VC’s Techie CockTail

With ever increasing mobile service providers especially in the GSM space and people’s preference for separate no’s , dual sim phones are becoming very popular. China phones seems the most popular but some Indian companies like Spice , Micromax are churning out dual sim mobiles. But when my friend asked my suggestion for a dual sim phone, I suggested Samsung’s entry level C5212 mostly because of Samsung’s name in the mobile arena.

• Dual Sim : Since this is its major trump card, the screen shows the 2 mobile service provider’s name with the default sim (which has the outgoing call facility) at the top followed by the other provider at the bottom. The signal strength of the two  sims are at the top. The default sim is used both for outgoing calls and gprs functions. And when a call is received the phone shows in which sim no. the call has come. A button at the side enables to switch the sim, but while switching restarts to start with the other sim. The contacts and text messages in the 2 sims are clearly marked.
• Phone : The phone is a basic candybar model measuring 112.7 x 48.6 x 14.3 and weighing 98 grams, its slightly larger compared to K660i but the screen measuring at 2.2″ is nice with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. The call quality was good and the 1000 quantity contact book was excellent. Typing sms was a bit stiff using the numeric keypad.
• Multimedia : Its fitted with a 1.3 MP cam, which is quite OK for the occassional snapshots and video. The music and video player is nice with good sound quality and a micro SD card and a FM radio makes it a nice portable media player.
• Extras : The samsung User Interface is snappy and easy to use but still some learning curve is needed. Three themes , changeable wallpapers, transition effects and ringtones gives a fun side to the phone. Standard PIM features, plus Internet connectivity via GPRS / EDGE and local connectivity via bluetooth makes it quite a capable all round device. Java apps/games are supported too.

Those who want a dual sim phone with some nice features can get this one for around 7,000 rs (145$) or those who are just after a basic dual sim phone as I said there are other brands like micro max and spice.

written by Vignesh \\ tags: c5212, dual sim, Samsung

My friend whose office doesn’t allow a camera mobile phone into their premise, showed me this petite slider – Samsung B520. For a price of Rs. 3,200/- (64$), i was pretty surprised amazed with its features.

• Measuring 96 x 47 x 17.g mm and weighing 94grams and dressed in a gun metal grey plastic its quite sophisticated looking for budget range phone
• The phone’s display is a quite ok one with 128 x 160 pixel measuring 1.77 inches.
• The phone’s user interface is typical samsung with a 3 x 3 icon system and is quite user friendly
• The basic phone functionality like making and receiving calls is good. And coupled with a 1000 no. address book and sms feature makes it a good basic cellphone
• What gives this phone is its “Value” feature is a mp3 playback capability with a microsd slot and a FM radio making it a handy portable audio player
• Other features like Bluetooth, GPRS, E-Mail client and Java support makes it a good value for money phone.

So people who want a “cameraless” mobile with some pretty basic features can surely consider this…..

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Mobile Phone, Samsung

Over the months for people who have been following my blog would have noticed me using a term VALUE-FOR-MONEY (VFM), I am amazed how this term is getting evolved as the years go by and technology becomes affordable.

For the last few weeks, I’ve been able to play around with Samsung’s J150 , a mobile phone costing around Rs. 4,700/- (95$). In brief I will list out its pros and cons for you to decide whether this phone will suit you,

PROS

+ Nice screen measuring 1.9″ and with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels (256K TFT) is bright and crisp for a phone at this price range

+ Measuring at 111 x 45 x 9.9 mm, its slim and handy with a metal like finish.

+ Music quality was good with a micro SD card slot coupled with a FM radio & video player it can double as a portable multimedia player

+ Camera @ 1.3 Megapixel was quite good

+ Standard phone functions like Network reception, Call quality, Messaging like SMS / MMS, phonebook (1000 entries) are all upto mark, Battery life was also good

+ Connectvity like USB, Bluetooth and GPRS / EDGE makes the deal much more sweeter

+ The user interface was nice and easy to a extent to use with with some customization options available for the users.

CONS

- The music player can’t be minimized to the background so essentially no multi tasking

- Some audio files with more than 128 Kbps bit rate wasnt recognized

- I doubt whether installing java apps / games via PC is available usually samsung phones allows java stuff to be installed via wap

- Ringtones & wallpapers can be kept from the files stored in the phone memory which is very limited

- The phone’s keypad film has started peeling off within a month

If you have any comments on this phone / if you feel there are other phones in this range which are more worthy than this , please feel free to put your comments here

written by Vignesh \\ tags: j150, Samsung

After a brief encounter with Samsung E250 a budget slider, here is another “Svelte” & “Sexy” slider from Samsung’s so called Metal Series – E840. For starters its retailing around Rs. 9,000/- ( 225 US$), so its not as expensive as its looks. Its finished with a mettalic shimmer and the entire screen when it’s not active looks like a mirror. Even though it looks stylish when its new,its prone to scratches so you would have to be Xtra careful to preserve its looks.

Its specs at a glance,

• Size: 101.5 x 52.5 x 10.6 mm
• Weight: 99gm
• Screen: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches
• Network:     GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• Messaging : SMS, MMS, Email
• Camera : 2.0 Megapixel
• Connectivity : USB / GPRS / EDGE / Bluetooth (with A2DP)
• Memory : 70MB Internal & MicroSD Card slot

The top row of keys are touch sensitive making it very ‘touchy’ to use, I couldn’t get any tactile feedback making it difficult to comprehend how much or how many times I’ve pressed a key. The slider mechanism felt soild even though the mobile I used (my friend’s) has been through alot of rough stuff. The music quality was crisp but not that loud through speakers. The camera was OK. One of the things I admire about Samsung is the Picsel viewer which enables us to view office and pdf documents, but I couldnt test the feature on this phone and the other thing is the Display. To say the least its EXCELLENT. The color reproduction is bright and when the same picture was compared to a Nokia N72 the Samsung’s display won hands down.

People who are looking for a nice stylish slider with solid features can try this phone. But after using Sony Ericsson so long I found the User Interface somewhat plain (icons and customization didn’t help much) and every action needed extra presses (like opening a video needed one press to select the video, one to open its menu and the third press to play the video).

written by Vignesh \\ tags: Mobile Phone, Samsung