Giventhe exclusivity and prestige surrounding the ownership of a BlackBerry phone, theidea of replicating it with a handset that can cost no more than £30 seems like folly,yet budget manufacturer Alcatel has done just that. The OT-255 takes what isarguably RIM's most famous signature feature -- a full Qwerty keyboard on aportrait-oriented device with email connectivity -- and offers it to consumersshopping on a shoestring.
Alcatel OT-255
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The Alcatel OT-255 can be purchased for around £80 SIM-free or £30 on a pay asyou go deal.
Toy story
Like so many of Alcatel's handsets, the OT-255 resemblesa child's plaything. The inordinate amount of cheap-looking plastic on displaydoesn't exactly instil the impression of quality, and at 76g, it lacks thatall-important weighty feel that goes hand-in-hand with expensive tech. On theupside, the lack of heft means it won't become an unwelcome impediment in yourpocket.
Despite the cheap casing, the OT-255 boasts a decent TFTscreen, which eclipses the dim and blurry displays seen on rival budgethandsets. At 1.8 inches and boasting just 128x160 pixels, it's hardlygigantic, but the landscape aspect ratio comes in handy when composing epic emailsand titanic text messages. It also has a neat two-stage power saving mode,which dims the screen down a little when left unattended before finallyswitching it off altogether.
As impressive as the display is, the OT-255's mainattraction is unquestionably its Qwerty keyboard. As is often the case withkeyboards on candybar handsets, the buttons are small and initially feel quitecramped, especially if you're blessed with particularly large digits. However,after a few minutes, things begin to fall into place and typing becomes a swiftand pleasurable affair.
Key to my heart
The keys themselves emit a satisfying click when pressed,and mercifully lack the spongy quality that sometimes afflicts low-cost phones.Accessing special characters is done via a separate menu button, whilecapitalisation and other functions can quickly be toggled on and off by tappingthe relevant shortcut key.
Aside from the keyboard and traditional arrangement ofcall and direction-pad commands, the casing of the OT-255 is disappointingly bare. Theback of the phone is entirely featureless, and the sides are only interrupted bythe USB port and a quick select key, which opens up an on-screen menu grantingswifter access to key functions.
The OT-255's menu system is eye-catching, if a littleuninspired. Icons are laid out in a three-column grid system, navigated usingthe direction pad. Moving around the phone's sub-menus is quick and intuitive, andfeatures such as weather reporting and 'fake call' functionality help spicethings up a little. The latter allows you to avoid unwantedconversations by prompting a bogus telephone call, and has been featuredheavily on Samsung's budget phones, such as the E1170 and E1360.
Connection denied
Wi-Fi and 3G are nowhere to be seen on the OT-255. Instead, your connectivity options are limited to GSM andGPRS. As you might expect, this seriously dents the phone's practicality asa Web-enabled device. The stock Web browser is woefully inadequate, strugglingto render pages correctly and loading with all the speed of a narcoleptictortoise. The option to go online is there should you really need it, but it'stoo awkward to be of everyday use.
As is the case with the BlackBerry brand it seeks so hardto emulate, the OT-255 is being sold on its proclivity for mobile email. It'srefreshingly easy to configure -- we got our Google Mail account up and runningwithin minutes of turning the phone on -- but downloading large amounts of datacan take an age, thanks to the feeble GPRS data connection. Having said that,the OT-255's email access certainly gives it a marked advantage over rivalphones such as the Nokia 1616 and Samsung E1150 -- neither of which are evencapable of getting online.
Out of memory
There's no camera on the OT-255, and with less than 2MBof internal storage, it's not something that would have been of any practicaluse anyway. Curiously, the handset is capable of utilising MP3 ringtones, butthe small amount of memory is only good for holding a minute-long song.Needless to say, there's no expansion slot so you can't boost your storagequota.
Every cloud has a silver lining, though. The OT-255'srelative lack of flair means its power consumption is incredibly modest.It offers around 8 hours of talk time, with the standby period clocking in atroughly 380 hours.
If you intend to exploit the phone's email capabilitiesheavily, you can expect that figure to drop slightly, but on the whole theOT-255 is the kind of phone you can quite happily leave for a few days beforeworrying about charging. In that respect, it could be useful as a secondarydevice for times when you're away from home and unable to top up with juice ata wall socket.
Conclusion
Despite its lack of connectivity, minimalistic design andbare-bones feature set, the Alcatel OT-255 actually managed to impress us. When youconsider its low price, what is on offer here is commendable. Not onlydoes the phone boast a responsive Qwerty keyboard and robust battery life, italso delivers a decent display and above-average email functionality.
If you're after a cheap phone that allows you to stayconnected with your email account, the OT-255 is the obvious choice. It'swell worth sacrificing peripheral features such as music playback and imagecapture for the comfort of a Qwerty interface and colourful display. If youprefer your mobiles to have a little more entertainment value, you might bebetter advised to go for one of the OT-255's siblings, such as the OT-880 --although that particular touchscreen handset will set you back a few morepennies.
Edited by Emma Bayly