Vodafone's 226 reviewed. Verdict: Awful, but you won't hate it
Vodafone's 226 is, as Wired's Charlie Sorrel puts it, "Feature Free." And yet it deserves a full-page review. Tough times will get the blame for returning attention to budget gear, but it's really about liking the simple and straightforward:
It's thin, it is so light that you can't feel it in your pocket and the buttons, although very small, have a solid click to them. In conclusion, I set out to find a junk phone and that's exactly what I got. Two of them, in fact.
The e-ink Moto F3 remains my phone of choice, connoisseur of low-end rubbish that I am.
Hands-On With The Feature-Free Vodafone 226 [Wired: Gadget Lab]
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The F3 utterly kills all competition. The speaker is so loud I am often forced to hold it away from my ear, and it almost always provokes interested comments from people who see it.
Also: If your girlfriend breaks up with you on it, you can throw it at the wall in rage, and it'll still work so you can call her back begging and pleading.
Does the F3 have any sort of predictive entry for SMS? I've been led to believe that it doesn't, which would irk me as I prefer to communicate silently when I'm in public so as not to be "that guy on his phone..."
Here in Japan, everything made by Vodaphone (and for that matter, every phone company, it seems) almost always follows a clamshell, squared off with sharp edges, same small button layout. The only thing that changes is the color/design molded onto this form. It would seem to someone new here that there are an endless variety of designs, when it's all pretty much the same thing regurgitated in different flavors.
That said, you should check out the Char Aznoble custom from Vodaphone- actually cool. It's what Gundam would look like if it had cellphones, complete with soundeffects like "Zieg! Zeon!" upon opening. Major otaku factor, but major cool :)
hohum: Does the F3 have any sort of predictive entry for SMS?
The F3 can do SMS, but it's just a bit better than banging rocks together (limited character set, only 12 characters visible at a time). If you're a heavy SMS user it's not the phone for you.
F3 makes calls, is tiny and thin, has e-ink display. If you're not sold with those three things, don't get it,
my n95 is a waste of money. never use anything on it. the gps is crap seeing as they charge for any useful features, and internet is a no go due to uk scandelous data charges. camera is good as long as you never move it and have your subjects stay still for 5 mins while the image is captured.
when it breaks im getting a second hand nokia 3310. does everything i need.
Thanks 4 & 5... I'm not a heavy enough texter to warrant, say, a QWERTY keyboard, but I might be a little bit irritated without predictive entry. I'll still keep the F3 in mind if/when my Samsung Redhawk dies.. I like my phones tiny and I don't need much out of them, but tiny phones generally have tiny batteries and that's the one thing about my Samsung that's a real shame...