Review of GSM-phone Elle №1 by Alcatel
The word design for marketers in a number of companies serves as a kind of fetish, which, in their opinion, is able to explain miscalculations in the functionality of the device, high cost, low attractiveness for the consumer. No, of course, the general trend is on the face, an increasing number of phones attract buyers precisely with their design, and secondly with their capabilities. Sometimes design takes precedence over functionality, and then it is sacrificed for the sake of the fashionable component of the device. This is typical for large manufacturers with a recognizable brand, but not for second-tier manufacturers, here they start to play by different rules and unusual design is in the order of things (this is how manufacturers actually try to stand out). It's all the more strange when Alcatel starts a project of a designer device against the backdrop of a lack of top-end solutions capable of filling such a phone. Elle magazine was chosen as a partner. According to the apt expression of my French girlfriend, – "when one French company finds another, then you should expect that in addition to deceiving each other, they will also try to heat up the buyer." But such a solution is more organic than the B&O alliance with Samsung, where the cultures are different. For example, it is enough to go to the B&O website in Russia to understand that buying the products of this “design” brand is money thrown away (look at the quality of the translation, the completeness of the site, etc.). So, two French companies got together and created a phone for Elle readers and lifestyle lovers.
The audience of this edition is girls who prefer to look at pictures a lot, think a little and buy a lot with other people's money. In terms of the marketer's description of the audience, this is a highly profitable audience, women who do not have a permanent job or occupation (the majority, although the huge circulation suggests certain thoughts). It sounds contradictory, but having a husband, a friend, a lover explains everything. Of course, ordinary girls who have not yet outlived the desire to become glamorous lapdogs have crept into the ranks of such young ladies, while for them the magazine is a kind of guide to that other world. Actually, such young ladies are the target audience of the Elle phone, for "highly profitable" women this device is rustic both in brand and in appearance, they prefer Nokia, Siemens SL55 Escada and the like.
The packaging of the phone, like the gloss of the magazine, should splurge and sell the product. This factor is well known in Elle, so the packaging of the phone looks great, a transparent blister with a simple inscription Elle No. 1, the name of the manufacturer is almost invisible, blending into the background of the box. The phone is available in two colors – black and red. In both cases, the body plastic is matte, velvety (soft touch), it is pleasant to the touch. The clamshell doors, part of the rear panel, on the contrary, are made of ordinary lacquered plastic. The kit includes a velvet pouch that can be used to wipe screens.
The dimensions of the device are quite large for a female model – 91x46x23 mm, at the same time the weight is acceptable – 90 grams. Due to the size, wearing the device around the neck is not very convenient.
A diamond-shaped insert on the front panel hides the external screen, along the edge of this insert there is a mirror surface. The decision from the standpoint of design may be justified, but common sense is clearly resting here. On the street, the mirror insert starts to glare, which crosses out the glass tint and makes the display unreadable (remember that this is an STN matrix). The screen resolution is 128×128 pixels, it displays up to 4096 colors. The display shows the time, signal level, battery charge, icons of current events. Only an incoming call or other event can activate the display when closed, the user cannot turn on the backlight in any way, there are no side keys.
Under the screen is a VGA camera lens, which is the same as in most of the company's products. In general, the device is technically similar to Alcatel C652, there are no differences between them.
Included with the device is an Elle strap with the corresponding badge. By cutting the length of the lace, it can be converted from neck to hand. On the bottom side of the device there is an infrared port, a charger connector, a headset.
You can open the clamshell with one hand, a special layer was used for the screen, it can turn into a mirror. The screen resolution is 128×160 pixels (28×36 mm), it fits up to 9 lines (4 of them are service lines). In the sun, the screen fades, which is typical for STN matrices. In a nutshell, the matrix can be described as a good solution from two years ago, now such screens are typical for budget products.
The keyboard block stands out due to the black color, the buttons are made of varnished plastic, they are medium in size. In general, the keyboard is quite comfortable, but it gives the impression of plastic from an inexpensive Chinese toy, which can be found at market collapses. The keys are sloppy, with a silver border around them, matching the color of the navigation key, plus a different color for the OK button. The designers apparently had an idea of how to mix colors, but they didn’t know or didn’t want to know how to make it beautiful. In any case, this is purely a matter of taste and you can ignore my grumbling.
The battery in this model is 650 mAh lithium-ion. According to the manufacturer, it can provide up to 290 hours of standby time and up to 4 and a half hours of talk time. Under the conditions of the Moscow MTS network, the device worked for about 2 days with 35 minutes of calls, up to 20 minutes of using other functions. The operating time of the device should be considered equal to two days, more it will work only with a very small number of calls. The time to fully charge the battery is about one and a half hours.
The organization of the menu is very typical for Alcatel phones, adjusted for pre-installed wallpapers in the style of Elle, as well as another set of games that are created for this device. Of the minuses, it is worth noting the prevailing red gamut in the menu, for example, the font when typing, given the localization features, the input does not look quite adequate (thin red letters are hard to read). The main menu has only one view (previous devices up to 3 different ones) – the display shows all menu items in the form of small icons, three columns of four icons each.
The device has 3.2 MB of dynamic memory, which is distributed as needed between all applications. The menu has quick navigation using number sequences, you can also assign shortcuts to functions, then they will be available with one touch.
In the submenu, the functions are presented in lists, and they are grouped. The best way to explain this is with the example of Messages. Once in this menu, you will see a row of icons at the top, by default, Compose a message is highlighted. From the list, you can select the type of message, to view the received or sent messages, you need to move the joystick in the horizontal direction and another list will appear in front of you. At first glance, such a menu organization seems not very simple, but you quickly get used to it, it is logical and allows you to unload the menu, they do not have clutter of items, as in some models from other manufacturers. On the whole, the menu organizer makes a very good impression, all the menus are well thought out. So, in the image library there is a separate tab for pictures, a separate one for icons.
Localization of this model has remained, unfortunately, at the same level. The designations of Russian menu items have become more intelligible (the amount of memory is called power, do you like it?), But the Cyrillic font style is very different from English. Russian letters are thin, lightweight, the font is hard to see. The combination of Russian and English looks awkward due to the difference in font rendering.
Phone book. The phone memory is divided into several directories. There is a separate directory of contacts from the SIM card, by default there are three more folders – General, Work, Personal. The user can create his own directories, they serve as a kind of user groups in this machine. You can assign your own ringtone to individual folders, but you cannot do this for individual entries.
For each name, you can fill in up to 26 information fields, this is the first name, last name, up to 7 numbers, two email addresses, homepage address, nickname, date of birth, company name, position, address, city, region, postal code, country, note field and up to 4 additional information fields. The only drawback is that when adding a new contact, you will have to scroll through all the fields in sequence to get to the right one. You can't get to what you want right now. You can add voice tags to individual entries, then voice dialing of these numbers is possible. There is a search by the first letter of the name.
For each entry, you can assign a picture or a video clip from preinstalled or uploaded by the user. The machine supports the following image formats: JPG, GIF, aGIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP. Video extensions supported: 3gp (H263/AMR, MPEG4), .mp4.
In principle, there are no restrictions on the number of entries, it all depends on the amount of free memory (but not more than 500 based on the amount of memory in the device).
