Very basic phone (Samsung SGH-C140)

Member Name: justathought

Product:	Samsung SGH-C140
Date:	29/05/08 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: cheap, hardy, no frills

Disadvantages: lack of features and upgrading capacity

The story of how I came to own this phone is very sad: I was having problems with my phone - the screen kept blanking out (veeeeeeeery annoying in the middle of a text or dialling) and one day, it just died :(

Since I was skint, I decided to buy the cheapest one I could find so along to Argos I went. I got this phone for £20, which I thought was a bargain. I've had it for over a year now, and it hasn't given me any problems.
Actually, a few people have actually thought it's something fancy when they've seen it (they get disappointed when they realise it's sooooo basic!)

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STATS (accorrding to the samsung website)
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Size
Weight : 69 g
Dimension : 104.2 x 44.2 x 16.2 mm

Battery
Talk Time : up to 7 hrs
Standby : up to 400 hrs

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SOME INDIVIDUAL FEATURES
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speakerphone

voice memo

mobile phone tracker (should your phone ever be misplaced or stolen, Mobile Tracker will send an SMS to a pre-determined number whenever the SIM card is changed, which alerts you to its location increasing the chances of recovering your handset),

mobile internet access (check weather, live sports scores or train times)

I've never actually used any of these features so I can't really expand on them. I'm not sure how likely this phone is to be stolen, as it's not exactly very valuable!

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SOME GRIPES (grrrr)
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Keypad locking - the keypad locking feature on this phone is something I find really annoying as I can't find a way to turn it off (hope I'm not just being thick!). The phone automatically locks the keypad after a few seconds, so that if you want to do anything - from checking the time to texting or calling, you have to press 3 buttons (unlock twice for some reason, and then *)

There are no games

Texting on this phone can be quite annoying - the keys make quite a bit of noise when pressed and inserting symbols - ( I mean normal ones like brackets etc that are normally an option for when you press e.g 1 several times) and capital letters means going to a list, scrolling down and selecting what you want - it's frustrating to say the least. Also, I wish more messages could be saved (I have 153 in my inbox and 9 in my outbox, and it keeps getting too full)

There is a very poor choice of ringtones (only 7, which are also the coice of alarm tones :( and text tones (8) on this phone - most are quite irritating, I have to say!

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SOME GOOD POINTS
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In terms of alarms, which are quite important for me, this phone is quite good. There's a once alarm (for e.g if you had a flight one morning, and had to get up exceptionally early), a daily alarm and a morning call (it can be set for Mon-Fri or Mon-Sat). I personally would prefer 2 daily alarms.

The phone book is easy to add numbers to, and you can also save numbers in groups (for e.g family)

You can save text templates (e.g ' Don't worry about me - I'm on my way home now')

There is also a handy 'to-do' list feature.

The calculator is easy to use.

The phone is pretty hardy - it's been bashed around in my bag and dropped quite a few times but still looks good as new!

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SOME FRIENDLY ADVICE
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Overall, I'd say buy this phone if you want something cheap and very basic. It can take some getting used to (I didn't have an 'OK' button on my old phone so got very frustrated when things didn't happen on this phone until I, pressed the OK button, and ended up feeling a bit foolish since it's quite simple, according to the person who told me after I practically threw the phone across the room!!)

Compare everywhere you know for the cheapest deal on this as prices can vary quite a bit

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This review is also on www.ciao.co.uk

Summary: cheap and simple phone

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