vB Easy Archive - NEC 515 review on Rogers GSM

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NEC 515 review on Rogers GSM
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Posted by: .FLiP.MATiC.

Here's my review on the NEC 515 Quad-band used on Rogers GSM service in Toronto.

Reception performance:
Ok I have read up many reviews/feedback from people who have this phone in the U.S. on AT&T service and many or the majority have rated the phone really bad! Many say it is the placement of the internal antenna being at the buttom of the phone.
From my 3 days of use, I can say that the reception is pretty solid! For example, many places where phones only use 1900 band could not receive, the 515 gets a good reception on the indicator. The 515 easily has around 3-4(4 bars in total) in my basement, theatres, and many places where I could not get a signal with other of my previous phones.
At rare times, the signal jumps weak to single but from what I have seen, it isn't frequent and it lasts only for a second or two when i notice.

Build quality, menus and buttons:
Phone is very solid built, there is a bit of creaking but only if you really squeeze the phone. The buttons feel good but placement of the buttons on top could have been placed better, many times I am pressing the mmode/phonebook button instead of end talk and to go 'back" is the clear/delete button under the center arrow keys(Like samsung phones) which makes it feel weird since many phones use the right side to go back.
There are also two addition buttons on the front of the phone, I guess NEC wanted to put them infront instead of the side of the phone, because I don't have the manual, I only know that the only use is to adjust the volume while the phone is open...appearently you cannot silent or disconnect the call by pressing them.

High Definition Mobile(HDM) screen and others:
From the pictures I have on the phone(factory), they seem pretty impressive with a 2.2" screen, not as big as Sharp's but very comparable to the GX20's screen which is really good. It is a shame that NEC did not implement a exterior screen but it looks as sleek without it.
LED - On the front of the phone, NEC has put a LED which can flash 7 different colours(blue, red, purple, light blue, pearl, green and yellow) which allows you to customize to different contacts from your phonebook. It would have been more appealing if the LED was a bigger shape than a V and would have been even better it if was used as a service light.
40 cord ringtones - Ringtones on the NEC 515 are pretty cool but I'd still prefer my own. The cord of the ringtones go up tp 40 cords which is pretty good since alot of the other phones are less and most of samungs are 40 too. Ringtones are loud but not as loud as Samsung and Innostream phones and they are very loud!
Battery life - Goes on pretty strong, on a average use the 515 lasts just about 3 days.
Games - Dunno, I guess the previous owner deleted the games on the phone but I hear that this phone supports Java games. The biggest thing that I heard about this is it's "DoJa" technology which means that DoCoMo Japan has made a seperate chip especially for games.
Connectivity - Ok...Can't seem to find out what the setting are on this since it requests a DNS, HTTP port, and HTTPS port. Usually most phones just require APN, username, portal, password and proxy server so without the first three mention on top, you cannot connect. You can use a data cable but I can't seem to find one in Toronto. The IRDA is very limited since it is only phone to phone and the only phones it will communicate with is the NEC 515 and 525.
Memory/storage - 1mb to store your pictures, ringtones and games. I cannot comment whether this is good enough since I have no had the chance to customize my phone yet.

Conclusion
In the end, the price of what you pay for this phone is worth it for a quad-band phone, it may not have a camera or exterior screen but the simple-ness of the phone pleases me. Reception is great from what I've experienced and the screen is probably just right.
One thing I would really wished is that NEC would have just made this phone just a tad but smaller.