Simple, cute and cheap (Alcatel OT-E227)

Member Name: chezza99

Product:	Alcatel OT-E227
Date:	08/04/09 (172 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple, cute and cheap!

Disadvantages: Simple and cheap ...

I'm a geeky gadget freak. I like my phone to be multifunctional, multimedia, cutting-edge, online and very grown-up; at any given time, my ideal phone is likely to be the Blackberry after next. I am also, however, stony broke (long story). So when my well-worn PDA stumbled to a halt, I was left in the unwelcome - and unfamiliar - position of needing a VERY CHEAP new phone.

My sister, a Blackberry owner, came shopping with me for moral support. As it happened, we both spotted this little cutie at once. Undoubtedly aimed at little girls, it's a pearlescent pink clam-shell design, charmingly scattered with white flowers, and is absolutely tiny. Best of all, it was £9.99. Sold!

The OT-E227 doesn't do anything. It's a phone: it sends & receives calls and texts, can handle MIDIs (sounds) and has an alarm/clock. That's it. No camera, no USB or other connections, no radio or iplayer, no speaker, no browser and it doesn't handle MMS (picture messages). Oddly enough, I've found it quite liberating. This phone is professional suicide for me but --- I love it!

As a child's phone, it is very well thought out. Only 8.5cm high and light as a feather, it nonetheless has nice big keys. How come grown-up phones have keypads for fairy fingers, yet this baby phone can easily accommodate my full-size thumbs?

The keypad is silvery-metallic, backlit (in pink, of course) and is a pleasure to use. The keys require a bit of pressure but, at the same time, the flat pad surface means you can slide over them very quickly. There's the usual six-key directional arrangement at the top, with an OK button and the right-left keys in the middle. No rocker, which I think is wise as I've never known a rocker key that didn't stick.

Interestingly, there's no Call button. You can't just type in a number and press Call, you have to select your number from the phone book - then select call - and confirm. Six keypresses in all. If the number isn't already in the book, you must add it first. Needless to say, this annoys the hell out of me. But it's an intelligent configuration for a child's phone: you simply cannot ring random numbers or make impulse calls.

Likewise, six keypresses to send a text. If I were buying for a child (and footing their bill), I'd be very happy about these features.

Text is clear, unfussy, black-on-white. The predictive functionality is OK: a bit old-fashioned in that you have to press the down key to page through word options and it doesn't auto-learn: you must choose "add word". It seems to have a decent memory for new words, though. Extra characters are limited, however I doubt that many children use as much punctuation as I like to!
4 evrydA use it's gr8 ;)

The screen is multicoloured with a choice of cute wallpapers and several colour schemes. The built-in tones feature a very eclectic selection of jazz tunes, chimes, beeps and salsa. They're all fun, and sound cute (a word I can't help over-using about this phone!). I picked some really pretty chimes for mine. Although MIDI files are on the menu, I don't see anywhere to add them as ringtones so this might be a problem if your little treasure is fussy.

The OT-E227 has two built-in games called Russia and Bricks: both simple, brightly-coloured arcade-style games. And that's it. It is a pocket-money phone, after all!

Reception & call quality are every bit as good as a more expensive phone. The handset does have volume controls, mute facility and all the usual adjustments; it simply doesn't have any bells & whistles ... except as ringtones.

Battery life is excellent. The battery itself, though, is a major weak point in the OT-E227. It keeps cutting out. Possibly I've got a 'Friday' battery ... it is really annoying to find your phone's switched itself off every so often - then have to remove the battery, put it back in and reset the clock. That process is easy - it's a slide'n'click cover - but it looks like Alcatel went one economy too far on the battery/connectors.

Hard to rate this phone! I'm going to invent a new system; here goes:-

* Touch & feel - 10/10
* Cuteness - 10/10
* Slickness - 0/10
* Six-click calling - 10/10
* Ringtones - 6/10
* Price/Value - 20/10
* Child-proof-ness - 8/10

I paid £9.99 at the Orange shop, £10 PAYG credit required on purchase.

Summary: The perfect choice for a child, this phone made me love it in spite of myself.

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