Buying my first touch/smart phone

[teelack 9,631]

Ok, I just don’t want to be left behind in the technology race but with the cost of smart phones being high and my digital skill levels being ho hum I decided to give it a try.

 

Down to Tucom in Pattaya and get dazzled with the range and boggled with the techo stuff. There was however one or two things that I wanted and these were:

 

Biggish keyboard as I am not that slick and have never had a querty keyboard on a phone.

 

I would like a dual sim and needed to check that my home sim worked with the phone.

 

After having looked and asked and been totally overloaded with info I settled for a Samsung Galaxy S11. It seems to have what I want. Now here’s the thing. I know that my home telecom provider looks for about 24000 baht and that the genuine phone price in Pattaya is about 16000 baht so I settle for a copy at 2300 baht. I know there will be compromises but not sure where.

 

I spend two days fiddling, twiddling and trying to get the technique sorted out and eventually come to grip with the basics. I can make and receive calls, SMS /MMS and what have you. I have all the basics like time and date sorted and have taken my first photos. I had a mini card in my phone so I didn’t need to spend more at this stage.

 

Now the review. First thing that I notice is that the photos are crap. I was told that this is one place that the copy phones make savings and to be honest this one is not worth using. The next down side is that the battery has less capacity that I would have expected and although I have been fiddling with it a lot, I give it a daily charge.

 

I have tried the radio and recorder and that’s fine. I turned on the wi-fi and it works but I didn’t go much further than that so have no idea what works and what doesn’t. The call and ring volumes are fine and the personalization and settings are reasonably easy to manage as are the alarms etc.

 

I took the phone back to 1-2 Call and its set up for voice mail but I had trouble with the broken English description so I will contact them for instruction on the Internet.

 

I am now home and find that my main phone number does not work with the phone (Emergency Only) but a secondary providers sim is fine. Bugger because this is of little use to me and if I want to use my phone with dual sim I may have to get it unlocked or whatever.

 

Was the experience and cost worth it? Well so far yes in that it was a cheap learning experience and whilst I was worried about my ability to work a touch phone I believe that I can and would consider getting the real thing.

 

I hope that this review is of help to any others thinking about making a similar purchase.

[jacko 8,813]

I just went to my first 'touch' phone, non-smart...( like me!).

I bloody hate it......

 

My neighbour doesn't appreciate being called at 01.30 to be asked to come pick me up!

 

I wish you had bought an original as I was thinking of buying the Samsung myself.

[Montydog 135]

I upgraded in February (in the UK) to a Nokia 800 Lumia, bloody love it. :thumbup

 

As for the OP re the battery life drain the battery totally 3-4 times then fully recharge then you

should/will start getting better run time out of it.

[teelack 9,631]

Thanks Monty. Unlike Jacko I love the bloody thing but unless I can get it unlocked at a reasonable price I might as well ditch it and get a new one. By the way reference the camera. Even at the highest resolution and quality it looks as if its only about 1 megapixel, say 150 KB. Bugger but this is something that I wish I had known as it is something that you can check in store before you buy. The camara is rated at 8 MP and thats what I thought I was getting.

[Grandpollo 366]

I don't understand how you want a Samsung particular model then buy a copy that isn't for 15% of the price and then wonder why it doesn't perform like one. It isn't one at all. Though it sounds maybe overpriced even at 2400.

[teelack 9,631]

I don't understand how you want a Samsung particular model then buy a copy that isn't for 15% of the price and then wonder why it doesn't perform like one. It isn't one at all. Though it sounds maybe overpriced even at 2400.

 

Not at all. I got what I paid for and to be honest other than the unlock situation it is a really good phone and well worth the 2200 baht. I also know that the twin sim works fine and that will be great for travel. The point is that I now have the confidence to pay say 15000 baht equivalent for a quality version and still have this one as a back up.

