T-Mobile's mandate to bring touchscreen technology to the masses has spawnedthis ultra-cheap device but, sadly, the Vairy Touch II suffers very much thesame fate as its lacklustre predecessor. The need to maintain a low retail pricehas forced the designers to rely on largely unsatisfying materials, making thisa hard device to recommend wholeheartedly.
T-Mobile Vairy Touch II
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
The T-Mobile Vairy Touch II is available for around £30on pay as you go.
Touchscreen on a shoestring
The recent proliferation of high-end touchscreen devices -- such as the iPhone 4 and HTC Desire HD -- has led to a spate of 'me too'arrivals at the lower end of the mobile phone scale, with budget manufacturerslooking to capitalise on the popularity of buttonless interfaces with theirown products. Mid-range devices such as the Huawei Ideos and T-Mobile PulseMini have given way to even cheaper phones, and the T-Mobile Vairy Touch II isarguably at the vanguard of this cut-price revolution.
The sequel to the rather uninspiring Vairy Touch, thisnew model boasts a massively superior design. The 2.8-inch touchscreen hasallowed the designers to keep things compact, and at just 83g the VairyTouch II will slip into your pocket almost unnoticed. The rounded casing,silver edges and glossy back understandably call to mind Apple's iconic iPhone3G design, albeit with a more pronounced reliance on cheap plastic. Despite themodest materials used, this is quite a looker.
Lowon buttons, high on frustration
The Vairy Touch II's visually appealing shell featuresjust three physical inputs -- a power button, volume controls and camera button.All other interactivity is channelled through the phone's resistive touchscreen display, which extends all the way down to the 'call' and 'call end'buttons at the bottom of the phone's face.
Resistive screens are commonplace on pretty much allbudget touchscreen phones these days, and don't offer anywhere near as muchaccuracy as the capacitive types of expensive devices like theiPhone and Samsung Omnia 7. The example seen on the Vairy Touch II isespecially problematic.
At times it appears tobe ultra-responsive, to the point where it picks up even the slightest offinger contact, leading to unintentional selections. Other times, however, itstubbornly refuses to acknowledge your input. The flaky nature of the displayis likely to be the reason that T-Mobile has included a strange plectrum-stylestylus, which is supposed to be secured to the phone via a lanyard. It improvesaccuracy, but looks like an especially awkward phone charm when attached to theVairy Touch II's casing.
Morethan meets the eye
Considering the Vairy Touch II's low price, it comespacked with a surprising amount of technology under the bonnet. There's a microSDcard slot (complete with 2GB microSD card), 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player andFM radio. The phone is even capable of shooting 3GP-format videos, which can beshared with other phone users via Bluetooth. Sadly, there's no 3G connectivityor Wi-Fi capability, which means you'll need to use the much slower GPRS datalink to perform tasks such as sending MMS messages and surfing the Internet.
The Vairy Touch II's aforementioned camera capabilitiesare passable so long as you only intend to take shots to share with friends.The camera lacks an LED flash and takes disappointingly washed-out images, andthe video-recording quality is abysmal, with blocky footage and almostinaudible sound.
The Vairy Touch II has taken inspiration from the likesof LG's Cookie Freshwhen it comes to user experience. There's only one mainhome screen to play with, but you can place your own wallpaper on it or choosefrom preloaded examples. A slide-out application tray holds all of youravailable widgets, such as a quick-access calendar, music player and phone profiletoggle. These widgets can be arranged in any way you wish, and can even beoverlaid on top of one another.
What's on the menu?
Elsewhere, there's a grid-style menu that features theVairy Touch II's core options. From here you can view your contacts, read textmessages, play games and tinker with underlying elements of the phone'sfunctionality. It's all arranged in a fairly intuitive manner, although thereare a few puzzling inconsistencies -- screen brightness, for example, is listedunder 'misc options' rather than in the display sub-menu, where you'dnaturally expect to find it.
The Vairy Touch II comes preloaded with Opera'sJava-based Web browser, but the slow GPRS connection and lamentable touchscreen make surfing the Internet a chore rather than a pleasure. It's useful tohave for very basic Web-related tasks, but doesn't provide the streamlinedexperience you expect from other touchscreen phones.
Conclusion
The T-Mobile Vairy Touch II tries very hard to bring smart phonefunctionality to budget users, but too many corners have been cut to keep theprice low. The display is at the centre of much of our dissatisfaction with thedevice -- it's downright painful to use without the bundled stylus, and eventhen you feel like you're fighting an uphill battle.
It's a shame that this is the case, because the phonedoes have some incredible features when you consider the price -- MP3 player,2GB microSD card and a 2-megapixel camera. When you look at some of thesuper-budget phones available right now -- like the Samsung E1170 and Nokia 1616 -- that are not much cheaper than the Vairy Touch II, it makes you appreciate justhow much has been crammed into the diminutive frame.
The Vairy Touch II could serve as a cheap and cheerfulway of introducing touchscreen technology to less experienced mobile users,but the lack of precision might put people off the concept, rather than endearthem to it. On a side note, it's worth noting that the Orange Miami isessentially a rebadged version of this device. Both phones are manufactured byZTE, creators of recent cut-price Android phones such as the Racer and Blade.
Edited by Emma Bayly