b.mobile BOLT

Recently I grabbed this cheap 3G phone for fun sake and to explore the latest improvement made over the previous popular model "b.mobile U1280" - which is actually a SIM-locked telcos re-branded version of Huawei U1280 from the successful telecommunication company simply known as "Huawei" from China.

Just like the previous model, I believe that BOLT is also made by Huawei for B.Mobile - one of the 2 mobile phone network operators in the country. Then again, this is based on previous experience and personal assumption.

You can buy this phone together with a new SIM Card (phone number) for a mere B$ 99.00 (or SGD 99.00) only with B$5.00 worth of prepaid credit inside. I think it's quite cheap...

The catch is that this phone is a "SIM-locked" type and that means you can only use B.Mobile SIM Card or line for it - any other SIM Card from other operator will not work... just like what Vodafone did in the UK, Europe and maybe also Australia. They provided cheap phone but you must stick to their network (usually around 2 years) - but in here it's forever....

Nonetheless, let's have a look at this BOLT...

The box;





Out of the box, you will get all these stuff - the CD for driver/software, the phone, the user guide book / manual, charger, USB cable and lastly the stereo headset.




Oh yeah, you will also get the SIM card with your phone number accordingly....




Let's have a look at the phone...












The rear side...




Equipped with 2MP camera - "Wow".... frankly speaking, I never even bothered with the camera as it's just a fixed focus camera so Close up and Macro shoot is not possible. Actually 2MP camera (or maybe 3MP) for a mobile phone is quite OK as long as it comes with the "Auto Focus" technology.

I remember using the old Sony Ericsson K750i Cybershot - with 2MP Auto Focus Camera, it was fun...




Back to this BOLT, this fixed focus 2MP camera are only good for simple photos of portrait or scenery maybe but don't expect too much from it...

So if you want to use your mobile phone camera for good - make sure to get those with "Auto Focus", usually the high end phone that comes with Carl-Zeiss or Schneider-Kreuznach or whatever "special name lens" and those Sony Ericsson Cybershot phones have the "Auto Focus" embedded in their camera.

On this BOLT, the camera can produce image at maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 and also a 3GP video of QCIF quality (176X144)

Again, I don't bother to try them....




The keypad layout;





One of the improvement over the previous model (U1280) is that this BOLT is bigger in size and thus the screen size is also bigger - 320 x 240 pixel - about 2.8 inches




The menu layout... pretty easy to understand...




The BOLT with the stereo headset attached... apart from listening to music, you can also use it for talking (hands-free while driving).... they now use the smaller 2.5mm jack though :-(





The charger...




The cable of the charger is also the USB Cable.... 2 in 1 - very nice...





This is where you plug the mini USB cable on the phone while the other end should go to your normal USB port on computer.





There you can see the memory card slot - they use the Micro SD Card format.




Another improvement from the previous model, this card slot is no longer hidden inside the phone battery/SIM Card area - now you can easily eject the card without removing your phone battery....




2 simple Java games are provided but not something that I die to play.... I prefer my pink Nintendo DS Lite.





eBuddy is pre-installed together with Google Maps (which I have deleted already). The Opera browser and Nimbuzz were installed by me. It's good now that the newly installed applications will automatically goes into the Java Box instead of Games folder like it was in the previous model....




The Opera Mini browser for mobile phones (Java platform) - I prefer to use this over the phone's default browser as this Opera is much better in terms of page display, performance and traffic management.






The built in browser is not bad actually - I believe it offer average performance. Its good if you just want to access those WAP sites.




Another improvement is on the Music Player. Now it comes with "visualization effects" which is not a big deal but nice to have....





On top of that, the Music Player also comes with "Equalizer" now... which is quite good, I like it a lot...




And the most important part which also have to do with the phone operating system and file browsing system - now I can easily select which songs I want to include in the particular "playlist" as the operating system and the Music Player able to read the Memory Card content accordingly.



In the previous model (U1280) - probably the only thing that I hate about it, even if you put all your music files in the respective folder accordingly, by the time when you create your "playlist" and want to choose which songs to add.... the nightmare begin..... the phone will instead sort all the files with the latest one transferred into the memory card will appear on top of the list and the rest are below it...

But now, I feel like using a Sony Ericsson phone....

This improvement is on top of my wish list from the previous model....





Another improvement which I also like a lot is on the built in Currency Converter program.




Last time they only have less than 10 currencies - USD and JPY are missing from the list.

Now they have 23 currencies with all the major currencies are inculded - USD / GBP / EUR / JPY / SGD / AUD / NZD / THB and many others...

This is another good improvement.




Other than this, the phone have Bluetooth, FM Radio, Basic Organisers and push E-Mail capabilities. All the basic thing but sometimes you don't really need all of them.

The BOLT in my hand...




The BOLT side by side with my pink Nintendo DS Lite - Pink power = 3x more power, 3x more speed, 3x more fun....




B.Mobile and their partner (presumably Huawei China) have done tremendous job in improving their phones over the past 2 or 3 years. With new model, new features introduced and improvement here and there were added - I think in the future it is possible for us to expect further improvement with newer models to be produced.

Overall, B.Mobile offered this BOLT to those who wanted to subscribed to their 3G services or to those who just wanted to try the cheap crappy 3G phones with basic multimedia features that can do the basic tasks accordingly at such attractive price (B$99 /SGD 99 / USD 73 / GBP 48 / AUD 83 / MYR 230 / IDR 659,602 / THB 2,300 ).

And remember the fact that you will also get a brand new SIM Card/phone numbers/line together with the phone - a starter prepaid kit valued at B$ 35.00 / SGD 35.00 - that means you only pay B$65.00 for the phone.

They never promised full office suits productivity or wonderful multimedia features.... so don't expect anything extravaganza....

For just a simple phone with some nice basic multimedia features, I think this phone is a great value for money but the problem is many people tend to believe that when they get this phone they will get some wonderful gadgets that can conquer the world....

If you want better 3G phones, then spend more and get those Nokia or Sony Ericsson or maybe you can consider LG as well - after all the prices of previous year model is getting lower and lower now so I'm sure you can grab something nice in the region of B$250 / SGD 250

But if you are not a fussy user or someone who just love to do experiments like me, then you can consider this BOLT.


end

Comments

  1. Cellphoen became cheaper and cheaper these days..................

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  3. have a problem using this bmobile bolt handphone.. i cannot install ebuddy on it..coz the handphone is unrecognize.. do you have a solution for this..?

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  4. godbreaker7, sorry I don't know, on this reviewed unit, the E-Buddy is there already.

    ReplyDelete

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