An In-Depth review of the Kyocera (Qualcomm) 2035a
Written: Jun 20 '01 (Updated Jul 19 '01)
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Pros: Small & lightweight, very easy to use. Interchangeable faceplates and a vibrating ringer. Cheap too!
Cons: doesnt get a very strong signal when travelling
The Bottom Line: The best phone for the money. A lot better than most of those higher priced phones as well. Buy it!
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| dhuting92's Full Review: Kyocera QCP 2035a Cell Phone |
I'd like to start things off by saying that I work for Qwest. I sell cell phones, and the phone that I always recommend/sell is the 2035a. We sell it for $79.99 or $49.99, depending on if the customer has a certain package on their home phone. So what I'm trying to say is I talk about cell phones a lot. Probably too much. I've compared all the diferent phones that we sell and have come to the realization that this is the best phone for the money. I admit paying 80 bucks for this phone is a kind of high. I actually went and bought this phone about a week ago through Verizon. It was $29.99. I probably wouldnt pay more than 80 for this phone.
OK. Now to actually tell you about the phone:
This phone is really easy to use. The large 4-way directional button is simple. Here are the menu options on the phone:
Web Browser - Let's you browse the internet somehow. I'm yet to use this feature but i've heard good things about it.
CONTACTS - I especially like how contacts work. A contact is one person. In each contact you can store that person's home, second line, cell, and pager number. You can also store their email address, street address and even a note about them. You can store up to 200 contacts. You can access all of your contacts by simply pressing down on the directional pad when you are on the Main screen of the phone (the screen that displays the name of your phone, time & date) It automatically arranges your contacts in alphabetical order. You can edit each number in to a "number type"( home, cell, pager, etc), and for each type there is a diferent icon. You can choose a number for each contact to be that person's primary number, meaning the number it'll call when you select that contact and hit send. When you are scrolling through your contacts there will be little icons to the right of the names. The icons are little cell phones symbolizing the persons cell #, a picture of a house symbolizing their home #, and so forth. You can move the directional arrow to the left or right to switch from calling their diferent numbers.
RECENT CALLS - Simply displays the last 15 calls you either made or recieved. Will have either an arrow pointing to the icon of your cell phone meaning the call was inbound, or to you, or it will have an arrow pointing from the icon of your cell phone to the name of the person you called. If you missed a call, there will be an X between your phone icon and the name/number that you missed.
SETTINGS- here there are 10 diferent settings to change:
Silence sounds? - silences all sounds including incoming calls and message alerts. The phone is still operational. You can choose from 3 diferent choices: No, normal; Yes, vibe only; or Yes, lights only.
Keyguard - Lets you change around how your keyguard works. Normally to activate Keyguard you press and hold up on the directional arrow for 3 seconds. You then press 123 to deactivate it. It's kind of nice so you don't accidentaly make a call while the phone's in your pocket. The options is the KeyGuard menu:
Guard now - activates keyguard.
30s Auto Keyguard - activates keyguard automatically after 30 seconds of no use.
1min Auto guard - (self-explained)
5min Auto guard - (diddo)
Auto Guard off - prevents phone from automatically going into KeyGuard mode.
SOUNDS - In this menu there are 13 diferent sound settings to configure:
Call Ring/Vibe - Allows you to set your phone to ring only, vibrate only, or vibrate then ring.
Ringer Volume - lets you adjust the volume of the ring.
Ringer Type - Lets you change your ringer type. There is a nasty standard ring, then there are 9 other rings as well as 5 other songs to choose from.
Roam Ringer - Uses a special ringer sound to indicate when an incoming call may be subject to roaming charges
Key beep volume- lets you adjust the volume of the beeps the phone makes whenever you press a button.
Earpiece Volume- (self explanitary)
Kay Beep Length - set the length of the beep the phone makes when you hit a button
Missed Call alert- alerts you when you miss a call by beeping - choose to enable/disable
Smart Sound- A really nice feature, Smart Sound autmatically adjusts the volume during a call, based on surrounding noise levels. (Enabled/Disabled)
Key Beep Sound- Select if you want your phone to beep or click when you press buttons
Business Call Ring- lets you choose a ring for all your business calls (calls you classified as work numbers in your contacts)
Personal Call Ring- The ring all calls will make except for work calls.
Minute Alert - Alerts you with a short beep 10 seconds before each minute passes during a call.
