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There Once Was an Ugly Duckling?
Pros
Vibrating alert, voice dialing, calculator, battery life, weight, an endless list
Cons
Not pretty, no predictive dictionary
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
As a first mobile phone the Savvy is almost perfect, though not without some small problems i.e. the screen size and looks.
I was the proud owner of one of these little ?beauties? for about eleven months, and with it being my first mobile phone I was more than pleased with the Philips Savvy.
The features of this phone are clearly the main asset here. The Philips Savvy is simply slitting at the seams with handy features, many of which only just appear on top-of-the-range-Nokia phones. Voice activated dialing, clock, vibrating alert, text messaging, alarm, calculator, a huge battery life are all things this phone can offer and all for about #60. This phone seems amazing value, and appears to offer so much. The build of the phone, for example, is second to none. In the eleven months I owned a Savvy DB I subjected it to a grueling torrent of physical abuse, and it never gave up the ghost once. I accidentally dropped it onto a concrete floor outside a pub once, and was pleased to see it completely unscathed; a friend of mine split a whole pint of Guinness (funny tasting Irish beer) onto it, completely soaking it, and within three days of gently drying it was back working perfectly again, (except, however, for a faint smell of toffee.) The phone is tough and when held in your hand feels solidly built and robust, the antenna is flex free, but can easily be removed by unscrewing it. And all of this coming from a phone weighing a medium 146 grams and costing the same as a vintage bottle of Moet champagne. The phone still amazes me with the array of thumbs-up points it gets due to the features it sports. The battery life too is huge, seven days is average, (I just eked a full two weeks out of it once!) The nickel metal hydride technology means it can be ?topped-up? without fear of wreaking it; and it charges completely in just 75 minutes!
The menu structure is a little different to any other phone I?ve had the pleasure of using, though not completely undecipherable. The Savvy uses a four direction navigational key for moving through each of the menu stages. The navigation is fairly easy and self explanatory, (bearing in mind I?m a hardcore Nokia fascist,) with the handy iconic graphics appearing in the left-hand side of the minuscule screen to help indicate where in the menu maze you are. Accessing these menus is speedy via a dedicated red button.
The inevitable downsides to this phone are frankly very few and far between, though they are present. The size of the screen is very disappointing; with it being half the size of a Nokia 7110 screen. Users are forced to squint at this postage stamp sized display to types a text message and navigate the menus. In fact the screen is only three lines of text high, which is annoying, and when compared to other mobile phones out there at the same price, it?s a little absurd.
The phone doesn?t have a ?T9 Predictive Text Messaging Dictionary? (a form of artificial intelligence software designed to help users with text messaging) either, which is apparent on some more costly phones. If you?ve become accustomed to rocket-fast text message typing from using T9 Productive Dictionary, and you move to this phone you?ll really notice the difference.
The second worry about the Savvy is the esthetics. It?s not the pretties child to be born of the positively inbred Philips litter, and with the small screen this phone looks positively nasty. The colours are boring, the buttons are shapeless and lifeless?it?s just not a Nokia, and therefore it doesn?t stir my trousers as some other phones do. Ho hum.
This phone is doubtlessly a little princess, and with her weight being able to fit comfortably into all but the smallest of dresses, and with her many features being able to attract all of the best would-be princes. However she isn?t a princesses of beauty, and will probably only get to kiss horrid green frogs instead of getting to kiss real princes.
The features of this phone are clearly the main asset here. The Philips Savvy is simply slitting at the seams with handy features, many of which only just appear on top-of-the-range-Nokia phones. Voice activated dialing, clock, vibrating alert, text messaging, alarm, calculator, a huge battery life are all things this phone can offer and all for about #60. This phone seems amazing value, and appears to offer so much. The build of the phone, for example, is second to none. In the eleven months I owned a Savvy DB I subjected it to a grueling torrent of physical abuse, and it never gave up the ghost once. I accidentally dropped it onto a concrete floor outside a pub once, and was pleased to see it completely unscathed; a friend of mine split a whole pint of Guinness (funny tasting Irish beer) onto it, completely soaking it, and within three days of gently drying it was back working perfectly again, (except, however, for a faint smell of toffee.) The phone is tough and when held in your hand feels solidly built and robust, the antenna is flex free, but can easily be removed by unscrewing it. And all of this coming from a phone weighing a medium 146 grams and costing the same as a vintage bottle of Moet champagne. The phone still amazes me with the array of thumbs-up points it gets due to the features it sports. The battery life too is huge, seven days is average, (I just eked a full two weeks out of it once!) The nickel metal hydride technology means it can be ?topped-up? without fear of wreaking it; and it charges completely in just 75 minutes!
The menu structure is a little different to any other phone I?ve had the pleasure of using, though not completely undecipherable. The Savvy uses a four direction navigational key for moving through each of the menu stages. The navigation is fairly easy and self explanatory, (bearing in mind I?m a hardcore Nokia fascist,) with the handy iconic graphics appearing in the left-hand side of the minuscule screen to help indicate where in the menu maze you are. Accessing these menus is speedy via a dedicated red button.
The inevitable downsides to this phone are frankly very few and far between, though they are present. The size of the screen is very disappointing; with it being half the size of a Nokia 7110 screen. Users are forced to squint at this postage stamp sized display to types a text message and navigate the menus. In fact the screen is only three lines of text high, which is annoying, and when compared to other mobile phones out there at the same price, it?s a little absurd.
The phone doesn?t have a ?T9 Predictive Text Messaging Dictionary? (a form of artificial intelligence software designed to help users with text messaging) either, which is apparent on some more costly phones. If you?ve become accustomed to rocket-fast text message typing from using T9 Productive Dictionary, and you move to this phone you?ll really notice the difference.
The second worry about the Savvy is the esthetics. It?s not the pretties child to be born of the positively inbred Philips litter, and with the small screen this phone looks positively nasty. The colours are boring, the buttons are shapeless and lifeless?it?s just not a Nokia, and therefore it doesn?t stir my trousers as some other phones do. Ho hum.
This phone is doubtlessly a little princess, and with her weight being able to fit comfortably into all but the smallest of dresses, and with her many features being able to attract all of the best would-be princes. However she isn?t a princesses of beauty, and will probably only get to kiss horrid green frogs instead of getting to kiss real princes.
