Tag Archives: Phones

The Samsung GT-B3410 is one of a number of new feature phones which include many functions you would normally expect to find only in a smartphone. The GT-B3410 can now be bought for under £80 unlocked with a pay as you go SIM card and the main features stand out for people like me who expect certain things in any phone-

A slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 2.6” TFT LCD touch screen, 2 Megapixel camera, MP3 / Voice recording, Built in instant messenger, Social networking out of the box, Email setup wizard.

Can an £80 phone really cut it as a smartphone? Well I have to say that the answer is yes if you are happy with more caveats than I have time to quote here. The B3410 is very easy to use and the touch screen is ultra responsive with the clever interface making you feel that you are using a phone which costs at least twice as much. The build quality is good and sliding out the keyboard produces an immediate change of orientation that makes some of the Windows Mobile devices feel sluggish in comparison. Sadly the keyboard is somewhat dowdy and doesn’t provide much feedback, but it is still better than most touch screen keyboards.

For size and form factor the B3410 feels almost perfect and offers a reassuring if slightly chunky feel in the hand. I have little doubt that it will survive that harshest of handbag and briefcase environments. The 3.5mm headphone jack shows that entertainment is high up on the list of priorities here and music and video playback are acceptable, if not of the level of most other devices. The microSD expansion does mean though that you can carry a large selection of music and videos with you whenever you like which is a bonus.

There is a lot of software included and the PIM side is usable at best. The notes application and calendar do the job quite well with the contacts app feeling more than a little clunky, but the inclusion of tasks, memos, a world clock, calculator and a converter will no doubt be all that the target market will want on a phone. Other apps are included with Google and Facebook being the most notable alongside an FM radio, voice recorder, communities (MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Photobuscket and Picasa) and some trial Java games for good measure. Sadly you will be relying on Java apps for expansion, but again I suspect the target market will not need to download much (patronising I know).

The communication side is weak with no 3G or Wi-Fi and only EDGE support offers usable internet browsing. However, this phone is all about messaging and keeping in touch and for that you can easily get away with 2G so it will still suffice for what it really needs to do.

The B3410 is a basic phone which knocks on the door of the smartphone world, but ultimately provides a voice experience which is too weak to be classed as a serious contender. It feels slightly cheap and this goes against the great screen and usable keyboard which are the highlights here. It is a hugely likable device with a good battery though and will serve its purpose well. For £80 it is a demonstration of what is possible in 2009 / 2010 and I suspect we will see a feature phone which deserves the title ‘smart’ before 2010 is over with.

Sony Ericsson Aino Review

Available from Clove for £391

Main features-

The best of both worlds: traditional keypad and touch UI in media mode
Media Home and Media Go – simple to take your content with you
Remote Play with Playstation 3 – control and access your Playstation 3 media content from your mobile phone
3 inch 16 million colour screen – surf the web in widescreen
8.1 Megapixel with auto focus camera
WiFi/DLNA
Clear audio experience – listen to music in superb quality with the stereo sepakers or 3.5mm audio jack
Design matched Wireless Stereo Headphone MH100 and Charging Stand EC100
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync

In the box-

Sony Ericsson Aino
Battery
SanDisk microSD 8GB
USB Cable
Colour-matched Wireless Stereo Headphone MH100
Design-matched Charging Stand EC100
User guide

I am going to try hard here to set aside my preference for smartphones and consider the Aino by merit on its own. It is far too easy to compare it to smartphones like the HTC Hero and iPhone 3GS and then wonder why it is priced at near £400, but not every phone needs to be a traditional smartphone, whatever that really is, and the quality of the components must also be taken into account.

Camera phones still dominate the mass mobile market and being able to sell a unit on Mega Pixels alone is often enough to have Joe Public salivating over the idea and shelling out hundreds of pounds for the privilege of having a good camera in a good phone which does little else very well. Did that sound patronising?

The Aino actually does do a lot very well, which I will come to later, but you can see from the main features listed above that it is aiming for the mass market in every single step. Remote Playstation 3 play, free movies from PlayNow and the camera are obvious nods to what more people may want than the average smartphone buyer. The goodness does not end at triviality though because Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync in included alongside a bizarre touch interface which only works in the media application. Why would anyone include touch functionality and limit it to a select few apps?

