Please stop comparing any karbonn with an @iPhone in the reviews - there is no contest! only those who have not used @iOS for more than a few days would try such hyperbolic comparisons...
yes, android is much cheaper at around 1/3rd the cost of an iphone 3gs but that's it. just like you can't argue that a @bmw / audi is 10-20 times more expensive than a @maruti but both cars have
a] 4 wheels [viz. touch screens in our little analogy here]
b] AC and engines [i.e., app stores]
c] power steering & brakes [e.g., 3g & wifi]
so somehow they are similar products [smartphones]...
just to keep things balanced, you can also read my critiques of @ipad2 / ios here on MS so its not like I think apple is perfect.
i paid on 30th april for an a9+ and got it on 6th may.
this was the cheapest @android 4 [ics] handset in the last quarter with the following features:
*1. dual camera
[rear above 2 mp] & flash,
dual sim,
gps,
wifi & 3g*
at rs. 7 k & shipping [flipkart has it for about rs. 8 k as of april] it seemed like a good deal except for:
1. no reset button when the phone freezes [and it did on the 1st day of use!]
the top power button is useless so it needs some kind of 'hard' reset like any iphone / ipad
[maybe with a paperclip]
i have to remove the battery to force this which is a giant pain in the rear.
all androids should have a reset / toggle!
the basic idea is to interrupt the power supply forcing a reboot when frozen.
2. pathetic speaker phone - very faint at full volume.
my samsung corby txt [b3210] which I was replacing cost rs. 1.5 k less 4 years ago and had a louder speaker.
3. sound quality for watching videos is very poor and tinny
[not a typo for 'small' but rather 'sounding like a tin can']
over the bundled headphones which seemed to be defective out of the box.
the right one was louder than the left despite pushing the plug in and rotating the jack around in case of a loose connection.
4. no case / belt clip provided so you have to waste time finding one that fits but most androids don't have any carrying case bundled out of the box so its a common problem beyond karbonn.
5. does not rotate the screen fully - only 2 sided flips [left & right] but this might be an android issue [why?]
if you hold it 180 degrees [upside down] the screen will not correct its orientation.
unlike ipad / iphone3 it does not allow rotating the lock screen / home page to make the keyboard bigger / wider and accommodate adult sized thumbs so i'm constantly pressing the adjacent keys and having to delete and retouch.
that's another major time waste [maybe this is an ics issue?]
6. slow boot up - again might be android
[9-10 secs just to show the karbonn logo and another 17-18 secs for the home screen]
this should be less than 4-5 secs for logo and 9-10 secs total for home instead of almost 28 sec to startup currently!
i have also timed it at 19-20 sec for shut down which seems absurdly long - this should take hardly 5-10 sec max for any android.
7. back cover is fiddly to open with fat fingers - should be easier to pop out like corby
8. only 500 sms capacity which should be at least 1, 000 like the much older and cheaper corby txt - android should auto archive any extra sms to available memory instead of trying to find an app to do this for free [just like ios - no app download required, its built in]
9. poor battery life - it requires daily charging with NO use and twice a day for normal users [heavy users will have to get used to charging 3-4x !]
its about 10-11% battery drain hourly so the handset will be dead in 9-10 hours with NO additional use from your side...
- I forgot that only sim1 has 3g and could not figure out why I was getting such slow speeds on sim2
[both should have 3g obviously]
- the touch screen freezes during charging so you can't use the phone at all
[this can't be an android problem else others would have also brought it up]
12. display settings - yet another weird 'feature' is that the phone keeps resetting to the default 30 sec timeout for the display despite me changing it to 1 min daily which is very annoying
[i hope this is not an android bug]
13. swapping sims - you would think a dual sim phone would make it as easy as possible to 'hot swap' a sim card but you have to remove the battery instead.
also there is no easy way to slide it in since the holder does not pivot up / out of the handset to make it a quick process.
due to my fat fingers, I have to use tweezers to push out a sim fast since my short nails can't get any leverage.
14. memory speed is about 5 mb/s according to the sandisk free app so any class 6+ micro sd card should be fine for the handset upto 32 gb.
2.6 gb on board memory of which 2.4 gb is available yet many sites list 4gb as the specs.
386 mb of about 580 is available for ram which is around 67% free [memory booster free app].
i do agree that its unfair to compare the latest version of android and ios since not only did apple have over a year's headstart but also unlocked iDevices are many times more expensive than unsubsidised androids.
so i'm comparing the much older ios4 with android4 to have a somewhat level playing field.
i could not find any 'sent items' folder!
it took some time before I located a free app to show me all outgoing msgs but WTF?
this should be part of the min functionality of any android since every feature phone already has it...
i have yet to test the camera and push mail but all the stuff that works seamlessly on my ipad2 at the 1st try does not on android
[despite downloading the yahoo app, it does not yet show new mail alerts like on ios4]
its probably some configuration issue that i'll figure out later.
i mean the little red number 'bubble' with new msgs / mails that appears on the top right of the icon
another android interface problem is while typing passwords the last letter gets masked in a few seconds which is annoying unlike ios4 where only the previous characters remains hidden until the next one is entered.
the 1st time I answered a call on an iphone3, I didn't have to think about it - just tap to connect.
on android it took a few secs to realise I had to swipe right to answer [i kept tapping instead] and left to disconnect which is more complicated for new users.
if you have seen iron man 3, you will notice Jon Favreau also struggling to answer a call when tony stark is trying to contact him so at least i'm not alone in this interface defect!
no, he is not using any ipad obviously...
my 7-8 year old bb has a built in option that all androids should also have:
auto prefix that adds a '0' [you set this prefix] to any 10 digit phone number so I don't have to manually update each contact when roaming.
also very helpful for 4-5 digit work extensions...
there should be an app for that once I hunt for it.
since this was my 1st android device, I did not like having to individually move apps to the sd card,
i would have preferred to move multiple apps in one go or set it as a default location to avoid filling up the limited phone memory
if you are planning to buy this, wait for the price to drop to $100 [rs. 5.5 k approx] so its better value for money.
you can search for discount / coupon codes to get another 5-10% off worth about rs. 500-600 like I did before paying at indiatimes.
since these codes change monthly, I have not bothered to put mine as it had expired.
the big bonus for me was the micro usb chargers which may be pretty standard for android now but saved me from the waste of buying compatible chargers for work, home and car [12 v] since it worked perfectly with my samsung plugs
bottom line:
a USED iphone 3gs for about rs. 7-8 k is a better smartphone than a NEW karbonn!
despite all the drawbacks listed here for 'obsolete' apple technology...
if you get poor battery performance, just have the 3gs battery swapped for about rs. 1 k like i'm planning to do next week [mid oct].
