Category: Dumbphones

Best feature phones you can buy for under Php1,000

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Feature phones, no matter how basic, still prove to be good buys especially if you’re looking for a back-up to handle your essentials like calls and texts. Their tough build, long battery life, and affordable price will serve you well when your high-tech smartphone bails on you. For that we compiled a list of best feature phones from different brands that you can buy for under Php1,000.

Nokia 105

nokia 105

Nokia is well-known for building the toughest mobile phones. It’s good to know that their current feature phones inherit some of the best qualities of its ancestors. The Nokia 105 features a 1.4-inch RGB display, a dust and splash proof keymat, FM Radio, and flashlight. It also boasts a maximum talk time of 12.5 hours and a maximum standby time of 35 days. The Nokia 105 is selling for Php1,100 at the Nokia Store but some shops are selling it for Php999.

Cherry Mobile P1 mini smartphone dialer

cherry mobile p1

The Cherry Mobile P1 is just one of the sub-Php1K offerings that CM have in their arsenal. Others have better feature sets like mobile TV, but the P1 is our choice for this list because of its Bluetooth Dialer feature. You can read all about it here. The best part is the small body with an equally small Php799 price tag.

Starmobile Neptune B503

starmobile neptune b503

Starmobile’s best feature phone offering is the Neptune B503. It features a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, dual-SIM support, camera, FM Radio, Bluetooth, Flashlight, support for up to 16GB microSD cards, and mobile TV. The Starmobile Neptune B503 has a price tag of Php999.

O+ 1.3 Music

o plus 1_3 music

O+’s offering is the 1.3 Music. As the name suggests, it’s music-centric and features a wireless FM Radio, camera with timer, dual-SIM, and can play MP3 and MP4 files. The O+ 1.3 Music has a price tag of Php899.

Samsung E1200T

samsung e1200t

Samsung is no stranger when it comes to feature phones. One of their offerings is the candybar Samsung E1200T. It sports a 1.5-inch 128 x 128 65K color LCD, and boasts a standby time of 33 days and a maximum talk time of 7 to 8 hours. The Samsung E1200T costs Php699.

DTC G7 Play

dtc g7 play

DTC also has one in its arsenal in the form of the G7 Play. Based on the info in front of the box it supports quad-band GSM, has wireless FM, Bluetooth, can access the Internet, and play music. The DTC G7 Play costs Php599 and is the most affordable in the list.

MyPhone B88 TV Duo

myphone b88 tv duo

The MyPhone B88 TV Duo is one of the company’s offerings under the Php1K price tag. It has a 2.4-inch display, camera, Bluetooth, dual-SIM and mobile TV. The price tag is at Php999.

Torque DTV10

torque dtv10

The Torque DTV10 is a dual-SIM phone that sports a 2.4-inch QVGA display, a camera, Bluetooth, FM Radio, has support for microSD cards and features a mobile TV. Price tag is at Php999.

SKK Mobile 999

skk mobile 999

The last one on our list is the SKK Mobile 999 mini bar phone. It sports a 1.44-inch colored LCD display, two 1.3 megapixel cameras (one on the rear and one on top of the phone – for spy shots), LED flashlight, FM Radio, dual-SIM support, Bluetooth, and expandable memory via microSD card. One of its best features is its size and is the smallest in our list. As the name suggest, it costs Php999.

And there you have it folks, some of the best feature phones, aka back-up phones, you can have for under a grand. Feel free to add to our list by writing it down the comment field below.

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What will high-end phones be like next year?

Bob Freking Leave a comment

Back then, HDTVs were rare and extremely high-end, cameraphones were regarded as totally rad, and phones that can double as an MP3 player were so cool. Times have changed.

5 years ago, it didn’t matter what resolution your phone’s display runs. Very few people even cared about the CPU in it. For everyone, second to millisecond differences didn’t matter.

phones

Say, we had e-mail in our phones and BlackBerry was pretty known for that, while Nokia was noted for injecting a camera into our mobile phones. While they didn’t really invent the touchscreen, Apple did bring it into the limelight. The smartphone evolution (or revolution) didn’t happen in a day.

It continued in many paths, which is quite expected because of competition. Apple pushed apps into the battlefield, which forced other platforms to step up their game as well. Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10 and the others will be catching up soon, but we think that’s a given – and more and more quality apps will never be overkill.

