A Cell Phone You can Live With: Qualcomm Kyocera 3035
Written: Dec 28 '01 (Updated Dec 31 '01)
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Pros: numerous features, big easy to read text, good sound, voicemail, call ID
Cons: plastic casing is cheap; Navigation button doesn't always cooperate.
The Bottom Line: Qualcomm makes this QCP 3035 Cell phone whose features are so numerous you might be up late reading the manual! Great sound quality.
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| lorirobe's Full Review: Kyocera QCP 3035 Cell Phone |
I went back to the Sprint PCS Store. Why did I go there? Because my husband has gone through his third cellular phone. The first one, he left on top of his car and drove off. The second one, which was a great phone, the Sprint Touchpoint 2200 just simply lost all of its graphics. You were able to use the phone, but couldn't see a thing on the screen. Of course, this model which was a wonderful one, was discontinued. Sprint offered us the QCP 3035 by Kyocera. This is a Qualcomm phone. We gladly accepted this replacement phone.
I understand that if you are interested in purchasing a cell phone, you want to know about its features and sound quality. Beware, the features are so numerous that is can be overwhelming. Stick with me. So, here it goes.
The size of this phone is a positive. It is about 1 3/4 inches wide and 4 1/2inches long. This phone is comfortable to hold and easy to store in a jacket pocket without any heavy weight. In fact, it weighs about 5 ounces.
The body of the phone is a silver casing with black buttons and frame around the screen. I am a little concerned with the quality of this silver plastic. It seems one good drop to the floor, and I'll be back to the Sprint store with the two pieces of this phone. Let's hope for the best.
I will also add that the navigation button used to go through the menu does not always respond properly. I find that sometimes it needs to be pressed a couple of times to get it to do what I want it to. If I press to the right, it doesn't always perform that function. I might suggest a phone with a more responsive navigaton button.
The sound quality of this phone is most definitely above average. You won't find any breakup in voices or background noises. Every now and then, you might experience a bit of an echo from yourself or the other party.
When it comes to the graphics used for your phone numbers, I just love the very large size of the numbers. You don't have to squint down to see them. The "Shift" key will allow you to change the text. The test is larger than most and long in size. The screen will display the time and date. Rather than a dial, the menu is used with the buttons on the keypad. The navigation key will adjust volume, scroll up, down, left or right or select a menu item. There is a backlight that can be adjusted to see easily.
This phone comes equipped with many features.
Voicemail:
The phone acts as its own answering service. Callers can leave a text or voice message that you may access at any time by pressing the envelope key. It will tell you when the message was left and give you options to save or erase the message with voice prompts. You are able to change the sound that will alert you when you have a voicemail.
Internal Phone Book:
This phone will allow you to store 400 phone numbers in your book. I find it very impressive that this phone will allow you to use up to 50 characters for the name. The names will be listed in alphabetical order. Sometimes you might want to just put the letter A in front of those names you call most often for easy access. But, there is, however, a quick way to access the phone numbers you need. It works sort of like the address book in my outlook express email. By pressing 5 different necessary buttons, you activate "Fastfind". Once you start dialing the number you want, it automatically display all of the matching entries. I guess this is helpful, but by the time this feature is activated, maybe you should have just dialed the number manually!
Caller ID:
This is a feature that I cannot afford on my home phone, but just love to have on my cell phone. By entering all of your numbers in the phonebook, when your phone rings, the screen will display the name and number of your caller.
If you have not entered the name of this person, you will simply see the number of the caller. There is an option to block your own number from other people's Caller ID.
Volume and Ringer Adjust:
I think you will find that the more ringer possibilities, the more obnoxious they become. Do you want your phone to ring with the sexy whistle sound? Or perhaps the Santa Claus is Coming to Town song? I prefer a plain and simple ring, which is possible. Vibrator mode is also available.
Call Waiting:
You will be alerted to another caller by the beeping notification which is 2 beeps. One button will put one caller on hold while you access the other caller.
The features on this phone are so numerous that I will not list some of the less frequently used.
Scheduler
Alarm Clock
Stopwatch
Recent Calls: view the last 30 incoming and outgoing calls made.
Speed Dialing
Game: Brick Attack--ever bored in the doctor's waiting room?
Tipping Chart: Enter the cost of your meal and it will ask for a 15% or 20% tip. You can also enter the number of diners in case the bill is to be split.
Call Forwarding: Forward calls to a different phone
Train your phone to recognize your voice. If you say a code word or name, it will automatically call a specific number.
I know that all of these features can be overwhelming. It is true, that once you have owned a phone, you can easily adjust to the features of another. I this all seems just too much for you, I would suggest that you use one feature at a time. First, read how to enter your phone numbers for your internal phonebook. I think this is very important to have. When you are comfortable with that, learn the voicemail feature. Slowly, but surely, you will find out which features are most important for you. Don't worry, you can't learn them all at once!!
My husband has been very happy with this phone. The sound quality is very good and the features can be very helpful. Sprint does offer a one year warranty on their phones.
Since this phone was replacing a previously purchased phone, I did not have to pay for this phone. The warranty either took over where the previous phone left off or it was warranted for 6 months--whichever was longer.
This phone allows up to three hours of talk time and can easily be recharged with the charger that comes with the phone.
The phone retails for $180, but I am sure you can get rebates or sales on this phone.
Please be safe when driving and talking on your cell phone. Use a headset if you find it necessary to drive and talk.
Lori
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Replacement
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lorirobe
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Location: New York City
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I'm back with concise, easy to read and "to the point" reviews!
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