Lazada Product Review: XY-01 Wireless Bluetooth 4.1 Smart EarPhone (Yellow/Black)

In a previous entry, I wrote about hankering for a Bluetooth Bone-Conducting Zungle Sunglasses-headset. And while I'm perfectly content on waiting for that particular brand to become available and affordable for my bone-conduction-bluetooth-spectacle-headset needs, I really need a bluetooth headset ASAP to take the place of a pair that I purchased late last year that I inadvertently destroyed (it got stuck in the space beside a desk and a wall and I yanked when I should've moved the damned table).

So I went ahead and purchased this cheap ass very reasonably priced pair from Lazada, available at Php 366.

XY-01 Wireless Bluetooth 4.1 Smart EarPhone (Yellow/Black)

Photo from Lazada. Item linked.

It comes in several color variants (all black, white/red, white/green) and is undrbanded, though the packaging says it's made by "BestGot". According to the package, it's capable of 5h talk time, with an effective 10m range, and bluetooth 4.1 support.

It was scheduled to arrive by August 22, and arrived this morning. Despite being slightly late, I don't mind as I had requested delivery to the office, and the hours don't lend itself to weekend delivery.

Visual Impact
Here are some photos of what the package looked like and what came in the box.

Bubble Wrapped

Yet-unopened. Looks nice. Better than what they used on the site.

They provided 2 identical manuals. For no apparent reason.

Package inclusions

The package came with 2 sets of identical manuals, a short usb cable for charging, 2 extra earbuds, the clip and 2, um, whatever you call those claw-like things that help it stay on your ear when you're active. However since it's really meant to sit deeply into your ear anyway, it feels like those were just a nice bonus.

The build is a bit plasticky, slightly less impressive than my previous one (which was all white). The volume up button seems sit a little deeper than the volume down. Doesn't change the functionality any though.

The clip doesn't have any rotating pieces so it's slightly less comfortable than what I previously had but I think it just needs getting used to.

I tried using them straight out of the box but there wasn't any charge to speak of so I charged them for 30 minutes before giving it another go.

Audio Quality
Listened to a bit of music on it and tried using it to record audio on the sound recorder. The gave good results for the former, and pretty lousy results for the latter. I tried calling myself to test it on a call, but not hearing myself talking to myself on the other phone kinda defeats the purpose. I did have to make an actual call later in the day after a full charge and letting it stand by for a bit as well. There was a lot of static but the other party could hear me OK.

Hang-ups
Aside from the static on the call, and the slightly questionable build quality, there's only one minor gripe I have about the bluetooth headset. And it's this:

On the phone, when you pair, it doesn't appear as a standard bluetooth headset. It appears as an "input device" ~ as a keyboard, which it is most definitely not. The only other instance I've seen that happen was with a bluetooth camera trigger I purchased a year or two ago and that was most likely also made in China.

To use it like a usual headset, and to be able to use the phone's onscreen keyboard, I just unticked the "input device" option.

Verdict
For Php 366 (roughly 8.14 USD), you really shouldn't expect much. But honestly, it's a bargain. Audio for music's pretty good, despite the static on the call. The color combination's pretty nice. Won't really know how long this will last so will keep my finger's crossed.

Bottom line, pretty good bargain. If you need a bluetooth headset and don't have a big budget and are willing to put up with a bit of static, go for it!

Hankered, Purchased and Experienced. Now a Review: Cherry Mobile Flare

Greetings to all my readers and Flarenatics. If you're reading this you're either a new Flare owner verifying your personal experiences with the units and rationalizing your purchase, or you're one of those who wasn't able to make it to the Flare Day earlier this month and you're waiting for the next batch, perhaps reading up on user reviews to help you decide if you will actually go for the Flare.

For new readers who happen to be here, here are the CM Flare's specs at a glance:
1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon S4 processor
4.0" WVGA (800x480) IPS capacitive display
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
Adreno 203 GPU 512MB of RAM
4GB of internal storage (with roughly 3GB user usable: 2.57GB as Internal Storage and and 581MB System Space)
microSD up to 32GB
5MP autofocus camera with LED flash
VGA front-facing camera
Dual-SIM, Dual-Standby
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900MHz WCDMA 900/2100Mhz
HSPA+ 21Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, WiFi hotspot
GPS with aGPS support
Bluetooth 2.1
microUSB 2.0
Li-lon 1500 mAh battery
131×68.2×11.3mm (dimensions)
152g (weight)

I was one of those fortunate enough to be able to purchase a unit, the second to the last one in fact, last November 17 at SM North Annex. When I got to the store, they had officially sold out all of their supplied units (all 1000 of them) but just as I was about to leave, the lady at the counter who was in line for a Flare announced that she was actually buying something else. Lucky me! But enough about me, on to the "review"!

Some Basics

After having been able to experience the Flare for the past 9 days, I can tell you that it's quite a solid piece of hardware. It doesn't feel plasticky at all, like the W100 did. The display is crisp and bright and the 4.0 inch size is just right (and I'm a big guy). The response time is stellar (having come from a Samsung Galaxy 5 with Android 2.1, I probably would've been wowed with less) and the stock Android 4.0 ICS interface was great. However I've installed GO Launcher Ex There are some Cherry added apps in there, classified as bloatware by some, but size-wise they're negligible.

Appearance-wise, the Flare is basically a black touch-screen phone. Not special by any means. Cherry Mobile is selling colored back covers however, for Php 290 a pop. I do not feel the need to buy one at the moment as my back cover is still ok.

