Pay-it-again-Sam-Sung! (Samsung SGH-J700)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Samsung SGH-J700
Date:	31/08/09 (82 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Does the basics well

Disadvantages: Flimsey

After a serious beer injury to my old O2-X1 mobile it was retired to cell phone heaven. I tried to trade it in on one of these envirophone sites but it wasn't listed to be able to be traded, which kind a makes a mockery of these sites and its environmental credentials if it doesn't take phones older then their website. But I'm not the kind of guy who wastes money on cool and trendy phones anyway, especially as I keep getting mugged in Northampton, tempted to keep the X1 so just to have a duff one to hand over at the next mugging. I suspect they won't take kindly to me for giving them such a basic phone full of Grolsch.

So off to the high street to find a new cheap phone, narrowing it down to the Carphone Warehouse and Phones-4-U for the best all-round deals, both offering this model at around £30-£35 on your debit and credit card or £40 cash, plus a compulsory ten quid's worth of credit with the network you chose. I chose Vodafone for no particular reason, my previous P-A-Y-G phones all BTcellnet and 02. One presumes it cost less to pay on debit cards so they can hook you into their databases. They really push you to register the phone with the providers from day one, a measly pound sterling for your efforts.

The Samsung 700i is the latest X1in many ways, a cheap model that has all the basic features and the all important pay-as-you-go options for most networks. Its looks pretty neat and with its slide up handset and sleek black and silver finish it wont embarrass you in those trendy bars, no need to worry about the beautiful people who pull out their £250 pound phones pointing at you in disgust and mockery as they take pictures of each other to make sure they are all still gorgeous. Pay-as-you-go phones are for texting and emergency calls only so not to be waved around like a porn stars penis, what an expensive cell phone really is to guys.

-Features-

1.3 mega pixel camera with video playback and capture (industry standard)

A 1.3 MP3 player (plays various digital formats...MP3, AAC, AAC+ & MIDI)

An FM radio

Expandable memory slot of up to 2GB to put up to 420 your songs on.

2GB card costs between £8 and £12 on top

Stereo Bluetooth to listen to it all on your headphones

WAP and TRI-BAND internet.

-Using the tech-
The camera is pretty good, well lit, and offers left and right tilt. It makes me look cuter; but it's also makes me look older than the last camera-phone I had. The internet is surprisingly cheap at 50p per day on Vodafone and the cheap headphones supplied make for ok listening on the audio music features. I'm not quite sure what the difference between Triband and WAP internet is as I have yet to use either.
This phone is my first experience of predictive texting, which I'm already struggling with. I press B for Balloon and Balloon actually comes up and then turns into Bloabry as I try to delete balloon. I have yet to figure out how to turn off predictive texting either so please help me with that if you can guys.
The positives are the price, the all around spec, and the sharpness of the camera. The negatives are the flimsy structure of the thing, the slide down fascia almost certainly exposing it to damage if opened to briskly. The feeble battery cover is poorly engineered, having to literally be 'snapped off' every time you need to check the sim card. That's bound to break soon and no doubt will cost a fiver to replace something that cost about 10p to make. The cost of cell phone batteries are also mind boggling.
Where as the older cell phone models would explode on the concrete like a broken Easter Egg these will bounce a couple of times, bendy plastic the norm for phone snow.. Another useful failsafe is the automatic keyboard lock, stopping you accidentally dialing the emergency services or speed dial features when you phone gets knocked around in your bag. As far as complete durability goes I have had the phone only a month so don't know if it will survive another boozy day out at the cricket. Beer is rather acidic.
-----Technical Features----
Weight & Size
* 92g
* 99.5 x 48 x 14.8 mm
Screen
* 2 Inch TFT 65k Colour Screen (128 x 160 Pixels)
Imaging
* Viewfinder
* Camera Settings
* Video Player (MPEG4 & H263)
* Video Record (MPEG4 & H263)
* Wallpapers
* Screensavers
* Photo Caller ID
Messaging
* SMS (Text Messaging)
* EMS (Enhanced Messaging)
* MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
* Predictive Text
Sound
* Polyphonic & MP3 Ringtones
* Vibration Alert
Entertainment
* Java Games
* Downloadable Games
Organizer
* Phonebook
* Calendar
* To Do List
* Clock
* Alarm
* Calculator
* Currency Converter
* Speaker Phone
Connectivity
* Bluetooth
* EDGE
* USB
* GPRS
Memory & Talk Time
* 10 Mbytes Memory plus Micro SD Memory Card Option
* 2.5 Hours Talk Time
* 250 Hours Standby
Tech care/of www.prepaymania.co.uk

Summary: Cheap and cheerful

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