Throwback Thurday - Samsung E720

Hi all, today I want to go back in time nearly 10 years to a mobile legend.

The legend being the Samsung SGH-E720, for some it was an awful experience but to many the device was a pleasure and similarly to unlock freely with a menu or two.

Without further or do let's jump into the GSMArena specifications of the device


GENERAL 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
SIM Mini-SIM
Announced 2005, 1Q
Status Discontinued
BODY Dimensions 90 x 45 x 23.3 mm (3.54 x 1.77 x 0.92 in)
Weight 80 g (2.82 oz)
DISPLAY Type TFT, 256K colors
Size 176 x 220 pixels, 9 lines
  - Second external display OLED, 65K colors (96 x 96 pixels)
SOUND Alert types Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker No
3.5mm jack No
MEMORY Card slot No
Phonebook 1000 x 12 fields, Photo call
Call records 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls
Internal 90 MB
DATA GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE No
WLAN No
Bluetooth v1.1
USB Yes
CAMERA Primary 1 MP, 1152 x 864 pixels, LED flash
Video Yes
Secondary No
FEATURES Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Radio No
Games 4 - Bobby Carrot, Airship Racing, Arch Angel, Freekick + downloadable
GPS No
Java Yes, MIDP 2.0
Colors Bronze
  - MP3/AAC/MP4 player
- Predictive text input
- Organizer
- Voice memo
BATTERY Li-Ion 800 mAh battery
Stand-by Up to 200 h
Talk time Up to 5 h 30 min
  Extended battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
Stand-by Up to 260 h
Talk time Up to 7 h
MISC SAR EU 0.66 W/kg (head)  

The phone was a typical but updated design for the current feature-set of Samsung mobile phones at that point in 2005 with impressive specs all round at a decent price point. with it's 1 megapixel image sensor and decent UI which only a few Samsung devices had the like for like UI including fonts and UX and OLED Screen which made it unique, at a time where OLED's were merely gimmicks.

my phone still works today bar the battery is shot, the keypad is dying and the casing is falling apart but it still charges, powers up can connect to the internet and take video and photos of somewhat good quality.

I'll not bore you too much but I will say I love the phone an awful lot. but it does have issues.

Pros: overall looks, easily unlock-able, smaf ringtones (MMF files) decent camera with flash.

Cons: t9/itap can't save due to memory constraints, low sound volume from ringing out and phone speaker on voice, non standard usb port with headphone jack, non standard charger (unless you had an LG 3g phone a few years later)


In all despite it's flaws it's the first contract handset to last me longer than 3 years, similarly with the Nokia e71 so with that  in mind it's one of only 2 I would permanently consider using again long term.

Paul

long term review - Doogee DG300 pt 1

I bought a new phone recently, but with a difference. It came from china, not just manufactured there but shipped direct too, I know what your thinking already an iPone or apple rip off, well strictly speaking it's not a rip off it does get it's looks from the Samsung product range

I bought the Doogee Dg300, also known as the ALPS Voyager DG300, what matters is the hardware to me and for £54.08 including postage (tip - spend a £4 more and get it fulfilled by Amazon's warehouses in the UK if you need it quickly) you get a bit more than the budget handsets sold directly in the UK. I warn you now be prepared to tweak a setting or two to work with your carrier/network (Vodafone, Sainsburys mobile and similar) I'll cover that in the next post for you.

Let's go to the specs for now  - Sorry it's not GSMArena slick this time

Model: DOOGEE VOYAGER DG300
Band: 2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900MHz
         3G: WCDMA 850/2100MHz
Sim Card: Dual SIM Card Dual Standby(one small and one micro SIM card)
Color: Black
Shell Material: Plastic
OS: Android 4.2.2
CPU: MTK6572, Cortex A7 dual core, 1.3GHz
GPU: Mali-400
ROM: 4GB
RAM: 512MB
Display Size: 5.0 Inch
Type: IPS, capacitive touch screen
Resolution: 960 x 540 pixels  Qhd
Screen Color: 260K Colors
Card slot - MicroSD
Cameras: Interpolated resolution of both 2.0MP for the front camera, 5.0MP  for the back camera (Non interpolated resolutions are 1.2mp front and 2mp rear)
WIFI: Yes, 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0
Gravity Sensor: Yes
Multi-Touch: Yes, 2 point touch
Standby Time: We'll test that
GPS: supported with A-GPS With EPO
DOOGEE DG300 Mobile Phone Accessories:
1 x 2500mAh Battery
1 x Earphone
1 x USB Cable
1 x Charger
1 x User Manual


Now for those wondering who the frick are Doogee? (translated as “Dao Ge”) I would click here and learn about the brand, and while it's very different to how the Brits express themselves it's not broken English so top marks there.

The phone itself is a nice device on the larger side of things for budget devices but for it's price feels pretty sturdy in the hand for a plastic handset and seems to take well to a drop. (yeah less than a week of ownership and drop it!) it removed the effect from the plastic but does not affect operations.

The dual sim card functionality is useful, if you wanted a work and personal device it would do well.
so far WIFI and mobile internet seems to work well with no problems once configured.

While Android jelly bean is outdated thanks to kitkat and soon coming L/Lollypop there is no official update (CFW scene may help here) I have asked Doogee about this and will add it here if they respond which I'm sure they will.

Right I'll leave it here for now as I want to go more in depth next week
If you have any questions let me know and I'll strive to find out or investigate them.

