Saturday, March 31st, 2012
And again we tested a cell phone produced by “Linus Trade”. This is the iTravel LM-810 (also called the i-Travel 2 City). It’s a little bit different from other rugged cell phones. First of all, this is a dual SIM phone. Secondly, it is proclaimed as the thinnest robust handset (19 mm or 0.7 inches). Actually, this is not true because there are thinner ruggedized mobile phones. The iTravel LM810 is IP57 certified (dust and water). So it can survive deep immersions in water.
In the package box we found a hand powered charger (Pic. 1, 2). The phone has a refined design. It is comfortable to use and feels solid in the hand (Pic. 3 – 5). The specifications are not rich. There is a camera, flashlight, Bluetooth and FM radio.
As usual, we tested 2 samples of the iTravel LM810.
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Rating: 7.1/10 (14 votes cast)
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Rating: +2 (from 6 votes)
Tuesday, March 27th, 2012
Samsung has lauched a lot of new smartphones on the market lately. Many of them are top notch and very popular. So we decided to test one of such cell phones: the Samsung Galaxy Ace. It’s one of the company’s bestsellers due to its high quality and a low price. For a relatively small sum of money you can get an Android-based smartphone which sports an 800 mhz processor, a camera that comes with auto focus and many other useful features that the majority of the newest smartphones can boast of.
The lack of a headset really disappointed us because we had prepared the two interesting tests for it. In the box, besides the data cable and the charger we found a card reader for microSD and another back cover of a white color (Pic. 1, 2).
The phone has a refined design but in appearance it doesn’t differ much from other Android smartphones (Pic. 3, 4). We tested two samples of the Samsung Galaxy Ace.
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Rating: 8.9/10 (51 votes cast)
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Rating: +20 (from 24 votes)
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
In this review we are going to test an odd mobile phone that is designed exclusively for women. The Alcatel OT-808 looks rather like a make-up compact than a handset. However, this device has a rich portfolio of specifications: 2 screens, a QWERTY keyboard and a camera.
We got the Alcatel OT-808 in a white and pink box in which we also found a battery charger, a USD cable and a headset (Pic. 1, 2). The phone sports an external monochrome OLED display that serves as a clock and shows you all incoming calls and the bars of the battery charging rate. By the way, the battery capacity is not very large – only 850 mAh. The build quality of the mobile is pretty fine. The gadget feels solid in the hand. We opened and closed the clamshell many times and didn’t notice any disadvantages.
Below you can read about the results of the two Alcatel OT-808 cell phones that passed different tests. We marked the handsets in order to distinguish between them (#1 and #2). Check out pictures 3 and 5.
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Rating: 9.3/10 (12 votes cast)
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Rating: +7 (from 9 votes)
Friday, December 30th, 2011
This time we tortured a very popular smartphone: the iPhone 4S. We hesitated for some time but finally decided to test it despite the fact that it looks absolutely like its antecedent – the iPhone 4 that we reviewed in September 2010. By the way, currently we perform our tests in a little bit different way and even included some more damaging experiments that the iPhone 4 luckily evaded.
As usual, we used two phones(!) of the iPhone 4S model. In fact, their package boxes don’t differ much from the one that we got with the iPhone 4 (Pic. 1). The accessories are also the same (Pic. 2). If you compare visually the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4 from the front and from the back you won’t find any differences (Pic. 3, 4). But if you look at their edges you’ll definitely notice that the iPhone 4S’s steel band is divided into 4 sections of the same size (Pic. 5). The middle edges are also different (Pic. 6). The assemblers of the iPhone 4S used the other screws. So these smartphones are not 100 % similar in appearance.
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Rating: 8.6/10 (48 votes cast)
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Rating: +18 (from 20 votes)
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
We deal with water resistant and shock proof cell phones very often. The iTravel (i-TRAVEL LM801) is among them. It showed fine results in our tests. But this time we tortured its “younger brother”: the iTravel LM121B. It is also ruggedized but has many more features. First of all we should say that the LM121B model is IP57 protection certified which means that you can dunk it under water with no problem. The LM801 is only splash resistant. But now we have the handset that can never be drowned because it is able to float.
The retail package is quite poor, by the way (Pic. 1, 2). There is no handshaking dynamo charger. The appearance of the phone is very simple. It’s not eye-catching (Pic. 3, 4). As usual we got two iTravel LM121B handsets. Both of them are black (you may also find this phone in orange colours). We should also mention a rather small screen. The phone sports no camera but has an inbuilt flashlight. The majority of shock proof cell phones have their batteries locked with a screw but the iTravel went further. The battery cover can be taken off easily with the help of only one finger. You can put the cover back fast with no problem too. If the handset is really water, dust and shock proof we have to admit that the manufacturers did their best to create not only a robust phone but also the one that is comfortable to use. Read further and you’ll know how much praise it deserves.
