Saw At Hutch: Alcatel Ot-s522c

[monekyface]

I saw this cell phone at the local Hutch store and it looks sleek and cool. It is small and light and has a camera and it has 65KCSTN (what the heck is that?) and it says "vga". It is 999 baht. Does anyone own one of these phones? Can you comment on call quality? How is the audio and how would you rate the phone overall? Is the camera OK?

Can I use this in the Philippines as well with one of their simcards? Can I use this phone to connect to the internet using a simcard here in Thailand? I have a DTAC sim that I use as an internet backup when TOT is down- about half the time.

Thank you in advance!

[monty]

Not a very standard phone.

You can only use this phone on the Hutch network, and on the CAT network, as it uses the CDMA 1X technology (NOT GSM).

You can use the phone as a modem, but again, only when you have a Hutch sim card. The 1X system allows for speeds up to 153 kbps.

It's possible you might be able to use it in the Philippines, the biggest CDMA operator seems to be BAYAN. But mainly Manilla and a few provincial cities.

GSM has much wider coverage!

http://www.bayan.com.ph/bwl/coverage.html

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

Within Thai networks the call quality of CDMA networks (Hutch and CAT) is much better than GSM. So far every Hutch phone i had in my hands supports background noise suppression so you are coming through loud and clear even if you are in a noisy pub.

"VGA" is about the camera, it's resolution. It means it takes pictures in a size of 640x480 pixels, which is VERY low by today's standards (0.3 Megapixel).

"CSTN" is the technology used for the display screen. It stands for "Colour Super Twist Nematic". Those screens generally have lower picture quality, buut also lower power consumption that TFT displays. "65K" means it can display roughly 65,000 colours.

Regarding the internet, most Hutch phones can be used as a modem with a matching data cable. This works also for pre-paid numbers. However you will NOT be able to use your D-TAC SIM with that phone because D-TAC is GSM.

About the Philippines, i don't know what frequency their CDMA network is on. Hutch uses 800 MHz and most of their phones support only that band. Also ALL Hutch phones are locked to be used only with Hutch SIM cards! Hutch themselves refuse (err: pretend not to know how) to unlock their phones even for a fee. So even if a foreign network offers a SIM card for CDMA (which in itself is rather rare, most CDMA networks do not use SIM cards) you won't be able to use that Alcatel.

If you decide to get a Samsung from Hutch i could unlock it for you to be used with other cards (for example CAT) however i know only how to do that with Samsung phones (it's code-based).

Best regards.....

Thanh

[basjke]

One good advise,stay away from any phone that has the name alcatel on it.