| Philips Savvy |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 |
| Announced | 1999 |
| Status | Discontinued |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 132 X 50 X 26 Mm, 137 Cc |
| Weight | 135 G |
| Display |
| Type | Alphanumeric |
| Size | 2 X 15 Chars |
| | - Fixed Icons |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Monophonic |
| Customization | No |
| Vibration | No |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | Sim Only |
| Call Records | |
| Card Slot | No |
| Data |
| Gprs | No |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Infrared Port | No |
| Usb | |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms |
| Browser | |
| Clock | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Games | No |
| Colors | Yellow, Golf Green, Black |
| Camera | No |
| | - Calculator
- Picture Messaging
- Analog Clock
- Timer |
| Battery |
| | Standard, 700 Mah Nimh |
| Stand-by | 130 - 250 H |
| Talk Time | 2 - 4 H |
|
Philips - SavvyPhilips Savvy
Advantages Solid design, Good signal, Decently sized keys
Disadvantages Small display
The other day I was slouching around in Tesco's (as is my wont) and noticed that they were selling a basic pay-as-you-go mobile (a Philips Trium, I think) for the princely sum of £45. It's not often you get prices like that now that the manufacturers have dropped their subsidy and hiked up their prices to the point where a really rather ordinary phone can cost £100. (Could the recent explosion in phone theft possibly have anything to do with this? I think so. And now that BT are phasing out phonecards, which were an excellent compromise for younger children, things can only get worse.)
However, 18 months ago, when PAYG was still a relatively new and exciting concept (okay, so I'm easily excited), things were very different, with discounts and special deals being offered left right and centre - they were practically paying you to take them away in some cases. And so it was, that later, as the buyer told his tale, that my phone at first just ghostly, turned... exactly the same shade of black. Damn - why can't people write their songs to help us op-writers?
Anyhow, my £40 was enough to make me the proud owner of a mobile phone for the first time. (Isn't it amazing, by the way, that almost as soon as you get one you start behaving in a loud and obnoxious manner on trains, in the way you've spent years complaining about other people doing? Maybe I'm just naturally obnoxious, though.) This phone was, of course, a Philips Savvy. (Phew - wouldn't want this op to be locked for being in the wrong cat....)
The first thing that will strike today's users, whose ideal phone would seem to be one that's so small it gets affected by van der Waal's forces, is that the Savvy is by modern standards utterly bricklike. It's about five inches long, two inches wide and an inch thick, which is fine for a coat or bag, but not really fo r a back trouser pocket (though that's asking for it to be stolen in any case). It's also black, which some find a bit gloomy, though I think it looks quite smart, and has a short fixed aerial, which seems quite solid.
Put in the battery, then (very easy), turn on the phone, and what do you see? Well, after the usual initialisation routine, in my case I see an advert for a no-longer-extant company (I'm damned if I'm having "O2" on it - it's a ridiculous name), a small analogue clock (which is readable, but tends to lose a minute or so a day), and the ubiqitous signal strength and battery level indicators.
It's fair to say that the display was not designed with compulsive text messagers in mind - it's only two lines, and isn't terribly easy to read in some lights, but it does the job in most circumstances. One feature of the Savvy is its ability to send silly little icons to other Savvy users along with messages - smiley faces, birthday cakes and so on. If a non-Savvy user receives them, they come out as normal text emoticons ( :o) etc). The message archive only holds ten messages, which some may find a bit limiting.
Before we start playing around with too many toys, though, we ought to consider how the Savvy works as an actual phone, and the answer is pretty well. The microphone doesn't look very promising - it's basically a small hole - but in fact it seems to pick up speech pretty well. The earpiece is also good, and once you've worked out the optimum place to hold it, it's loud and clear enough to be used without too many problems on buses, station platforms etc.
The keys are, for once, a sensible size for adults to use, even those (like me) with relatively large fingers. Some of the newer phones have such small keys that it's a wonder anyone over six can make them work at all, but the Savvy's are pleasant plastic things that give a reasonable click when pressed. They also illuminate, which looks rather nice in the dark. There's a sort of joypad on the right that accesses the various menu functions (the menu is a little confusing at first, but you soon work out where the bits you actually need are).
As with most phones, it's possible to lock the keypad (with the "C" key), preventing you from making most unintended calls. I say "most" because dialing 999 (and, I believe, the European-wide 112 emergency number) will override the lock - it seems that many people are unaware that this is the case, as vast numbers of accidental emergency calls are made each year (well over 100,000 in the UK alone). So don't assume that the lock is a catch-all - turn the phone right off if it's going to be bumped around in a bag.
Right, enough finger-wagging; let's get back to those toys. I've already mentioned the clock, and there's also an alarm clock (quite useful) and a stopwatch (rather less so, I would have thought). There's a calculator, too, which is a little bit fiddly to use but can come in handy from time to time. Lastly, a "bio-calendar", which is a biorhythms calculator. You probably already know my views on astrology and all things "supernatural", so I'll let that one lie.
Any self-respecting mobe (I hate that word, but had to get it in at least once for form's sake) will offer a good selection of incredibly irritating bleeps and bongs, and so it is with the Savvy. You can't download ringtones as you can with most Nokias, but that's probably a blessing in disguise as it costs a fortune. There are 20 built-in "tunes", though, ranging from tinny versions of Mozart through tinny versions of jazz riffs to tinny versions of an ordinary phone ringer (which is what I use, being a boring sort of soul). You can change the volume, and there is also a Vibrate option, but it's not really strong enough to rely on.
The phone book is rather basic - 11 characters per name, and you have to scroll through one by one until you get what you want - but, as with most things on this phone, it does the job competently. There is supposed to be a "voice dial" facility, which allows you to speak a name into the receiver and have the corresponding number dialled, but I've found it very hit-and-miss. (Don't confuse "voice dial" with the ordinary "voicemail", which works perfectly well.)
What's left? Mainly, the Security functions, which contain pretty much what you'd expect - PIN numbers, locking particular numbers in the phone book (I suppose this is for phones that are used by more than one person), and so on. The Savvy's a "dual band" phone, which means (apparently - I'm no good on this jargon) that it can be used with any network with an appropriate SIM card, though you'll have to mess around here with PIN numbers and the like.
Signal strength is pretty reasonable - I've had no problems using it on the (largely underground) platforms at Birmingham New Street station - and the battery lasts a nice long time even without recharging - estimates vary, but a conservative figure would be "150/150" - 150 hours on standby and 150 minutes of talk. (I made that notation up just now - good, eh?)
In short, then, the Philips Savvy is not going to be the first choice of the style brigade, but that's probably a good thing for the rest of us, as it makes it less attractive to phone thieves. As a basic phone for keeping in touch, mainly by voice but with the odd text message, it fulfils its role admirably, and in terms of day-to-day useability it rather embarrasses some phones costing three times as much. |
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