[spacecadet 0]

I abought the same Samsung COPY and it really isn't worth the money. Basically it is a fancy phone and not too convenient at that. Touch pad not very responsive. Unable to connect to the WiFi networks - tried in a host of locations and had my Smartphone friends try also. Eveybody gave up. Not extremely user friendly or intuitive - predictive texting didn't seem to work. I didn't try the second sim port. Left the damn thing in Pats. .

[teelack 9,631]

I abought the same Samsung COPY and it really isn't worth the money. Basically it is a fancy phone and not too convenient at that. Touch pad not very responsive. Unable to connect to the WiFi networks - tried in a host of locations and had my Smartphone friends try also. Eveybody gave up. Not extremely user friendly or intuitive - predictive texting didn't seem to work. I didn't try the second sim port. Left the damn thing in Pats. .

 

Hardly the same phone as this has a querty keyboard which is not predictive.

 

As I say, this has been for me a great introduction. I am a technical Luddite and needed the confidence to move on and this is what I have gained. I can afford to lose out on 2200 baht but not 22000 so the trial run has given me a lot of confidence. As I say, this is IMHO still a reasonable phone for simple calls and SMS and because of the size of keys is fine for me.

 

The only reason that I started the thread was to either encourage others or to warn them and people can take out of it what they want.

[steamer 158]

Im in Thailand now. Any recommendations for a copy phone ???

[Gary 4,118]

I haven't seen any knock off phone that is worth even a couple of thousand baht. They don't work anything like the real thing and they don't last long either. Save your money and buy a cheap name brand for talking, ems messages and email. There are Nokia and Samsung phones for a thousand baht or a little more that talk great.

 

If you want a smart phone, buy it in your own country. I like gadgets and do have two smart phones but if you have a cheap netbook, it will be better than any smart phone.

 

One of my phones is an android and it ate time and money as well as having poor battery life. I was able to find a couple of android applications that kill all the automatic bullshit syncs and most of the battery eating crap. The best application I have is called apndroid. It toggles the Internet on and off and doesn't allow the phone to connect to the Internet unless I want it to. Calls and sms messages are not affected. I'll check my email by myself. I don't need the phone to do that automatically. I don't use any of the social networking crap so the main advantage from my android smart phone is not used anyways.

 

I had two different expensive phones killed because of water damage. I paid 10,900 baht for a Motorola Defy Plus. It is as good as any other android phone on the market plus it is water and shock resistant. The main problem with phones today is that unless you buy a fairly expensive phone, the camera sucks. I do want a good camera on my phones. The Motorola Defy Plus has a decent 5MP camera. The GPS works OK but I don't use it for anything other than an emergency. A dedicated GPS is MUCH better easier to use and the maps have a lot more detail. I have four Garmin units.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Gary

[steamer 158]

Thanks Gary

[chatkeow 28]

I haven't seen any knock off phone that is worth even a couple of thousand baht. They don't work anything like the real thing and they don't last long either. Save your money and buy a cheap name brand for talking, ems messages and email. There are Nokia and Samsung phones for a thousand baht or a little more that talk great.

 

If you want a smart phone, buy it in your own country. I like gadgets and do have two smart phones but if you have a cheap netbook, it will be better than any smart phone.

 

One of my phones is an android and it ate time and money as well as having poor battery life. I was able to find a couple of android applications that kill all the automatic bullshit syncs and most of the battery eating crap. The best application I have is called apndroid. It toggles the Internet on and off and doesn't allow the phone to connect to the Internet unless I want it to. Calls and sms messages are not affected. I'll check my email by myself. I don't need the phone to do that automatically. I don't use any of the social networking crap so the main advantage from my android smart phone is not used anyways.

