Introduction
We usually try to write a review about all handsets that we can obtain. We sometimes can publish something about those that aren’t officially available in our region, but most of the times we test handsets that are available in our country as well.
Still – no matter how hard we’d like to – we can’t cover the market in 100%. The reasons are trivial, the first is that there are more phones launched in a year than there are workdays and then there are some handsets that we cannot obtain, and sometimes it happens that we just simply miss a model. It might be no wonder that this happens now and then with Samsung products, as the Korean manufacturer launches so many handsets that simply cannot be tracked.
C170 is one of these. It has been announced over a year ago, but we didn’t have it until now, as although it is available from network providers as well, it’s no outstanding model, it’s a cheap, simple, low-end device, currently its SIM-free price is about 50 euros. One of the local network operators now sells C180 which is almost the same, it just has Bluetooth, but no FM radio. But it costs 40 euros in prepay package. C170 has been provided by GSM Takács, and although the box shows a red handset, it had a black one inside.
I didn’t expect anything special from the handset. And as you will see, it has even less to offer.
Exterior
The box had a stereo headset inside besides the handset, which is normal, as the phone has an FM radio. C170 is a rather graceful device, it has a normal design and candybar form-factor. It’s surprisingly slim, it weighs only 67 grams, and although it’s all plastic, there are no problems with the assembly quality, although that’s usual for Samsung gadgets. The one we had for testing had a T-Mobile logo above its display, so it has probably been imported, which means that it’s available at foreign network operators as well.
The 128 x 128 pixels large cSTN display is no world-champion. It has a view angle of about 1 degree, and visibility in bright sunlight is… well, it’s very limited. The keypad is nice, the tasteful design matches with the great usability, but experienced testers and readers might notice that instead of the usual 5-way navigation button, which is characteristic of Samsung phones, now we only have a small up-down button in the center.
There are no buttons on the sides of the phones, there is only a small lid on the right side, which covers a single connector, this is where can plug in the charger or the headset. The back is also desolate, but here the plastic is more rugged, which provides a firm grip. That’s all it knows, we can find no memory card slot or camera, but what I’ve been missing were the volume control buttons which would make it easier to decrease the volume of the terrible keypad tones.
Basics
Cheap Samsung models are usually based on the same scheme. C170, however, is kind of an exception, as it has a different menu. As there’s no 5-way navigation button, we can move around only vertically. In order to avoid this being a problem, the designers have simply made the icons disappear and we only have a list view in the menu. Customizability is limited as well, we can change the wallpaper of the main screen and we can tamper with brightness and contrast, but that’s it.
The phonebook is very basic, we can store 500 contacts in it. A contact can have three phone numbers and an email address, although this doesn’t have much practical use, as the handset has no MMS or email support. Our main issue will be speed, as even an old, three-legged turtle moves faster than we do in the menu. This is mostly annoying when unlocking the keypad, as we press menu-*, but until the phone confirms it, we won’t be in the mood anymore to press keys.
Two of the usual Samsung issues have been solved. The “center button opens WAP” symptom is now not present, as there is no center button. Fortunately they managed to disable the automatic T9 when editing messages, but the phone still can’t ring and vibrate at the same time. The tones are terrible and we won’t put much extra ones on the 600 KB internal memory. The speaker is incredibly loud and it also has an incredible distortion: something for something.
The PIM functions include a calendar with month view which can have a single type of entry that has a text and an alarm time, that’s it. The alarm clock can handle more alarm times, which is great; the calculator is so basic that after entering an operation I’ve been seriously thinking how will it display the result, and finally the call accept key was the winner of the contest.
Others
In terms of multimedia I can mention the FM radio, as there’s no camera or even a music player. The radio, however, is good, we only have to connect the headset. With the sound note feature we can record all kinds of noises, but the phone we had for testing wasn’t willing to do this for some unknown reason. That’s all that C170 knows, as it has no games or any Java support at all.
Oh, but we have a WAP browser, hallelujah, it’s in the entertainment menu. This reveals that the phone has GPRS support, but then why is there no MMS? Okay, there’s nothing really to send (as there’s no camera), but at least it could support accepting them. The browser is of course very basic, we shouldn’t visit HMTL pages as they do no good with it.
The small little battery under the hood has a really good performance, it kept the Samsung online for five days with a charge, which is not that surprising if we consider the number of feature, but nowadays this is still something to be proud of.
Summary? I think it’s unnecessary. Such as the phone, as with its price of 40-50 euros it’s no deal, even cheaper handsets have more features. The ace of this category is currently Vodafone 331, but here’s Sony Ericsson Z300i, Alcatel Mandarina Duck or Nokia 2680, and we might also mention E250 from Samsung, which owns this phone for sure.
Bog
Translated by Szaszati
Samsung C170 has been provided by GSM Takács. Thanks.
The handset can be purchased online at www.gsmtakacs.hu.
Specifications
| Samsung C170 | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 105 x 42 x 8.9 mm | |
| Weight | 67 grams | |
| Available colors | Red, black | |
| Display | ||
| Display diagonal | 1.52” | |
| Display resolution | 128 x 128 pixels | |
| Display type | CSTN | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | 500 entries | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | 200 / - | |
| Internal memory | 600KB | |
| Memory expandability | - | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 900/1800 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / no | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | no / no | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | no / no | |
| WiFi | no | |
| USB | - | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | no / no | |
| GPS receiver | no | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | no | |
| Vibra function | yes | |
| Built-in handsfree | yes | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | no / no | |
| Sound recorder | yes (max. 30 seconds) | |
| Alarm clock | yes, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | T9 | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Samsung | |
| WAP / HTML browser | 2.0 / no | |
| E-mail client | no | |
| Java | no | |
| Games | none | |
| Currency converter | yes | |
| Extra software | - | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | no | |
| Secondary camera | no | |
| Video recording | no | |
| Music player | no | |
| Equalizer | no | |
| FM radio | yes | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 730 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | 270 hours | |
| Talk time | 150 minutes | |
| Other | ||
| - | ||
