QMobile E850 is another low end mobile which focuses on the mass market. E850 boasts a touch screen, FM Radio, Dual SIM, a decent design and supports two active SIMs at once. It is an affordable device with attractive features which youngsters would love to have in their pockets.
Unboxing
QMobile E850 has a compact box in which the accessories and other goodies are packed nicely. Here are its contents:
- QMobile E850 Handset
- Manuals
- MicroUSB Cable
- Charger (to be used with cable)
- Hands free
Build & Design
The QMobile 850 features a resistive 2.8” TFT QVGA touch screen, there are only three buttons on the front side of the phone. The overall build of the phone is quite reasonable for its price tag but the back cover seems to be a bit low on quality. Coming back to the description, a speaker is present on the top of the front which sits just over the 2.8” touch screen. QMobile logo is printed in silver color just under the screen. Three buttons lie under the logo in horizontal alignment; the central button takes the UI to menu and helps navigate while the buttons at right and left are for hanging up/ turning phone on/ off and calling respectively. A thin slit for mic is the only other item on the front.
The back is pretty clean with VGA Camera on top right, speaker grill on top left and QMobile logo in white color on the right side of the grill. The right, left and bottom of E850 are completely empty while 3.5 mm audio jack port and microUSB port are on the top of the phone along with a slit to insert a band on the top right.
There is a big round key located just below the screen which works well as a track pad and can be pressed to return to home as well. On bottom of the front screen there is an ear piece and pinhole equipped with the mic.
QMobile E850 can be a bit difficult to handle as the plastic material used is pretty slippery, however, after using the phone for a couple of days you will get used to it. The back cover of the phone as well as the touch screen is prone to finger prints and a lot of effort is needed to clean these. It is recommended that you install a screen protector as soon as you take the phone out of the box.
The back cover can be slid downwards and then pulled up to open. Battery needs to be removed to insert microSD card and SIMs, the cover can be removed pretty easily. On removing the battery, you will see a QMobile sticker with IMEI number, model number and barcode on it. Two SIM card slots are aligned vertically on the left; the mcroSD card slot is present on the right.
User Interface
It is quite understandable that E850 has been targeted for youngsters switching from traditional candy bars to touch screen phones as the User Interface of QMobile E850 is intuitive and can be easily grasped even by those who have never used a touch phone before. The UI has similarities with the interface on QMobile E950.
There are 4 shortcuts at the bottom of the screen i.e. call, contacts, messages and menu. The main menu can easily be accessed from the bottom shortcuts or by pressing the central part of the navigation pad located just below the screen.
It was extremely tough to use the touch screen when we received the phone but the screen response became quite reasonable after calibrating the screen. Navigating through track pad is quite easy and convenient. The response and performance of the touch screen is quite impressive if we look at the price of the phone but you will take some time to get used to it as it takes a harder tap than other resistive screens we have used. The quality of graphics and colors is pretty reasonable keeping in mind the price tag of the phone.
The menu has been divided in two screens by default where different applications are displayed. For using internet there is a built-in web browser which performs well as expected. This device comes preinstalled with a lot of internet dependent “QApps”Facebook, Yahoo, MSN, Twitter, Ebuddy and Google Search while there is only one pre-installed game called Magic Sushi. The apps mentioned previously are browser-based versions of popular social networking sites and IM suite (Ebuddy), Facebook worked particularly well and no problem was faced in updating status and viewing FB wall. Having such a wide array of apps on board makes it a fully equipped device to be used for hours and hours. These applications will keep you connected with your friends and family using your QMobile E850.
Connectivity
QMobile E850 features Edge, Bluetooth and MicroUSB port; hence there are ample connectivity options available. The data cable can be used to charge the phone as well as to connect it in mass storage mode to a computer. Using GPRS on E850 is as easy as it gets, we were able to use GPRS without having to enter any settings manually as the phone recognized the SIM and configured the settings itself, which was pretty impressive considering the fact that low-end touch screen phones rarely have this feature. If you face any problems in configuring your handset, you can go to the QMobile web site and find details settings to configure your phone.
The call quality is quite amazing on this device. You can easily browse through your contact list and make calls. The phone allows two active SIMs at a time, however when a SIM is on a call, the other SIM returns “out of reach” message when called.
Multimedia
QMobile E850 has a VGA camera at the back which captures pretty reasonable photos for its specifications. Conditions with lesser light have a great effect on the camera. The snaps taken can easily be transferred to desktop or can be sent as an MMS or transferred through Bluetooth. The camera is unfortunately opened by default in Camcorder mode whenever it is opened, it can be switched to Camera mode by simply pressing the on-screen shortcut for the purpose. There is no dedicated camera button; hence snaps are taken by pressing the central part of the navigation pad. An image can be shared as soon as it is shot by choosing “Send To: option which allows the image to be shared via Bluetooth.
E850 has a basic image viewer, but there is no option to share an image while it is opened, an image can be shared via Bluetooth when it is closed by going into options. Unfortunately, only one snap at a time can be shared via BT, batch sending is not allowed. We listened to some songs on our E850 and were impressed with performance of the speaker; however listening to songs with the handsfree makes a positive difference. The sound quality of E850 is surprisingly better than that of E950.
Conclusion
QMobile E850 is a low-end touch screen phone which should be considered for buying for youngsters who want to quit their old candy bars and switch to a social networking enabled touch screen phone but have a strict budget to stick to. The dual-SIM functionality is pretty suitable for the Pakistani market as most of the people own more than one SIM.
PROS
- 2.8” QVGA touch screen
- Good build quality
- Intuitive UI
- Nice Design
- Preloaded internet apps including Twitter, Facebook etc.
- 3.5 mm jack
- Bluetooth
- FM Radio
CONS
- Touch screen response not the best
- Body is prone to finger prints
- Below par camera quality
- No dedicated camera button
