russian

Phone Search:

RSS

Samsung Galaxy Note. First Look

Today, large companies, especially corporate giants like Samsung, do not surprise users with extraordinary products...

First look. Sony ST21i Tapioca Microsoft Windows Phone 7: Reasons for Failure First Look at Samsung Galaxy S3 as a 2012 Flagship

Reviews Editorials

Mobile Phones Editorials MP3 Forum

Review GSM phone Voxtel 1iD

Package:

Handset
Battery
Charger
Stereo headset
USB-cable
Memory card for 128 MB
CD with software
Manual

The appearance of Voxtel 3iD had a positive influence on the popularity of the trade mark. And surely the release of the first 3MP camera phone happened in favour of the company. However Voxtel will not stop on this point, and we'll certainly see many interesting phones by the company soon. And today we introduce Voxtel 1iD, which has already been shortly told about.

Voxtel 1iD is based on software and hardware platform of Voxtel V500 (you could have read about it before on our site). The differences between the models include memory slot in the 1iD and Bluetooth version 1.2, in the rest they are equal.

The discussed model is designed as a slider. And following the current tendencies, the device is thick - 15.8 mm. Its dimensions are 104x51x15.8 mm, and the weight forms 80 grams. Externally this model is similar to Samsung D800/D820, as the developers followed the same way - they reduced the thickness at the expense of the width and height. Due to this we can call the phone a man model, as it is rather big for a woman's hand.

The most pleasant result of reducing the thickness is that now it fits the trousers' pocket well. It is rather hard to carry classical sliders in a shirt pocket, for they bulge a pocket.

The opening mechanism is carried out well with metallic guiding rails, which increases the reliability of the construction. It also is equipped with an automatic finishing, which rouses no cavils, everything is clear, however too sharp, I'd prefer a softer and smoother motion like in Samsung's phones.

The body is made of a reliable plastic with the most part slightly rough by touch and hardly soiled. There are insertions with lacquered covering; however their area is small so you won't notice any soiling on the surface. The body assembly is on a high level and rouses absolutely no cavils. The model will be shipped in two colours - black and bluish black.

A headset connector is placed on the left side surface of the phone (it is similar to the one in Voxtel V500), which is covered with a plastic shutter fixed on the body. And slightly below a coupled volume button is placed.

An interface connector and a TransFlash card slot are placed on the right side surface. And both connectors are covered with plastic covers fixed to the body as well. The only one microphone is on the bottom of the phone, and a strap hole is on the top.

A TFT screen of average size is on the front panel, it is 176x220 pixels (29x35 mm), shows up to 260K colours. The picture quality is average, however lacks brightness a little. The display fades in the sun, not completely, and you will make out the information anyway.

A navi block with a 4D button in the center with an OK one inscribed into it is under the screen. The edges of the button are a bit raised a little, and so you will surely find it comfortable to work with it. Two functional buttons, MP3 player ones and a camera one, call answer and reject and a cancel buttons are around it. They all are placed close to each other, but despite this accidental pressures are almost excluded, as the dimensions of these buttons allow working comfortably even if you have big arms.

Number keys are averagely-sized and set closely to each other; however, no problems appear when entering a number or SMS. The keypad backlighting is even and blue, al the characters are well read.

On the back there is a camera objective slightly sunk into the body and a flash, they are rounded by a metallic rim to protect the camera from damages. On the top of the phone's back you will find a mirror for self portrait.

A battery cover takes almost the whole of the back of the device. The cover fixing is reliable and doesn't creak, backlashes are unlikely.

A battery cover hides a battery capacious of 850 mAh Li-Ion. According to the manufacturer, with it the phone is capable of up to 150 hours in the standby mode and up to 5 hours in the talk one. In Moscow MTS network our sample gave about 2 days in case of 30 minutes of talks and up to 30 minutes of other functions a day. The result is quite good and the phone works stably for about 2 days, which really gladdens. Full recharging takes about 2.5 hours.

A SIM-card holder is untypical of Voxtel. The card is not under the battery but under the body, however still you'll have to remove the battery.

