Review of the New Orange Rio Phone
Overview:
Orange launched “RIO – ZTE”, a new mobile phone targeted to text message addicts as an alternative to pricey mobile manufacturers such as Blackberry, Samsung, Nokia and others. The Rio phone is a budget mobile phone for all gen x and gen y mobile users who are text message savvy trying to keep up with friends on the move. The Rio is also a cheaper alternative smart phone for business users. Rio, the phone from Orange mostly resembles the Blackberry curve models. The Rio is built in with an impressive touch screen and QWERTY key pad. Though the Rio mobile phone looks like Blackberry, the low price doesn’t accommodate all the features of a smart phone.
Orange’s latest introduction to the market – The Rio mobile phone is all set to give a tough competition to the already available QWERTY phones like Samsung Genio with an attractive price tag of less than £60. With this price tag it can definitely be called a chesp Rio Phone. RIO is available in 2 colors, pink Rio phone and black Rio phone.
Analysis:
The Rio touch screen lacks a bit of sheen as it is not quite responsive to finger presses as we would have liked. There are 3 screens that can be navigated by sliding the fingers and pull out option to browse app’s/widgets. As available in most of the phones the apps can be dragged and placed on the home screens. However, the qwerty keypad is rather impressive and easy to use with well spaced keys. The layout of the keypad is impressive too, with a decent sized space bar and dedicated keys for frequently used symbols.
Disappointing enough, the Rio mobile phone doesn’t support 3G and Wi-Fi technology. Rio phone uses GPRS and EDGE DATA speed for email and internet. Also, the social networking apps are limited. Rio uses Opera Mini browser, windows messenger and an email client. RIO however doesn’t support push email like which means that emails have to be checked manually or the phone needs to be configured to automatically check for emails every few minutes.
Rio doesn’t provide much of the media apps, doesn’t have a You Tube app. There is a built in FM tuner with a standard headphone jack. The camera is basic 2 mega pixels with a night mode. The camera doesn’t have an auto flash and auto focus features.
The battery life is quite remarkable and can run up to 36 hours under heavy usage. The call quality is OK, supports hands free and has decent speakers.
Below is a comprehensive Feature list:
| Network | 2G – GSM 900/1800 |
| Released | 2011 |
| Weight | 95gm |
| Display | Touch Screen & QWERTY Key Pad |
| Ringtones | MP3, Vibration Alerts |
| Headphone Jack | 3.5mm |
| Internal Memory | 1 MB |
| External Memory | Micro SD supports up to 32 GB |
| Network | GPRS, EDGE |
| 3G and Wi-Fi | No |
| Bluetooth | Yes |
| USB | Yes |
| Camera | 2 megapixel |
| Messaging | SMS, MMS and Email |
| Browser | Opera Mini, Native Browser |
| FM | Yes |
| Games | Yes |
| Colors | Black, Pink |
| Battery | Standard Li-ion |