Messages. In addition to working with SMS, the phone supports working with EMS and MMS. Work with all messages is standard and does not cause any problems. You can add emoticons, pictures, melodies and/or bookmarks from the wap browser to the body of the message. For MMS messages, you can create several slides, the size limit for one message is 100 Kb. Messages can be sent to one or more subscribers. There is a Russian and English dictionary T9.
Personalization. Here is almost everything related to setting up the device. You can choose a melody, a call type, customize the menu design, set a picture on the main screen, set up "fast" keys and more. For the call type, you can set vibrate and melody at the same time, vibro then melody, vibro signal and then melody. In general, there are many settings for the type of call, you can choose what you need.
< /p>
You can set a picture or video for the screen, set color schemes. An interesting feature is the Atmosphere (a set of pictures, interface colors and melodies). When viewing, you see not only the design option, but also hear the ringtone corresponding to the selected option. Of course, nothing prevents you from setting it all up separately.
Call logging. List of calls – missed, incoming, dialed. Here you can also configure everything related to voice calls.
Quick Access. It is possible to create your own menu to access the desired menu items, contacts from the phone book and Internet addresses.
Tools. This section contains an organizer. You can view the entire month, week, and all scheduled events are displayed in a separate list. Viewing by weeks is conveniently implemented, as they are divided by dates, for example, 14.03-20.03, 21.03-27.03, etc. Events are set as follows – meeting (date, start and end time, text note), birthday (date and last name) and call (reminders for which you can set priority and end date are also a separate item).
There are two alarms in the phone, one is set for the exact date, and the second is daily. Here you can also find the timer.
The phone also has a simple calculator and currency converter.
It is possible to create your own melody from notes or record it on a voice recorder from an external source. The limit is 60 seconds.
Voice commands are assigned to the desired menu item.
The Alerts section displays a list of appointments, notes that have an alert assigned to them, and an alarm.
In this menu, you can activate the infrared port.
Tips & tricks. Here are tips for using your phone.
Services. Here you can access the SIM menu and access the WAP site My One Touch.
WAP. The phone has browser version 2.0, there are no special features.
Games. Two games are preinstalled in the phone, one of them is Queen of the Mole (hit the faces that appear with a hammer, the game does not arouse interest), the second is Rabbit Fitness (a kind of tamagotchi, a nice toy). It is possible to download new games, but only via wap. In applications, you can find the calculation of the menstrual cycle, because the phone is female.
Media Album. Here are all the pictures, melodies and videos. The set of preinstalled pictures and melodies is very large, the phone is good in this respect. The selection of funny and ironic pictures is such that the eyes run wide. Your phone comes preloaded with some funny videos.
Camera. The camera shoots in the following resolutions – 640×480, 352×288, 128×128, 64×64, 32×32, 16×16 pixels, plus there is a panoramic shooting mode, in this case the image is stretched horizontally. In all cases, the photo format is JPEG, three compression qualities are available (High, Standard, Economy).
The phone screen acts as a viewfinder. The interface is thought out to the smallest detail, you can change almost all parameters in the shooting mode in a few clicks. For example, numeric keys 1, 2, 3 are responsible for selecting the compression quality. The left soft key is responsible for choosing a color (color photo, black and white, Sepia, Negative, Thin or outlines).
The # key allows you to quickly switch the resolution of images, while the asterisk is responsible for special modes, there are several of them in the device. One of these modes is to create a GIF file from four shots. That is, you take four photos in a row, and then they turn into animation, immediately in your device. Only one resolution of 128×128 pixels is strictly provided here, but it is understandable, the developers saved memory. The function is unique and greatly diversifies the device, other manufacturers have not yet offered anything similar.
The second special shooting mode is mosaic. In this mode, you also take 4 pictures (32×32 pixels), and then one whole image (128×128 pixels) is assembled from them.
Your phone has a timer for delayed shooting. There is an Exposure setting or setting the light level, by default the lighting conditions are set automatically, but you can specify them manually. In most cases, automatic installation is sufficient.
For photos, you can choose the default folders in which they are saved. The resulting images can be used as screen savers in MMS messages.
For images with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, frames can be used. These are the effects that are superimposed on the photo when shooting, a kind of frame. The unique function of the device is that frame files (PNG format) can be downloaded to the phone from a PC, that is, you can create your own effects. None of the devices has this feature, although the same frames are used in many models.
The device has an 8-fold increase in the picture (digital zoom), just move the joystick away from you. The zoom function is accompanied by a sound similar to the one that the lens makes while moving in digital cameras – it's quite funny.
Photos look good on a phone display, but they also look quite tolerable on a computer screen. The main drawback is that the edges of the photos are blurry.
The video is recorded in 3GP format, the video size limit is 93 Kb or 9 seconds, but this is for MMS messages. It is also possible to record videos without limits, to be precise, until the memory runs out.
Video clips are not played in full screen, a slight slowdown is noticeable when playing them, apparently, the processor of the device cannot cope with such a load. The videos themselves are of normal quality.
Impressions
This is a typical solution from Alcatel, nothing special. The phone has no problems in terms of connection quality, the loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity are enough for a conversation in any conditions, whether it's an office or a noisy street. The volume of the call is sufficient, it is well audible, even from under winter clothes. But the vibrating alert is average in power, you can not even feel it. The speakerphone in the device is implemented at a good level.
The lack of mp3 support is not very modern and severely limits the buyers of this device. Polyphony 40-tones, you can use both midi and SMAF files. The device has a large number of preset melodies, many of them are pleasant.
It is impossible to evaluate this device from the position of functionality, it claims to be a glamphone (there is even a corresponding site glamphone.com, including in Russian). Mostly Elle No. 1 accessory for those who wants to stand out and at the same time, without having a lot of money, still does not count them, believing that this is customary in glamorous circles. This is a style of behavior imposed by the glossy press, only young ladies fall under its influence.In no case do I want to offend those who study Elle as part of their work (girls, forgive me), those who “read” this publication are very specific and are described at the beginning of the review. In a word, those who read this material clearly do not belong to the class of "highly profitable women with no permanent employment." And, in general, I do not like the idea of deliberately cultivating idiots for the subsequent sale of a service or product to them. Although promoting a product for such an audience is not difficult, and the product has a higher margin, the so-called margin for consumer stupidity.
The desire of distributors to "cash in" on this model is understandable, but retail prices of $400 in December are inexplicable. The real cost of the model cannot exceed $200-230, in which case it is quite an adequate solution (this is also the cost of the device based on the current wholesale price). It is clear that in December you can put carrots on the shelf, they will buy it too, the question is why this is needed in the long term.
At the moment, the market is not spoiled by a large number of female models, but one can immediately recall the Samsung E530, this device has better plastic, a modern screen with a resolution of 176×220 pixels, a huge amount of memory, support for mp3, Bluetooth, and great advertising support. The cost of this solution is currently $350, the positioning is clearly higher than that of Alcatel's solution. If you select other competitors, then the list can be greatly expanded, many have no less image charge than Elle No. 1.
