I remember well during my post-college years when i first got my hands on my first GSM mobile phone, the Alcatel One Touch Pocket. I was quite happy with the way it works and it looks so cute. The phone is still working up to now, and I find it quite funny that it lasted this long. And by the way, I bought the unit more than seven years ago.
When the Technews editor gave me an Alcatel for review, I was more than enthusiastic to work on it, that it’s making me sing Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”.
The Alcatel OT E158 mobile phone is one of their newest line of entry level phones in the mobile market. For starters, it may look like basic and somewhat boat-shaped, but the phone packs new features and most of all, quite cost-effective. Literally!
This dual-band (GSM 900 / GSM 1800) mobile phone is Alcatel’s newest baby, and it has a dimension of 97 x 44 x 19 millimeters, and weighs only 80 grams (with battery). Its screen display is grayscale graphic STN type with a size of 102 x 80 pixels.
Opening the back cover of the OT E158 is quite easy, but you have to use both of your thumbs to open it at ease. Inserting the SIM card is also easy and it doesn’t take too much time to put it in. The slot for plugging in the standard charger is located at the top right side of the phone and is covered by a rubber cover for protection. At first, I had a hard time opening it, but it becomes at ease when one knows the trick.
The OT E158 has the basic features that one can find in an entry level phone. But, the uniqueness of Alcatel’s newest baby is that the background screen is colored (that reminds me of the Anchor milk commercial) and it has a reverse display feature that changes the phone’s screen black and white effect. Another unique feature of this phone is that it allows a user to make a conference call where he/she can talk to several people at the same time.
Texting using the OT E158 is simply easy and at ease because the keypads are soft to touch and gentle on the thumb. Calling is also good on the phone because you can clearly hear the other party.
A user can customize the phone’s wallpaper, screensaver, and ringtone. Eventhough the wallpaper and screensaver is black and white, the pre-loaded ringtones in this baby is polyphonic, and a user can do WAP on the OT E158.
The OT E158 has two built in games, Russia and Brick. The former is somewhat like reminiscent of the Tetris game wherein the aim of the game is to make as many complete lines of bricks as possible. The latter is similar to Arkanoid game wherein the objective is to break as many bricks as possible with a bat and ball.
The phone is powered by a standard Lithium Ion 650 mAh battery that has a stand-by time of 2-3 days and a talk time of 3 hours. Charging the OT E158 takes about 2.5 hours at full charge.
Gotta tell, if one is looking for their first mobile phone, or looking for a gift for your loved one this holiday season, Technews recommends the Alcatel OT E158 as the perfect choice. Basically a call and text phone, for a small amount of Php 2,900, it boasts lots of other features that can outbeat the competition.
Well, in a manner.
