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| Product: CF788 PCS phone |
Company: Ericsson |
| Web: www.ericsson.com |
Phone: 800-374-2776 |
| Platform: GSM 1900 |
SRP: US$140
Street Price: US$100 |
Cred Rating: | Special Award: |
Gadgethead that I am, I've been debating whether or not to buy a cell phone for
some time. My anti-yuppie streak runs deep and the sight of all those trendsters on cell phones roller-blading through New York City makes me wanna sow the road with ball-bearings! But with rates dropping to less than 15 cents a minute, and with all the things you can do with a cell phone these days, I figure it's time to embrace the future and start the search for a phone that will satisfy my need for high-gadgetry and fit my budget.
Ericsson is not the biggest or sexiest name in the US cell phone market; Nokia and Motorola have them easily beat, and Qualcomm has been making waves with a few innovations (the "thin phone" and the Palm OS pdQ). In a
crowded field of cell phone makers, Ericsson has yet to really stand out (in the US, anyway), especially against Nokia, it's biggest rival. But maybe Ericsson is worth a second look; they've got some great
phones and more on the horizon, and while they may not have anything that can touch the Nokia 8800
for style, they make up for it in function and price. The CF788 I tried was jam packed with
features (maybe a little too jam packed) including phone book, caller ID, last 10 calls,
programmable ring tones, voice mail, call timers, alarm functions, Short Message Service (SMS)
and all that jazz. It's also available in red, green, blue, grey or black.
The 788 sports a number key features. First, the small size is fabulous. It fits nicely in
the palm of your hand and is much smaller than the picture makes it seem. Despite it's diminuitive size, it's
got great talk time. The manual boasts 200 minutes, or 3 days on standby. I used it about 50
minutes over the course of about 5 days without a recharge (it wasn't on at night). That beats
comparable phones from Nokia and Motorola. The reception is as good as any Nokia I've used,
and better than Motorolas I've tried.
One unfortunate drawback is the one-line screen. While it does an adequate job of displaying numeric pages,
even short SMS messages scrolling by are frustrating and made me long for more display real estate. Even with the one line, I found that for most functions (phone book, paging, and caller ID), it was adequate. If you
want to use your cell phone to replace your PDA with address book, schedule, games and stuff,
this is definitely not the phone for you. The keypad leaves something to be desired as well. With it's simplistic yes/no interface and two up/down buttons, there are too few keys to support all the functions offered.
The real benefits of the Ericsson come with the accessories. Most cell phone companies have
accessories - nice leather cases that you can put your fancy little phone in -- and god-only-knows
how many different face plates you can snap on. But real accessories do something and
the Ericsson accessories do not disappoint. They've got little keyboards, IR modems,
MP3 players, and
recently demo'd, a Bluetooth headset. Unfortunately, most of these accessories are so far available only in Europe. While I haven't tried any of them, just the fact that I can get a good cheap phone now, and add the IR modem (and maybe more) later, makes the CF788 very appealing.
All in all, I probably wouldn't choose the Ericsson if I had a bottomless bank account. I'd rather
have something with a larger screen and a built-in modem. But the CF788 is small and solid, has
great versatility, and serves basic functions like paging, voice mail and calling quite
well. And at less than US$140 ($100 street), I think it outpaces Nokes and Motes in the
same price range. Because it has so much upgrade potential, I could see keeping this phone and
upgrading as my needs change. But I promise you this: if I get one, I will
not do any roller-blading with it!
- Nate Heasley [12/2/99]
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