Review of GSM-phone Elle №1 by Alcatel
The word design for marketers in a number of companies serves as a kind of fetish, which, in their opinion, is able to explain miscalculations in the functionality of the device, high cost, low attractiveness for the consumer. No, of course, the general trend is on the face, an increasing number of phones attract buyers precisely with their design, and secondly with their capabilities. Sometimes design takes precedence over functionality, and then it is sacrificed for the sake of the fashionable component of the device.This is typical for large manufacturers with a recognizable brand, but not for second-tier manufacturers, here they start to play by different rules and unusual design is in the order of things (this is how manufacturers actually try to stand out). It's all the more strange when Alcatel starts a project of a designer device against the backdrop of a lack of top-end solutions capable of filling such a phone. Elle magazine was chosen as a partner. According to the apt expression of my French girlfriend, – "when one French company finds another, then you should expect that in addition to deceiving each other, they will also try to heat up the buyer." But such a solution is more organic than the B&O alliance with Samsung, where the cultures are different. For example, it is enough to go to the B&O website in Russia to understand that buying the products of this “design” brand is money thrown away (look at the quality of the translation, the completeness of the site, etc.). So, two French companies got together and created a phone for Elle readers and lifestyle lovers.
The audience of this edition is girls who prefer to look at pictures a lot, think a little and buy a lot with other people's money. In terms of the marketer's description of the audience, this is a highly profitable audience, women who do not have a permanent job or occupation (the majority, although the huge circulation suggests certain thoughts). It sounds contradictory, but having a husband, a friend, a lover explains everything. Of course, ordinary girls who have not yet outlived the desire to become glamorous lapdogs have crept into the ranks of such young ladies, while for them the magazine is a kind of guide to that other world. Actually, such young ladies are the target audience of the Elle phone, for "highly profitable" women this device is rustic both in brand and in appearance, they prefer Nokia, Siemens SL55 Escada and the like.
The packaging of the phone, like the gloss of the magazine, should splurge and sell the product. This factor is well known in Elle, so the packaging of the phone looks great, a transparent blister with a simple inscription Elle No. 1, the name of the manufacturer is almost invisible, blending into the background of the box. The phone is available in two colors – black and red. In both cases, the body plastic is matte, velvety (soft touch), it is pleasant to the touch. The clamshell doors, part of the rear panel, on the contrary, are made of ordinary lacquered plastic. The kit includes a velvet pouch that can be used to wipe screens.
The dimensions of the device are quite large for a female model – 91x46x23 mm, at the same time the weight is acceptable – 90 grams. Due to the size, wearing the device around the neck is not very convenient.
A diamond-shaped insert on the front panel hides the external screen, along the edge of this insert there is a mirror surface. The decision from the standpoint of design may be justified, but common sense is clearly resting here. On the street, the mirror insert starts to glare, which crosses out the glass tint and makes the display unreadable (remember that this is an STN matrix). The screen resolution is 128×128 pixels, it displays up to 4096 colors. The display shows the time, signal level, battery charge, icons of current events. Only an incoming call or other event can activate the display when closed, the user cannot turn on the backlight in any way, there are no side keys.
Under the screen is a VGA camera lens, which is the same as in most of the company's products. In general, the device is technically similar to Alcatel C652, there are no differences between them.
Included with the device is an Elle strap with the corresponding badge. By cutting the length of the lace, it can be converted from neck to hand. On the bottom side of the device there is an infrared port, a charger connector, a headset.
You can open the clamshell with one hand, a special layer was used for the screen, it can turn into a mirror. The screen resolution is 128×160 pixels (28×36 mm), it fits up to 9 lines (4 of them are service lines). In the sun, the screen fades, which is typical for STN matrices. In a nutshell, the matrix can be described as a good solution from two years ago, now such screens are typical for budget products.
The keyboard block stands out due to the black color, the buttons are made of varnished plastic, they are medium in size. In general, the keyboard is quite comfortable, but it gives the impression of plastic from an inexpensive Chinese toy, which can be found at market collapses. The keys are sloppy, with a silver border around them, matching the color of the navigation key, plus a different color for the OK button. The designers apparently had an idea of how to mix colors, but they didn’t know or didn’t want to know how to make it beautiful. In any case, this is purely a matter of taste and you can ignore my grumbling.
The battery in this model is 650 mAh lithium-ion. According to the manufacturer, it can provide up to 290 hours of standby time and up to 4 and a half hours of talk time. Under the conditions of the Moscow MTS network, the device worked for about 2 days with 35 minutes of calls, up to 20 minutes of using other functions. The operating time of the device should be considered equal to two days, more it will work only with a very small number of calls. The time to fully charge the battery is about one and a half hours.
The organization of the menu is very typical for Alcatel phones, adjusted for pre-installed wallpapers in the style of Elle, as well as another set of games that are created for this device. Of the minuses, it is worth noting the prevailing red gamut in the menu, for example, the font when typing, given the localization features, the input does not look quite adequate (thin red letters are hard to read). The main menu has only one view (previous devices up to 3 different ones) – the display shows all menu items in the form of small icons, three columns of four icons each.
The device has 3.2 MB of dynamic memory, which is distributed as needed between all applications. The menu has quick navigation using number sequences, you can also assign shortcuts to functions, then they will be available with one touch.
In the submenu, the functions are presented in lists, and they are grouped. The best way to explain this is with the example of Messages. Once in this menu, you will see a row of icons at the top, by default, Compose a message is highlighted. From the list, you can select the type of message, to view the received or sent messages, you need to move the joystick in the horizontal direction and another list will appear in front of you. At first glance, such a menu organization seems not very simple, but you quickly get used to it, it is logical and allows you to unload the menu, they do not have clutter of items, as in some models from other manufacturers. On the whole, the menu organizer makes a very good impression, all the menus are well thought out. So, in the image library there is a separate tab for pictures, a separate one for icons.
Localization of this model has remained, unfortunately, at the same level. The designations of Russian menu items have become more intelligible (the amount of memory is called power, do you like it?), but the Cyrillic font style is very different from English. Russian letters are thin, lightweight, the font is hard to see. The combination of Russian and English looks awkward due to the difference in font rendering.
Phonebook. The phone memory is divided into several directories. There is a separate directory of contacts from the SIM card, by default there are three more folders – General, Work, Personal. The user can create his own directories, they serve as a kind of user groups in this machine. You can assign your own ringtone to individual folders, but you cannot do this for individual entries.
For each name, you can fill in up to 26 information fields, this is the first name, last name, up to 7 numbers, two email addresses, homepage address, nickname, date of birth, company name, position, address, city, region, postal code, country, note field and up to 4 additional information fields. The only drawback is that when adding a new contact, you will have to scroll through all the fields in sequence to get to the right one. You can't get to what you want right now. You can add voice tags to individual entries, then voice dialing of these numbers is possible. There is a search by the first letter of the name.
For each entry, you can assign a picture or a video clip from preinstalled or uploaded by the user. The machine supports the following image formats: JPG, GIF, aGIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP. Video extensions supported: 3gp (H263/AMR, MPEG4), .mp4.
In principle, there are no restrictions on the number of entries, it all depends on the amount of free memory (but not more than 500 based on the amount of memory in the device).
Messages. In addition to working with SMS, the phone supports working with EMS and MMS. Work with all messages is standard and does not cause any problems. You can add emoticons, pictures, melodies and/or bookmarks from the wap browser to the body of the message. For MMS messages, you can create several slides, the size limit for one message is 100 Kb. Messages can be sent to one or more subscribers. There is a Russian and English dictionary T9.