 

I had two different expensive phones killed because of water damage. I paid 10,900 baht for a Motorola Defy Plus. It is as good as any other android phone on the market plus it is water and shock resistant. The main problem with phones today is that unless you buy a fairly expensive phone, the camera sucks. I do want a good camera on my phones. The Motorola Defy Plus has a decent 5MP camera. The GPS works OK but I don't use it for anything other than an emergency. A dedicated GPS is MUCH better easier to use and the maps have a lot more detail. I have four Garmin units.

 

I entirely agree with a cheap Netbook being far superior than a smartphone.

 

I had one from Blackberry which fortunately o2 took back free of charge under 14 day agreement.All I ended up doing was scrolling around websites trying to read the content. Useless.

[teelack 9,631]

Thanks for al your comments guys. Heres an up date.

 

I still enjoy the phone but the issue is that my main telecom provider at home sim does not work at home. I also have a sim with Vodaphone and that does work fine as does the 1-2 Call sim. So there you have it. Its only half useful.

 

Just a side issue and that is that whilst I agree about having a good camera in phone as being useful I can now buy something top brand for say 2500 baht with Zoom, flash and 14 mp. I like a real camera and therefore having one in phone is not so important.

 

Bottom line. Was it worth it? Hell yes, it got me over the gap in my brain that said that an old bastard like me could never work one. I can and do and its sitting there for my next trip overseas.

[Ducce 2]

Hi ! I have an original Galaxy s2 and it's a great phone. I hope your not think that the copy phone is anything like the Sammy

Here is a pic from Jomtien in Nov. taken by the Gs2.

 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[shambley 109]

Hi Teelack,

I have a SG2 original and a galaxy slim - with the slim i doubled battery life when i upgraded operating system to "gingerbread"-

I think "Ice cream" or whatver is called is out now or soon and you might get alot of benefit from the free upgrade.

the guy above took a nice pic but mine dont turn out do well, it is really unforgiving on light conditions, so might not be so bad as you thought

I play with the gadgets alot sky news , sky sports tv, bbc i player etc so i need to charge everyday also , thier are many battery saving feature you can use to extend life of battery, if your having an issue with a providers sim take it into shop and show vodaphone works - they should try to help when you can show its not the phone as vodaphone works :-)

regards

Rob

[Gabor 296]

teelack, what you need probably is the ZTE Libra ( original )

 

I own one and relatively fast, the strenght of the ohone is the bright and sharp display, the same size like the IPhone... the battery lives 2-3 days and I use the internet and play a lot...downloaded some useful free proggies from the Android market and fully functional and fun... You can't buy in Pattaya and I don't know about New Zealand.... But in the UK this phone is available for 99 GBP

 

http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B005CUJ60S

 

I had before a Sony Ericcson Xperia ( Android ) and I simple hated it because of the stupidity of the software, despite it was the same android.( 2.2.2 ).. and sold it very quickly... with this phone I'm really happy...

 

 

Official announcement, incomplete specifications.

Also known as ZTE X880. GENERAL 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 3G Network HSDPA 900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 2100 Announced 2011, February Status Available. Released 2011, September BODY Dimensions - Weight - DISPLAY Type TFT capacitive touchscreen, 256K colors Size 480 x 800 pixels, 3.5 inches (~267 ppi pixel density) SOUND Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack Yes MEMORY Card slot microSD DATA GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Speed HSDPA, HSUPA WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Wi-Fi hotspot (Android 2.2) Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 CAMERA Primary 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels Features Geo-tagging Video Yes Secondary No FEATURES OS Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair), upgradable to v2.2 Chipset Qualcomm MSM7227 CPU 600 MHz ARM 11 GPU Adreno 200 Sensors Accelerometer, proximity, compass Messaging SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML Radio FM radio GPS Yes, with A-GPS support Java Yes, via Java MIDP emulator Colors Black, Silver - SNS integration

- MP4/H.264/H.263 player

- MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player

- Google Search, Maps, Gmail

- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration

- Organizer

- Voice memo

- Predictive text input BATTERY Standard battery, Li-Ion

 

 

Edited April 5, 2012 by Gabor