The F3 promises a bit more than it delivers. It exhibits lots of the latest design trends -- modern slim styling (only 9mm thick), solid construction (despite looking a bit fragile, the phone resists bending pretty successfully), long lasting battery, good keypad, good high contrast display with large font – with a very basic spec. It’s obviously a phone geared for the developing markets when low cost, basic functions and simple controls are the way to a mass market.
The keypad is flat; with keys integral parts of the front cover (no problems with dust) and separated by rubber strips. Typing is quite comfortable, with large keys and positive feedback. Texting is uncomfortable, though -- messages are typed on a single line, which means that only six characters can fit onto the display at a time. It cannot send messages longer than 160 characters, and there’s no character counting to help you (let alone T9).
The phonebook only uses the SIM card’s memory, since there’s no internal memory in the phone, and it’s rather crude. Contacts can be deleted but not modified, for instance. Searching uses first name only and is slow.
Disappointingly crude even for this market
SPECIFICATION
Size:
Length 114mm, Width 47mm, Depth 9mm
Weight
70g
Main display
EPD, 2 colours, 34x43 mm, two six-character lines and extra-large font size
Camera
No
Connectivity
Dual band GSM
Battery
Standby 400h, Talk time 7.5h
Features
Clock, alarm, speakerphone
VERDICT
FEATURES 50%
SALEABILITY 80%
Size:
Length 114mm, Width 47mm, Depth 9mm
Weight
70g
Main display
EPD, 2 colours, 34x43 mm, two six-character lines and extra-large font size
Camera
No
Connectivity
Dual band GSM
Battery
Standby 400h, Talk time 7.5h
Features
Clock, alarm, speakerphone
VERDICT
FEATURES 50%
SALEABILITY 80%