Samsung E1170 deals & review

Released in April 2010, the Samsung E1170 is a bare basic mobile phone that stands on its own as a phone on the road with no feature to make it connect to the internet or even to your PC or other mobile phones. It has no pretensions to being able to entertain either. It’s as basic as it gets.

The Design

The Samsung E1170 sports a conventional candybar body measuring 107.8 x 46.1 x 14.1 mm with a light 72g weight. It comes only in black with a perfectly square 1.53 inch CSTN screen with a 128 x 128 resolution and 65k colors that is typical of budget handsets. 

There’s a center 5-point navigation key shapes like the Superman “S” logo and the usual menu, start and end call buttons as well as the well spaced-out tactile keypad. 

Specifications

The Samsung E1170 is your very basic dual band GSM (900/ 1800) which means international roaming is not up its sleeve. Then again, just about everything you can expect from a mobile phone these days are not in its alley. 

There’s no GPRS/EDGE and no HTML browser or email client so forget about going online. It has no Bluetooth or even a USB support so there are no way you can transfer files or sync with a PC or another handset. 

It would have been nice to be entertained with a mobile phone while on the road. But you won’t get that either as it has neither radio nor even the slightest semblance of an MP3 player. You do get an organizer and a T9 predictive texting support for your SMS text messaging. Don’t bother with MMS as it also has none.

What it does have is a 16 MB internal memory which is better than some budget handsets out. It also comes with a phonebook that can store up to 200 entries. It has a li-ion battery rated at 1,000 mAh which, when fully charged, can power up the handset for up to 10.5 hours of talk time and 830 hours of standby time - one of the best battery lives in a handset. SAR EU rating is 0.57 watts per kilogram.

But what stands out is its eco-friendly solar panels that you can use to charge for extra talk time.

Considerations

This phone is for people who won’t be bothered with the frills and want nothing more than a basic phone. Samsung could have at least put in an FM Radio when you consider that the cheapest pay as you go deal on Virgin Mobile is 14.95 going to a high of 24.95 from O2. That’s a lot more than many similarly basic handsets like the Nokia 1616 and the Alcatel OT608.

Verdict

With mobile phones that you use only for calls and nothing else, it can be easy to forget to get them charged.  If you often find yourself in a low-bat warning situation despite a generous talk time because you often forget to charge it from a wall socket, perhaps one with a solar charging panel can help. The Samsung E1170 has one and should solve that nicely.