Personalization. Here is almost everything related to setting up the device. You can choose a melody, a call type, customize the menu design, set a picture on the main screen, set up "fast" keys and more. For the call type, you can set vibrate and melody at the same time, vibro then melody, vibro signal and then melody. In general, there are many settings for the type of call, you can choose what you need.
< /p>
You can set a picture or video for the screen, set color schemes. An interesting feature is the Atmosphere (a set of pictures, interface colors and melodies). When viewing, you see not only the design option, but also hear the ringtone corresponding to the selected option. Of course, nothing prevents you from setting it all up separately.
Call logging. List of calls – missed, incoming, dialed. Here you can also configure everything related to voice calls.
Quick Access. It is possible to create your own menu to access the desired menu items, contacts from the phone book and Internet addresses.
Tools. This section contains an organizer. You can view the entire month, week, and all scheduled events are displayed in a separate list. Viewing by weeks is conveniently implemented, as they are divided by dates, for example, 14.03-20.03, 21.03-27.03, etc. Events are set as follows – meeting (date, start and end time, text note), birthday (date and last name) and call (reminders for which you can set priority and end date are also a separate item).
There are two alarms in the phone, one is set for the exact date, and the second is daily. Here you can also find the timer.
The phone also has a simple calculator and currency converter.
It is possible to create your own melody from notes or record it on a voice recorder from an external source. The limit is 60 seconds.
Voice commands are assigned to the desired menu item.
The Alerts section displays a list of appointments, notes that have an alert assigned to them, and an alarm.
In this menu, you can activate the infrared port.
Tips & tricks. Here are tips for using your phone.
Services. Here you can access the SIM menu and access the WAP site My One Touch.
WAP. The phone has browser version 2.0, there are no special features.
Games. Two games are preinstalled in the phone, one of them is Queen of the Mole (hit the faces that appear with a hammer, the game does not arouse interest), the second is Rabbit Fitness (a kind of tamagotchi, a nice toy). It is possible to download new games, but only via wap. In applications, you can find the calculation of the menstrual cycle, because the phone is female.
Media Album. Here are all the pictures, melodies and videos. The set of preinstalled pictures and melodies is very large, the phone is good in this respect. The selection of funny and ironic pictures is such that the eyes run wide. Your phone comes preloaded with some funny videos.
Camera. The camera shoots in the following resolutions – 640×480, 352×288, 128×128, 64×64, 32×32, 16×16 pixels, plus there is a panoramic shooting mode, in this case the image is stretched horizontally. In all cases, the photo format is JPEG, three compression qualities are available (High, Standard, Economy).
The phone screen acts as a viewfinder. The interface is thought out to the smallest detail, you can change almost all parameters in the shooting mode in a few clicks. For example, numeric keys 1, 2, 3 are responsible for selecting the compression quality. The left soft key is responsible for choosing a color (color photo, black and white, Sepia, Negative, Thin or outlines).
The # key allows you to quickly switch the resolution of images, while the asterisk is responsible for special modes, there are several of them in the device. One of these modes is to create a GIF file from four shots. That is, you take four photos in a row, and then they turn into animation, immediately in your device. Only one resolution of 128×128 pixels is strictly provided here, but it is understandable, the developers saved memory. The function is unique and greatly diversifies the device, other manufacturers have not yet offered anything similar.
The second special shooting mode is mosaic. In this mode, you also take 4 pictures (32×32 pixels), and then one whole image (128×128 pixels) is assembled from them.
Your phone has a timer for delayed shooting. There is an Exposure setting or setting the light level, by default the lighting conditions are set automatically, but you can specify them manually. In most cases, automatic installation is sufficient.
For photos, you can choose the default folders in which they are saved. The resulting images can be used as screen savers in MMS messages.
For images with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, frames can be used. These are the effects that are superimposed on the photo when shooting, a kind of frame. The unique function of the device is that frame files (PNG format) can be downloaded to the phone from a PC, that is, you can create your own effects. None of the devices has this feature, although the same frames are used in many models.
The device has an 8-fold increase in the picture (digital zoom), just move the joystick away from you. The zoom function is accompanied by a sound similar to the one that the lens makes while moving in digital cameras – it's quite funny.
Photos look good on a phone display, but they also look quite tolerable on a computer screen. The main drawback is that the edges of the photos are blurry.
The video is recorded in 3GP format, the video size limit is 93 Kb or 9 seconds, but this is for MMS messages. It is also possible to record videos without limits, to be precise, until the memory runs out.
Video clips are not played in full screen, a slight slowdown is noticeable when playing them, apparently, the processor of the device cannot cope with such a load. The videos themselves are of normal quality.
Impressions
This is a typical solution from Alcatel, nothing special. The phone has no problems in terms of connection quality, the loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity are enough for a conversation in any conditions, whether it's an office or a noisy street. The volume of the call is sufficient, it is well audible, even from under winter clothes. But the vibrating alert is average in power, you can not even feel it. The speakerphone in the device is implemented at a good level.
The lack of mp3 support is not very modern and severely limits the buyers of this device. Polyphony 40-tones, you can use both midi and SMAF files. The device has a large number of preset melodies, many of them are pleasant.
It is impossible to evaluate this device from the position of functionality, it claims to be a glamphone (there is even a corresponding site glamphone.com, including in Russian). Mostly Elle No. 1 accessory for those who wants to stand out and at the same time, without having a lot of money, still does not count them, believing that this is customary in glamorous circles. This is a style of behavior imposed by the glossy press, only young ladies fall under its influence.In no case do I want to offend those who study Elle as part of their work (girls, forgive me), those who “read” this publication are very specific and are described at the beginning of the review. In a word, those who read this material clearly do not belong to the class of "highly profitable women with no permanent employment." And, in general, I do not like the idea of deliberately cultivating idiots for the subsequent sale of a service or product to them. Although promoting a product for such an audience is not difficult, and the product has a higher margin, the so-called margin for consumer stupidity.
The desire of distributors to "cash in" on this model is understandable, but retail prices of $400 in December are inexplicable. The real cost of the model cannot exceed $200-230, in which case it is quite an adequate solution (this is also the cost of the device based on the current wholesale price). It is clear that in December you can put carrots on the shelf, they will buy it too, the question is why this is needed in the long term.
At the moment, the market is not spoiled by a large number of female models, but one can immediately recall the Samsung E530, this device has better plastic, a modern screen with a resolution of 176×220 pixels, a huge amount of memory, support for mp3, Bluetooth, and great advertising support. The cost of this solution is currently $350, the positioning is clearly higher than that of Alcatel's solution. If you select other competitors, then the list can be greatly expanded, many have no less image charge than Elle No. 1.
