royal101

A couple of quick words before I get started?

This is designed to be an informative unbiased review from my own personal experience with the xcute DV2. For reference purposes I?ve had quite an extensive list of previous phones most recently including SE k750i, Nokia 6630 and Moto V3 Razor which gives me a fair idea of how the various features of this phone compare to current models from other manufacturers. Also in previous threads there?s been discussion about pre-release versions some people have of this phone with ture colour written on the inside screen and stability issues. My DV2 being used for this review is a ?final? release model with True Colour TFT on the inside screen and xcute on the outer.

Anyway ill give this review my best shot?

Package and Contents

The DV2 came packaged in a small black box with strange writing and symbols all over it, so I didn?t waste much time and opened it straight up. Everything was packed into the box quite nicely, with the regular protective plastic cover over the screens ect, what was impressive was how much was in the box?

- Battery
- Charger
- Audio / Video out cable
- Hands free
- 512mb Mini SD.
- Software CD
- User Manual (foreign language so not of much use)

A decent amount of bundled extras when compared to the average box contents of other phones from big name manufacturers.

Physical Aspects

Having only seen the phone in photos before receiving mine I was pleasantly surprised by the small size of the handset, definitely smaller that it appears in most pictures. Weighing in at around 110g it has a nice solid but not overly heavy feel to it. The black glossy finish looks impressive with its silver highlights but is a major fingerprint magnet and does feel a bit plasticy.

The xcute trademark bulb that protrudes from the top left hand side looks rather odd at first glance but serves the purpose of housing the phones high level camera module, I?m not going to give a verdict of weather this looks good or bad because it comes down to personal opinion, but I can say it doesn?t make the phone feel lopsided when held. The keypad is based on the basic clamshell layout with a 4 way navigational button surrounded by 4 selection buttons at the top with the alpha numerical pad beneath. The layout both looks nice with a black strip down the number pad (keys 2, 5, 8 and 0) and works well with keys bigger than those on the k750i or 6630. The only problem is that the keys are not raised at all meaning your fingers can slip onto the wrong key when you?re first getting familiar with the phone.

The build quality is of a good level with the only question mark being the rotating mechanism at the base of the screen allowing the phone to assume its default picture taking position. Although it does feel a touch weak I believe that this is just how a rotating clamshell display feels and if given the option I would keep the DV2 design the same because it allows for a great picture taking / recording position which ill cover further on.

Battery Life & RF Quality

I?m not going to quote standby times because to most people this doesn?t really give much of and idea of how long the phone lasts. On average I make about 30mins of phone calls a day and send between 5 and 10 sms. What varies is how much I use the camera. Here is a basic indication of how camera usage affects battery life.

- If camera usage is 10mins or less, phone can last about 60hours.
- If camera usage is between 30 and 60mins the phone lasts around 48 hours.
- If camera is used for anywhere over an hour the phone will need to be recharged after around 24hours.

In general the standby time is acceptable, not up there with the best but can be attributed to the phone having a large colour screen and high resolution camera.

RF performance has been fine, very similar to that of my old 6630. I do live in Western Australia though so its reception may differ in areas of the world that use different network bands. Phone calls come through with clarity very similar to that of a 6630 and I am yet to have a phone call dropout.

Display

Xcute quote that the display is 640 x 240 showing 16 million colours. When viewing videos or pictures the display is nothing short of amazing, being very crisp with nice vivid colours. The only downfall of the resolution is that the screen has an aspect ratio of 4:3 meaning the pixels are not square in shape. This can cause some text to look slightly jagged when inspected closely. Overall the DV2 display is better than both the 6630 and k750i.

User Interface

When at the standby screen the left soft key takes you to the main menu, and the right soft key takes you to your phonebook, pretty standard stuff. The 4 directions on the navigational key can be set as shortcuts to whatever functions you wish, for example mine is set to write an sms when I push left, this function can be found in both SE and Nokia phones and I?m glad it was included in the DV2 because its great to be able to jump straight to your most used features.

When you enter the main menu, you can choose to be presented with either a matrix, page or list view. I believe most people will use the matrix view which is similar to that found in the k750i. Straight away you will notice that the speed of the main menu is quite sluggish, although luckily as you enter any of the categories the speed becomes fine which is lucky because is the whole menu system was at the same speed as the main menu it would have hurt the phone a lot more. In general the menu is simple and logical, nothing ground breaking but definitely user friendly.

Where the DV2 becomes unique is its 6 different function modes which are phone, camera, gallery, video camera, voice recorder and mp3. There is a round dial on the opposite side of the phone to the camera which has six different symbols, one for each mode. Depending on which mode the DV2 is in a blue backlight illuminates the corresponding symbol. In the center of the dial there is a slightly raised round button used for taking pictures, start / stopping video clips. Below the dial is a long skinny button mostly used to change volume and then below that is a shorter skinny button which is known as the ?shift? key.


The ?shift? key is used to cycle the phone through its different functions, each time it is pressed it moves clockwise to the next mode. This makes accessing each different mode very quick and simple. By pressing the red hang up button you can instantly return from any mode back to the standby screen which is great because it saves you cycling through each function. What is also nice is you can press the ?shift? key how ever many times you wish and the phone will wait to see where you stop before it swaps into that mode. This is smart because it stops you from having to wait for every mode to load as you move around the dial through each function.

This may all sound a bit confusing but I have found that after a little practice you will be able to make your way around the DV2 very efficiently.

Messaging

Messaging on the DV2 is let down by one main problem, the lack of T9 predictive input. It does however offer an alternative called SmartABC which works similar to T9 but instead of inserting the word as you type, it displays a list of possible matching words at the bottom of the screen which u must then press enter on the one you wish to use. This input method is definitely slower than T9. Although it may seem strange to some, I have never on any of my previous phones ever used predictive input. I personally prefer the trusty old multi tap method which I mastered a long time ago on my Nokia 3310. The DV2 offers multi tap which meant messaging for me was at similar speed to any of my previous phones. Those who are accustomed to T9 though will not be sending out sms at the same speed though due to the SmartABC input system.

MMS is available on the DV2 but you must find the settings for your carrier and configure it manually. After about 10mins of searching the net, then quickly inputting the settings I had mine up and running. The MMS editor is fairly basic but does make composition very easy. I must say that received MMS look great on the large colour display.

There is no email support, which will disappoint those that use it.