Phonebook. An access to this menu item is assigned to the right softkey. The device holds up to 1000 entries. Each entry could have name, up to four numbers and e-mail. Moreover you may appropriate one of 10 preinstalled images or a photo to an entry. The most curious thing is that any photo may not be appended to a contact as it must be created in a special mode - Phone Book photo.

A search by name and group is carried out in the phonebook. Contacts of the device memory and SIM one are shown either altogether or separately. You can edit 6 preset groups, specify a group name and assign your ring tone. Fast dialing for 9 numbers is present.

At incoming call a caller's photo is shown in a small window on the right of the display.

Messages. The handset contains up to 100 messages and supports EMS as well, and hence there is a set of small preset animations, images, and melodies. The device supports a group message to 6 numbers at the most. One of three melodies is to be assigned to an incoming message. Editable text templates are given in the device.

Creating a MMS presents no difficulty, because everything is logical and clear. The only thing I would advise is to reduce the number of necessary actions. You can create several slides, and the outgoing message can't exceed 100 KB in size. As soon as the message reaches 50 KB, you will receive an alert telling another user might be unable to open the message, and exceeding 100 KB, you are told the message is too heavy, and the MMS editor closes.

Call list. This includes information about incoming, outgoing, missed, and rejected calls. There are also a time register and a data counter.

Profiles. There are 7 adjustable profiles. A quick profile shift is done with a down joystick inclination in standby mode.

Settings. The menu consists of date and time settings, backlight (10, 30 seconds or a minute), menu language, and other.

Alarm-clock hides here too. There are three separate alarm-clocks and each could be once, daily and morning activation. And a common melody is set for all of them.

There are also screen settings here. You can enter your text which the internal screen is to show in standby mode. For the main display, you can choose of one static and one animated pictures for a wall-paper, also there is a set of three types of clock displaying and two calendar views.

The very section is responsible for activating Bluetooth. Bluetooth version 1.2 is integrated. The following profiles are supported: Headset, Handsfree, Serial Port, Dial Up Networking, File Transfer, Object Push. We noticed no problems of Bluetooth work, headsets coupled with the device worked well (we tested Jabra and Sony Ericsson headsets). Also no problems appeared when we tested the device with other phones (Sony Ericsson T68i, Nokia 9500, and Samsung D600).

Assistant. There is a phone book, a diary and a file manager. Event list permits viewing events monthly, weekly and daily. Each entry has a time on and off function, repeating is determined, one of seven categories - meeting, call, trip etc. Moreover you are offered to input a title, an address and a text note of up to 20 characters. Also you can set the repetition on weekly, monthly and annually and determine an alert message in the range from 10 minutes to an hour.

To-do list allows entering a title (up to 20 characters), determining a date, status and priority.

The file manager is engaged in viewing folders and files uploaded to the device, and a spare and used memory capacity. The phone memory totals 62 MB available to a user. Also here you can establish USB connection, and then when connected to a PC the 1iD will be shown as an exterior drive, no drivers are necessary. Memory formatting is possible from here.

USB connection uses a cable included into the kit. Copying a 5 MB mp3 composition takes about 13 seconds, which is rather good accounting the bus is USB 1.1.

Applications. The MP3 player is realized modestly; you can create a plain play-list and select one of the seven offered equalizer settings. The control is easy and intuitively obvious. All the player settings except for the volume are tuned from the keypad, thus adjusting it in a closed mode seems impossible. When closing the device, only a picture signifying the player work appears on the external screen, and a track title is seen only from an open device. Also we'd like to mention the player can't work in background mode, so at incoming message you'll have to close the player. At incoming call, on the other hand, the music gets lower and then increases when the conversation is over. Also we can't say the 64MB memory capacity is great for using the device as a fully-functional mp3 player. The music is played well due to the special chip responsible for music processing. A stereo headset also didn't fail and sounds quite acceptably.

This very menu hides Othello the logic game, a simple calculator, a unit convector, and a world time function.

