Opel Mobile Flip Phone 6

This is perfect for my elderly mother – Perfect phone for my 86 year old mother...easy to use not fancy...keyboard has large numbers.....flip top means no accidental pressing of numbers...simple and does the basics.

Poor Quality and Crashes Regularly; Unhappy with it – Considering this review was originally 4 Stars, I have now come back for the 3rd time and rewritten and downgraded to 1 star after almost a year's experience with it. It's that bad! Opel, please tell us that this phone is designed to last longer than one year?! In that short time the keypad has become very bad to use, it's obviously due to poor… Read more

manufacturing and so the longevity /reliability is not there. And it's only used for texting about 3-4 times per week! Also, the software crashes regularly if left on for more than 2 days, it becomes unusable and the phone has to be turned off and on again; more info below.

After about 9 months the keypad function degraded noticeably, it is a physical and frustrating chore just to compose a one-page text message. Hard to believe but the Optus X-Lite that I had before, cheap and horrible as it was, was actually a better keypad for texting with.

With this Opel phone, you have to press every key in just the right place and quite firmly, ie unnaturally hard, in order to get the right letter. Sometimes you have to have two or three goes to get the right letter! It's a physical labour to compose a message. Forget writing a fast text, as you could with the old Nokia 3315 for example. They had a brilliant key pad for texting, smaller but so much better ergonomics and just the right feel.

Pros:

* The flip idea is great - it keeps it to a nice size when not in use - and you have the option of having the call connected either by just opening it, or by opening and then pressing the answer button. There is also a dual screen arrangement - with a smaller screen visible when closed, which lights up and clearly shows the time and date. When a voice or text message is waiting, or a missed call, a bright green light on the front slowly flashes until it's retrieved. This is a good feature, as often you might miss the beep alert when a message first comes through. But it flashes way too slowly and is easily missed if you only glance at the phone. You have to stare at it for about 3-4 seconds to see if the green light will flash.

* Large, easy to read menu pages and text on the screen

* Countdown timer is handy (in the Clock pages)

* Handy charging cradle, even if it's not well designed (needs to be angled back a bit more plus they should supply some double-sided tape as it is so flimsy and light. * Seems to have plenty of menu options within the pages

* Battery life seems excellent. Over a week standby. With texting and occasional short calls. Although I think not all are great - according to some other reviews. My battery turned out to be a good one luckily.

Cons:

* The battery level and % indicator are far too small compared to the rest of the text size. For older people without their glasses, almost impossible to see.

* Green flashing light (to indicate a text message or missed call), flashes far too slow and is easy to miss if you don't look at it for over 2 seconds. It needs to flash at twice this speed so it's not missed and also so it gets your attention better. Poor design.

* Abysmally bad quality keypad for texting, see above for more details.

* Phone software crashes regularly, so that you can't make a call out or check your voice messages - it rings but nothing happens. Also, the sound disappears regularly, as if it was on Silent mode, even though it wasn't. The phone had to be power cycled (turned off for a few minutes and then back on again) to get it to start working properly again for all these faults. So trying to check voice messages - the speaker doesn't work and you can only just hear it on max volume or if the earpiece is used. This happens regularly. Once i t has been turned off and on again, in Silent Mode, you still can't hear the message properly, it is so faint. It takes a lot of stuffing around to be able to hear it normally. Obviously my phone is faulty in this regard.

* Often takes a few attempts to get the phone sitting properly in the flimsy charging cradle so it will commence charging. It's not foolproof, you have to make sure the red light is on and charging before walking away.

* The side switch that controls volume is in a bad place. Right where you put your fingers to pick it up. So what happens is that you are unaware that the volume is always being changed. Again, poor ergonomic design.

* Too complicated to just get the torch to work. Something which you need to access quickly turns into a mini saga of steps. What a joke.

* Calculator is not easy to use, you have to be quite familiar with it before you can use it quickly. Something so basic as a calculator and torch become a saga to operate.

Not perfect – Bought this phone two weeks ago by Officeworks phone calls and sms ok but screen only usable on high brightness indoors not outdoors Bluetooth does not transfer contacts ( got a Opel touch flip no problems with contact transfer ) rung Opel helpline told me this phone has a darker screen then other Opel phones and Bluetooth is not compatible with some cars. Had the same problem with Opel flip Plus but screen was brighter. Show details