Fun with Made-in-China Phones (3)
The CECT p164+
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ah, my p168+ that i ordered from deal extreme.com came on monday
but i just got around to playing with it thursday
here's another shot of the p168+
btw this phone does have blue tooth
although bluetooth is also used as a trademark
if you changed the old clown fish wallpaper
(that iphone didnt use anyhow)
and disable the slider...
it actually loooks like a real phone
see...
in fact, on second look
although it has iphone's form factor
you are not going to get very far
in trying to impress anyone that it is a real iphone
- it does not have the weight and solid looks plus apple logos as the 5688
and with the row of silkscreened icons at the bottom of the screen
coupled with a joy-wheel and 4 extra buttons
it looks like any other phone
with some rather comically drawn graphics
here's another shot with the slider
that you can disable (i did)
really more of a bother than anything else
so here you have it
a pretty ok phone from china
which is not as well made as the 5688
but it's lighter, and i liked that
and quite easy to use
- photo below shows the signal strength, unopened sms and general profile
it comes with 2 batteries, no need actually
as it charges fast and lasts a long time
Here is the menu (so unlike iphone)
divided into 5 sections
and looks really nice
made-in-china menus take a little used to
but it does not take a rocket scientist to figure them out
eg to delete all your sms
you have to actually open an sms
and select delete all sms from options there
not quite logically
but if you probe hard enough
like finding the bluetooth under audio player
instead of phone settings
to assign caller photos
1. copy contact to phone
2. make sure fields include picture associate
3. then go to contact book...
the absence of select/unselect is a major nelgect
so is the inability of the image viewer to go to folders
as also is the case of the audio player
i could go on and on
but for a simple phone
that does the job
this one is quite fun
plug it into the usb port, and you can drag and drop stuff into it as a hard drive
sms is quite easy also, even allowing you to add a signature
the sound is really really loud, so you dont need a earphone
hey, it even has a speaker phone
the nicest part of the phone is the dial pad
which shows that these people can do good layouts
if they set their hearts at it
ah, wonder of wonders
i never thought i can get mms, gprs, wap, email to work
but i guess, it's worth a try
so on saturday afternoon i headed to m1 at imm
andy, the nice guy who serviced me
shook his head when he saw a china phone
but not one to avoid a challenge
with a bit of help from his colleagues
he got it going...
shots below
i have always maintained that even though m1 is not rated as the best telcos
it is certainly the most friendly and helpful
- hmm must have a good hr trainer
so what's my summary on the cect p168+ phone
simple phone with nice dial pad with speed dials, caller pics, groups, hands free...
sms, mms, wap, emails etc. works pretty good; easy to use once you get the hang of it
pics, videos, mp3, games... leave a lot to be desired
perfect for someone like my wife who dont fool around with the multimedia stuff