My J300a Review:

[Treatz]

I have been running the J300a now for a good 2 weeks as my main line and wanted to share my finding on the phone itself.
Please note. I am running a Rogers retail J300a that has R2BA010 SW on it.

http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wire...300A&summary=1

Reception
The phone worked well for me. I had no complaints about it's ability to make calls, or receive them. My guess is that the loop based antenna gives the antenna just enough clearance from the phone itself to work effectively as an eternal stub would, but not protrute or poke like stub antennas can do. Also, while i myself never used one, people seemed to say the SE Z200 had horrible reception properties. Let's not confuse that phone with the rounded antenna with this one since the J300a worked well for me and passed all my tests in the poorer areas I like to test in.

I took it up and down bayview between stoufville sideroad and bloomington. Again, this part of bayview is new and didn't exist prior. I Find it a real good area to test on the move calls since it gets real weak and depending on the phone, you could get a band handoff and dropped call. The J300a worked Fine up and down this stretch of bayview and I maintained a clean conversation with Gadgetmon during this. He also mentioned that the J300a has excellent outgoing sound qualities, buthad a bit to much background noise when compared to the V360 i'm also testing. My guess is that most flips have the mic closer to your mouth, as a result can turn down the gains. Candybar phones simply don't have this luxury as the mic is usually hanging out by the side of your face

The phone handoff was pretty pronounced though, you could really hear it

Sound quality
I generally don't like to comment on sound quality, since it's a personal preference, but I found the J300a to be good sounding, and a shy quiet in louder areas. I've also been told that the J300a is very "natural sounding" to the receiving party

Cantina test
Phone passed with flying colours. Nothing negative to report.

Aesthetics
The phone has a neat look to it. In the box there are pink AND black faceplates just in case you're not a fan of Pink.
the faceplates come off pretty easily, except for the front faceplate which requires you to press in the clasp and then move the front off. I scratched my clasp trying to make sure you get a blunt object to do this like they recommend in the manual. like a match stick or something



screen
The screen is a 65k CSTN piece that has 128x128 pixels. It's nothing fancy, like most CSTN units. It doewn't work that well outside or in sunlight. Then again, we are talking about a 19.99 phone that most dealers just do for free on 3 year term



Menu setup
The menu is classic SE. Grid arranged icons, but still able to access quickly via numbers. SE's UI has never disappointed me. It's clear, straightforward, and is logical.

Sms
The SE J300a features SE's excellent T9 implementation.
nothing much new or changed here so I'll just borrow from my Z500 review:
SE, quite simply is The king of T9 sms
SE T9 rules the roost for ease of use. It allows custom words, it allows custom alphanumberic words, IE, Z500, 6230b GSM850. It has a list of words as you're typing which can be turned off if you don't like it. It guesses the word even if you're not done writing it, IE, I type Snowe and SonyEricsson pops up because I've saved it in the dictionary. It has the ability for you to go into your custom dictionary and see the words you've entered and delete some that you no longer want or need which is amazing for when you slip while entering a custom word and enter it wrong, like Fidm instead of Fido... whoops!!

Keypad / Navigation controlls
The phone is small, as so the Keypad is small. I didn't really have any issues using it though. The keys are on the stiff side providing good tactile feel to them. The directional joypad works well, but takes a little getting used to how much pressure is needed. Once you get the hang of it you'll be flying around the J300a's menu system.

you can also customize the 4 way joypad



as well, here is the J300a under lowlight situations:


phonebook scrolling speeds
like the Z500, the J300a really scrolls your names/numbers quite quickly if you hold the button down. This comes in handy at times.

Connectivity
The J300a lacks BT and IR. a cable is required for connectivity on this unit. However, I was still able to get my outlook contacts complete with email addresses, onto my J300a using a usb/serial cable I had and Float's mobile agent which is freeware sw and easily found on the net.

Email client
the J300a also features an Email client, which seems to be standard faire with SE.
The Email client works well, even with my sympatico mail box which requires SSL secured connections.

speakerphone
The J300a has a speakerphone in the unit. while the quality is good, i find it to quiet to use in anywhere other then the office.