The Aino is complete from a specifications point of view and like many feature phones rivals the feature set of smartphones in almost every respect. The fundamental difference lies in the implementation and how Sony Ericsson is expecting users to use these features. Specific features like the camera, which is very good by the way, are pushed to the front and the underlying excellent of Activesync and the like are there as afterthoughts presumably because most users will not use them that often.

The interface is typical Sony Ericsson and requires manual button navigation, but it is a system which is easy to understand once you have played around with it for a while. There is a lot of functionality hidden beneath the twelve icons on the front screen as can be evidenced by the number of functions under the Organiser icon; Alarms, Applications, Media Home, File Manager, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, Video Call, Synchronisation, Timer, Stopwatch, Torch Calculator. Phew! Location Services contains NearMe, Google Maps, Navigation, Tracker and My Favourites and so the list of features goes on and on and on. It includes a diverse range of functionality hidden beneath a feature phone layer and this will appeal to people who prefer the more simplistic interface this type of design offers. Strangely shutting the keyboard will bring up a touch interface again which can be used to manage media- it’s all rather strange and I can’t quite work out why it has been implemented this way.

Media is catered for very well and the stand out feature is sound reproduction in my opinion. The external speaker is simply wonderful and by far the best I have heard to date, but the included headphones also do a good job of bringing the sound home (useful because there is no 3.5mm jack here) and thus I have no complaints about the Aino as a music phone. Sony Ericsson has chosen its standard music player interface which is of course superior to most and you will find yourself skipping through tracks in no time at all.

Photo management is also slick and easy and the accelerometer takes care of viewing photos in portrait or landscape. I have to say that the screen works perfectly in all weather conditions and plays back movies exceptionally well. TV is catered for with a pre-defined link to BBC iPlayer and the surprising aspect here is how poorly it works. Video quality is akin to what you would expect from TV services over 3G and is simply not good enough. Hopefully this can be resolved because all other aspects of the video experience, such as YouTube, work extremely well.

General speed is an issue when you are doing multiple things at once. I noticed music stopping when a new message was received and sometimes things just stop. Eventually the Aino gets itself in gear and starts again, but it is a less than satisfactory experience when you consider how many features are included here. The processing power may also explain some lags when using the camera- you can use the touch screen to focus on a particular point which is great, but the Aino can take forever to save a photo before you can take the next one. Strangely the video recorder is very fast and is capable of near HD quality recording so maybe there are some software tweaks needed to make the Aino feel like a finished product.

For a phone that can do so much battery life will always be important and the Aino falls down here. With light use I barely managed a day’s use and this could be a problem. New batteries do take time to bed in, but it does look as though the physical power side is not as strong as it could be.

I could talk about the Aino for a long time because there is just so much crammed into what is undoubtedly a beautifully made piece of hardware, but that will tell you nothing you cannot read from the spec sheet. It is an expensive feature phone for sure and I can’t quite see who it is going to sell to. Would people really stump up £400 for a feature phone out of contract or would they pay over £150 for it on an 18 month contract? I have to say that I cannot see either happening because it does not fit into either market segment at its current price point.

The inclusion of a Bluetooth headset and charging stand are useful and it would be nice to see similar included for most phones, but it is not enough to make up for the laggy OS and poor battery life. I am not completely discounting the Aino because it has some features which show the others what is possible, but some software tweaks are needed to make the experience as good as its potential would suggest.

As the average lifespan of a human being reaches that only previously seen in the tortoise family, there are now more active pensioners than ever before and these people need all of the convenience and facilities that younger people are used to. Just because they have seen more years does not mean they should not have access to modern equipments such as mobile phones. The problem with the mobile phone is that it is of course designed to be mobile and this can hinder usage for people who have problems pressing small buttons and for those with poor eyesight. As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they need to cram more features into a small space, and this is beyond the realm for people of advanced years.

