'Vodafone' V-X760: A Mixed Bag

'Vodafone' V-X760: A Mixed Bag

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The fact that I put the name Vodafone above is no typo error. Rather it’s something which I did consciously as I believed at first, as most of the phone owners believe, that it is a Vodafone product. The truth of the matter is that the phone is made be a Chinese telecommunications company called ZTE Corporation. Since the phone is marketed in South Africa as Vodafone X-V760 I had a torrid time searching for it on the Internet. The searches turned up very little, except some couple of SA users looking for advice and drivers on forums and those selling the phone online.

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The reason why I bought the phone was not because it was a conscious decision but it was more of curiosity. I have to admit that I was in the phone market having lost my Nokia smartphone. Being a bit tied on cash, I was looking for something around the R1000-R1200 range. I had made up my mind to buy the Nokia 5000 as it was a leader in that category and came with the basics when it comes to email and other issues that I believe I cannot live without. That is when I saw the phone being advertised by Vodacom (SA) at R999.00. At Incredible Connections the phone at the time of writing retails for R1399.00. The touch-screen is the one that decided for me and I went on to buy the phone at GAME stores. Below is a summary of what I have come to find out about the phone and what other users worldwide are saying about the phone.

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What I immediately like about the phone is the design. The phone is really sleek and a pleasure to look at. Mine is a black/silver variety. Over the week I have noticed people starring the phone whenever I take it out. The other thing I liked is the huge screen, which had made me initially choose the Nokia 5000 amongst other phones in its price range. I also liked the fact that I could charge the phone on my PC via USB connection. Most importantly, I loved the touchscreen with the 3D user interface. Being a novice at touchscreens, I found the screen responsive and rather easy to use (I secretly believe that actual keypads will disappear from phones in the next five years just like what aerials did and flip phones are doing now). Whenever I found myself in a spot when it comes to navigation, I always whipped out the supplied stylus and get the heady geeky feelings. It took me about an hour to navigate through the menu system and customise the phone to my liking. In addition to the things mentioned above which I liked about the phone, I also liked the audio player whose sound reproduction on the supplied earphones is impressive and from time to time I had to turn down the volume. The phone also comes with a FM Radio which is quite intuitive. The manual said the phone can be used as a USB webcam (or in the same way you use a USB webcam) if you connect it to the PC via the USB cable. I have since tried this under Vista and XP but always I just cant get the thing to work.

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While I was completely bowled over by the phone visually, it was the functions that left me wondering if I should have stuck to my initial decision to buy the Nokia 5000 instead. Firstly, the phone comes with less than 2MB of onboard memory. I found out this when I was trying to transfer a music track that I wanted to use as a ring tone. This was a real shocker as most entry point phones now offer something above 5MB of onboard memory. Anyway, I was quick to forgive the phone as it had a memory card slot to expand the memory. My next shock was discovering that the phone offered no email functionality of any kind. Being used to a smartphone, this was a big minus as I had gotten used to the idea of checking and replying emails on the go. Since I use mostly Yahoo and Gmail, I thought this was no big issue as I could check my mail from the phone browser and maybe create some bookmarks for easy access. Upon opening the browser, I found it doesn’t run JavaScript and almost always whines and weeps when you try to open most webpages, complaining that it cannot run the scripts on the page. As a result, I couldn’t access my Yahoo and Gmail accounts from the phone browser as it gave me error messages everytime I tried to access the pages. In my infinite optimism, I thought this was no big issue as I have a netbook and can check my emails virtually anywhere. My next disappointment was finding the phone offered no WLAN. In a way I saw this coming but confirming it made it painful all the same. My single biggest disappointment which made me hate the phone instantly was the fact that the phone runs no Java applications. What this means is I cant install games on the phone (the phone comes with one game), I cant install Mxit on the phone and most importantly I cant install eBuddy my beloved IM messenger which connects me with my Yahoo, Gtalk, AIM and Facebook buddies in one package. Being used to a 3.2MP camera on my phone, I haven't taken a singe snapshot with the phone as I am sure it will be a substandard shot even by me very tolerant standards.

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To be really honest, I got a phone with a touchscreen and 3D user interface, Bluetooth, USB connectivity, memory card slot, an impressive media player (the phone plays mp4 videos), a huge and high resolution 2.4 TFT display and a 1.3MP camera for a thousand bucks. Very few phones in the price range of the X-V760 boast all these functions in a single package and even the Nokia 5000 falls short as it has no USB connectivity, no memory card slot and boasts a smaller 2' TFT display. On the other hand I got a phone with no email function and no Java (which is installed in the older Motorola V360 for goodness sake) which means I can’t install other programs to boost the phone's functions. Seems the company decided to cut the corners on functions which I cannot live without in a mobile phone. However, I suspect that for the ordinary user who just wants a basic phone to make calls, play music on the go and maybe look up an article on Google on the odd occasion, the phone will be an ultimate pleasure.

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Now coming to UK users (the phone is being offered there by two carriers and is known as the Orange Vegas or VairyTouch depending on the carrier) there has been a huge debate about the phone. Firstly, the debate is about two irreconcilable camps with one using such terms as 'crap' and 'utter garbage' to describe the phone and the other camp hailing the phone as the cheapest touchscreen phone on the market with more features than most other phones within its price range. Secondly, the other debate is that the phone is an HTC Touch clone (or rip-off, take your pick!). The people who advance this goes on to mention as evidence the general shape of the phone, the menus, the buttons and the touch screen functionality. The other camp fiercely refutes this, citing a number of iPhone lookalikes that are being acceptable without anyone calling them iPhone rip-offs. The camp that says the phone is a rip-off of the HTC Touch even suggests that UK carriers should never have distributed the phone as it directly violates the intellectual property of HTC, a company that the carriers do business with. Lastly, there is debate on whether the phone is made by HTC or not. While there is a general feeling that the phone is made by ZTE Corporation there is nothing on their website about the phone and a search will reveal nothing. It is not even listed under the company’s products. In fact during my trawl of the Internet, I couldn’t get to find the real manufacturer of the phone. There are some users who even claim that the batteries on their phones carry the HTC logo. They even allege that the phone was made secretly by HTC to revive the fortunes of the once popular HTC Touch brand. Mine has the ZTE logo even though there is nothing about the phone on their website.

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The whole debate about the phone above made me think about the netbook debate and how the little laptops came to polarise people's opinions. They sacrificed optical drives, processor speed, drive space and RAM in return for the small form factor and the lower and affordable price. There was a huge cry, especially with the initial Asus EEE range as the people protested that the manufacturers had cut the costs on those products that the customers are most concerned with (especially processor speed and drive space). Most people initially baulked at the idea of using a computer without an optical drive, and with less than 5Gig of harddrive space. However, 18 months down the line people have generally come to accept that netbooks are here to stay and almost every PC manufacturer and their grandmother is making them. Maybe the X-V760 is the netbook equivalent, that's cheap, aesthetically pleasing and affordable, albeit with some rather common features and functions missing.