it has one, has a dedicated button for it, but is not that loud. When playing mp3s, it is very loud, just not when using the speakerphone.
Calling 9/10 Very loud phone. First phone where it is not kept on highest volume setting. Voice commands require a confirmation, wish they did not. Comfortable to use for long periods of time (30+ minutes). Can become slippery and may fall out of your hands if drowsy, talking and not fully paying attention due to the glossy finish. People I call do not know if I am on a cell phone or not until the see my phone number.
Display 10/10 Very bright, very colorful. Could be larger, but then the phone might be larger too. Wish you could adjust the brightness. Seems like it has 3 settings, On, dimmed and off. Really like the display
Bluetooth 9/10 Lots of menus to go through to get Bluetooth hooked up to laptop. Turn on Bluetooth, then set discovery mode, accept a bunch of menus etc. However, this is my first Bluetooth device, maybe this is normal. Once connected and setup, I have not dropped a connection to my laptop up to 20 or so feet. You can transfer mp3 ringtones, pics, sounds via Bitpim.
Mp3 Player 9/10 Takes a bit of time to initialize the player, but once loaded it is responsive. The touch keys on the outside can be triggered by moving it in your pocket, so it can be annoying at times. Out of many different bitrates, mp3 vs wma, tags and best of all, the tag art, all were displayed correctly. I did have a few Cant Play File errors but I FWD once and then back and it worked just fine.
MicroSD 10/10 can be small to use, but excellent feature to have. Store more pics, ringtones, mp3s, movies etc.
Camera 2/10 Best said is it does take pictures. Mine is VERY slow. You push to take picture, it sounds the shutter click and then 1 second latter, it take the actual picture. Pics are grainy if medium to lower light is used. Lots of options to use such as brightness, white balance etc. There is no flash. I did not buy the phone for the camera however; it is just a novelty for me.
Battery 10/10 I have disabled the EV network via the service menu. Battery lasts 2-3 days of normal use (phone calls, txt msg, playing mp3). Turning on the EV network for VCAST, it usually lasts 1-2 days. Not a single time where it was not inconvenient to recharge.Updated
Now I have had the phone for 5+ months of abuse.
Style-no change,sill love the style (except so many people have the phone now)
Durability-long term-9/10. Only draw back is it does scratch (not easily, I tend to drop it alot). The port covers show no sign of breaking and I use them alot. No issues with the flip mechanism. Keypad has not worn on me yet.
Usability-no change
Keypad-no change
Speakerphone-6/10 Either Im getting deaf or the power to the speaker is less (Im guessing deaf). Wish it was louder. Plus a few instances where the other person could no hear me well.
Calling-no change. Still slippery and I have dropped it many times while talking. Guess Im not that coordinated.
Display-no change
Bluetooth-8/10. Wish I could hook up more than one item at a time, but that is minor. Still big effort to setup in begining, but once done it is plug and go.
MP3 Player - 7/10. I degraded this down because I have had some issues where it would skip to the next song for no reason. It wouldnot play some .mp3 or .wma. Had to re-encode the file, it worked. Not ALL art comes over for some reason, i had a few missing. A2DP is EXCELLENT for stereo headphones.
MicroSD - no change
Camera-no change. It still is horrible.
Battery-10/10. I dont know if I am using it less or what, but I seem to now get up to 1.5 weeks use before needing a charge. I have gotten so used to NOT charging it that it has kicked me in butt when battery died.
- 2 replies to this review
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Hello,
Can you please tell me if, when you enter vibrate/silent, does the camera shutter still make a sound? Also, is there an option to turn off the shutter sound?
Thank you! -
How do you turn off the EV network?? What is that for? Thanks for the very helpful review.
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