I realize that this is not exactly your typical "mp3/mp4" player (well, actually it is because it plays both types of files), but I felt that I just had to review it because there's a lot of speculation about these types of Chinese phones and just not enough info for potential buyers.
First, I'll share my story. After looking at Chinese "mp4" phones for months and wondering if they really lived up to what they claimed to do, I took the plunge and bought this brand new 3" CECT P888 (or P888i) PDA phone from the website
www.yokoobiz.com about a month ago for $126USD + $5 shipping. For that price, it was a steal. Now they've raised the price to $140, but it's still a good deal. The phone eventually got here two weeks ago, and its features are amazing. It has a great interface, in fact, the best I've seen on these kind of phones. The iPhone clone interface is HIDEOUS to me, one of the reasons why I chose the P888 over it. I'll provide a breakdown into categories about what's awesome about the phone, and afterwards some pictures of it. I'll probably end up leaving stuff out because there's just so much to cover, but if you have any questions feel free to PM me. Anyway, here goes:
Features (according to yokoobiz website):
# Frequency: 900/1800/1900MHz
(Triband)
# 3.0 Inch QVGA 260K TFT Fashionable PDA, Touch Screen hand writing mobile Cell Phones
# Bluetooth V2.0 supporting two sim cards
# Dual SIM cards in one and work simultaneously
# Two high-quality cameras with 1.3 Mega pixel high resolution
# 64 chord dual speakers
# Support MP3/MP4/video/video record/voice record
# Five trumpets 3D stereo speaks
# Support T-flash memory card 256M
# Built-in games
Truth:
-Yes, the phone is Triband and works with my Cingular SIM card in the US
- The screen has great resolution and the touch screen responds fairly well to the stylus and/or fingers.
- It has bluetooth, which works great for filesharing (haven't used a headset, but it is supposed to work for that also).
- It does have slots for 2 SIM cards, but as I only have 1 active line of Cingular service, I have only used 1 card, which works fine.
-I don't know where they got the "2 cameras" from - maybe they were referring to the digital camera and the video camera functions. But there is a discrepancy between the specs and the label next to the camera lens on the phone that says"3.0 Megapixel," so I don't know which one to believe.
- The speakers are great; loud and clear.
- Mp3 files played fine off the phone transferred right off one of my other mp3 players. The phone also supports mp4 and 3gp video (had to fiddle with the settings to get mp4 to work, though. More on that later). Yes, it does have video and voice recording capabilities also.
-Came with a 256mb transflash (aka MicroSD) card, which was a nice addition, but I needed more memory, so I just used the 1gb card I already had.
-Built-in games? More like built-in GAME. Yes, one crappy puzzle game that I still haven't figured out. Too bad the phone doesnt support java so I can't add more
Now, specific depth into its features:
-Screen - the bright 3" screen has excellent quality and pleasing to the eye. It also has a great viewing angle. It is fairly easy to navigate through the menus using the touchscreen with the stylus or a finger. You can also use the tactile controls if you prefer that. I like this a lot, because if the touchscreen malfunctions for some reason, at least you can fall back on that.
-Processor - this phone is slower than my other phone, the Samsung D807, but not annoyingly so. I can still do what I want to do without significant lags.
-Bluetooth works pretty well for filesharing (which is all I've used it for so far). I just created a bluetooth folder on my memory card, and now I can steal all my friends photos and music from their phones (just kidding) through bluetooth and/or transfer stuff to and from my computer!
-Browsing - the file manager makes browsing through the phone and memory card very simple, and I have the ability to create and delete folders from the browser.
-Call quality - Great from my end - earpiece goes up to a volume of 7 which is plenty loud, but I have had a couple of people complain of an echo on their end. It was only one or two people, though - everyone else can hear me perfectly fine.