Review of GSM-phone Elle №1 by Alcatel
The word design for marketers in a number of companies serves as a kind of fetish, which, in their opinion, is able to explain miscalculations in the functionality of the device, high cost, low attractiveness for the consumer. No, of course, the general trend is on the face, an increasing number of phones attract buyers precisely with their design, and secondly with their capabilities. Sometimes design takes precedence over functionality, and then it is sacrificed for the sake of the fashionable component of the device.This is typical for large manufacturers with a recognizable brand, but not for second-tier manufacturers, here they start to play by different rules and unusual design is in the order of things (this is how manufacturers actually try to stand out). It's all the more strange when Alcatel starts a project of a designer device against the backdrop of a lack of top-end solutions capable of filling such a phone. Elle magazine was chosen as a partner. According to the apt expression of my French girlfriend, – "when one French company finds another, then you should expect that in addition to deceiving each other, they will also try to heat up the buyer." But such a solution is more organic than the B&O alliance with Samsung, where the cultures are different. For example, it is enough to go to the B&O website in Russia to understand that buying the products of this “design” brand is money thrown away (look at the quality of the translation, the completeness of the site, etc.). So, two French companies got together and created a phone for Elle readers and lifestyle lovers.
The audience of this edition is girls who prefer to look at pictures a lot, think a little and buy a lot with other people's money. In terms of the marketer's description of the audience, this is a highly profitable audience, women who do not have a permanent job or occupation (the majority, although the huge circulation suggests certain thoughts). It sounds contradictory, but having a husband, a friend, a lover explains everything. Of course, ordinary girls who have not yet outlived the desire to become glamorous lapdogs have crept into the ranks of such young ladies, while for them the magazine is a kind of guide to that other world. Actually, such young ladies are the target audience of the Elle phone, for "highly profitable" women this device is rustic both in brand and in appearance, they prefer Nokia, Siemens SL55 Escada and the like.
The packaging of the phone, like the gloss of the magazine, should splurge and sell the product. This factor is well known in Elle, so the packaging of the phone looks great, a transparent blister with a simple inscription Elle No. 1, the name of the manufacturer is almost invisible, blending into the background of the box. The phone is available in two colors – black and red. In both cases, the body plastic is matte, velvety (soft touch), it is pleasant to the touch. The clamshell doors, part of the rear panel, on the contrary, are made of ordinary lacquered plastic. The kit includes a velvet pouch that can be used to wipe screens.
The dimensions of the device are quite large for a female model – 91x46x23 mm, at the same time the weight is acceptable – 90 grams. Due to the size, wearing the device around the neck is not very convenient.
A diamond-shaped insert on the front panel hides the external screen, along the edge of this insert there is a mirror surface. The decision from the standpoint of design may be justified, but common sense is clearly resting here. On the street, the mirror insert starts to glare, which crosses out the glass tint and makes the display unreadable (remember that this is an STN matrix). The screen resolution is 128×128 pixels, it displays up to 4096 colors. The display shows the time, signal level, battery charge, icons of current events. Only an incoming call or other event can activate the display when closed, the user cannot turn on the backlight in any way, there are no side keys.
Under the screen is a VGA camera lens, which is the same as in most of the company's products. In general, the device is technically similar to Alcatel C652, there are no differences between them.
Included with the device is an Elle strap with the corresponding badge. By cutting the length of the lace, it can be converted from neck to hand. On the bottom side of the device there is an infrared port, a charger connector, a headset.
You can open the clamshell with one hand, a special layer was used for the screen, it can turn into a mirror. The screen resolution is 128×160 pixels (28×36 mm), it fits up to 9 lines (4 of them are service lines). In the sun, the screen fades, which is typical for STN matrices. In a nutshell, the matrix can be described as a good solution from two years ago, now such screens are typical for budget products.
The keyboard block stands out due to the black color, the buttons are made of varnished plastic, they are medium in size. In general, the keyboard is quite comfortable, but it gives the impression of plastic from an inexpensive Chinese toy, which can be found at market collapses. The keys are sloppy, with a silver border around them, matching the color of the navigation key, plus a different color for the OK button. The designers apparently had an idea of how to mix colors, but they didn’t know or didn’t want to know how to make it beautiful. In any case, this is purely a matter of taste and you can ignore my grumbling.
The battery in this model is 650 mAh lithium-ion. According to the manufacturer, it can provide up to 290 hours of standby time and up to 4 and a half hours of talk time. Under the conditions of the Moscow MTS network, the device worked for about 2 days with 35 minutes of calls, up to 20 minutes of using other functions. The operating time of the device should be considered equal to two days, more it will work only with a very small number of calls. The time to fully charge the battery is about one and a half hours.
The organization of the menu is very typical for Alcatel phones, adjusted for pre-installed wallpapers in the style of Elle, as well as another set of games that are created for this device. Of the minuses, it is worth noting the prevailing red gamut in the menu, for example, the font when typing, given the localization features, the input does not look quite adequate (thin red letters are hard to read). The main menu has only one view (previous devices up to 3 different ones) – the display shows all menu items in the form of small icons, three columns of four icons each.
The device has 3.2 MB of dynamic memory, which is distributed as needed between all applications. The menu has quick navigation using number sequences, you can also assign shortcuts to functions, then they will be available with one touch.
In the submenu, the functions are presented in lists, and they are grouped. The best way to explain this is with the example of Messages. Once in this menu, you will see a row of icons at the top, by default, Compose a message is highlighted. From the list, you can select the type of message, to view the received or sent messages, you need to move the joystick in the horizontal direction and another list will appear in front of you. At first glance, such a menu organization seems not very simple, but you quickly get used to it, it is logical and allows you to unload the menu, they do not have clutter of items, as in some models from other manufacturers. On the whole, the menu organizer makes a very good impression, all the menus are well thought out. So, in the image library there is a separate tab for pictures, a separate one for icons.
Localization of this model has remained, unfortunately, at the same level. The designations of Russian menu items have become more intelligible (the amount of memory is called power, do you like it?), but the Cyrillic font style is very different from English. Russian letters are thin, lightweight, the font is hard to see. The combination of Russian and English looks awkward due to the difference in font rendering.
Phonebook. The phone memory is divided into several directories. There is a separate directory of contacts from the SIM card, by default there are three more folders – General, Work, Personal. The user can create his own directories, they serve as a kind of user groups in this machine. You can assign your own ringtone to individual folders, but you cannot do this for individual entries.
For each name, you can fill in up to 26 information fields, this is the first name, last name, up to 7 numbers, two email addresses, homepage address, nickname, date of birth, company name, position, address, city, region, postal code, country, note field and up to 4 additional information fields. The only drawback is that when adding a new contact, you will have to scroll through all the fields in sequence to get to the right one. You can't get to what you want right away. You can add voice tags to individual entries, then voice dialing of these numbers is possible. There is a search by the first letter of the name.
For each entry, you can assign a picture or a video clip from pre-installed or uploaded by the user. The machine supports the following image formats: JPG, GIF, aGIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP. Video extensions supported: 3gp (H263/AMR, MPEG4), .mp4.
In principle, there are no restrictions on the number of entries, it all depends on the amount of free memory (but not more than 500 based on the amount of memory in the device).
Messages. In addition to working with SMS, the phone supports working with EMS and MMS. Work with all messages is standard and does not cause any problems. You can add emoticons, pictures, melodies and/or bookmarks from the wap browser to the body of the message. For MMS messages, you can create several slides, the size limit for one message is 100 Kb. Messages can be sent to one or more subscribers. There is a Russian and English dictionary T9.
Personalization. Here is almost everything related to setting up the device. You can choose a melody, a call type, customize the menu design, set a picture on the main screen, set up "fast" keys and more. For the call type, you can set vibrate and melody at the same time, vibro then melody, vibro signal and then melody. In general, there are many settings for the type of call, you can choose what you need.
