Intex 4455 Dual SIM (GSM) Mobile Phone

Here’s one from Intex that has the potential to be quite a helpful mobile handset for those of you who have an extremely active work and social life. It could especially be for those who like keeping those lives absolutely segregated with out the clutter of two separate devices. Here’s how the Intex 4455 dual SIM mobile fared on the whole.

Form Factor
The 4455 is a simple looking handset but well designed. Its candy bar form has a five way nav-pad and a well laid out keypad. The 2.2-inch TFT LCD has a 176 x 220 pixel resolution which doesn’t make it altogether too clear but it’s easy to view considering the size of the display only. There are no other buttons on the sides except for a universal all-in-one mini USB port. A large speaker is located at the rear under the 1.3 megapixel camera. A microSD card slot is placed under the battery above the two GSM SIM card slots. This would make it a little difficult to access in case you need to as the rear panel isn’t too easy to remove. Then again you’re not really supposed to be opening it up all the time.

The handset has a certain feel good factor about it with a funky red and black mix. It’s also quite light weight.

Features and Performance
Interface
The Java interface is a bit sluggish and I’m not particularly fond of this kind of OS. It tends to be quite temperamental in the sense that if you want to access your music or video files located on your card you’ll first have to move them to a pre designated folder that the handset creates or they just won’t show up in the players. Even if you wish to use a music file as a ringtone it must first be copied to the Ringtone menu for selection. There are also too many button presses and on screen pop ups that show up that tend to waste unnecessary time if you’re in a hurry to move to the next menu or option. Typing messages was just a little bit annoying as I was about 6 presses ahead of the OS. I had to wait for it to catch up to me to see if I made any mistakes in the SMS. Another annoying thing about the UI is that it doesn't have a way to delete all the messages at a go nor clear the entire phone log. It has to be done manually one by one.

What is impressive is the Dual SIM functionality. It’s seamless and easy to identify which SIM is in use. By default though both are simultaneously active and the handset clearly tells you which SIM has an incoming call or message coming in. Even if you have to send messages or make calls the 4455 easily lets you select which SIM number to choose.

Media
The music player is pretty good. It has options for Shuffle and Repeat as well as for creating a playlist. A few EQ presets are available for audio adjustment. The overall sound quality is not bad at all and even the in-ear earphones were quite comfortable to wear. The large speaker tends to give the sound a rounded tone with quite a thump in the bass line at least for music. You’ll also be able to hear your handset quite clearly when a call comes in even if it’s about six rooms away. Ok maybe not six but at least four rooms away easily. The speakerphone on calls is also loud enough to place the phone at a reasonable distance and have a handsfree conversation.

The FM radio had decent reception and took just about 15 seconds to locate and store seven out of the nine available radio stations. Reception in most areas was quite average but a lot better than quite a few other handsets I’ve tested. A recording feature is also available. You can choose to record in AMR or Wav format. You can also schedule the handset to record from the radio at a designated time.

The video player didn’t handle my test videos well at all. Though it managed to read the 3GP test file, it was framing too badly to comfortably watch the clip. MPEG4 files also had issues reading. I downgraded the files a bit to suit the resolution and also changed a few other settings but to no avail.

Other media options include a Melody Composer that’s a lot of fun to play around with. You can select from multiple instruments to create a ringtone or tune. A photo editor allows you make slight adjustments to the image not in the way of actual changes to the quality but you can add frames or text etc. to the picture. A voice recorder is also available. Intex has also loaded three games – Mahjong, Puzzle and Fruit.