Mobile phones: The official thread

Well, curiosity got the better of me, and I ordered a Chinese knock off phone from DealExtreme, I'm not expecting much but we'll see. They have a different look, and that kind of intrigues me. Dual-SIM standby is also interesting, I could have one line for work and a personal line. It has a resistive touch screen, so I'm going to make sure to NEVER lost the stylus. I'll post a review out of it, and I am excited to see if this phone will be gigantic failure or a good surprise,

Looking forward to your review, Tony.

Interesting thing about those Shanzhai phones is that Dual-SIM card support is actually very rare in, err, I guess, regular phones. I'm not too thrilled about the resistive touchscreen eithe as they are cheaper and therefore much less responsive than the higher-priced capacitive touch screens. Still, while I've heard both good and bad stuff about Shanzhai phones, it should prove an interesting experiment.

For the curious, this is the one I ordered.

That's just great. Chinese New Year, they are CLOSED for the WEEK.What a shitload of fuck. With that and the order error from the piking idiots who got my order wrong and sent me ab European phone... Aaaaargh!

what a wonderful thread!! you love phones and it shows! i hope to love something that much some day. very interesting! thank you for posting this!

Yes, I have been wanting to land a job as cellphone salesperson for years. I became hooked on phones after getting my second ever phone, the Nokia 3590. There are rarities and megabucks in my collection, and I am always thrilled when adding new/old phones to tny collection. Depending on how good the Shanzhai phone turns out to be, I might add some more of them in the collection. I currently have my eye on another very sweet looking Shanzhai phone.

well if you where the one informing me on what to buy i wold be a very happy person indeed! you would be a awesome phone salesman.

I appreciate that, jez.

The Chinese Nre Year is to be over tomorrow, and hopefully the Shanzhai phone I ordered will be shipped out. I am looking forward to getting it and posting my thoughts about it. I have an active FIDO SIM just for the occasion, and I bought a $20 airtime card to top out this account and test the Shanzhai out. The batteries look very similar to Nokia-branded batteries, and I might be crazy enough to take a BL-6C genuine Nokia battery and pop it in this Shanzhai. I've read mixed reviews about Shanzhai phones, but there is no denying just how popular Shanzhai phones are. Shanzhai manufacturers do not buy production licenses from the Chinese government, therefore saving on the costs. Most Shanzhai phones operate on GSM networks, and GSM chipsets are widely available and low-cost. HSPA -- or 3G, the successor to GSM -- Shanzhai phones are pretty rare, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them become more and more common.

I hope you do not mind that i moved this thread for you.It is now in its own electronic sub forum! i hope you got the phones you are to revive ( the one after Chinese new year and the phone they sent the wrong one of.)

No, no problem at all, jez. Well, considering I had to ship it back to England, which takes about a week, and then for them to send out the right one back to me, that takes about a week and a half to two weeks, and truth is, I'm getting a little pissed off. I CLEARLY mentioned that I wanted a T28 WORLD, because I NEEDED the 1900MHz frequency, and poof, I received a T28S? Not only are the phones NOT THE SAME COLOR, but the phone also reads T28 WORLD. But, OTOH... I have found a supplier for European phones, and they have a lot of retro models I have been dying to add to my collection, so I just might give those guys a second chance. As for the Shanzhai, they are back in buisness now, but I still don't expect the phone for to at best 2-3 and at worst 3-4 weeks. Too bad there is no FedEx in Hong Kong! They'd get that to my doorstep in a split second! I ordered a package from the US via FedExm and it left at 8AM, and at 1PM the VERY SAME DAY, the delivery guy was knocking at my door.

oh i am sorry for the wait! i can not wait to hear a review on the phone(s)!

i just have a samsung comback. i do not know why i even picked it.. no one ever texts me(or calls) XD. oh wait i know why i did. i liked how it felt in my hands. i also liked the keypad.

I'm personally not a Samsung fan. I used to own a T809 which was a good phone, but it was a prototype that ended up crapping on me. I know I shouldn't judge a brand by one model only, but I've never been a fan of Samsung, and I have never really been tempted to get one of their phones. I swear by Motorola phones, NEXTEL/TelusMiKE Motorola phones are THE REAL DEAL. They can take a solid asswhooping, and they are OUTSTANDING phones to boot.

Rob got a htc yesterday. It means I get a look at these clever phones before I go and get one. Mind you, he's in the middle of doing an IT degree and it took him all night to figure out how to set the alarm for this morning!