< /p>
You can set a picture or video for the screen, set color schemes. An interesting feature is the Atmosphere (a set of pictures, interface colors and melodies). When viewing, you see not only the design option, but also hear the ringtone corresponding to the selected option. Of course, nothing prevents you from setting it all up separately.
Call logging. List of calls – missed, incoming, dialed. Here you can also configure everything related to voice calls.
Quick Access. It is possible to create your own menu to access the desired menu items, contacts from the phone book and Internet addresses.
Tools. This section contains an organizer. You can view the entire month, week, and all scheduled events are displayed in a separate list. Viewing by weeks is conveniently implemented, as they are divided by dates, for example, 14.03-20.03, 21.03-27.03, etc. Events are set as follows – meeting (date, start and end time, text note), birthday (date and last name) and call (reminders for which you can set priority and end date are also a separate item).
There are two alarms in the phone, one is set for the exact date, and the second is daily. Here you can also find the timer.
The phone also has a simple calculator and currency converter.
It is possible to create your own melody from notes or record it on a voice recorder from an external source. The limit is 60 seconds.
Voice commands are assigned to the desired menu item.
The Alerts section displays a list of appointments, notes that have an alert assigned to them, and an alarm.
In this menu, you can activate the infrared port.
Tips & tricks. Here are tips for using your phone.
Services. Here you can access the SIM menu and access the WAP site My One Touch.
WAP. The phone has browser version 2.0, there are no special features.
Games. Two games are preinstalled in the phone, one of them is Queen of the Mole (hit the faces that appear with a hammer, the game does not arouse interest), the second is Rabbit Fitness (a kind of tamagotchi, a nice toy). It is possible to download new games, but only via wap. In applications, you can find the calculation of the menstrual cycle, because the phone is female.
Media Album. Here are all the pictures, melodies and videos. The set of preinstalled pictures and melodies is very large, the phone is good in this respect. The selection of funny and ironic pictures is such that the eyes run wide. Your phone comes preloaded with some funny videos.
Camera. The camera shoots in the following resolutions – 640×480, 352×288, 128×128, 64×64, 32×32, 16×16 pixels, plus there is a panoramic shooting mode, in this case the image is stretched horizontally. In all cases, the photo format is JPEG, three compression qualities are available (High, Standard, Economy).
The phone screen acts as a viewfinder. The interface is thought out to the smallest detail, you can change almost all parameters in the shooting mode in a few clicks. For example, numeric keys 1, 2, 3 are responsible for selecting the compression quality. The left soft key is responsible for choosing a color (color photo, black and white, Sepia, Negative, Thin or outlines).
The # key allows you to quickly switch the resolution of images, while the asterisk is responsible for special modes, there are several of them in the device. One of these modes is to create a GIF file from four shots. That is, you take four photos in a row, and then they turn into animation, immediately in your device. Only one resolution of 128×128 pixels is strictly provided here, but it is understandable, the developers saved memory. The function is unique and greatly diversifies the device, other manufacturers have not yet offered anything similar.
The second special shooting mode is mosaic. In this mode, you also take 4 pictures (32×32 pixels), and then one whole image (128×128 pixels) is assembled from them.
Your phone has a timer for delayed shooting. There is an Exposure setting or setting the light level, by default the lighting conditions are set automatically, but you can specify them manually. In most cases, automatic installation is sufficient.
For photos, you can choose the default folders in which they are saved. The resulting images can be used as screen savers in MMS messages.
For images with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, frames can be used. These are the effects that are superimposed on the photo when shooting, a kind of frame. The unique function of the device is that frame files (PNG format) can be downloaded to the phone from a PC, that is, you can create your own effects. None of the devices has this feature, although the same frames are used in many models.
The device has an 8-fold increase in the picture (digital zoom), just move the joystick away from you. The zoom function is accompanied by a sound similar to the one that the lens makes while moving in digital cameras – it's quite funny.
Photos look good on a phone display, but they also look quite tolerable on a computer screen. The main drawback is that the edges of the photos are blurry.
The video is recorded in 3GP format, the video size limit is 93 Kb or 9 seconds, but this is for MMS messages. It is also possible to record videos without limits, to be precise, until the memory runs out.
Video clips are not played in full screen, a slight slowdown is noticeable when playing them, apparently, the processor of the device cannot cope with such a load. The videos themselves are of normal quality.
Impressions
This is a typical solution from Alcatel, nothing special. The phone has no problems in terms of connection quality, the loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity are enough for a conversation in any conditions, whether it's an office or a noisy street. The volume of the call is sufficient, it is well audible, even from under winter clothes. But the vibrating alert is average in power, you can not even feel it. The speakerphone in the device is implemented at a good level.
The lack of mp3 support is not very modern and severely limits the buyers of this device. Polyphony 40-tones, you can use both midi and SMAF files. The device has a large number of preset melodies, many of them are pleasant.
It is impossible to evaluate this device from the position of functionality, it claims to be a glamphone (there is even a corresponding site glamphone.com, including in Russian). Mostly Elle No. 1 accessory for those who wants to stand out and at the same time, without having a lot of money, still does not count them, believing that this is customary in glamorous circles. This is a style of behavior imposed by the glossy press, only young ladies fall under its influence.In no case do I want to offend those who study Elle as part of their work (girls, forgive me), those who “read” this publication are very specific and are described at the beginning of the review. In a word, those who read this material clearly do not belong to the class of "highly profitable women with no permanent employment." And, in general, I do not like the idea of deliberately cultivating idiots for the subsequent sale of a service or product to them. Although promoting a product for such an audience is not difficult, and the product has a higher margin, the so-called margin for consumer stupidity.
The desire of distributors to "cash in" on this model is understandable, but retail prices of $400 in December are inexplicable. The real cost of the model cannot exceed $200-230, in which case it is quite an adequate solution (this is also the cost of the device based on the current wholesale price). It is clear that in December you can put carrots on the shelf, they will buy it too, the question is why this is needed in the long term.
At the moment, the market is not spoiled by a large number of female models, but one can immediately recall the Samsung E530, this device has better plastic, a modern screen with a resolution of 176×220 pixels, a huge amount of memory, support for mp3, Bluetooth, and great advertising support. The cost of this solution is currently $350, the positioning is clearly higher than that of Alcatel's solution. If you select other competitors, then the list can be greatly expanded, many have no less image charge than Elle No. 1.
Review of GSM-phone Elle №1 by Alcatel
The word design for marketers in a number of companies serves as a kind of fetish, which, in their opinion, is able to explain miscalculations in the functionality of the device, high cost, low attractiveness for the consumer. No, of course, the general trend is on the face, an increasing number of phones attract buyers precisely with their design, and secondly with their capabilities. Sometimes design takes precedence over functionality, and then it is sacrificed for the sake of the fashionable component of the device.This is typical for large manufacturers with a recognizable brand, but not for second-tier manufacturers, here they start to play by different rules and unusual design is in the order of things (this is how manufacturers actually try to stand out). It's all the more strange when Alcatel starts a project of a designer device against the backdrop of a lack of top-end solutions capable of filling such a phone. Elle magazine was chosen as a partner. According to the apt expression of my French girlfriend, – "when one French company finds another, then you should expect that in addition to deceiving each other, they will also try to heat up the buyer." But such a solution is more organic than the B&O alliance with Samsung, where the cultures are different. For example, it is enough to go to the B&O website in Russia to understand that buying the products of this “design” brand is money thrown away (look at the quality of the translation, the completeness of the site, etc.). So, two French companies got together and created a phone for Elle readers and lifestyle lovers.