Battery
Battery life was good. Not stellar, but I'd get a full day out of it with heavy hammering. the unit itself is a 750mah lithium polymer battery. Nice little unit for a phone of this size considering it's a CSTN screen, and has no bluetooth/IR to drain the battery.

Memory / features
The phone itself features 12 megs of memory. For a phone without a camera, that's a lot. using the cable you can load it up with ringtones/wallpapers/themes and games. You can also DL this content directly from Rogers or SE using wap.

Organizer
The J300a features a few tools in the organizer
there is:
*calendar
*tasks
*notes
*applications
*alarms
*timer
*stopwatch
*calculator
*code memo

Calendar is pretty straightforward. You can have appointements.
Tasks acn set up various things for you to do.
notes a virtual scratch pad where you can leave yourself messages
applications where you would save java apps
alarms single use or recurrent with your choice of days
timer time how long you can go without hofo
stopwatch time how fast you can drink that huartz
calculator Rogers + GSM = MADSEEG!
code memo private area where you can keep PINs and passwords etc

Ratings
Performance.....................8
Build quality......................8
Battery life........................8
Features for $...................6
Keypad.............................7

Overall..........................7

it's a good little phone, but i really think it's time was about a year ago with the 3120. Non camera phones don't really do well, and as a result, I expect the K300a over on Fido to be more successfull
http://www.fido.ca/portal/product/ha...&lang=en&cat=1

Pros
*Great RF
*Email client
*SE's UI
*battery life
*price
*good stable software
*speakerphone good for outgoing audio
*SE's excellent phonebook implementation
*easy to find cables/cla/sw for the unit
*ability to customise 4 way joypad
*uses same classic SE connector

cons
*speakerphone not that loud
*cstn screen
*no camera (con to many)

[dragon208]

also i think another con would be the keypad's very SMALL for the average size person...

[harrytse]

perhaps it's the colour scheme but it's very Ericsson T66.

by my interpretation, a prounounced handoff would mean it can clearly heard.

[feerie]

thx for the review. treatz.
I scratched my J300 as well when changing the darn front faceplate.

[Chillin]

You say you don't like to comment on sound quality as it is personal preference, but then list "SE's UI" as a PRO.

Isn't that also personal preference? I am not a fan or SE's UI... Actually I hate it. (a lot)

I would take Moto's or Nokia's (or Palm's ) over SE's any day.

...but that is just my personal preference

[didouche]

Treatz if u could find someone to lend u the K300a from fido and do a review on it that would be great because no one does any reviews of any of the fido phones

BTW Good review

[alpha tag]

so arima got the loop antenna right this time?

[Treatz]

You say you don't like to comment on sound quality as it is personal preference, but then list "SE's UI" as a PRO.

Isn't that also personal preference? I am not a fan or SE's UI... Actually I hate it. (a lot)

I would take Moto's or Nokia's (or Palm's ) over SE's any day.

...but that is just my personal preference

Yup, I personally like SE's UI.
sound quality can be determined by the user, but since I am reviewing the J300, I like the UI

[Soul.sacrifice]

2003 called - They want their T226 back

[JwY]

Yup, I personally like SE's UI.
sound quality can be determined by the user, but since I am reviewing the J300, I like the UI

i like it too
one of the main reasons why i like se

anyways good review

[JP]

2003 called - They want their T226 back

You must be referring to the T290a courtesy phone because the J300a is nothing like it

[Soul.sacrifice]

Its a T226 with a 65k screen and speakerphone.

[alpha tag]

2003 called - They want their T226 back

the market called - they want nokia to actually listen to what the market demands, not give them what they think they want

[Soul.sacrifice]

Quiet You !!! I love my 3220 raver phone. The lights on the side are very professional.

[JP]

Its a T226 with a 65k screen and speakerphone.

And a new body.

Your comment makes no sense....it's like saying:

Proc, 2003 called, they want their 7250i back (referring to your 3220)

By the way, Treatz,

how do you find the Lithium-Polymer battery?

I haven't seen that high-performance battery around since the Nokia 6310i/40i/60 series

(Lithium Polymer gives incredible battery life....supposedly)