Central Review

Binding: Electronics
Brand: NEC
EAN: 5050553160190
Label: NEC
Manufacturer: NEC
Model: NEC616-3
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: NEC
Release Date: April 05, 2004
Sales Rank: 23818
Studio: NEC

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Editorial Review:





Rating: - great phone, rubbish network!
so i think the title says it all. i love this phone! okay, so its bigger than some phones but it has a massive screen and is quite beautiful.

but, i like i say, 3 is the worse network i have ever come across...30 day PAYG vouchers and the cheapest is £15! they're having a laugh! you pay for voicemail. browsing WAP is free but every video (incl news items etc) is charged just to watch. and games/music/ringtones/videos are really expensive and because of 3's walled garden, none of these things can be uploaded to your phone. worst of all no real tone ringtones!!

also, the phone cannot easily be unlocked because features such as sending and receiving videos and WAP do not work afterwards.

Whatever you do just avoid 3.

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Rating: - leave it on the shelf
when i first had the phone it was like a dream come true. when i switched it on my life flashed before my eyes, i then realized i'd taken a photo. the phone looks like a slab, and the batery looks like a brick. the camera isn't very good quality. the only thing that is worth having on the phone is the vibrate, it nearly knocked me off my feet. after a couple of times i got used to it and it is pretty good.

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Rating: - Nice phone shame about the provider
Thsi phone has many nice features - unlike Threepay. You lose any credit you might hav eat the end of each month - so it's like giving them money for nothing. When I complained about this I got a patronising response saying everyone loves them - almost implying 'what's wrong with you' This phone should not be sold a a 'pay as you go' item it is totally misleading.

I have also heard that will charge an inappropriately high fee to unlock the phone if you wnat to go elsewhere fro your service. They explain this as recovering the reduction they made in price of the phone when they sold it to you!

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Rating: - NEC E616
The Nec E616 is an alright phone as long as you don't mind having a brick in your pocket.It is really useful when you download pictures and music from the computer but only some of the picture types work.Some don't and thats a disadvantage.You can record a maximum of 100 songs. The internet is mostly free but if you download a video from it then sometimes it takes a few minutes. The credit part of it is pretty worthless because you can only have a fiver on your phone if you put in £15.You uasually get 100 free texts or 50 voice call minutes available.The coverage is not too bad but overall I gave this phone 3 stars. It also has bluetooth.

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Rating: - Think hard
This is a great little phone in itself, although it is not the easiest to find your way around. If you do buy this phone I'd recommend you carry your guide book with you everywhere you go.
The camera and video features are quite good, as are the media downloads available. The phone itself I love and would recommend.

But not with the 3 network. I bought the package just before xmas and admittedly I should have done more homework but 3's
tariffs are a joke and using their 'services' is like being transported back 20 years when mobile phones were a new thing. In order to make sure you are always able to call/text you have to pay a monthly air-time fee of £15. You then have to pay another £5 at least before you can actually make a call. And of course as soon as that airtime has been active for a month it is wiped and you fork out £15 again for another month. This, to me defeats the purpose of 'Pay As You Go' and proves to be damn expensive. I appreciate that 3 are a new company and will get better, but with so many other established companies around I can't be arsed to wait for 3 to catch up. I'm ditching this phone and going back to Orange......

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