The audience of this edition is girls who prefer to look at pictures a lot, think a little and buy a lot with other people's money. In terms of the marketer's description of the audience, this is a highly profitable audience, women who do not have a permanent job or occupation (the majority, although the huge circulation suggests certain thoughts). It sounds contradictory, but having a husband, a friend, a lover explains everything. Of course, ordinary girls who have not yet outlived the desire to become glamorous lapdogs have crept into the ranks of such young ladies, while for them the magazine is a kind of guide to that other world. Actually, such young ladies are the target audience of the Elle phone, for "highly profitable" women this device is rustic both in brand and in appearance, they prefer Nokia, Siemens SL55 Escada and the like.
The packaging of the phone, like the gloss of the magazine, should splurge and sell the product. This factor is well known in Elle, so the packaging of the phone looks great, a transparent blister with a simple inscription Elle No. 1, the name of the manufacturer is almost invisible, blending into the background of the box. The phone is available in two colors – black and red. In both cases, the body plastic is matte, velvety (soft touch), it is pleasant to the touch. The clamshell doors, part of the rear panel, on the contrary, are made of ordinary lacquered plastic. The kit includes a velvet pouch that can be used to wipe screens.
The dimensions of the device are quite large for a female model – 91x46x23 mm, at the same time the weight is acceptable – 90 grams. Due to the size, wearing the device around the neck is not very convenient.
A diamond-shaped insert on the front panel hides the external screen, along the edge of this insert there is a mirror surface. The decision from the standpoint of design may be justified, but common sense is clearly resting here. On the street, the mirror insert starts to glare, which crosses out the glass tint and makes the display unreadable (remember that this is an STN matrix). The screen resolution is 128×128 pixels, it displays up to 4096 colors. The display shows the time, signal level, battery charge, icons of current events. Only an incoming call or other event can activate the display when closed, the user cannot turn on the backlight in any way, there are no side keys.
Under the screen is a VGA camera lens, which is the same as in most of the company's products. In general, the device is technically similar to Alcatel C652, there are no differences between them.
Included with the device is an Elle strap with the corresponding badge. By cutting the length of the lace, it can be converted from neck to hand. On the bottom side of the device there is an infrared port, a charger connector, a headset.
You can open the clamshell with one hand, a special layer was used for the screen, it can turn into a mirror. The screen resolution is 128×160 pixels (28×36 mm), it fits up to 9 lines (4 of them are service lines). In the sun, the screen fades, which is typical for STN matrices. In a nutshell, the matrix can be described as a good solution from two years ago, now such screens are typical for budget products.
The keyboard block stands out due to the black color, the buttons are made of varnished plastic, they are medium in size. In general, the keyboard is quite comfortable, but it gives the impression of plastic from an inexpensive Chinese toy, which can be found at market collapses. The keys are sloppy, with a silver border around them, matching the color of the navigation key, plus a different color for the OK button. The designers apparently had an idea of how to mix colors, but they didn’t know or didn’t want to know how to make it beautiful. In any case, this is purely a matter of taste and you can ignore my grumbling.
The battery in this model is 650 mAh lithium-ion. According to the manufacturer, it can provide up to 290 hours of standby time and up to 4 and a half hours of talk time. Under the conditions of the Moscow MTS network, the device worked for about 2 days with 35 minutes of calls, up to 20 minutes of using other functions. The operating time of the device should be considered equal to two days, more it will work only with a very small number of calls. The time to fully charge the battery is about one and a half hours.
The organization of the menu is very typical for Alcatel phones, adjusted for pre-installed wallpapers in the style of Elle, as well as another set of games that are created for this device. Of the minuses, it is worth noting the prevailing red gamut in the menu, for example, the font when typing, given the localization features, the input does not look quite adequate (thin red letters are hard to read). The main menu has only one view (previous devices up to 3 different ones) – the display shows all menu items in the form of small icons, three columns of four icons each.
The device has 3.2 MB of dynamic memory, which is distributed as needed between all applications. The menu has quick navigation using number sequences, you can also assign shortcuts to functions, then they will be available with one touch.
In the submenu, the functions are presented in lists, and they are grouped. The best way to explain this is with the example of Messages. Once in this menu, you will see a row of icons at the top, by default, Compose a message is highlighted. From the list, you can select the type of message, to view the received or sent messages, you need to move the joystick in the horizontal direction and another list will appear in front of you. At first glance, such a menu organization seems not very simple, but you quickly get used to it, it is logical and allows you to unload the menu, they do not have clutter of items, as in some models from other manufacturers. On the whole, the menu organizer makes a very good impression, all the menus are well thought out. So, in the image library there is a separate tab for pictures, a separate one for icons.
Localization of this model has remained, unfortunately, at the same level. The designations of Russian menu items have become more intelligible (the amount of memory is called power, do you like it?), But the Cyrillic font style is very different from English. Russian letters are thin, lightweight, the font is hard to see. The combination of Russian and English looks awkward due to the difference in font rendering.
Phone book. The phone memory is divided into several directories. There is a separate directory of contacts from the SIM card, by default there are three more folders – General, Work, Personal. The user can create his own directories, they serve as a kind of user groups in this machine. You can assign your own ringtone to individual folders, but you cannot do this for individual entries.
For each name, you can fill in up to 26 information fields, this is the first name, last name, up to 7 numbers, two email addresses, homepage address, nickname, date of birth, company name, position, address, city, region, postal code, country, note field and up to 4 additional information fields. The only drawback is that when adding a new contact, you will have to scroll through all the fields in sequence to get to the right one. You can't get to what you want right away. You can add voice tags to individual entries, then voice dialing of these numbers is possible. There is a search by the first letter of the name.
For each entry, you can assign a picture or a video clip from preinstalled or uploaded by the user. The machine supports the following image formats: JPG, GIF, aGIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP. Video extensions supported: 3gp (H263/AMR, MPEG4), .mp4.
In principle, there are no restrictions on the number of entries, it all depends on the amount of free memory (but not more than 500 based on the amount of memory in the device).
Messages. In addition to working with SMS, the phone supports working with EMS and MMS. Work with all messages is standard and does not cause any problems. You can add emoticons, pictures, melodies and/or bookmarks from the wap browser to the body of the message. For MMS messages, you can create several slides, the size limit for one message is 100 Kb. Messages can be sent to one or more subscribers. There is a Russian and English dictionary T9.
Personalization. Here is almost everything related to setting up the device. You can choose a melody, a call type, customize the menu design, set a picture on the main screen, set up "fast" keys and more. For the call type, you can set vibrate and melody at the same time, vibro then melody, vibro signal and then melody. In general, there are many settings for the type of call, you can choose what you need.
You can set a picture or video for the screen, set color schemes. An interesting feature is the Atmosphere (a set of pictures, interface colors and melodies). When viewing, you see not only the design option, but also hear the ringtone corresponding to the selected option. Of course, nothing prevents you from setting it all up separately.