There is a ton of space for software improvement, but what about hardware? Take this comparison chart on how specs evolve every year.

evolution

The screen’s resolution gets higher along with the display size, RAM & of course, battery to power all of that. Above all, we might even move to real octa-core phones next year (Galaxy S4 isn’t truly running on 8 cores). Camera capabilities are also evolving along the way.

Next year, we could have 6-inch flagship phones running on a resolution of 2560 x 1440, with a camera that can record great 2160p video in low-light, an octa-core CPU that has a better architecture than today and 4GB RAM. Of course, to keep that all running, you need a one of a kind battery. The question is, do we need that? Do we even want that?

If that’s the case, then honestly, I’m good with it for the most part. But as of today, I’m not even feeling a bit of discontent with my Nexus 4, safe for the camera. When next year comes with those specs, I won’t be counting on days of battery life anyway, so 1 day will always still be good with me.

Nexus 4

Gaming with an S4 Pro isn’t bad, so while there is still room for more power, I don’t see why we need twice the speed immediately. Same case with the display; I don’t need a 1080p screen, and I don’t need a larger screen. That’s what tablets are for. Only thing that needs improvement is the camera, and you know it – smartphone cameras are nowhere near overkill; most of them still suck.

Is this progress all for marketing’s sake? We, consumers, will be losing if that’s the case.  Maybe people in this generation are getting too spoiled. Or another scene to consider is that the smartphone evolution really is ending, and that is why manufacturers are making the jump to wearable technology.

The only pro I see with phones getting exaggerated specs is that the current high-end hardware will become the new standard for future mid-range phones. For example, once they have better CPU architectures, a Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU, which isn’t bad by all means, will be made available to future mid-range phones.

Are you still not satisfied with what smartphones offer right now? If so, in what part? What do you think will phones be like next year? Feel free to discuss in the comments down below.

The post What will high-end phones be like next year? appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Reinventing the Dumbphone

Bob Freking Leave a comment

Do you remember the times when phones had extremely long life cycles? Or even when mobile technology didn’t advance so rapidly? Those were probably the times when the dumbphones were prevalent.

A dumbphone is defined as something that lacks the features of a smartphone. Mostly, these dumbphones only serve texting and calling as their purpose, but rarely we see some twists in their production; some manufacturers even include a mobile flashlight in the device. It might not be very pleasant to hear or read, but so far it’s the term that is most common. Filipinos might even say “pang-tawag at pang-text lang”.

While some people are very focused on smartphones, there exists this market that we rarely consider innovating upon. We think it’s a very good idea nonetheless to reinvent the average dumbphone – especially in the Philippines.

If you didn’t know, the Philippines is considered as the texting capital of the world. Think about it: do you think that the majority of texts sent come from smartphone users?

While it’s partially true that most people who use dumbphones are those that don’t have the extra budget, it is also true that some people just like to own a dumbphone to lessen the threat of holdups and theft.

Most manufacturers in the Philippines are taking advantage of this situation – the battle however is in price and in quality. Most dumbphones available now are almost entirely the same as the ones released years ago; only the designs keep changing.

Some phone manufacturers might not be interested in this idea, since it may damage the premium images that they have established, such as HTC and Apple.

When most companies are competing with lower prices, why not create something that costs a little bit more while adding some killer ideas such as strong casings, batteries that last up to more than a week, a mirror as a back cover or something basic like a very comfortable QWERTY keyboard?

Some companies have already tried these distinguishing ideas, but none have become a major success so far. They, however, caught the attention of some people.

Examples include the John’s Phone – a phone made in the Netherlands that only makes and receives calls and the OwnPhone – a very customizable phone that only calls the people most important to you.

These phones aren’t available locally but people could surely get a glimpse of how some dumbphones abroad differ in their own way.

We were deeply thinking about the Nokia 3310 for some reason. Nokia could revive the aforementioned dumbphone and make it a hit, especially with all the traction it is getting. From that idea alone, maybe we can see a true successor to the “unbreakable” phone. This could be similar to Motorola’s revival of the Razr, however that ended up being a smartphone.

Think of the article as some sort of shout out. As people enjoy choices and different angles through smartphones, why not with dumbphones? If you had the chance to reinvent the dumbphone, how would you pull it off? Feel free to write your answers, comments and opinions on the matter down below.





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