Philips Az@lis 238

Budget handsets need to be more user-friendly than more expensive phones because they are often bought by people new to mobiles. Philips has clearly recognised this and tried to make the Azalis as simple to pick up as possible. The acid test of simplicity is: how much do you need to refer to the manual? Arguably Nokia sets the standards here and you sometimes think they could bring down costs by not printing a manual since most of its handsets are so intuitive to use. Philips has adopted a “carousel” menu system similar to the new Sony handsets and this is simple to use. In fact, the manual is even easy to understand. The voice control is ...  Read the complete review

Reasons for buying I bought the Azalis 238 for £19.99 on a BT prepay staff deal (I work for BT) as a back up in case my 3210 breaks. I had the choice of this, the Nec db4000 for £24.99 or an Ericsson 2618 for £19.99 all on prepay. The Nec was attractive and has a lithium battery which is important to me as Lithium batteries can be charged at any time with no memory effect, but I ended up choosing this for price, looks and features. I paid £19.99 but in The Link it has now gone up from £39.99 to £69.99, even the staff deal is £55.99, this is due to price increases at the end of April by all networks on prepay phones to try and entice people away from prepay ...  Read the complete review

I have been holding out against buying a mobile phone for about 2 years. I never seemed able to make a decision about which handset to buy, let alone the right tariff to go for. All that changed in two minutes flat when I went into a local branch of The Link and looked around for a mobile to buy for a friend and was introduced to the Philips Az@lis 238. This was on special offer for one day only. Down from £69.99 to £39.99 ! but I've seen it advertised for the £39.99 price since. Well, to cut a long story short (ish), I ended up buying two. One for my friend and one for myself. I can't resist a bargain and it's got everything I need. ...  Read the complete review

My brick was recently two years old. The ridicule I got when using the aforementioned brick was beginning to lose it’s funny side so I decide to start looking for a replacement. The “Brick” was a Philips btcellnet pay-as-you-go U-Phone, with a flat rate of 35p per minute and a minimum top-up of £10 every 3 months. Very clear reception was its sole feature. Obviously, as a web addict, I was going to want a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) phone. Well, actually, I was trying to hold out until the faster and cheaper GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) became available, but one jibe too many put paid to that. I set off around Aberdeen, ...  Read the complete review

This is a really good phone. It was really handy for me when I got it as the long life battery meant I had to charge it occasionally. It has a very good predictive text and it is easy to switch between predictive text, normal text, numbers and symbols. As I have just mentioned, unlike the nokia writing in numbers is much easier. The Wap is slow, but that is not the phone, that is the server. I found that after my free time on it ran out I did not use it unless I was given a bonus month free. Information is hard to find and the slowness of the server makes it very frustating at times. The only major negative things I can say about the phone is ...  Read the complete review