Call logging. List of calls – missed, incoming, dialed. Here you can also configure everything related to voice calls.
Quick access. It is possible to create your own menu to access the desired menu items, contacts from the phone book and Internet addresses.
Tools. This section contains an organizer. You can view the entire month, week, and all scheduled events are displayed in a separate list. Viewing by weeks is conveniently implemented, as they are divided by dates, for example, 14.03-20.03, 21.03-27.03, etc. Events are set as follows – meeting (date, start and end time, text note), birthday (date and last name) and call (reminders for which you can set priority and end date are also a separate item).
There are two alarms in the phone, one is set for the exact date, and the second is daily. Here you can also find the timer.
The phone also has a simple calculator and currency converter.
It is possible to create your own melody from notes or record it on a voice recorder from an external source. The limit is 60 seconds.
Voice commands are assigned to the desired menu item.
The Alerts section displays a list of appointments, notes that have an alert assigned to them, and an alarm.
In this menu, you can activate the infrared port.
Tips & tricks. Here are tips for using your phone.
Services. Here you can access the SIM menu and access the WAP site My One Touch.
WAP. The phone has browser version 2.0, there are no special features.
Games. Two games are preinstalled in the phone, one of them is Queen of the Mole (hit the faces that appear with a hammer, the game does not arouse interest), the second is Rabbit Fitness (a kind of tamagotchi, a nice toy). It is possible to download new games, but only via wap. In applications, you can find the calculation of the menstrual cycle, because the phone is female.
Media Album. Here are all the pictures, melodies and videos. The set of preinstalled pictures and melodies is very large, the phone is good in this respect. The selection of funny and ironic pictures is such that the eyes run wide. Your phone comes preloaded with some funny videos.
Camera. The camera shoots in the following resolutions – 640×480, 352×288, 128×128, 64×64, 32×32, 16×16 pixels, plus there is a panoramic shooting mode, in this case the image is stretched horizontally. In all cases, the photo format is JPEG, three compression qualities are available (High, Standard, Economy).
The phone screen acts as a viewfinder. The interface is thought out to the smallest detail, you can change almost all parameters in the shooting mode in a few clicks. For example, numeric keys 1, 2, 3 are responsible for selecting the compression quality. The left soft key is responsible for choosing a color (color photo, black and white, Sepia, Negative, Thin or outlines).
The # key allows you to quickly switch the resolution of images, while the asterisk is responsible for special modes, there are several of them in the device. One of these modes is to create a GIF file from four shots. That is, you take four photos in a row, and then they turn into animation, immediately in your device. Only one resolution of 128×128 pixels is strictly provided here, but it is understandable, the developers saved memory. The function is unique and greatly diversifies the device, other manufacturers have not yet offered anything similar.
The second special shooting mode is mosaic. In this mode, you also take 4 pictures (32×32 pixels), and then one whole image (128×128 pixels) is assembled from them.
Your phone has a timer for delayed shooting. There is an Exposure setting or setting the light level, by default the lighting conditions are set automatically, but you can specify them manually. In most cases, automatic installation is sufficient.
For photos, you can choose the default folders in which they are saved. The resulting images can be used as screen savers in MMS messages.
For images with a resolution of 128×128 pixels, frames can be used. These are the effects that are superimposed on the photo when shooting, a kind of frame. The unique function of the device is that frame files (PNG format) can be downloaded to the phone from a PC, that is, you can create your own effects. None of the devices has this feature, although the same frames are used in many models.
The device has an 8-fold increase in the picture (digital zoom), just move the joystick away from you. The zoom function is accompanied by a sound similar to the one that the lens makes while moving in digital cameras – it's quite funny.
Photos look good on a phone display, but they also look quite tolerable on a computer screen. The main drawback is that the edges of the photos are blurry.
The video is recorded in 3GP format, the video size limit is 93 Kb or 9 seconds, but this is for MMS messages. It is also possible to record videos without limits, to be precise, until the memory runs out.
Video clips are not played in full screen, a slight slowdown is noticeable when playing them, apparently, the processor of the device cannot cope with such a load. The videos themselves are of normal quality.
Impressions
This is a typical solution from Alcatel, nothing special. The phone has no problems in terms of connection quality, the loudspeaker volume and microphone sensitivity are enough for a conversation in any conditions, whether it's an office or a noisy street. The volume of the call is sufficient, it is well audible, even from under winter clothes. But the vibrating alert is average in power, you can not even feel it. The speakerphone in the device is implemented at a good level.
The lack of mp3 support is not very modern and severely limits the buyers of this device. Polyphony 40-tones, you can use both midi and SMAF files. The device has a large number of preset melodies, many of them are pleasant.
It is impossible to evaluate this device from the position of functionality, it claims to be a glamphone (there is even a corresponding site glamphone.com, including in Russian). To a greater extent, Elle No. 1 accessory for those https://cars45.com/listing/mazda/b-series/1997 who want to stand out and at the same time, without having a lot of money, still do not consider them, believing that this is accepted in glamorous circles. This is a style of behavior imposed by the glossy press, only young ladies fall under its influence. In no case do I want to offend those who study Elle as part of their work (girls, forgive me), those who “read” this publication are very specific and are described at the beginning of the review. In a word, those who read this material clearly do not belong to the class of "highly profitable women with no permanent employment." And, in general, I do not like the idea of deliberately cultivating idiots for the subsequent sale of a service or product to them. Although promoting a product for such an audience is not difficult, and the product has a higher margin, the so-called margin for consumer stupidity.
It is impossible to evaluate this device from the position of functionality, it claims to be a glamphone (there is even a corresponding site glamphone.com, including in Russian). To a greater extent, Elle No. 1 accessory for those https://cars45.com/listing/mazda/b-series/1997 https://cars45.com/listing/mazda/b-series/1997 , who wants to stand out and at the same time, without having a lot of money, still does not count them, believing that this is customary in glamorous circles. This is a style of behavior imposed by the glossy press, only young ladies fall under its influence. In no case do I want to offend those who study Elle as part of their work (girls, forgive me), those who “read” this publication are very specific and are described at the beginning of the review. In a word, those who read this material clearly do not belong to the class of "highly profitable women with no permanent employment." And, in general, I do not like the idea of deliberately cultivating idiots for the subsequent sale of a service or product to them. Although the promotion of goods for such an audience is not difficult, and the product has a higher margin, the so-called premium for consumer stupidity.
The desire of distributors to "cash in" on this model is understandable, but retail prices of $400 in December are inexplicable. The real cost of the model cannot exceed $200-230, in which case it is quite an adequate solution (this is also the cost of the device based on the current wholesale price). It is clear that in December you can put carrots on the shelf, they will buy it too, the question is why this is needed in the long term.
At the moment, the market is not spoiled by a large number of female models, but one can immediately recall the Samsung E530, this device has better plastic, a modern screen with a resolution of 176×220 pixels, a huge amount of memory, support for mp3, Bluetooth, and great advertising support. The cost of this solution is currently $350, the positioning is clearly higher than that of Alcatel's solution. If you select other competitors, then the list can be greatly expanded, many have no less image charge than Elle No. 1.