I was looking for long to buy a handset for my mother’s home use but my criteria was that budget should be Rs 2000. I was also looking for some add-on capabilities like 3G, Video Calling, FM and a good battery life. I initially researched on the internet and almost zeroed on Videocon VG1515 on Flipkart.com but then reading all the poor reviews of it on flipkart itself ddecided to drop it. Finally I came across Onida F970 phone which had all that I was looking for.
Having used all the premium phone brands of India like Nokia, Samsung, etc I was first not confidant on buying a Onida handset but then again looking at the low price of it(everywhere 2500 to 3000 INR) I decided to go for it. Then came the hardest part of selecting the online site with lowest price for it and there I got my eye on snapdeal which had this phone listed for an unbelieveable price of Rs 1990 and that too including shipping. The link to the product is https://snapdeal.com/product/onida-f970-3g-mobile-whitered/668748. After much thought I decided to buy it from snapdeal and paid using netbanking. I did not expect much of a speedy shipment at this pricepoint but to my surprise the product reached me within 5 working days of ordering which very well surprised me.
I opened the package which came in perfect condition and discovered that the content is again a surprise having a ear phone, a charger, data cable, ondia pc suite cd and then of course the phone itself. The phone looked great in white-red combination but when taken into hand the build quality felt all plastic but do not think one could get better at this pricepoint. The phone has good ringing volume, variety of tones and wallpapers to choose from(one picture of Konark in Orissa, giving that India feel which was good) and normal voice call clarity is quite good. Video calling works like a charm of course with other video calling 3G phones and the video quality in call I found is okay just that the front camera video is a bit darker in low lights than my other samsung phone’s video. The phone also supports using as 3G modem using the Onida PC Suite. The battery life is pretty good lasting for 5 to 8 days easily with 3 to 4 calls per day perfect for home usage. The in built web-browser is fine for WAP sites. The 2MP rear camera take okay pictures. Plays MP3 songs well. Supports micro SD card upto 8GB although I am using a 4GB card. Supports Video recording, Did not get chance to listen to the FM but it soes have a 3.5mm audio jack.
Finally some of the negative aspects are
The build quality is a bit cheap but again I have no complains on this
There was some problem activating a new vodafone postpaid sim with this phone as it kept showing insert sim, finally I had to put the sim in another phone and get it activated for first use, thereafter no further problems
Soemthing is preventing incoming video calls to the phone, which seems to me something to do with the sim, I have to check more if this is for the phone or the sim.
The keypad placement is a bit crowded making it a bit difficult for people with big fingers to dial numbers but then again I resorted to speed dialing for my mother to counter this
Some other nice to have features that are missing but again does not steal away the goodness of this product are
Dual Sim
Contact Photo tagging for display during caller id
Flash / Torch
Contact specific ringtones
Nevertheless this in my opinion is a great product which other big brands should take as an example. I am using the phone for only more than a week and I love it. Full marks to Onida for producing this cell phone and full marks to Snapdeal for giving a price deal that is unmatchable by anyone over the internet, I could have only expected a faster shipping like Flipkart but not that it has made a great difference to me.