Rebel Without A Brain
Written: Oct 16 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Clarity: |
|
|
| Portability: |
 |
|
| Battery Life: |
 |
|
|
Pros: High creature-feature-to-price ratio; unique appearance stands out from crowd
Cons: Low features-advertised-to-features-that-work ratio; unique design translates to accessory hell
The Bottom Line: My advice? Pass! My 13-year-old brother appreciated the hand-me-down, but if you work for a living and rely on your phone, a Nokia or Motorola will serve you better.
|
|
|
| ripcityqb's Full Review: Kyocera QCP 3035 Cell Phone |
We all know him...or her. Lotta flash...no substance. In fact, not much of anything behind the pretty face -- and we're not quite sure about the pretty part, either, but at least she's interesting.
You're thinking, wait a minute here, is this guy describing the Kyocera QCP-3035 phone, or its potential buyers? Well...I was referring to the phone, but the identity crisis is appropriate -- after all, the phone itself has two names as it is also marketed under the Qualcomm brand. What's in a name? Not much: the Qualcomm thing is only skin-deep, so if you're migrating from an earlier Qualcomm, don't think the accessories (or quality) you enjoyed in the past will apply; chances are, they won't.
I've never written a review before, but I'm generally a positive person, inclined to focus on the good aspects of people and things. So, without further ado...the phone's a hottie. There, I said it. A blonde, dressed in azure blue, driving a white ragtop on a perfect Saturday afternoon. Hey -- you're gonna look. At least, I did, and I liked what I saw. A generous yet taut display, all the right buttons in all the right places, and one of those athletic yet just-soft-enough shapes that looks divine to hold. Throw in a speakerphone and a Nokia-like selection of sounds ranging from soothing to utterly annoying, and, well...I had the bottle of Dom on ice faster than you can say "overchilled."
The thing is, that display is rarely useful. The non-intuitive interface is frustrating even to the gifted -- my ex-girlfriend, who is (a) smart enough to be ex, and (b) the modest owner of a doctorate at the tender age of 24, was so baffled by it that she actually asked for my help. Sigh. Just once, I would have liked to have been there for her when it mattered, but I couldn't figure it out either. Appropriate -- the phone let me down, repeatedly. The navigation "joystick" is anything but a joy...the keyguard is like a child-proof cap, protecting you only from keystrokes you meant to enter...the battery low indicator doesn't activate until the battery is too dead to allow even one 30-second phone call. Don't believe the "rated" battery life specs, they are pure fiction, more than double the real-life performance I got from any of my three brand-new factory batteries.
No sense in fretting over the battery low indicator, or the equally inept battery charge icon -- there's a more reliable way to go. Ask yourself: Have I used this phone at all since the last time I charged it? Cool -- once you power up, you're down to 75% battery life. Have I had it in standby for more than five or six hours, or used more than 10 minutes of airtime? Better start looking around for power -- you're in 50% land already. Been talking for 30 minutes or more, or using the speakerphone much? You're looking at "E," and objects on your display may be much, much closer than they appear. Finally, are you stuck in traffic at the end of a long workday, and expecting an important call from an important client or an even more important member of the opposite sex? Put a fork in yourself, you are done, you do not get the account, you do not get the girl, you do not pass "Go" or collect $200.
I could go on about how the menus are excruciatingly clumsy...the so-called security functions seem intentionally designed to make sure that anyone who steals/borrows your phone can swipe all your personal info and assume your identity as conveniently as possible...the auto-answer feature occasionally turns itself on (!), with the uncomfortable result that your callers can hear the conversation going on around you WITHOUT YOUR KNOWING IT! This can be very inconvenient, as one of my colleagues called to find himself listening to a very heated and intense discussion I was having with my team regarding a critical account -- later, I found myself wondering how large a crater my body would have left in the sidewalk if the caller had been one of the client execs. A lighter, but still uncomfortable example occurred when a friend called and caught a hotter, more intense, um, discussion between my girlfriend and I...all I can say is, I'm glad it wasn't Mom. Or was it? My call log showed another call, a few minutes later, "PRIVATE" -- my pal again, with the phone hooked up to the stereo for the amusement of everyone in his apartment complex? Mom, wanting to know how my relationship with that "little intellectual girl" was going...? Linda Tripp??? Scary. This phone has so many shortcomings, some of them have to be viewed as attributes just so the thing doesn't turn inside out!
Bottom line? The QCP-3035 is livable, provided you don't have a problem with its quirks. It's small, cute, and inflicts your friends with a mixture of curiosity and envy -- kind of like that foreign exchange student you dated in high school. Unlike that unfortunate babe, however, this phone is not smarter than you are, however unpretentious that target might be, and in fact has few redeeming qualities after the initial infatuation wears off. Do yourself a favor and marry the girl or guy next door. You'll be glad you did.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 49.99
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ripcityqb
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.