vB Easy Archive - Amoy WP-S1 - AKA 3 Skypephone

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Amoy WP-S1 - AKA 3 Skypephone
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Posted by: cosmicnut

I decided I needed a new phone, my W850i was great but its too bulky and heavy for the features it has compared with modern phones. I bought it for the MP3 player capabilities but no longer use them (and phones with the same features are now smaller and lighter)

Being a 3 customer, I headed into the 3 store to see if I could find a cheap, smaller, lighter PAYG phone I could shove my contract SIM into.

The Cheapest one on display was the 3 skypephone AKA the AMOY WP-S1 at a price tag of £50 UKP

Now I'm not a big user of SKYPE but some friends are, so I thought, new phone, free skype calls, CHEAP... Wheres the catch...

Well the catch is 3's Fair use policies and service requirement, but thats for the 3 mobile thread!

The model I got was the black version, the other 2 white versions are made of a shiny plastic and do look a little cheap. The black model has a matt "soft" plastic feel. The sides are metal and give the phone a pretty sturdy feel. For a plastic phone, it has a good feel to it

First job is getting the SIM and batter in. Here we have one of the most talked about flaws of the design. The back does not have a clip to keep it closed, instead, it has a small (but pretty powerfull) magnet on the bottom of the battery back! I had an original V3 that had a magnet on the carry case and know how much trouble this can cause with magnetic stripes (usually on tube/train tickets). It's also easy to remove the battery back when you don't mean it (especially as the W850 I used to have was a slider!).
To be honest, its a minor flaw.

Then comes the next small issues. You get a free 256mb Transflash (micro SD) card with the phone, once you open the batter back you can see where it fits, UNDER THE BATTERY! Your not going to want to change this one on the move. Then putting the SIM in, the metal guide rails aren't well placed and you scratch the SIM pusing it in, leaving plastic shavings that you need to get out.
The battery slips in easily and putting the strange back on is pretty simple thanks to the magnet.

The phone has only 1 port, a mini USB reminisant of the V3 I had. This powers the phone, connects it to a PC and allows a headset to be connected. Of course the only headset you can probably use comes with the phone and is not exactly best quality. I might check my old V3 accessories and see if its wired the same. It has a rubber cover thats pretty thin, I can imagine that pulling off very quickly.
I plugged in the charger and very bright screen came to life with a pretty good battery recharge animation.
Powering up the phone (when charging you just press the OK button, otherwise it uses the red phone down key) you are greeted by a 3 logo, a skype logo and an iSkoot logo. Talk about advertising! Apart from the 3 logo, this is an animation you can change. Shutdown is the same.

This is where I was really starting to be impressed. The screen is very bright and clear. Not the best resolution but readable in almost any light.
The controls feel solid and have a great tactile feedback. The directional control is the metal ring around the big "SKYPE" button that acts as the main select control. Although it looks a small area, the square is really easy and comfortable to use and I have rarely hit the select button when I didn't mean to. The two buttons under the screen are the usual soft buttons that help with the menu selection. Under them, you have the menu key and clear key. Under that you have the call controls and the numeric pad.

The menu system is clear and easy to follow with large icons for the phones functions and a text description above it. The icons are logical and easy to see.

The phone status controls are at the top of the screen and are pretty, usefull and easy to understand. One most won't have seen before is the SKYPE logo, if you have the skype software, this works the same as the system try icon, showing your skype status.

Overall the OS feels like the OS in the LG U880 I had. Its solid, reliable, easy to use, if a little dated looks wise. Of course, its not as skinnable as the SE/Nokias with the only change being to the standby background. When not used the screen blanks and it automatically applies the keylock, a usefull feature. Pressing a button lights the screen to show a black display with date/time, or a dialog with any missed calls or incoming messages.

The contacts list is the same style as the LG, allowing you to see USIM contacts, phone contacts or a mixture. It also allows you to copy the to and from the USIM. Contacts in phone memory can have extra details like URL and more importantly for this phone, their SKYPE ID. You can make a SKYPE call by finding the contact in your normal contacts list, choosing the skpe entry and hitting call. An icon by their entry will even show you if their skype client is connected!

Texting is the same as the LG (and close to SE), the T9 is pretty fast and easy to use, beinging up the insert symbol menu and you get the number pad mapped to different symbols you can insert. You can switch on delivery reports automatically (unlike the N93 where you could only do it on a per message basis). When you send a text it tells you its sending in background mode and allows you to use the menu system, it then beeps/buzzes to tell you its sent, then beeps/buzzes when the message is delivered. One thing to note is that you can send the same message to multiple people simply by marking more than one number.

Phone calls are easy to make and are pretty good quality, although it does have a wierd effect. The mic is pretty sensitive and you can hear quite a lot of your own background noise in your own ear but thats ignorable and the other end can hear you quite well. Not the best call quality but perfectly acceptable.

As for media, this phones not an iPod killer for sure. The MP3 player is basic, you can play video in 3GP format but its not the best quality, although very watchable. Part of the problem with this is the screens viewing angle, especially when in fullscreen/landscape. You often fing yourself tilting the phone to try and get a better view. It's a tad annoying but only for video and the camera.

It is a camera phone, it lacks the front camera so you can't video call (had a 3 contract for 2+ years and NEVER made a video call!). The camera is actually pretty good. 2MP, fixed focus. Its not a great "camera" and you can't use it in the dark as it has not light or flash. The pics are a little flat but are not the worst I have seen on a cameraphone. The controls are mounted on the side of the phone so you can hold it like a camera. The screen gets in the way here, the narrow viewing angle can make lining up a shot a tad difficult.

Connectivity is not too bad. It does have bluetooth and when I connected my Motorola HT820 stereo headset, I was supprised to find it had A2DP and media control built in as protocols. So I got great sound from the media player and was able to "next track" with the headset. Sound was actually pretty loud, one of the loudest I've heard over A2DP.
PC Connectivity can be made over bluetooth but is a snap with the mini USB port, no custom cables or connectors. The software packaged with the phone gives you control over the phonebook and modem drivers but thats about it. Its pretty easy to use if not totally intuative.

The phone has the usual web browser which works well. The only issue is the screen resolution which can make some pages blocky. It's also compatable with 3's X-Series services which add a little extra (for a small cost). Java is onbard for games and apps, including the MSN Messenger download.

SKYPE!
This phone has a built in SKYPE client. This uses the data connection and works like the desktop version. You can call other SKYPE users as you normally would. It also includes SKYPE messaging (like MSN Messenger). You can make SKYPE out calls to landlines and mobiles in your own and other countries at SKYPE rates not 3 rates. Calls to SKPE don't come out of your bundle either. There is a fair use policy of 5000 minutes of SKYPE a month (incoming and outgoing included) and 100000 SKYPE messages. Call quality is lower than GSM and there is a delay to it but its definalty usable. SKYPE in will also work so calls to and from other countries are pretty cheap.

Conclusion

Pros
Small and light
It may be plastic but it feels good quality
Fully featured including A2DP bluetooth
CHEAP!!!!
SKYPE built in, showing your contacts and their status

Cons
Build quality not perfect especially in battery area
No real clip on battery compartment
Screen resolution a little low and narrow view angle

Personally I love this phone. Its small, light and does everything I wanted. Its not the smartest, its not the best looking and it has its flaws but for the price 3's charging! As I use the phone, I am more impressed by its simplicity and useability. If you are not into the "latest thing" or a fasion statement this is a brilliant phone! If you know people in other countries then this is one of the cheapest options for global calling.