I have bought Spice D88n for my wife. Her old Tata Indicom Huawei handset has conked off and her old Samsung’s(GSM) battery is dead and a new one is not available!
I went to Paragon Departmental Store at Naupada, Thane, Mumbai. Earlier I had given a dekho at two-three shops as I wanted to have a look at the newly launched Sagem Bleu dual sim(cdma+gsm) handsets 475x and 476x. They were not available at the earlier shops. So I went to Paragon which is known to stock the latest models. They had both the bleu handsets, priced at Rs 6300 and Rs 6500 respectively. Though Bleu’s website describes that one model has 1.3 mp camera, actually both are just having a VGA camera. The other options(dual sim) were Samsung’s 2ON which is a bit expensive at Rs 11800 and Spice D88n which is priced at Rs 6800. I examined the Bleu handsets and compared them with D88n.
D88n has a 1.3 mp camera
Bleu has FM which Spice D88n lacks
D88n is java capable whereas Bleu is not
Bleu has a 1000mA battery whereas D88n has a 800mA battery( though one extra battery is provided free)
I settled reluctantly for D88n because I felt its built was relatively better to Bleu and D88n offers 262k colors TFT screen plus the 1.3 mp camera.
Now for the review of D88n.
1. Looks: Average. It is a candy bar phone with a 2’ screen. Available only in Black color at the store
2. Built: Cheap plastic and metal body. It is China made(Jian Xing something, as the carton says). It appears to be sturdy enough to withstand minor falls and scratches. Be careful with the battery cover. It is flimsy and thin. The flaps to cover the charging and headset ports are made of inferior grade rubberized plastic.
3. Software: I don’t know which OS is installed. The menu is in the form of 3D timeline kind of presentation with number appended to them. It is easy to learn and is adequate. It supports Java, though I have not tested this feature.
4. Sound and Reception: The ear piece speaker is just okay and so is the loudspeaker at the back of the phone. Voice reception and transmission is fairly acceptable. Music played on the Loudspeaker is just about audible to be enjoyed without disturbing everyone around you. Headset is okay though of larger size.
5. Camera: Camera has no flash. Anyways no cell phone in this price range takes good photos in dark even with flash. Color and sharpness is decent. If required you can print them in 4 X 6 size. Video capture is also good and is stored in 3GP format( 170 x 144). So do not expect handycam clarity and resolution. It is just about okay. You can watch the videos in the videoplayer which supports only 3GP format. You can view both videos and photos in fullscreen.
6. Music: A big disadvantage is there is no FM. The audio player is good and supports MP3, AAC and WMV. Memory is expandable upto 2 GB and it comes with a 256 mb card with " Maheru song and music video".
7. No pocket office or pdf or ebook support.
8. CDMA or GSM modes: The phone has four options.
CDMA/GSM
GSM/CDMA
Only CDMA
Only GSM.
The UIM and the SIM are recognized easily. No issues with that.
Conclusion: Well, I will advise all of you who are interested in Dual Sim( CDMA+GSM) hansets to look into all the available models.
-Samsung 2ON is a high quality phone but is priced at the level of a smartphone when it is not( except for providing a file viewer to read doc, ppt and pdf files).
-The Bleu handsets 475x and 476x can be looked into.
-Fly B720 is not easily available( it has a 2MP camera).
-Other models by Fly which support dual mode are V80 and V80i.
-Samsung Duo supports CDMA and GSM NON-SIMULTANEOUSLY i.e. only one SIM can be active at a time. So avoid it.
-Chinese models are available but there is the issue of IMEI and ESN numbers.
-Intex 5050 is similar to D88n.
And finally for D88n. Buy it if you want to avoid two phones(as one more reviewer has rightly pointed out). It does offer features which are attractive. As of now for Rs 6800 it is a good enough phone for want of better options. It has been criticized widely in many forums for issues like CDMA sms facilty error and poor talktime. I have found it to be okay i.e no battery issues and sms errors and as compared to the few dual handsets available, feature wise it is quite good and is worth a look. It supports JAVA( J2ME). You can download many games from sites like https://emobilez.com. Keep games download restricted to sizes less than 90kb as the phone’s internal memory is low.
UPDATE: 26/01/2009:
A new model D88-Gold has been launched which has the following additional features:
FM radio with recording
MP4 video support for both recording and playback
Free 512 mb card instead of 256 mb.
However this model has been listed to have battery problem as well as CDMA sms issue( see ssiyer’s review). Though MRP is Rs 8999 it should be available for within Rs 7500.
How to play full screen video: I don’t know how many of you are aware that you can play fullscreen videos in D88n. But you can play them! When you are playing a video just press the * key and you have a full screen horizontal display! Actually D88n software is for a touchscreen phone( made in china no doubt as there are many spelling errors for e.g. network is spelled as netwrok) as there are many icons which have functions though manual does not mention these or it mentions and I may not have read it. For Video these are the keys after you have made the video fullscreen
Left key Rewind
^ Up key Speed 1/2, 1, 1.5, 2
v down key Decrease speed
Sidekeys for volume up and down
I will add any new things I come to know. If there is any error on my part, please feel free to comment.