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(More customer reviews)... but I'm having a devil of a time finding it. I'm an iPhone 4 owner. The iPhone 4 is a quad band phone. I'm planning a visit to Ecuador. They use the 850 GSM band there, so I need a phone that works on that band, and my iPhone would be OK, except that it is locked to AT&T whose international roaming rates are extortionist, and I do not want to jailbreak it to be able to unlock it for use with a foreign carrier's SIM card. That's why I bought an unlocked fquad band SVP phone. I got it on an eBay auction for less than half of the prices on Amazon. But, having received it in the mail today, I am baffled by a manual that barely offers a clue about how to use its advertised features.
First impressions, but please read the addendum at the end: The manual mentions a power key, but does not identify one. My hunch, based on other mobile phones that I have used, was correct: the call termination (red hang-up) key does it. But, again, not a clue in the manual. However, how can I add eBook (and in what format?) or video or mp3 files? I ASSUME by writing them from my desktop computer to a microSD card and then inserting it in the SVP phone. Whether this will work remains to be seen, but there's absolutely no guidance to be had in the manual. Although I have inserted two different foreign SIM cards (London-based) from previous foreign trips, I cannot get the correct time or date to be displayed (please read the Addendum), even though one SIM seems to be recognized by AT&T, and the other by T-Mobile. Did I mention no hint of a volume control function? Oh, yes, no hint of either a volume control capability OR a speakerphone option. I succeeded in making a call to one of my house phones, and the volume on the SVP phone seemed to be adequate in a quiet room. I cannot make the calendar lock onto a current date, so every time that I open it, it defaults to a date on January, 2010, and I have to manually advance it a month at a time to the current month (again, please read the Addendum). Maybe there is a better way, but there is no clue in the manual as to how that might be done. Nor is there any hint as to how to change the wallpaper on the screen (see Addendum).
Initial bottom line: for 34 bucks plus postage, this might be an OK buy for a week's use in Ecuador with prepaid SIM and time purchased in-country, but I surely would not recommend it for regular use at the price points advertised at any US site.
Addendum: I stayed up late at night trying to figure out how to get the most out of this phone. I was correct that the microSD card has to be loaded directly from one's computer, though when I plug the phone containing the microSD card into my computer via its micro-USB connector, the phone displays a cryptic message about being able to access the T card ("T-Flash" is the old name for the microSD card) directly when the phone is "shutted down." But, this did not work for me, at least not on my Macintosh which is pretty ecumenical about accepting all kinds of formatted storage devices. I created "Photos," "My Music," and Ebook" folders on the microSD card, just as folders with the same names already existed in the phone's memory, by using the commands in the phone's File Manager. Then, I removed the microSD card, connected it to my Macintosh through an adapter, and dragged various ,jpg, .gif, and .pdf files to the Photo folder (only the .jpg and .gif files would display on the phone, by the way--no surprise there!). And, I dragged a few music .mp3 files to the My Music folder. The .mp3 files played nicely and at good volume on the phone via the File Manager, but though the phone's Audio Player app played them, it was at a much reduced volume, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to increase the playback volume. Interestingly, the playback was through an external speaker at the back of the phone (or through the earphones if connected to the phone), but I could not figure out how to switch a phone call to external speaker.
As to other baffling things mentioned under "First impressions," I discovered that there was a fourth row of icons on the Menu screen, if only I had known at first to scroll down to it. And, among its icons is "Settings," the one that I had hoped to find at first. But, though Settings allows one to specify wallpaper and tones to play as well as their volumes, I could not find anything that would allow me to increase the playback volume of Audio Player, nor of the phone calls themselves (after all, I bought this primarily to use as a phone and not an entertainment center!). Oh, and in Settings, I was able to enter the proper date, time, etc., as well as change the startup and shutdown screens and tones, along with the wallpaper (including use of photos that I had added to the microSD card). And, I could also make a ring tone from the .mp3 files in File Manager, and then choose them in Settings. (But, you wouldn't learn about that from the manual!)
Updated bottom line: Manual is terribly inadequate. Still haven't had the opportunity to test its capabilities as a plain old phone, but I have not been able to figure out how to control speech (or, for that matter, music playback) volume or how to switch calls to external speaker, if that is even possible. Dual SIM capability seems to work well. Keys work well, and feel substantial, though a bit small (will I need reading glasses to see them properly in dim light?). Screen is bright and crisp. FM radio needs the earphones to be plugged in to act as antenna, but is both loud and selective and does automatic tuning--an excellent implementation. So, if this SVP I6 it works as a phone, and considering that it is quad band and unlocked, it is worth around thirty-five bucks. But, I would not spend seventy-to-a-hundred bucks or more on it.
Yet another update (I just don't give up!): I finally figured how to control volume on music player: use the "+" and "-" keys on the keyboard (another DUH! moment). But, they do not work to control volume on voice record playback, and I have not yet figured out how to do that!
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IPro I6 QuadBand, Qwerty keyboard Dual SIM Mobile Phone (Unlocked)
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