Videocon V1675 Dual SIM GSM + GSM Mobile Phone

Videocon’s stint in the mobile sector has been steadily increasing. Amongst the bigger players in this segment they’re faring quite well it seems. Here’s another of their offerings, the BlackBerry styled V1675. If ever there was any device that took RIM’s design form and put in an affordable price range for all, Videocon’s V1675 is it. Here’s a closer look.

Form Factor
It’s a good looking handset. It’s well built but not well designed. To elaborate, a good looking handset like this stands out amongst others in its class. However the problem is, these manufacturers just can’t seem to get past the whole proprietary connectivity bit. It has a proprietary USB/handsfree port placed so close to the charging slot, one cannot listen to the radio or music if the handset is charging as the plug won’t fit unless the charger is removed. The handset is also thick enough to have included a hot swap for the microSD memory card but that’s lacking too.  The 2.4-inch display sports a 320 x 240 pixel resolution that makes everything crisp and easy to view.

The overall design is a copy of RIM’s latest 9700 Bold complete with optical track pad for navigation, the sensitivity of which cannot be adjusted at all and that’s a major problem. The keypad’s buttons are a little too close together unlike the 9700’s so typing will take a bit of getting used to. If you have stubby fingers like mine though, it’s not going to be an easy task. The weight of the handset is well balanced enough to give it a slightly expensive feel.

Features and Performance
Interface
It seems like the lack of ingenuity and creativity is just dwindling away with these handset manufacturers. Not only will they copy the design, they’ll take a step further and attempt to copy the UI as well while running on the same Java OS as all the others. There’s no lag at all when accessing features or navigating the menus. The main menu system is however quiet haphazardly laid out. The organization of the features into groups is not very evident.

Thanks to the super sensitive track pad navigating through these menus is a real pain. You’ve got to be very careful or you’ll be moving from one option to the next many times over till you get the hang of it (if you get the hang of it) so you can precisely move to the specific option you were aiming for.

Media
The speakerphone is excruciatingly loud and piercing. The audio player comes with a few EQ presets as well as an option of customizing the setting via a 5 band graphic EQ setting that can only be accessed via the Sound Settings in the Settings menu. Audio quality via the handsfree is horrible. It’s tinny and cheap, for lack of stronger terms. Had they put in a little more effort into the quality of the handsfree as much as they did on the handset and its packaging it could have been a better audio experience.  An FM radio with a Schedule record function is also available. Reception was average at best. In an area that I found has the best reception that usually takes most handsets a few seconds to locate all available frequencies, the V1675 found 2. I had to manually input the rest. A melody composer, voice recorder and an image editor are also media features that the V1675 comes loaded with.

The video player read 3GP and MPEG4 files (standard) with easy, no framing whatsoever. What was very interesting was that the player also read my .AVI files and .FLV as well. The playback was not smooth at all but the fact that it did read them at all is a good thing.