Paul

P.S. Please do not post links to e-shops selling these devices in the comments. Spam is not permitted here and will be deleted.

The Mr Nutcase Review Part 1 - Ordering

Hi all.

A few weeks back we received an email from phone and tablet custom case manufacturers Mr Nutcase to see about a review we jumped onto it like tigger on a big bounce!

Mr Nutcase has a wide selection of the most popular phone cases available, with everything from Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry to iPhone custom cases they have it all for the major manufacturers, including many budget devices too. It was quite refreshing to see so many models supported, I'd like a bit of love for the Alcatel or Mobile carriers OEM Devices but I understand that's not always possible.

Why two part I hear you say! Well it's simple, I've just ordered the case now so it's best to explain how the ordering process went to you all without wake up fuzzybrain tomorrow, plus I'm an idiot who may forget to do write this bit otherwise.

On visiting the site you're presented with a friendly site with an easy to follow interface and clear, but stern instructions and warnings along the way so you don't make any mistakes. The only two complaints I have are the page layout, at a screen resolution of 1280 by 1024 i have to scroll down a lot to change the lower settings. additionally I dislike clip art. It reminds me of the (crashtastic) good old days of Office 95...... Thankfully there is not a lot of clip art so it's something many will not play with. I think so far that's the only complaint, but I bet some people like it. Talking on here about it is one thing but seeing an order placed is better. so I've actually filmed me creating an order for you to see how easy it is. The case you see here is the case we'll be reviewing in the next 24-48 hours or so. I'm in the good books with the wife too now, thanks Mr Nutcase.


The ordering process was simple and easy. As long as you understand how images work and understand placement at certain times to avoid camera, speaker and button cut-outs on crucial points on your case all will be fantastic. For image editing in a simple fashion, Paint in windows7 may be able to help or free software the Gimp could do the job splendidly well.

So far Mr Nutcase have done well in my eyes. We'll see how the case comes through and how much theJess likes it when the case arrives.

What sort of case would you order?

Paul.

Throwback Thursday

Well. This is a strange one today,

This week I was given my fathers old cellphone today and thought I'd give you a treat from 2003. Here is the Nokia 3510i.

A pioneering device from when Nokia acutally made hardcore devices for all sectors, what makes this device more epic is it's one of the first Symbian s40 colour devices sold in the masses, including the variants for CDMA and AMPS, yes many versions were created.
On top of this it was also one of the first phones I knew of that came in with either a mono (3510) or colour (3510i) display and Polyphonic(marketing buzzwork for Midi music files)

This phone has been shelved since my father passed away, but surprisingly on sunday when i charged it it worked fantastically. And has lasted on one charge since.

The screen is clear and bright, well as bright as any nokia was in 2003. The only thing missing which i will be sorting if i can find my fbus data cables is Snake.

The point of this post is the memories. My old man struggled with technology, where i feel he would have thrived now as things get easier to use over time. But he did get a good easy to use device.

Now onto a question for you.

What older device do you miss or still use to this day?
Paul.

P.S. This phone is going to be a special project device for a post i've got on Dadzclub.

Hey! Tesco Mobile repair center!

Backstory:

He showed it to me with a similar mark on the screen a few weeks back. I told him to be careful with it while i call Vodafone/Huawei for advice on the matter. as while the bubble was there it was pushing down on the phone causing damage to the display.

On phoning Vodafone they advised me it's a common issue and would be repaired under a standard warranty. Woohoo!  As we'd bought it from a Tesco store I knew It was them who would have the last say but wanted Vodafone's thoughts on it. To Tesco we will go the following day!

Overnight it vanished. That day the screen broke, with lines down one side of the screen. There was no cracking or damage to the gorilla glass I assume this bubble increased in size causing a chip on film for the LCD to fail. 

Tesco's phone shop Dunstable have been fantastic throughout they could see the problem and the people we spoke to on the phone in the mini store were also fab. If only they could have booked the phone in for repair and sent it from story It would save the Royal mail cock up.

Royal mail lost the phone, or the phone was lost in a backlog. 

Found last week, so I guess it was backlogs. It was fixed and sent back. in a flimsy jiffybag. I kid you not a standard thin jiffy bag, compared to me posting it in wrapped in three jiffy bags for protection that's a fail! 

It came back to us Thursday and by Friday morning the air bubble had come back!  So it was off to Tesco again. The phone was obviously not repaired properly. On talking to a lovely lady It was suggested i "post it in sooner next time" When i explained it went missing in the post or was stuck in tesco's backlog she apologized, re-booked it in and promised me all will be sorted properly this time! 

I genuinely hope so as I've had to buy my son a £15 vdafone alcatel budget phone (he's in love with it mind you) to keep him connected to his friends. So I'm out of pocket for this. But spare phones are useful the way things are going!

However the bubble vanished again this morning. So I've informed tesco of this. I just hope they repair the issue properly. it looks like the bond between the gorilla glass, digitisr and LCD is too weak, the phone makes noise in your hand too. A sign of poor build quality. Which is a shame as the phone is awesome bar the screen issue. Made more annoying as we've already upgraded his line to a decent sim only deal, we could have got a new phone for him if we knew this would happen! 

I've read about it on Vodafone's Eform, Modaco forums, private blogs, the lady i spoke to at tesco's today, and many other online pages. some suggest pushing the back some say get it swapped. 

But PLEASE Tesco. Fix it properly this time! For the sake of a 13 year old who needs his phone to keep him going (trust me on this please)

Pauil