-Camera/video - This is one of the biggest disappointments of the phone. Camera quality is pretty awful for a "3 megapixel" camera. Even my old 1 megapixel Sharp TM150 had better quality pictures. Out of 10, I'd give the picture quality a 3. To show what I'm talking about, I'll compare the pictures taken with the phone to those taken with my 6.31MP digital camera. Obviously, the camera quality would be better, but instead of there being only a slight advantage with the camera, it completely blows away the phone.
This is a picture of my backyard taken by the phone: (pixel dim. 240x320)
....and this is the same picture with my digital camera (pixel dim: 640x480)
likewise, video quality is unmentionable. These are basically fluff features that you would definitely not depend on. My advice: stick to your digital camera .
-Text messaging/multimedia messaging - there are multiple options for text messaging. The multitap abc, which I hate, because it takes forever, an on-screen qwerty keyboard, which I normally use, and on-screen "handwriting" using the stylus. You write something with your normal handwriting on the screen, and the phone interprets what you are trying to say. It's a cool idea, but it takes awhile. Unfortunately, there is no T-9 predictive text, but the qwerty keyboard pretty much makes up for that. Multimedia messaging is straightforward, just like other phones. I had to set mine up with specific settings for my network, and after that, it worked just fine.
-Music/Video - These were the main reasons I bought this phone. I am happy to report that the music quality does not disappoint. The speakers can get VERY loud, which is great in a noisy setting. I often had the opposite problem with my old phones, where I could not hear anything in a noisy setting, so I appreciate this. However, sometimes the speakers are TOO loud, even on the lowest setting. This is not usually a problem, though. The phone can multitask, thankfully (eg. access to other functions while music is playing), but has virtually no other options other than play, pause, stop, forward, backward, and limited equalizer settings. The interface for the mp3 player is very nice, though.
As for video, despite the nice fullscreen function, the quality isn't all that great, which disappointed me. The phone supports 3gp and mp4 formats. I encoded some mp4 videos at 176x144 pixels at 25fps based on what someone with the fake iPhone suggested and the vids played fine, but the quality was pixellated. Hopefully if I fool around with the settings a little bit more I'll be able to get it more to my liking.
-Games - Like I mentioned before, my phone only came with one game called "Puzzle" where the object is to rearrange square pieces of the Mona Lisa to make a complete picture. It's pretty lame. I tried to download java games onto it, but they didn't work, and from what I've read about these types of phones, it doesn't look like any of them support java. I'm not a gaming addict, but this is still a big minus for me.
-Ringtones - I haven't counted them all, but I'm estimating that the phone came with about 40 preset midi ringtones. They aren't that bad. There is also the option to set your own mp3s as ringtones, which works perfectly. The ringer is loud and clear, and I have no problem hearing the phone in a semi-noisy environment with the ringer set on a volume level of 3 out of 7.
-Additional features - Standard with most phones, this phone includes a calendar, alarm, to do list, World Clock, standard image viewer, voice recorder, calculator, unit converter, currency converter, and even an extra melody composer (to tell the truth, I haven't even opened that program yet, much less used it). These programs work decently, as they should.
My overall impressions of this phone are good. This phone really surprised me. Despite a few shortcomings, it really is great. Since I began using it, I have gotten nothing but complements. It's kind of large and bulky, but what do you expect with a 3" screen? The build quality is solid, and even though it is made of all plastic, I'm not afraid that it will shatter in my hands. Also, there are no strange translations from Chinese to English like I've seen on some other types of phones. The features work as they should. My only complaints are the following:
-Picture/video quality (I think the culprit is the lens, not the megapixel size)
-Java compatability
-The onboard memory is practically nonexistent (about .5MB)
-Predictive text messaging
-The processor could be a LITTLE bit faster
-The volume doesn't go low enough
-More options for mp3 player
-No WiFi (OK OK, I'm dreaming now)
Besides that, I absolutely LOVE this phone! 9/10! CECT (or whoever manufactured this phone) really nailed it with the P888.
Now for the pictures, some of which I took with my digital camera, and some of which are hi-res images from eBay auctions:
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Hope that this thread was helpful.
MP4 Phone Review (P888i)
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