The most interesting facet of this phone is its size, as it is just 72 mm long and 41 mm broad. It can be safely called the smallest phone in the world. The phone looks very cute and compact. However one could mistake it for an MP3 player. Another interesting aspect is that unlike other phones where the screen and the keys are placed vertically, the Neo 808i has them placed horizontally. A short key for camera is placed on the side along with the volume keys. The keypad comprises of tightly packed thin keys with a joy stick, which acts as aD-Pad.

Moreover, the keys are some what narrow which makes typing a bit cumbersome. Since the keys are present on the right side of the display it becomes a little difficult to comprehend which key to press as the instructions are written at the bottom of the screen. For instance, menu and names option is given on the lower left and right side of the screen and the corresponding left and right keys on the top of the keypad (which is placed besides the screen not under it) had to be pressed to access them. We did struggle to adapt to the new interface but once known it gets quite handy as we were able to operate it with one hand itself. The Neoi 808i might be small in size but is big in terms of features.

It comes with a music player, an FM radio, 1.3-megapixel camera, GPRS and an E-Book reader. Talking about music capabilities the sound quality was acceptable on headsets but could have been better on the loudspeaker. The player has basic controls and when we looked for equaliser we found it in the phone's settings. So the sound setting of the complete phone has to be changed if you need to change the settings of the player. In the FM radio, reception is quite good and one can store up to 30 channels. We were also able to record our favourite programmes. Camera was one feature where small size seemed to be impediment. The 1.3megapixel camera could have been better both in still and video mode. Despite selecting the highest photo quality there was no change in the results.

There were normal camera setting with effects, cont shots, delayed timer, etc and a photo editor function where the image's colour could be adjusted and other elements could be added to it. And when we transferred them to a PC, the image was of the same size as of the phone's display. It's good that the phone comes with a USB charger but it is not universal. Although the phone's onboard memory is 128MB, it can be expanded up to 4GB. Now that's something really big for a phone with such a small size. Also a 128 MB microSD card comes in the sales pack. Since the phone is being launched as we test it, it is obvious that we had to go in for manual GPRS set¬tings. Accessing WAP sites on the phone was easy but owing to the small display it was tedious to navi¬gate through the whole screen.

Name: Neo 808i Mobile Phone.jpg Views: 165 Size: 30.3 KB

We were also able to read online books through the e-book reader. To support all these features the phone has a strong battery backup. On one full charge, battery
was still going strong after four hours of FM and two hours of talking. What's more. The service pack of the handset comes with an additional battery for usage in crutial situations.The Neo 808i is expected to be priced around Rs 9,000 and is unique as far as the looks are concerned. However you can opt for the Sony Ericsson W610i for Rs 8,995 or the Nokia 5310 priced at Rs 9,887. Both the afore mentioned handsets have samilar features of 2.0-megapixel camera and music capabilities.