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Rating: 7.4/10 (9 votes cast)
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Rating: +2 (from 2 votes)
Monday, October 31st, 2011
We deal with a triple SIM mobile phone for the first time. Let us introduce you the Explay B240. As the majority of dual-SIM handsets this phone is also cheap because its target customers are the people who want to save money on mobile operator services.
The retail package of the Explay B240 is standard issue stuff. In the box (Pic. 1), as well as the phone itself, you’ll find headphones, a data cable and a 1-port USB wall charger (Pic. 2). So you can charge this handset through USB data cable. In addition there is another charger jack, the same as that of the Nokia.
The design of the phone is as basic as it gets (Pic. 3, 4). The thin casing doesn’t weigh much. Under the back cover lies a 1000 mAh Li-ion battery. The phone is equipped with a camera and a polyphonic speaker which produces quite a loud sound.
As usual, we tested the two Explay B240 handsets.
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Rating: 8.4/10 (14 votes cast)
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Rating: +4 (from 6 votes)
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Today we are going to review a cheap and popular phone: the Nokia C2-01. It actually deserves some praise for squeezing some goodies into its budget, such as 3G, 3.2MP still imaging and a hotswappable microSD card slot.
The Nokia C2-01 comes in a thin cardboard box (Pic. 1). As well the phone itself, you’ll find a wall charger and a one-piece headset there (Pic. 2). As a tradition, we tested the two handsets of this model (Pic. 3–5).
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Rating: 8.1/10 (25 votes cast)
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Rating: +8 (from 10 votes)
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
We didn’t test slider phones for a long time already. But today we shall do our best to remedy this omission and are glad to present you a review of a new slider phone: the Alcatel OT-606 . This device features a standard keypad and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.
The retail package is standard issue stuff. In the box, as well as the phone itself, there is a battery charger, a mini-jack headphones and a USB cable (Pic. 1, 2).
The handset is sleek and compact (Pic. 3 – 5). It doesn’t look like the majority of slider phones because it is slim in shape and weight. However, this design has a bad impact on the phone’s battery lifetime. The Alcatel OT-606 is powered by 670 mAh LI-Ion battery.
We tested the two mobile phone samples at the same time. Now we’ll tell you everything in order.
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Rating: 8.6/10 (7 votes cast)
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Thursday, July 21st, 2011
This time we tested the two samples of the popular Android 2.2 smartphone: the Highscreen Cosmo. The low price is the main reason of the phone’s popularity. The handset boasts a 600 mHz processor and a 3.2-inch display with 320-by-480-pixels. The device is powered by the 1500 mAh Li-ion battery.
In the box, as well as the phone itself, there is a wall charger, USB cable and headphones (Pic. 1, 2).
The Highscreen Cosmo has 2 physical buttons (the power button and the volume rocker). On the front side, under the screen, there are 4 touch keys (to say exactly, this is a part of the capacitive touch screen). This smartphone is far from being top notch but it has a stylish design (Pic. 3-5). Several light indicators are hidden under the transparent plastic lid that covers the middle edge of the phone. They wink when the phone is charging or ringing. They can also remind you about missed calls etc.
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Rating: 8.1/10 (7 votes cast)
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Today we are glad to present you our review of a tough cell phone with ruggedized protection: the i-Travel LM801 which came to our hands in a black-yellow casing. This is the third УrobustФ handset that we have ever tested in our lab. The previous were the Nokia 3720c and the Samsung B2710.
The phone comes in a black package box (Pic. 1). In the box, as well as the handset itself and its accessories youТll find one more useful device (Pic. 2). That is a manual battery charger, an indispensable thing for a hiker.
We are not going to pinpoint all the i-Travel LM801Тs advantages. We should only say that this phone offers a lot of features. It is powered by a 1300 mAh LI-Ion battery and equipped with the flashlight and the laser pointer.
The i-Travel LM801 is dust and water-splash resistant to IP54 standard. However, itТs far from being perfect. As it is stated on the official web site of the manufacturer the covering of the phone is done in a rubber and it should help the phone to survive falls even from 2 m (6.56 ft). So letТs live and weТll see.
The phone is colored with the black and yellow which is typical for reliable and solid phones today. The shape is a classic candy bar (Pic. 3-5). Although the battery is covered with the help of 6 screws, itТs very easy to release it.
As you can guess from the pictures, we are going to test the two i-Travel LM801 samples. Each of them will pass its own series of tests.
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Rating: 7.9/10 (16 votes cast)
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Rating: +5 (from 5 votes)
Russian version
