Audiovox 8910

I have had this phone (on Pocket Communications) for about a month now, and I have to say that I'm happy with it generally, despite its being a bit of an off-brand phone...

First off, the design is okay, though it will definately not turn heads. The phone is practical...that's about it...but practical design is fine with me. The phone fits well in my hand and all that other good stuff, and the keypad is nice enough that I can text and email with ease and speed, courtesy T9 predictive text.

Which reminds me...this phone seems to model very much after the LG 225 cameraphone that I also have. Except that the user interface is slightly wierder, with a sort of techno style font, and a color external display is eschewed in favor of this wierd LED on the phone's front that Audiovox calls a "flash" for the phone's camera. Hmph...at least the external display stays on all the time...which reminds me: the UI on the 'vox isn't quite as good as the UI on the LG. But it's quite passable. Which is good.

I might as well say now that unless you have good lighting conditions the camera turns your pictures into studies in modern art. I kindof like the effect, but people who actually want to take decent pictures with a phone should look elsewhere. Not that my LG 225 is a supercam, but it takes pictures quite a bit better than the 'vox. Sad how that happens...I have unlimited picture messaging on the 'vox but STi has totally shut me off from pix messaging (well, web and pix messaging needs web) on the LG...ah well...

As far as other features go, this phone has all the usual ones, like voice recording, voice dialing, calculator, speakerphone and downloadable apps. Except this is a BREW phone so things get wierd with downloading apps...no GMail Mobile or Google Local Mobile or suchlike :(.

Which brings me to another thing...either it's just Pocket Communications or the phone won't let you input your own URL into the web browser (an OpenWave affair of course). Which is really annoying as there are no bookmarks either so you basically have to search for whatever page you want to go to, then every time you start up the browser keep it from loading the homepage and losing your own webpage. But I'm betting this is provider-related rather than phone related. And data does work quite well over 1x...pictures send quickly enough and webpages load quickly enough. Haven't tried the phone as a modem yet (don't have the cable yet) but I'll post back on that as I don't want my $5 unlimited web access to go to waste...

What about voice quality and battery life? Well, voice quality is great in areas that have good signal. Unfortunately, I can't really tell whether it's just my phone, my model of phone, or whether Pocket simply doesn't have good coverage where I live...it seems I always have to extend the phone's antenna to get decent service inside buildings with the phone, at least for voice calls. But the phone is better than the Kyocera K132, if that counts for anything...

The speakerphone is loud enough, but it's wierdly placed well to the inside part of the phone. Meaning that ringtones end up coming out not quite loud enough sometimes. But they're not terribly quiet either...it's a defect small enough that you can live with it.

As to battery life, I reckon I'm getting 3-4 days on a charge with light voice usage and not going to places where my phone is searching for service all the time. On the other hand, the phone will just barely make it through the day if it's searching for service a fair amount, being used for a little bit of texting and a little bit of voice, and is being used for a fairly heavy amount of web browsing (as in checking my GMail some two dozen times throughout the day). So the 8910, while not being an LG 3280, is fine battery life-wise.

So, in sum, this phone is a fine basic cameraphone. Sorry to say it's now discontinued by Pocket Communications and pretty much everyone else, but hopefully this review helps someone out there...

There, I'm now caught up on my phone review stuff. Now to get caught up on homework... :)