Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
A phone with a very promising concept and one or two neat touches. However, the overall design is somewhat flawed, making this product perhaps best suited to an entry-level market
For years now, there have been many people who keep two cellphones on their person: one for work and the other for personal use.
While there have been a few products that support this feature, the concept never really made it to mainstream phones. It is quite odd that the major vendors have not released commercial models with this capability.
Such a phone would mean that people with two cellular numbers could carry one handset instead of two, with perhaps different ringtones set up for the two numbers.
Also, it would then be possible to disable one of the SIM cards: for example, the work number could be turned off or switched to voicemail over weekends, and the like.
The WIKI Doodle Bug phone provides the above functionality: a handset that can make use of two SIM cards simultaneously and each number’s settings can, for the most part, be configured independently of the other.
Furthermore, the unit also has a touch screen and a stylus that tucks into its underside. The touch screen must be calibrated before it can be accurately used, which is fair enough. Many touch screen-enabled devices, such as PDAs and certain handheld gaming consoles, require this brief process.
The problem, however, is that use of this touch screen is more or less compulsory: the directional button just below it is poorly designed, making it very tricky to press in the desired direction, resulting in frequent unintended commands.
The operating system and user environment are not the most intuitive we have seen. In fact, despite as a cellphone reviewer being conversant with a wide variety of phone makes, it still took me a long time to find the majority of the desired functions.
This is largely due to an illogical grouping of these functions, with options located not where one would expect them, or not near related tasks. Of course, this isn’t the case in every instance, but is true all too often.
The device also has no internal memory, and the unit we received (we hope this will be rectified in retail versions) shipped without a memory card. None of the media functions, such as music playback or even the camera, can be used without a memory card.
One neat touch, however, is the charging methodology. The phone charges via a USB cable, which is something that certain major manufacturers (who will go unnamed here) could take a cue from.
Furthermore, the AC adapter that ships with the phone has no cable of its own, but rather has a USB socket that the USB cable can be plugged into. This is ingeniously efficient and means that there are fewer ‘bits’ to keep track of and therefore less to misplace – very clever.
For years now, there have been many people who keep two cellphones on their person: one for work and the other for personal use.
While there have been a few products that support this feature, the concept never really made it to mainstream phones. It is quite odd that the major vendors have not released commercial models with this capability.
Such a phone would mean that people with two cellular numbers could carry one handset instead of two, with perhaps different ringtones set up for the two numbers.
Also, it would then be possible to disable one of the SIM cards: for example, the work number could be turned off or switched to voicemail over weekends, and the like.
The WIKI Doodle Bug phone provides the above functionality: a handset that can make use of two SIM cards simultaneously and each number’s settings can, for the most part, be configured independently of the other.
Furthermore, the unit also has a touch screen and a stylus that tucks into its underside. The touch screen must be calibrated before it can be accurately used, which is fair enough. Many touch screen-enabled devices, such as PDAs and certain handheld gaming consoles, require this brief process.
The problem, however, is that use of this touch screen is more or less compulsory: the directional button just below it is poorly designed, making it very tricky to press in the desired direction, resulting in frequent unintended commands.
The operating system and user environment are not the most intuitive we have seen. In fact, despite as a cellphone reviewer being conversant with a wide variety of phone makes, it still took me a long time to find the majority of the desired functions.
This is largely due to an illogical grouping of these functions, with options located not where one would expect them, or not near related tasks. Of course, this isn’t the case in every instance, but is true all too often.
The device also has no internal memory, and the unit we received (we hope this will be rectified in retail versions) shipped without a memory card. None of the media functions, such as music playback or even the camera, can be used without a memory card.
One neat touch, however, is the charging methodology. The phone charges via a USB cable, which is something that certain major manufacturers (who will go unnamed here) could take a cue from.
Furthermore, the AC adapter that ships with the phone has no cable of its own, but rather has a USB socket that the USB cable can be plugged into. This is ingeniously efficient and means that there are fewer ‘bits’ to keep track of and therefore less to misplace – very clever.