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NEC a232 review -- revisited

Discussion in 'BoM Blogs' started by Disciple of The Watch, Oct 18, 2009.

  1. Disciple of The Watch

    Disciple of The Watch Preparing The Coming of The New Order Veteran

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    Never heard of NEC? Not surprised. Some NEC phones have occasionally popped in the US -- the 232 was carried by AT&T, I believe -- but other than that, it's an obscure brand.

    Modes: GSM 850/1800/1900. The phone gives you an option to set priority for the three GSM bands. You can give priority to 850/1900 (North America) or 1800MHz (Europe). I fail to see the point in this function. If the phone can't find either a 850 or 1900MHz signal, it will then search for 1800MHz automatically. An eyebrow-raiser.

    Battery life: This phone, as my picture galleries will gladly attest, doesn't run on the factory NEC battery. No, I am pretty damn pleased to say my NEC phone runs on a Nokia battery. I get about nineish days out of the battery.

    Signal: The 232E holds a pretty good signal. The phone had some trouble with the Dead Zone test. There were some rather rare occurrences of dropped calls, otherwise the 232 performs well on the signal front.

    Sound quality: The NEC a232 does not have EVRC, so sound quality isn't as good as a GSM phone who supports EVRC. Still, sound quality on the a232 has proven satisfying, had no problems hearing the other end or being heard.

    Form factor: Clamshell.

    Phone and keyboard feel: The a232 has a springed hinge, though I have no problems opening and operating the phone with one hand. In the original review, I was very harsh on the a232's keyboard, quoting it as the first phone whose keypad I seriously despised. I'm still not terribly fond of the said keypad, don't get me wrong... but countless text messages have sharpened my skills with this perticular keypad. The keys aren't exactly raised, which makes them hard to differentiate without looking, but prolonged use of the a232 has made texting with the phone instinctual and not that bad, actually.

    Screen: 128*160, 65,535 colors TFT LCD. The screen resolution is good, but the colors are washed up. There is also a small 30*96 external monochrome LCD which displays the usual info - signal, messages, battery, time, date. While playing with the options, I discovered the color of the external LCD's backlighting can be changed - a big slab of icing on the cake. There's a good number of colors, but I stay in the green/dark blue/orange/red.

    Camera: VGA, 0.3MP. Good to catch pics on the go... just don't expect much. Pics can be offloaded via a USB cable. And don't think about that mini USB... yep, proprietary port.

    Data: The phone has EDGE... but since I cannot change the factory settings, it cannot access the web. Sweet, forget about custom ringtones.

    Final score: 8/10. The firmware has laggyness issues, but nothing unbearable.

    Pics:

    [​IMG]

    Opened, powered on.

    [​IMG]

    Closed, powered on, orange backlight selected.

    [​IMG]

    NEC phone running on a NOKIA battery, mother[expletive]!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 20, 2015
    Disciple of The Watch, Oct 18, 2009
    #1
  2. Disciple of The Watch

    Disciple of The Watch Preparing The Coming of The New Order Veteran

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    Little addenum here... the phone will search for 1800MHz only if it's supported. Most of the phones are world phones now, but some lower-end or older handsets are dual-band GSM only.
     
    Disciple of The Watch, Oct 28, 2009
    #2
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