Voice note. There is an opportunity of recording voice notes; the time restriction of a note is 60 seconds.

Java. The handset supports MIDP 2.0. There is a preset game Mid Man (a clone of the popular game Pac Man). Applications can be installed only through WAP. About 1024 KB of memory are kept for installed applications.

Internet. This holds a WAP browser of version 2.0.

Camera. Everything concerning the camera is here. A 5x zoom is used by pressing back/forward on the joystick; right/left movements allow adjusting the contrast level. The following resolutions are available - 1280x1024, 640x480, 320x240 and a portrait (for a phone book). Select from the preset photo quality range - normal, good, perfect. Four white balance settings are present - auto, sun light, incandescent lamp, fluorescent light. Also night mode and two settings for indoors and outdoors photos are at your disposal.

There are 7 effects and 10 frames that may be applied to the photos. Multishooting allows taking about 6 photos one after another with a short interval. The thing I'd like to mention is when leaving the camera application, all the settings are deleted, and you'll have to adjust it again next time. The camera is initialized with a 5-6 seconds delay, which prevents from taking photos immediately.


(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG	(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG

(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG	(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG

(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG	(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG

(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG	(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG

(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG	(+) increase, 1280x1024, JPEG

A photo album allows viewing photos one by one and the whole list is impossible to observe. It is interesting that the password may be determined for certain pictures or the whole album so that nobody but you will be able to view. As for the photo quality the 1iD looses both to Samsung's (D500), Pantech's (PG-3000 и GF500) and Sony Ericsson's (S700) phones.

Video is recorded as 3GP with the resolution of 176x141 pixels, we noticed no significant slowing down when playing video on the phone. And the quality of playing on a PC does not hold water.

Impressions

The connection quality roused no cavils in fact. The loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity is enough in any conditions. The device provides with 64-tones polyphony, two loudspeakers make pseudo stereosound, and any MP3 track may be set as a call melody. A call melody volume is high; the signal is hard to miss. The power of a vibracall is average.

Voxtel 1iD is quite a good phone offering enough functionality. The following disadvantage was noticed, however, - the player doesn't work in background mode, and all compositions should be placed into a certain folder, which can harden navigation if having many of them. Also some users will be unpleased with the memory bank allocated for Java applications, and the fact they are impossible to install in other way rather than via WAP. You shouldn't expect high quality of the picture; we have already told that is it based on the same platform as Voxtel V500.

Now let's pass to advantages. First that is a successful design and form-factor of the model. There are almost no thin sliders on the market now, and that is why the model will look favorable on the market at first. The only thin to stress is the phone is more likely to become popular among men, as it will be slightly too wide for women.

Also advantages include enough big memory bank and also a capability to use external cards. Integrated Bluetooth module is also strength.

Прямыx конкурентов Voxtel 1iD не так много в настоящее время, стоит отметить разве что Samsung D800 и D820. Они предлагают большую функциональность, чем продукт от Voxtel. Но на стороне 1iD - меньшая цена, да и появиться в продаже он должен раньше. For now there are not many direct rivals of Voxtel 1iD, if only we can mention Samsung D800 and D820. However they offer higher functionality than the Voxtel's model. The 1iD will cost less and is to appear earlier.

Voxtel 1iD will appear on the counters on 15-20 of December for about 380-400 USD.

Vladimir Fokin ([email protected])
Translated by Maria Mitina ([email protected])

Published — 7 December 2005

Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]

News:

[ 31-07 16:21 ]Sir Jony Ive: Apple Isn't In It For The Money

[ 31-07 13:34 ]Video: Nokia Designer Interviews

[ 31-07 13:10 ]RIM To Layoff 3,000 More Employees

[ 30-07 20:59 ]Video: iPhone 5 Housing Shown Off

[ 30-07 19:12 ]Android Fortunes Decline In U.S.

[ 25-07 16:18 ]Why Apple Is Suing Samsung?

[ 25-07 15:53 ]A Few Choice Quotes About Apple ... By Samsung