Before I write this review I would like to share that I was/am a great admirer of blackberry phones. I have a few of them which I was using till recently & includes 8700g(Old but fantastic in basic operation s/ endurance), Storm 9530(Typical touch screen phone in the likes of Apple, HTC etc.) & 8520 curve.
Now I was looking for a phone which as a topmost priority should definitely be small and handy which I can carry with anyone of my blackberry as no matter how feature rich or fully loaded my blackberry are but quite a few times they are a pain to carry because of their sizes. I was demanding particularly for size and price both, as I have spent decent amount on the above mentioned blackberries so I was looking for a phone under Rs. 4000 or at the same price.
That’s where I came across Samsung Champ C3303 after doing my search & comparisons for phones in Nokia / Samsung / Sony Ericsson under Rs. 4000 with whole host of features. Did more research on the features it is offering along with the reviews which I read on Mouthshut.com only. So I went ahead and bought the phone. Now here is my take on the few important features of the phone which I am writing after more than one month of its full usage:-
Size – Definitely a strong plus if you want a small sleek and handy phone with almost all kind of features. Just be cautious while walking & talking with this phone as sometimes its sleek enough that it might slip out of your hand.
Touch Sensitivity - Good for a phone which is at the starting price band of touch screen phones. If you have been using Apple / Blackberry / HTC or higher versions of touch screen phones with other companies then you might not find it all that smooth and quick, the way other phones respond to touch. But once you get used to it you might find it decent or if you will be using a stylus.(It works nice enough for writing sms text or emails.) . Screen gets locked automatically almost immediately while you make call or receive calls which has been given as feature to protect any wrong pressing of the key while in call.
Camera – While I was reading reviews I saw a few reviews where it was being mentioned that they have a 1.3 MP camera in this phone but mine is a VGA I guess. Clarity and quality is fine for a phone of this budget line.
Battery Life – I have seen the battery life details on the Samsung website and in the specification details of this phone but as per my usage standpoint it works for 2 ½ day after a full charge with average of 10-15 calls of 15 minutes or so, some amount of music being played for 1 hour, and a few video recordings of 4-5 minutes each. Not sure if others might feel some differences out here.
Memory space – 1GB supplied and expandable upto 8GB. I use a 4GB card almost 80% full but haven’t seen any slow processing in phone functioning or hang up problems till now.
Operating Software – User friendly, doesn’t have to do much of brainstorming to operate this piece.
Music Quality – Good on handsfree average on speakers.
Call Quality – With full network, call, voice and sound quality is definitely good. Although Vibration mode still requires improvement. Speakerphones are good in a quite or low noise envoirnment.
Widgets –Got some good widgets to quickly connect to facebook, orkut etc.+ some other applications are worth it.
Internet connectivity – Might face some problem setting it for the first time & not look all that enticing while navigating websites on a small screen like the one it has otherwise it is OK.
Fake call – Nice Feature introduced.