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This Cellphone = Fun
Sep 26, 2002 12:56 AM 8835 Views
(Updated Sep 26, 2002 12:56 AM)

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Damn it! Oh No!


Can't help it. For quite sometime, till last week, I was convinced that my Nokia 6210 was still an ''advanced affordable phone''. Alas!


But all of sudden the mobile world has changed a lot. I am sure that everyone has seen/heard/appreciated the Nokia 7650. Colored screens are suddenly in. Sony-Erickson T68i, Samsung Tru-I, Philips Fisio, Panasonic GD-88 - well the list is surprisingly long. Samsung suddenly became very aggressive launching innovative models one after the other - double LCD screens, polyphonic sounds making people aware that there are great pieces that don't have ''NOKIA'' written on it. The competition is hot. The consumers stand to get benefited by models that are attractive, light, feature rich and are available cheap.


I for one am convinced that my 2 year old 6210 is old. The final nail was hammered when an office colleague walked in with a Panasonic GD-75. The price? Rs. 6,000 in gray market as against Rs. 12,000 that I had paid in gray market 2 years back for my 6210 and even now it is priced more than Rs. 6,000. But the GD - 75 is so different. SO DIFFERENT!!!!!


A week later I conned him into phone swapping (guess I am expert at that). But since his was a week old, I had to beg a lot. Ultimately I could get it for only 2 days. So I hope MSians find me creditable to write a review. (hey hey...one would think I care a lot...LOL).


«« FIRST IMPRESSIONS »»


''Hey I don't just need the phone, I need the battery too''.


''What rubbish!, the battery is in there''.


Jeepers! This phone is lighter than a feather (peacock's) - even with battery. You can't even feel it when you keep it on your palms. ''Neat huh!'', I couldn't but help admiring the silver body. ''Hey maestro, can't drape it with different bikinis and moreover the body is too smooth, feels like it may slip from my grip'', were some of my expert comments. But I couldn't but help admiring the tiny antenna less design that sports a surprisingly large display, good size keys and hmm...what's this - a joystick!


«« GRAPHICAL THRILLS »»


The menu, a phone normally has, shows items one after the other through ''Menu'' option. But GD 75 shows them all at once in a 3 x 3 tabular arrangement, which can be surfed easily using joystick (like IBM Thinkpad's mouse arrangement).


Then it has 5 wallpaper pictures and some 5-6-animated screen savers plus two animations to greet you when you put it ON. Wow! Operator logo is a passé.


«« MELODIOUS TUNES »»


The tunes are polyphonic and sounds very different from the normal ring tones - more pleasant. But things don't stop there. The phone has a voice recorder. It can record up to 3 no.s of 10 seconds each. These can then be assigned to play for a particular individual or a group. So we did record a baby laugh (from Huggies latest TV ad) and I added it to the ''office'' group. So anyone in that list calls up, suddenly a baby starts laughing gleefully and wow it does make heads turn. So funny! The look and smiles that people give when I reveal that it wasn't any baby - it's my phone. Worst part, I recorded a whistle and assigned it as an incoming message beep. A group of chicks was just walking by and I got an SMS - and 20 angry glances! So had to sing a Shaggy number ''It wasn't me''. This phone is FUN (i.e. if u don't get bashed up)


«« PHONEY - VERY PHONEY »»


The model is dual band GSM900 and GSM1800. Though without external antenna, the reception is nice and clear. It has all the standard phone features such as




  • Hot Key Dialing




  • Voice Dialing




  • Call divert/barring




  • Call waiting etc






What is interesting though is that it can hold a multi call conferencing. A useful feature that I didn't use, so a full stop here. But the real hit is that like my 6210, this one has an internal modem and a wap browser too. So you can have voice/fax/data calls too. The network selection is both automatic and manual. In security features too, you have keypad lock, phone lock, PIN lock, PIN2 (SIM) lock. Besides, there are features like not allowing anyone to make a call or allowing calls to only certain numbers.


Now here's a hit feature - it can record conversation made on that phone. So next time don't say you didn't say that, I've got proof.


«« MESSAGING »»


It wins over 6210 by 3-0. Firstly it has support for long SMS. Secondly it has Chat SMS. The only thing common is sending SMS to many people and T9 predictive text input. But it emerges a clear winner due to the following:


1) You can position cursor anywhere on the screen using the joystick w/o adding spaces.


2) In T9 too, it has normal mode (abc), a greek mode (dunno what?) and an extended mode where you get a and then a with a dash on it or a with two dots on it (used in European languages). Of course you have the normal mode, T9 mode, number mode as well, which can be easily selected - thanks to joystick that allows context sensitive menus.


3) Besides the text input through keys, there is a special option that displays all the characters - capital/small/special in a callout on the screen. The letters can be selected by navigating through them using the joystick and clicking.


4) This one is a killer utility. You can copy and paste. So go ahead and SMS ''I love you'' a 100 times to your darling (and don't tell her about copy-paste). My babe is still wondering and appreciates my hard work...hee heee...


«« GAMES »»


Only two here! One is the ''Car Racing'', which was there in Atari TV Video Game. It is also a bit better than the other ''Ball Game''. Both games make exclusive use of joystick but may soon get boring.


«« SOME FEATURES WORTH A MENTION »»




  • It has hands free operation.




  • There is a timer and an alarm clock




  • It has vibratory alert




  • The calculator is as conventional but again I would still prefer a calculator to a cell phone for it.




  • It has a currency converter, which works after you give it the conversion rates.




  • It has a ring composer




  • It has a calendar display, which is of course combined with a reminder and scheduler.




  • It has a WAP browser that works real good.




  • The Li-ion light weight battery works long (4-5 days) and can be charged quickly (less than 3 hours).






«« WHERE IT LACKS »»


Hey My 6210 has IR port and can also be connected to the PC by cable too. This one does not have it. Besides the reminder/scheduler is more professional in 6210. The GD 75 can store 200 name/phones in phone memory. My 6210 can store 500 names/phones and a short text note on them.


The phone does not have GPRS (which is there in GD-76) and well it does not have FM.


It has a 5 line display, which of course is an advantage, but then the SMS I get are designed for Nokia where images are created out of text. Such SMS are completely distorted in this.


«« OVERALL »»


At Rs. 6,000 it is a product worth buying, but wait if you have good money to spend, colour models are gonna be cheap soon.


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