REVIEWS / MOBILE PHONES / BEETEL TELETECH LIMITED

Beetel Xpert Connect GD530 - With a Lot of Glitches

23 Jun, 2011, 11:21 am IST | by Ashish Koshy | Mobile phones Mobile phones

Low-priced but has a lot of glitches

Low-priced but has a lot of glitches
Desktop has six customizable shortcuts
The music player is awful
QWERTY keypad feels flimsy
Snaptu works quite well
Indoor Macro images are plain bad
A little better than indoor shots, but details are missing

PRICE IN INDIA

4,499
View Stores

TECH2 RATING

4.5

AVERAGE USER RATING

How we test

CONTACT

Beetel Teletech Limited

 suryansh.kumar@beetel.in

 +91 9810 304 954

 www.beetel.in

The mobile phone market in India has definitely seen a boom and the low-priced segment has been one of the major contributors. Looking at this, we've seen a number of companies coming with budget priced phones that have some decent functionalities. Not surprisingly, Beetel has joined the bandwagon and has brought the Xpert Connect GD530, which we're going to look at today.

Design and Build Quality
The GD530 has a standard candy-bar form factor, but with the curved corners and the tapering edges at the top and bottom, the phone looks quite attractive. The sides of the phone have a chrome finish which give the handset a classy look. The bezel on the top of the screen is a little too thick, and Beetel could have given the handset a sleeker profile by eliminating that.

Desktop has six customizable shortcuts

Desktop has six customizable shortcuts

 


Just below the display screen, there’s a section that holds all the navigation buttons and some shortcut keys, as well. At the right side of the GD530, there’s a 2.5 mm audio jack with the volume rocker that also doubles up as the navigation buttons when you’re in the menu. Between the volume keys, there’s a flashlight button which when held down, switches on the camera. Finally, there’s a mini-USB port for charging and transferring data to the mobile phone. Initially, the middle button looks like it’s a shortcut for the camera, but it doesn’t work that way. Rather it only functions for opening an application.

QWERTY keypad feels flimsy

QWERTY keypad feels flimsy

 


While the design is quite nice, the build quality was something that didn’t impress us much. The navigation buttons over the QWERTY keypad feel very plasticky and cheap and the feel of the buttons are poor. You’ll clearly see some space between the screen over the navigation pad and this gap means that dust and dirt can enter easily. The QWERTY keypad itself is not too great. While the keys are big enough to press without any discomfort, they feel a tad flimsy. The labeling on the keys are a little unconventional, but are quite visible and the keypad also has backlighting so typing in the dark is convenient.  Usually when you use the handset with both hands, the back panel feels flimsy and loose.

Features
Interface
The GD530 runs on a Java interface which has the look and feel that most low-end Java-based mobile phones have. It’s definitely not very attractive or intuitive to use, but the interface functions smoothly. There wasn’t one instance where the phone hung or took a long time to open an application.

Snaptu works quite well

Snaptu works quite well

 


The main desktop has six shortcut icons and all of them are customizable by selecting other options that are available on the phone. The main menu can be viewed in the grid or list format and browsing between the menus and folders is quite easy.

It was a little weird that the User Profiles did not include a Silent Profile option. Also, all the profiles had the same ringtone ringing at the same volume. A little odd and funny this, but Sheila Ki Jawaani playing loudly in the office can definitely be quite embarrassing. I noticed another glitch while typing an SMS message where the Space button will for some odd reason set the message to send rather than put a space. So in short, you can’t really send messages of more than two words!

Tags: Beetel Xpert Connect GD530 , Beetel , Xpert Connect , GD530 , QWERTY , 2 megapixel , Wi-Fi , Facebook , Snaptu , Ibibo , Reuters , Nimbuzz , Yahoo , Beetel Push Mail , Bluetooth , EDGE , GPRS , mobile phones , budget phones , entry level phones

Would you buy it?




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How We Test

The Tech2 Labs receives many products every single week and each of them is tested with the utmost care and highest level of objectivity. There’s a constant effort to reduce and totally eliminate subjectivity. Each product is tested according to set test processes so the same test scenario is used.

Verdict
The ratings awarded to a product are derived from a number of tests and calculations, keeping certain important factors in mind. These factors consist of features, performance, quality and value for money. In case of software and some other categories, build quality might be replaced with ease of use or ease of installation. Products are compared with other products in a similar price range or product category.

Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

What is the Average User Rating?

We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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