The charger works well and there are no touch screen bugs when charging with the provided charger. However if you use something with a higher power output, you encounter a glitch with the touch screen.

Speaking of the touch screen, it's sensitive and works well. It only has 2 points of touch contact, which may prevent you from using some HD games and multi-touch apps that you may want to download.

The 1500 mAh batt is does pretty well when using just 1 sim in the phone, with wifi access and some music. On a single charge, I was able to get the phone to last more than 24 hours. Using two sims, specially ones that may need to hunt for signal more often than not, drains the battery significantly. However if you bring a charger to work, or have a charger in your car, this isn't much of an issue. I haven't gotten to the point where the phone itself tells me that it needs to charge however. I'm just charging / erring on the side of safety.

The provided headset does what it should do, but it isn't the most comfortable thing to wear, specially while jogging. The phone, however, won't work with my third party headset, an Urban Ears Tanto, that I used with my previous phones without issues. My Bluetooth headset works well enough with the Flare, though the Mic seems to be getting dodgy.

Messaging

The onboard messaging app allows you to choose between sims when sending messages, however its current version doesn't let you rotate the phone and type with the landscape keyboard. To remedy this, I installed GO SMS Pro, the messaging app I'd previously used on my older phone. However, GO SMS Pro doesn't let you pick which sim to send with. Even if you receive the message in Sim2, it will automatically use Sim1 to send out your reply. This will be a bit confusing for your recipients if they don't know both your numbers.

     This one pet peeve is going to be addressed in a software update that Cherry Mobile will be releasing for the Flare soon. I'd love to be able to use an FM radio on this. No date on that though.


Storage

One of the things that confuses me with the unit is that it has two sets of internal memory. The "System Memory" is comprised of 581MB of space, with perhaps half of that as user-usable. Then there's also an "Internal Storage" space with 2.5GB user usable space. I personally wonder if its at all possible to just merge the two into one.
     When you insert a microSD card in the slot, the phone selects it as your default storage and deactivates the "Internal Storage" space.
     One thing I've observed regarding the external storage microSD card, the Flare that I'm currently using sometimes spontaneously removes said microSD card when I'm accessing Apps or Music that are currently installed there. Rebooting the unit fixes the issue, however it's kind of annoying. This may be a card related issue however, so please wait for an update or ask other users if they're experiencing the same issues. For my part, I've recently purchased a new 16GB microSD (though the phone can support 32GB which there doesn't seem to be stock of in any CDR King branch anywhere) and we'll see if this affects performance positively.

The Verdict

All of that being said, I would still like to reiterate that I'm glad I bought my new phone. It's not 100% perfect, but then what phone is? Specially considering the Php 3,999 price tag. It's value for your money, that much is undeniable. Would I recommend this to anyone? Yes. Would I buy it for anyone as a gift, heck yeah.

Hankering for a Phone: Motorola F3, W220 or W375

Ok. Not exactly the newest phones on the block, I know. Well, while these phones might not exactly be hightech, I think any of these three would afford its potential owner a bit of style with a lot of base-functionality. If you're torn between simplifying your cellular-phone experience and staying in the technologically functional world, you might consider owning one of these. I am at any rate.

Why am I blogging about them at all? Well, I'm looking for a new phone to replace my sickly 2 year old C651 that's breaking apart. I'm not really looking for the most hightech of phones (for personal security while on the road, among other reasons) and since I'm sort of on a budget, I've been looking at Motorola's lower end handhelds for options. With a budget of around 5000 pesos, I can choose from the Motorola F3 Motofone, the Motorola W375 and the W220.

Of the 3, the F3 is the cheapest. Not surprisingly so. It is the simplest of all three phones, only allowing the most basic of tasks such as SMS and calling, without storage or even color to speak of. On the plus side, it is easily the slimmest of the lot (one of the slimmest phones available on the market today), and because it does away with all the power-zapping extraneous functionality and uses a more reader and power friendly display, it boasts of an impressively long battery life. However, it is a bit too spartan for me.

I cannot look at the W220 without comparing it to the W375. Upon inspection of available information on the web as well as from available pamphlets, both seem to have more in common than just the clamshell form factor. Both carry FM radios, and, as models under the W series, were designed to come cheap. However, it seems that the W220, compared to its newer, VGA camera toting brother, the W375, carries more bang for the buck.
While the W375 might possess a camera and thus allow for picture phonebook entries, said entries are limited to just 100 contacts. The W220 on the other hand allows the user to store up to 600 phonebook entries on the phone itself. While no information is known as far as inbox capacity for the W375, available literature says that he W220 can accomodate 250 SMS, which is 215 more than what either of my current phones (a C651, and an E398) are capable of keeping.

I guess those two differences mentioned above are the swing vote for me. While having a camera phone might be fun initially, knowing that, within the budget I'm shooting for, I won't be getting anything better than VGA quality anyway grounds my phone desires closer to reality. And while the thinness of the F3 might be fashion forward, its simplicity is a bit too much, or rather too little for me.

That settles it. I'm getting a Moto W220.

This entry was more of an exercise in rationalization and shopper-guilt justification for maybe buying the phone for myself. Heaven knows if I had the money, or if someone who had money were generous enough to give me a phone condition free, I'd be asking for maybe an Apple iPhone. Haha. But for now, until either of my old phones or this new one conks out, I'm going to be a loyal Motorola-head for awhile.