I would suggest that the Doro ranged is aimed at people over 70 rather than all pesnsioners, and that it is also perfect for people with specific ailments such as poor hearing and maybe arthritous. Every aspect of the phones has been built with older people in mind and this makes the Doro range almost unique in the mobile phone industry, and we should not discount the size of this market. The potential is huge and I see no reason why the Doro set of phones should not succeed in a world where ‘everyone’ wants to be contactible in times of trouble or just to speak to family and friends when they want to.

I am a good subject for these phones at the moment because I have been more than half-deaf for the past 3 months and have struggled to make and receive calls on my Nokia 6303. Some days I find myself continually having to resort to a wired headset and it has caused me genuine issues trying to communicate with people. Hopefully this problem will be resolved for me with an operation, but for people who have this kind of health problem for the rest of their lives, all of the sophisticated features and miniturisation of new mobile phones will mean nothing. It all means nothing because they cannot use the phones…

Clove leant me two Doro handsets, both with names that are far from easy, and so I thought I would give them a try and hazard a guess as to how useful they would be for the older generation.

The HandlePlus 326i gsm is HUGE! It looks like a toy and at first glance cannot be taken seriously as a mobile phone. Hard plastic is used for the outer covering and the bold white set alongside the large black buttons and bright white numbers makes for a setup that anyone would be able to see quite clearly. The screen is surprisingly small and made of a low resolution, but there is no need for a large screen because the feature set is limited.

The thinking process behind the Doro handsets is exemplified by this phone and the associated contents. The large print manual and stickers that can be stuck on the battery listing favourite numbers (how sweet is that?) show a keen understanding of the needs of the target market for these phones. The list of sensitive features continues- soft touch coating, large buttons, 4 memory keys (A-D), safety lanyard, keylock, easy to read display, call timer and the features just keep coming. The features will not impress you guys, the smartphone brigade, but they are not meant to. They are designed to appeal to your parents or grandparents and Doro has gotten the message over well.

You would never carry around a 326i and use it in the street, unless P Diddy or Paris Hilton decides that they are the way forward, but for people in homes and those of an age who need a phone for emergencies and general use it is close to perfect. This particular phone is design at the very high end of the age range because it is overly large and has almost every feature needed for someone of very advanced years. The volume on the speakerphone and through the ear speaker can be set very high indeed and is not recommended for people with normal hearing. I have never heard such a clear and loud speakerphone in my life, and manufacturers of standard mobile phones could learn a lesson or two from Doro.

The PhoneEasy 345gsm is positively svelt in comparison to the 326i and I must reluctantly admit to taking a shine to it. The manual is about the size of a standard Bible and the box is quite big. Inside is an 850mAh battery (700mAh in the 326i) and this may sound stingy, but remember that the features are quite short and with a small screen there should be little to drain power. Also, the likely target market is unlikely to be texting and calling a lot; “Hi Stan, see U down the pub. Mega LOLs.” It’s not going to happen is it…

The buttons on the 345gsm are simply brilliant. The motion is perfect and again this is an area that other manufacturers could learn from. With so many phones including buttons that have little or no tactile feedback, it is refreshing to see a phone with buttons that you actually want to press. Again we have very large buttons and a small screen, but in a subtle design which works well- the green stripes on the back soft plastic looks really good and if this design were used in a smaller phone, it could have a fairly large market.

Voice quality and loudness are once again fantastic and I found little wrong with this phone. The LCD screen is not great, but the numbers and letters are large and thus once again the target market has been catered for in every area.

I can’t write much about these phones because they do not do much, but they nail the most crucial areas perfectly. With wonderful sound quality, accessible features throughout the software and hardware, and even well written manuals and accessories they are as good as you can hope for if you need this type of mobile phone.

I walked out of Clove with these two phones and wondered what the hell I was doing. Three days later, I have grown to appreciate what they are capable of and the niche in the market they cover. I genuinely like these phones and the 345gsm in particular caught my attention. Doro has filled a huge gap in the market with its range of handsets, and I am glad I got a chance to see what they could do. Guess what my Mum will be getting for Christmas…

The Doro range of handsets are available from Clove.