The battle of the budget phones is certainly heating up,with more and more cut-price handsets hitting the market. Samsung's modestE1170 is just one of the myriad offerings, and contains a surprisingly high numberof features for such a bargain-basement RRP.
Samsung E1170
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The E1170 can be obtained online or in store at Tesco for as little as £15. You can also get it for around £15 a monthon a contract, with the handset naturally being offered free of charge.
Keepingit humble
If you're old enough to recall the days before the emergenceof cheap and cheerful pay as you go phones, the notion of purchasing a mobilefor under £20 will probably strike you as absurd. We've seen a proliferation ofthese budget blowers in the past year or so, however. Recent devices, such asthe 3330 Classic and 1661 -- both from Nokia, have driven down the cost ofportable telephony, and there's an increasing number of equally inexpensivealternatives out there, as well.
Like Nokia, Samsung has been especially keen to hop onthe budget bandwagon in recent months. The E1170 can be snagged for as littleas £15, making it one of the cheapest phones currently available on the market.As you might expect, selling a mobile for such a low price cannot be achievedwithout cutting corners, and the E1170 takes more shortcuts than Dick Dastardly.
The most obvious omission is the lack of a camera. Notthat having one would boost the phone's appeal to budding photographers -- the E1170is incapable of sending (and receiving) multimedia messages, thanks to its lackof GPRS and 3G. There's no Bluetooth, either, so file transfers of any kind areoff the menu. It's probably for the best, because, with a paltry 16MB ofon-board memory, you don't have much room for your own personal art galleryanyway.
Elsewhere, the E1170's minuscule 128x128-pixel displayfeels painfully outdated. Colours are washed out and moving through menuscauses unsightly motion blur.
With no media-playback capabilities of any kind, entertainmentcertainly isn't high on the priority list with the E1170. Despite this, it stillmanages to offer some gratification and comes equipped with a couple ofinteresting applications. You get one game -- the surprisingly agreeable SuperJewel Quest -- and a handful of features such as a calculator, converter,stopwatch and flashlight. It should be noted, however, that the latter merelyuses the phone's display to create illumination.
You may consider irritating polyphonic ringtones to be arelic of the past, but in the case of the E1170 they are all you have to playwith. The phone doesn't possess the ability to play MP3 or WMA files.
Unexpectedbonus
In spite of its humble specifications, the E1170 managesto cook up some pleasant surprises. Take the 'Fake Call' feature as an example-- it allows you to set up a bogus call in order to cunningly extract yourselffrom unwanted conversations or boring business meetings.
There's also the security-conscious 'Mobile Tracker' feature.If your phone is stolen and someone else attempts to insert their own SIM card,the E1170 automatically sends the offender's contact number to selected recipientsof your choosing in an effort to trace the handset. Whether or not aprospective thief would view the bare-bones E1170 as a potential target is upfor debate, but it's still a handy service to have -- providing you remember todisable it whenever you happen to switch SIMs yourself.
It also has to be said that the E1170 is particularlyeasy on the eye and doesn't betray its budget roots too readily. The sleekblack casing feels sturdy, and the keypad is responsive and solid. Although wehaven't tried hurling it at a wall, we're willing to bet that this is a phonecapable of withstanding sizeable knocks and bashes -- something which cannot besaid for many leading devices.
Batterylife is another impressive component of the E1170's humble arsenal. With no 3G,Bluetooth or camera to drain its 1000mAh battery, this device is capable of lastingfor days without a charge. When it does eventually run low on juice, therecharge time of the E1170 is just a shade over 2 hours, meaning you can get upand running again in double-quick time.
Conclusion
The lack of cutting-edge features obviously places the SamsungE1170 at the back of the grid when it comes to desirability, but its robustdesign and surprising suite of other cool elements help raise it up a little. Ifyou're shopping on a shoestring, you could certainly do a lot worse. It's alsoworth investigating rival cheapies like the Nokia 1616, which comes with an FMradio and bundled hands-free headset, before handing over your admittedly modestwad of cash.
Edited by Emma Bayly