Salora SM502

Forget Spice, Micrormax, Lava, fly and even nokia and samsung. No I am not exaggerating, I challenge you to show me a better mobile as compared to this mobile in the price range of under 2.5k. nnPros:-n1. Amazing battery backup.nn2. Good sound on speaker while listening music. nn3. Amazing sound on handsfree. nn4. the quality of recorded track, in case of call recording is even better than expensive mobiles like Nokia 5130. the quality of recorded track in case of FM recording is also very good, 100 times better as compared to my samsung metro 3g.nn5. Features like mark and unmark files to easily move or send multiple files in one go (missing in most of the mobiles of this price range)nn6. Good external memory support, there is no hang or slow speed while browsing files in Memory card ( I used 8gb memory card which came free with it.)nn7. Miss even reminder (very useful feature, not available in most of the mobiles even if they are expensive). Let me explain this feature, suppose this feature is turned on and there is a missed call or received unread message on your mobile, then you will hear a beep, repeatedly after a fixed interval of time, to remind you to check your mobile. nn8. Inbuilt FM anteena, although there is no need to pull the external antenna to listen FM if the handsfree is inserted, so the people who prefer antenna can listen with antenna, and those who prefer not to pull antenna ,can listen it like any other mobile phone using handsfree. nn9. Decent camera, just change the default settings of camera and dont forget to remove the plastic sheet from lens protector of camera. Also switch on the night mode while using it in dark. Most of the mobile need you to wait for some time, after clicking the pic before moving the camera. THE WAITING TIME IN THIS MOBILE IS VERY LESS AS COMPARED TO ANY OTHER MOBILE OF THIS PRICE RANGE. Kindly dont compare it with camera of 2mp or higher, as mentioned in specification the camera resolution is 1.3MP, and its good as compared to any other mobile having 1.3 MP camera and price below 2.5k.nn10. Nice look and good grip (the mobile doesnt slip from your hands). the body is Light in weight and robust ( although I have not dropped it till now)nn11. The nostalgic feeling of using the brand Salora , which is a reputed Indian brand. nn12. Dual LED tourch, 3.5mm jack and nokia charger compatible . nn13. Play very smoothly almost all of the mp4 and 3gp files. nn14. support hindi sms and easily import contacts from namecards ( vcf files)nn15. auto call recording and answering machine (very useful features)nn16. Good reception, the signal strength is good. nn17. Very good FM reception and sound quality. (beats many expensive mobiles)nnCons nn1. The screen is QVGA, which doesn't reproduce rich color, but again as compared to any other QVGA screen its good, and dont expect TFT screen in this price range.nn2. No opera browser, only WAP browser, so dont expect to surf heavy sites on this mobile (but then again as far as I know all mobiles in this price range comes only with WAP browser)nn3. GPRS needs to be configured manually (no automatic configuration by sms).nn4. the manual doesnt tell you all the features, so it needs some time to figure it out by yourself. It took me 1 hour to figure out how to reduce volume while playing songs in file browser. nn5. The website of Salora is dead, (most of the links doesnt work). so you cant download pc suit or king movie converter. No cd comes with mobile. nn6. No list of service center comes with mobile, the service center link doesnt even work on the website of salora, customer care number of salora comes with mobile, (which I have not tried)nn7. while playing the video , even the lowest volume is very high (with mp3 files I havent faced any such problem)nn8. No option of hiding the clock in home screen. So clock always appears above your wallpaper. Further the color of the clock fonts cant be changed.nn9. wallpaper need to be cropped to a fixed size (which you can do in the mobile itself) and you cant use larger images as wallpaper in this mobile.. nn10. the symbols to indicate battery status and tower etc are very small so not suitable for elder person or person having difficulty in seeing the near objects. nn11. If you are talking on one sim and call comes on second sim, instead of "busy response" the other person gets the "out of service response"nn12. doesnt play .wma audio files. nn13. keypad is soft and comfortable for a normal person, but not good if you type too many sms or if your fingers are too thick. nnIn short, if your goal is net surfing and too many sms typing then this phone is not for you . Otherwise its the best mobile in this price range , specially for music lovers. nnNow coming to flipkartnnDelivery- ordered it on 1-aug and received it on 6 aug. nnPackaging- packaging was good, the mobile was properly bubble wrapped, which was sufficient for its safety.

Wrap up of the whole review In one sentence – “Chinese cell phone under Indian brand name :-p” Now detailed pros and cons of the phone Lets first have a look at the pros.. 1. Dual Sim with dual standby 2. Large n clear screen with bright backlight makes it a ease to use even under sunlight 3. Call Recording facility (almost unlimited; depends upon the size of memory card you use on the phone ) n auto reply.. 4. Mobile Tracker 5. Dual LED Torch and wireless FM 6. .txt files can be customized and stored for later reading as e-Books (it does not support .PDF files under Its e-Book functioning) Now comes the big list the cons.. 1. its humongous 1800mAh battery takes a hell lot of time to charge back to full capacity 2. the navigation keys(up, down, left, right) are too closely placed (congested), one needs to be extra careful while using them (actually the whole keypad is a cheap piece of plastic mould and it does not give the freedom to use them without difficulty) 3. the sound quality output through its 3.5mm jack is very bad (tried using my Skull Candy headphones, but then too the output did not show any improvement ?) 4. The operational interface is limited (like - can’t change themes, large sized images can’t be set as wallpapers it needs to be resized etc.) 5. though 1.3Mexapixel camera is equipped with the phone its image quality is similar to a Nokia VGA camera 6. GPRS connectivity through this phone actually sucks (slow, the web pages which don’t have mobile version can’t be opened directly, no streaming video is supported, the applets show listed like Facebook, MSN are just shortcut of their WebPages nothing else) 7. the charger cable is too short to be used as a traveler charger Overall verdict – At this price range if you are searching for a dual sim phone to use as your secondary phone then go ahead, this phone is not all capable of replacing your primary phone. And off course about the battery power/backup “I found nothing to boast about”