Indestructable workhorse (Philips C12)

Member Name: SaraL

Product:	Philips C12
Date:	18/10/00 (434 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: solid, reliable

Disadvantages: not for you if you want a Winnie the Pooh cover!

Ok this isn't the most glamorous phone on the market and there's zero street cred points for pulling it out of your pocket, but after owning this for two years, I can confidently say it has a lot to commend it.

Most notably - this phone is indestructable! During the past two years mine has been left out in the rain; spent months jostling among the rubbish at the bottom of my handbag and spent a night in the freezer (no I've no idea how it got in with the frozen peas from Iceland either!).

It's also been slept on by many cats (it doesn't look comfy but my moggies have other ideas); been sat of by a number of people of more-than-Kate-Moss-proportions and been dropped from desks, hands, cars etc more times than I care to remember.

These instructions for use may not appear in the official Philips care manual, but my C12 certainly seems none the worse for being a phone with an eventful life history - it doesn't even have any scratches or dents.

If you're the sort of person who treats your technology reverentially, none of this may be relevant; but if, on the other hand, you're looking for a phone that stands up to wear and tear from youngsters, this could just fit the bill.

Speaking of bills, I paid 50 quid for mine; but I've seen this on offer for under 30 in several places recently. It's available with a wide choice of pre-pay tariffs, now including 'everlasting' vouchers - ie credits don't expire after a certain time, which make it a great choice for the more occasional user.

I have mine on a BT tariff where I get free calls, at any time, to my 'best friend'. As said friend lives at the other end of the country and we are prone to indulge in girlie gossips that last many hours; this phone has definitely more than paid for itself!

Reception is pretty good almost everywhere and sound quality is as good as friends' much more expensive phones that
I've tried.

It has good standby time (important for me as I do a lot of camping in the summer) - lasting up to five days without a charge if you don't use it much.

The text messaging function is good (including some rather naff icons you can also send which some folks seem to like) and there's the usual facilities to pre-program keys with favourite numbers as well as more than adequate storage for names and numbers. I use the alarm clock quite a lot, and you can also chart your biorhythms for the day if that's your sort of thing!

On the downside, I found this phone harder to learn to use than the Nokia I had previously - it's much less intuitive, I think. The chargers have a very delicate little plug (the bit that goes into the phone) which breaks rather easily - ditto the hands free set (I've been through four of those now).

What concerns me most, however, is the way the top of the phone gets hot (and my ear) after using it for awhile, especially with current concerns about radiation etc etc. I've read everything there is to read about the likely cause of this and remain unconvinced by either 'side' of the debate - so I have no useful advice on that aspect.

Overall, I've been very pleased with the phone (rather less so with BT but that's another story!). My only regret is that there are no fun covers available for this model, straightforward black remains the only option.

Summary: