Review of GSM-handset Alcatel OneTouch C701/C707
Live photos of Alcatel OneTouch C701/C707
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Sales package:
- Handset
- 700 mAh Li-Ion battery
- User Guide
- Charger
- microSD memory card (varies by region)
- MiniUSB data cable
- Wired stereo-headset
Alcatel has decided to settle down in the niche of entry-level music handsets, and that’s the reason market saw release of the fold phones they needed - OneTouch C-701/C-707. These two are set apart only by the front fascia, as otherwise they are completely identical. Specifically, the C-701 always has plain finish, while the senior offering sports one of the 4 patterns. The same goes for the dedicated player controls on the casing – the junior solution retains unsophisticated and conventional-looking buttons, whereas in the C-707 they are designed to look like a small navigation pad.
The C-701 comes in two color schemes –emerald green and orange. With these on, it looks stylish and captivating. The entire casing is coated in non-slippery soft touch plastic, making for great tactile feel.
In its turn the C-707 boasts 4 glossy face plates differing in tracery on them. At that the spines are made of standard glossy plastic, while the back cover shows off leather-like texture.
The handset measures up at 89x45,7x22,5 mm and weights 83 grams, which makes for comfortable fit in hand and easy flip-open experience. This is actually a two-band device. The quality of materials used is something we would like to praise, but generally it a trait of all latest Alcatel-branded proposals on the market – they simply look much more luxurious than they cost, or, better to say, stand out against the backdrop of other similarly-priced offerings.
Saving for the music keys, there are no side-mounted buttons found on the phone, two ridges on the top are not the speakers, but the flaps covering miniUSB socket and hot-swap enabled memory expansion slot respectively.
The one-line outer display with blue backlighting shows caller’s name or number and current track title.
Unfolding the handset reveals a TFT display (65 K colors) with lacklustre picture, which is not always legible in the sun. Measuring 1,5 inches from corner to cornet (128x160 pixels resolution), it accommodates up to 6 text and 3 service lines. The fonts are finely detailed, allowing us to have no gripes with it. The screen implemented in this model is obviously weak, being characteristic for ultra-budget solutions.
The numeric keys are bulky and thus convenient to work with. All buttons are lit in soft blue, visible in various environments.
The back cover has no gap; detaching it unveils a 700 mAh Li-Ion battery. As the manufacturer claims, it can keep the handset up and running for 10 hours (talk time) and 270 hours (stand by time) respectively. In conditions of Moscow networks the battery life for the phone averaged about 3 days with 40 minutes of calls and minimum use of other functions. The most you can squeeze out of the handset with a headset plugged in and music playing is about 7 hours. It takes the C-701/C-707 a tad less than 2 hours to charge up from empty to full.
Menu
With 10 Mb of built-in memory, the device allows you to install any applications or store personal data. But you’d better use a memory card for such purposes, which is at your service to the last bit. The software filling is standard for the company’s latest-and-greatest devices, being utterly unified and set apart from the previous generation of phones, specifically Alcatel S853. The differences lie in more unsophisticated functions, phonebook in particular, forgoing of EMS support, voice notes in calendar and etc. This model is a down-graded edition of the C-825, having fewer settings to offer.
The main menu can be displayed as a 3x4 grid by grid, or, if you like, a list or one-item-per-screen view. For all menu items shortcut navigation is available (including the second level, though apps and functions won’t launch this way)
In most submenus you will see lists with horizontally arranged tabs on the top, which allows for easier sorting of functions by type. Generally speaking, the handset’s menu is laid out pretty well and leaves an overall good impression. Although the C-825 localization is far from perfect (original name of some menu items affects its quality as well, though) but it is a definite improvement over the predecessors.
Listing the drawbacks, we can’t pass by the lack of ability to send any lists with flagged files over Bluetooth (as only the first item is sent whatever the case is). The same goes for copying lists onto the memory card – the first item gets transferred, all other get booted. The most common way of Service-messages behavior, that didn’t pass over the C-825, is probably the most annoying about the phone – for example a service message of our carrier always hangs on the screen as new and thus keeps the backlighting on, cutting the batter life dramatically.
USB-connection. The device enables you to use standard USB date cable, on plugging in the battery starts recharging automatically. Three operation modes are available – COM-port emulation, and USB Mass Storage (provides access only to the only memory card). Data transfer rate makes up about 550-660 Kb/s.
Phonebook. The C-701/C-707 can store up to 800 entries in its phonebook plus the SIM-card memory is also available. In the general list both numbers from the phone and SIM-card memory can be displayed. The horizontal tabs allow you to quickly jump from the general list to entries saved on the SIM-card or to the handset’s own contact list. The last tab serves for showing groups – unlike vast majority handsets, the groups here are not directly assigned to already submitted contacts, letting you select entries from the general list or enter them by yourself (by default you are allowed to enter text and phone numbers). The groups are for bulk mailing and assigning custom picture, tune or video.
In settings the user can choose the fields he wants to be displayed during information input, which it is quire comfortable, since such fields as address, for example, don’t make much sense.
Any entry may contain such fields as Name (there is no separate field for Last Name), up to 4 phone numbers (field type is pre-defined), e-mail address, company name, birthday (not bound up with the calendar). Also you are free to set a personal ring tone, video clip and picture for each contact. When calling the picture is displayed in full-screen mode, type of the number and group (if the contact belongs to one) are also shown. In the general list you will find both the name and the default number, as well as a thumbnail image.
Messaging. The device supports concatenated messages containing up to 1224 symbols, at that predictive text input can be used. Ten text templates are at your disposal. The number of messages stored in the C-701/C-707 is limited only to the volume free memory; you can also categorize your mail by creating custom folders. The manufacturer has forgone EMS support.
Topping out at 300 Kb, an MMS message can be composed with the help of one of the five templates. Generally speaking, there is nothing special about this department.
Games and applications. The C-825 comes preinstalled with two games, Heliminator and Rocket. New games can be uploaded; heap size for Java applications makes up 1 Mb.
Camera. The handset comes equipped with a VGA camera, which allows taking pictures in the following resolutions:
- 640x480;
- 320x240;
- 128x160;
- 160x120;
Multi-shot mode for taking 3 or 5 shots in rapid succession, as well as mosaic mode (resolution is reduced automatically) is available. Three types of file compression are built in the C-825 – economy, standard and high. The timer can be also set on 5, 10 or 15 seconds. White balance can be automatically adjusted for daylight, lamplight, fluorescent lamp or cloudy weather. The following overlays are available – grayscale, sepia green, sepia blue, color invert, gray invert, blackboard, whiteboard, copper carving, blue carving, embossment, contrast, sketch. Plus there are three other overlays which you can modify: Contrast, Sharpness, Brightness, Saturation. The handset comes loaded with two types of frames - horizontal and vertical.
Standard settings include digital zoom. In terms of bundled settings the camera in the C-701/C-707 is remarkable for being very flexible and possessing loads of parameters available for adjusting. Unfortunately, snaps quality has nothing to do with camera’s functionality, even on the screen such images look very bad.
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Video. Video is captured in 3GP format at a resolution of 176x144 pixels with sound. All in all, the video quality is quite average, the C-825 has nothing to shout about.
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