I use whatever phone is offered to me. when ever we renew our phone plan i get a new one.(and my father gets my old one because he breaks phones like no tomorrow) i do not get a expensive one because i do not use it much(i rather get one that is cheaper.. if it will not be used much why go all out?). i am sure there are better then what i have but i have yet to break it XD
my brother however has a very nice phone. touch screen, all that. very nice i wish i could remember what it was. he is looking at another one in replace this one with as well.


silvery--
my father did not know how to turn off his alarm after i set it. all week it would go off LOLOL!

4 buisness days down and those idiots are still "Waiting for supplier". I am losing my patience. If something doesn't happen and doesn't happen FAST, my incursion in the world of Shanzhai phones will be a quick one that will stop as I get my fucking refund. I'm leaving them till next Wednesday. If nothing happen by then, consider by order as good as cancelled.

i am sorry that this is happening. i will shake my fist to the sky in hopes that you get it. i doubt it will work but at least i get to shake my first at something ^__^

Well, playing Devil's advocate for a second, they *did* close for an entire week, and safe to say orders piled up, and that mine hasn't been reached yet. I want this to work out, because I have seen fake Nokia 8800 as well, and I am VERY CURIOUS. In the meanwhile, though, as soon as it's done charging, I will do a video review of the Sierra Wireless Voq, which is a rare gem. Sierra Wireless have long been making data cards for data over cellular networks, and the Voq was Sierra's very first, and also last entry in the world of Smartphones. I am incredibly lucky to have found one. They were NOT sold by providers, but through independent retailers. They came unlocked out of the box, and just changing the settings to program it to a new network is easily done. I got it for pretty cheap to boot, those sold for $550 back when they were released, I pretty much got it for 1/10th of that.

Here is how it looks like. The flipping keyboard concept is nifty, but the hinge is somewhat flimsy. Still, it works good in practice. The phone runs Windows Mobile 2003SE, and while I am no M$ fan, I have found WinMo to be not as bad as I thought it would be. The phone has a task manager included, and while it nags me about buying the full version every five shutdown, it's easy to skip over and I don't mind. With proper task management, WinMo is surprisingly efficient. And that was an old version. I have not tested the push email nor data, since my only active SIM card on a GSM network is on prepaid for backup and testing purposes.

oh that is a niiice phone. i would never let my father touch it. he would break it so fast LOLOL!

That does look pretty cool I had a 'flip' phone years ago and it was quite good, don't think I'd have one now though; Ashley always manages to get hold of my phones somehow (no matter where I put them!) so I'd end up with it in two halves

That phone reminds me of a remote control. The hinge looks a bit fragile though. I like sturdy phones that can take a beating and then more. I also like phones that can be used to phone people and possibly text them. Phones today are filled with too many silly useless gadgets if you ask me. I must confess that I've always been a kind of low tech guy though.

The phone IS rather large, and kind of feels more like a wireless homephone. It is massive even when compared against the BlackBerry 7100. But, when it was launched, this phone was very innovative, and I'm glad Sierra made this smartphone, as despite it's age and older OS, it is still a good phone. And Cara, if you like sturdy phones that can take an asswhooping, and are good basic communication tools, I will take a look at one of my MiKE iDEN phones and do a video review for you. These phones can double as a long-range walkie-talkie (via the cellular network), and they can take a serious asswhooping. Hell, one of them SURVIVED being completely immersed in liquid for several hours and came out UNHARMED.

Just randomly (and off on a wee bit of a tangent) if you do have a cordless land-line phone and are finding the sound quality on it isn't too good then move closer to the base (charging cradle). One of the complaints I get a lot from people is that they struggle to hear on the phone but have had their hearing tested and nothing is wrong. As you move the handset further from the base, the phones do tend to get quieter

Nak, I've found another phone that is vision-impaired friendly -- GreatCall released the Samsung Touch3. It has a 4 inches screen and a stripped down interface with a large font. It runs Android Jelly Bean, has Bluetooth, WiFi, as well as some built-in health applications.

Could be worth a look if you'd like an Android.

Here is a link

http://www.greatcall.com/cell-phones/greatcall-touch

I'm thinking of getting a new phone. My White Berry is nice and everything but I really need a bigger screen to be able to read PDF files without too much pain...

I can get a new phone for one euro because of my current plan but that rules out another White Berry since I don't want to spend too much on top of my subscription.

I've had a very quick look and a few stand out like the Nokia Microsoft Lumia 635, the Galaxy Grand Prime VE or the Sony Xperia T3.

There are other phones but these are the ones with bigger screens. Which one (if any) would you recommend?