DISPLAY - 7 diferent display settings:
Backlighting - lets you choose the length of the backlighting (disabled; 10 sec; 30sec; 10 sec & in call; 30 sec & in call)
My Banner- lets you name your phone (name will appear on the main/standby screen)
Auto-Hyphenation- As you enter phone numbers, hyphens can be inserted automatically)
Language - English/Spanish(Espanol)
Time/Date Format - change the format or way it displays the time & date
Main menu view- lets you choose between large icons, small icons, or list menus. I prefer list menus (No icons, menus are simply in lists)
Display Contrast- Lets you change the display contrast.
SECURITY - lets you change around the security setting - you must enter your 4-digit code to enter this menu. There are 6 diferent menus:
Lock Phone Use - Blocks access to all featurees and dialing (except emergency numbers) A password is needed to unlock the phone.
Limit Calls Out?- Lets you limit the calls out to only contacts
Change lock code- change yo 4 digit code
Erase All contacts - (self-explanitory)
Erase Recnt Calls) - (self explanitory)
Phone reset- resets all phone data
Call Information- tells you how many total minutes you have used your phone (Recent calls timer/All calls timer/Browser Timer)
Network - 5 difere3nt settings:
Digital or Analog?- Forces the phone into digital or analog mode only
Roam Option- restricts all calls while roaming
Roam/Service Alert - Alerts you when you switch from either digital to analog and when you are roaming
Privacy Alert - Alerts you when advanced CDMA technology is lost (CDMA technology is the same the military uses; very hard to trace and listen in on. qwest uses CDMA as well as verizon.)
Data/Fax calls in - Required to accept incoming data or fax calls on some systems. No voice calls may be recieved if it is set to anything other than "coice only." confused? i am.
Extras - 2 diferent extras:
1-touch dialing - Allows you to quickly call a contact's phone number without pressing send. To use, enter the speed dial location and hold the last digit for 1.5 seconds.
Browser Prompt - Prompts you before when you select browser before you actually connect. I like this because many times i have accidentaly selected the browser and have been saved by the prompt.
Message Settings - 6 diferent menus;
Voicemail number- Holds the phone number to retrieve messages from your mailbox. This number can be automatically setwhen you get your first voicemal notification or can manually set it. Pressing "1" then send from the time display is a shortcut to check messages.
Auto-Erase text - when enabled it automatically erases old text messages when memory is needed.
Voicemail alert- choose the diferent ways to alert you when you've got mail
New Page Alert- choose how you want to be alerted when someone pages your cell.
Message Alert - choose how ya want2 be alerted when you recieve a text message.
Internet Alert- choose how you want to be alerted when you get an internet update or message
Accesories - 3 choices:
Power Backlighting - choose if you want backlighting always on or not
Headset Ringing - Choose if you want the headset or the phone to ring when you have a headset in
Auto Answer - when enabled it automaticaly answers your phone after 5 seconds when you get an incoming call.
TOOLS - 6 diferent tools:
Alarm clock, tip calculator(lets you figure out what a tip should be; enter in the amount of the bill, % you want the tip to be, and the number of people you are dividing the bill into) calculator, countdown, stopwatch, and Brick Attack. (A very entertaining game)
MESSAGES - lets you check if you have any voicemail or text messages, also view your inbox and outbox for text messages.
PHONE INFO - Provides you with a number to call for info on your phone...
And that's about it for the phone features. So to wrap it up, I'd just like to say once again that this is the best phone for the money. Even if you pay more than $30 it is still well worth it. With all the features this phone offers, including the vibrating ringer, interchangeable faceplates, extended-life battery, and internet capability, this is one great deal. But you don't have to take my word for it, just check out all the other opinions recommending this phone. Keep in mind that when people say that they hate their phone because they can never get a signal it does not mean there is anything wrong with the phone. It probably means that the phone is only digital and therefore cannot pick up a signal because there is no digital signal in many areas, especially when you are travelling. The 2035a is a dual band, tri-mode phone, meaning it picks up 2 types of digital signals AND analog signals. So unless you plan on never taking the phone out of your house, you'll probably want a phone that'll pick up a signal almost anywhere. That phone is the Kyocera 2035a.
UPDATED 07/19/01:
I have been using this phone for over a month now. While I am still happy with it, I have found a few flaws. This phone seems to never get a signal when I'm more than about 20 or 30 miles away from Waterloo, the city I live in. My brother has the same phone and he sometimes gets a signal and I won't...so maybe it's just my phone. I am planning on buying one of those signal booster things and I'll see if that helps. Also another thing I don't like: The Ringer Volume isnt very loud, even when set on max. Its normally not a problem, but when you are somewhere where there is a lot of noise around, it becomes harder to hear. Other than that I'd still say this phone is more than worth the $30 I paid for it.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 29.99
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Epinions.com ID:
dhuting92
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Location: san francisco, ca
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
http://www.dhuting.com
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