My first cell phone was a Nokia 3310, which I purchased at a then humongous sum of Rs. 5500, with money earned from my first summer job. I had always decided that the next phone I buy would be a state-of the art thing that would make heads turn. 2 years later with Rs.22, 000 in my pocket I knew I was loaded and embarked on a journey to buy a cell phone. I had my friend with me (supposedly the last word in mobile phones) who did research on mobile phones, games etc for a living as I went mobile shopping. Half a dozen stores, two dozen manuals and days of discussions with my friend,
I came to the following conclusion:
(Note: this holds true until the very moment I write this piece)
The best thing in the market today is the Sony Ericsson P900 which would burn a crater in your pocket or vault or whatever at a whopping sum of Rs.42000
Next in line comes the Nokia 7610 which has all the advanced features which would keep u one up on the rest of the junta but looks kinda funny… more like a spaceship in which jaadu of koi milgya fame landed ….tho at Rs 25000 you cant get anything better.
Next was the Samsung D410 with its unique slide phone design at Rs 20500
And then the Samsung E700 with its flip open design, meant for the gilded youth, high-paid employees and just abt anybody with superior wallet power.
My heart was initially set on the D410 with its superior picture quality, big screen etc. but something which irked me immensely was its antenna and also when it slid open it looked huge and almost like a walkie talkie…atleast that’s what my friend or feind told me…
Finally I settled for the sleek, super sexy, ultra feminine Samsung E700 and I’m in love with my baby ever since.
Exterior:
New E700 definitely stands out as a fashion phone of the new generation. It doesn’t have an external aerial. It is the first clamshell phone of this class. The handset is very comfortable and fits snugly in the palm. It is easy to open it with one hand and that it is a large advantage of the clamshell handset. The phone is made in a silver color; dark-blue combination with the front cover built-in it. Dark-silver rim can be found around the external display. It is made with a help of metal sputtering. A small window of the integrated camera is placed above the screen.
Two colors are used on the back cover of the phone; blue color is dominated, battery cover is blue. On the whole these two colors give it a very chic appearance, very trendy and fashionable. VGA CAMERA is written on the rubber cap. Its aim is to protect upper part while opening from scratches, I’m told.
A double volume key is placed on the left-hand side of the handset. It can be used to activate the external display. It is also possible to define your actions while incoming call (reject call, setup silent mode).
Hands free connector is located on the top of the left part of the phone, it is covered by a rubber cap, which is fastened to the phone. A lil bit lower you can see IrDA. Now it is possible not only to transfer data, but business cards as well, E700 has a full vCard. Now you can not only receive cards from the other phone, but also send any record from the phonebook.
A key to control camera is placed on the right side of the handset. You can use it to activate camera (self-shooting mode) when the phone is closed. Then, you can see a picture on the external display; it is not so wonderful as on the internal display, kinda fuzzy but still you can recognize the object. It is the first GSM-phone, which could display picture on the external screen. Straphole is situated on the top side of the phone. System connector can be found on the bottom. It can be covered with a rubber cap, which is connected to the phone. (be careful, every chance that you might lose that tiny thing)
The Phone:
E700 is equipped with OLED –screen, which supports up to 256 colors. The resolution is of 64х96 pixels.
Actions like receiving of new messages, calls, alarm-clock and etc. are displayed as beautiful icons on the external screen. The information on the screen is not seen in the sun and this is a typical shortcoming of these kind of displays.
When you open the handset, you can see a large internal display which has a resolution of 128x160 pixels (28x36 mm). Up to 5 text lines (16 characters each), 2 service lines and tips to the soft keys use are contained on the display. The font size is large and text can be easily read. When you input a phone number, font size becomes enormous.
TFT-screen displays vivid and bright colors. Nevertheless, the picture is not so alive under the Sun, but it is possible to read the information on it if you select the right angle. There is a 4-directional navigation key with fast access key to wap-browser in it. Navigation key has an edging made of transparent plastic, it becomes blue when the backlighting is active. Other keys are dark-blue like the color of the phone’s exterior. Alphanumerical keys are divided by silver insertions that causes an interesting visual effect. The keypad I’m used to is the Nokia one so it makes this quite uncomfortable but I think it’s only a matter of time and even this shouldn’t be a problem.
Lithium-ion battery of 800 mAh capacity is applied in the phone. According to the manufacturer, it could operate about 240 hours in the standby mode and up to 3 hours in the talk mode. Taking into account quality of both displays, we can see that the developers of this handset reached the longest possible battery life. Time of full re-charging is about 2 hours.
Up to 1000 phone numbers can be stored in the phone memory as Home, Office, Fax, Other,E-Mail i.e upto 5 phone numbers, e-mail can be added to one name. All phone numbers can be grouped in caller groups (up to 6). It is possible to assign a melody or a picture to each entry. 200 SMS can be stored in the phone. Selectable Color Wallpapers ( National Geographic images are supported ). Easy Text Input (T9). Color Games. Selectable Power on/off tone (off is possible). Incoming call mute function (using side key). Organizer (Memo, Calendar, To do list, Clock, World Time, Alarm, Calculator
Conversation, Timer, Stopwatch) etc etc..
I could go ahead full throttle and give u a complete description of the phone but I would rather just highlight the main features.
(a space crunch prohibits me from doing it here so I am adding it as comments...do read it
So here goes…
