Alcatel One Touch 525

The Alcatel One Touch 525 directory gives you three numbers per name (home, business and mobile). There is a wake up alarm as well as several general alarms. There is a voice recorder. Front cover can be replaced. Ringtones sound dated now but at least you get many to choose from and you can compose your own (I like this feature a lot!). You can record something into the voice recorder and use it to wake you up in the morning or to do anything (for example "Bid on eBay because auction closes in five minutes time!"). And while it's yelling at you it can also be sending a text to your daughter to remind her not to get on the bus today after school as you're picking her up. All from one alarm! If you like that kind of complexity and you want a phone that will go on and on forever, this is the phone for you.

I used this site to help me make a choice of fones so will contribute my 2 cent's worth.

I bought this fone from vodafone in NZ last week and am very happy with it so far. It does take a bit to get used to after my previous brick phone (Motorola d628) I hate predictive text and would prefer to be able to switch this off permanently but it seems to come on every time when I start to text and so have to switch off manually by holding down the # key.

It's not as easy to navigate as I would prefer but with time this will become second nature.

I was going to buy a Motorola T200 but the vodafone reduced the price of this down to $245. NZD and also gave me a $40. credit.

I've had this Alcatel One Touch 525 for a week. It is a terrific phone in pretty much every respect except it's version of "T9" predictive typing in writing text messages. I counted that it takes 13 keystrokes to write "it's" as it's not good with apostrophes. It's annoying if you like to get your grammer correct! "Doesn't" and "isn't" aren't any better. I'd borrowed my girlfriend's old nokia 3310, which she hates, previously and now we've swapped. The 525 is a lovely looking phone - it's small, light, comes with heaps of covers (in UK through Virgin anyway) and has good battery life. The phone book functionality is brilliant - home, work and mobile numbers for each of 250(?) names. So, if you don't text much or at least haven't been spoiled by the Nokia predictive texting's quality, the 525 is first class. It doesn't look as cheap as it was to buy, and I think my girlfriend is very pleased with it. The sar level is pretty good, too, as someone else pointed out.

I bought an Alcatel 525 yesterday and start using it today....everything is fine and easy to use.....much better than my previous phone - Nokia which is heavy and gives me headache (strong radiation). Some newer Nokia phones are improving in its weight, but beware of their radiation (RF emission)....it could damage your brain cells and then cause tumours and cancer, according to numerous studies. With Alcatel 525's price it is indeed an excellent product and I recommend it to all people around the world.

Some comments to Alcatel: pls include more accessories like car charger and earphone in the package which will make your business boom. A higher capacity battery will make it ideal.

I have used quite a few of the Alcatel phones, from the now very outdated Alcatel Max db to the 525, and am pleased to say that they have improved quite a lot over this time.

Battery life has been a good feature on all the ones I used, even from those NiMH batteries that are obviousely made from AAA batteries in a case. The battery in this model though is a more profesional looking Li-Polymer model, which works very well.

Another useful feature I have found on most of the recent Alcatel models is the built-in database of international dialing coded, which I have never heard any mention of being on any other make of phone.

On the negative side, I have noticed a few software bugs accross the range of Alcatel phones. The one I find most annoying is that when you receive a text message from a number that is stored in your phone book, the phone initially displays the name from the phone beek next to the message, as it should. After a short time, though, it 'forgets' that the number is in the phone book, and displays the full number and no name next to the message.

Another down side is the 'Drive Key' as I beleive it is called. These are easy to use when new, but do not take well to heavy use, and wear out very quickly.

This is a small and light phone which is reasonably cheap while retaining a good 'expensive' look and feel. Production quality is often a weakness, and I find particularly that the silver coating wears off the keys very quickly, leaving the phone looking old before its time.

Finally, I would say that Alcatel phones appear to be well planned, but insufficiently developed. Hopefully, they will deliver something really great in a few years.

Available at a "bargain basement" price of £79.95 in the UK on Virgin PAYG. This handset is a real bargain BUT is anything but basement when it comes to features. It has a huge list which includes a built-in speakerphone for those "hands free" moments, a choice of 30 ringtones, some of which "sound" polyphonic, WAP with GPRS, predictive texting with picture messaging, 3 built-in games and a voice recorder for those all important "must remember" things to do!

The phone weighs just 77g and has a superb standby of around 280 hours and a respectable talk time of 360 mins. The phone has a pleasant blue backlit display which has a useful zoom facility. Texting with this handset is not the easiest I have used due to the layout of the keys AND the fact that, like the early Samsung's the text scrolls from line to line. This means that any long words can take up two lines! Ah well, nothing is perfect! You can download new ringtones or create your own if you're not happy with those on offer, but you can't download any new games to this handset. The Virgin 525 comes with two clip on front covers, both of which are quite respectable, AND the option to send off a voucher for two more. Can't be bad!

In use the phone is a little gem. Easy on the pocket with its internal aerial it gives good reception and call quality and the built-in speakerphone is a really useful addition. There is no infra red, bluetooth or MMS with this phone, but then again I don't think the average buyer of the 525 would miss, or need those features. Choose it instead for its brilliant value for money and you won't be disappointed with this latest Alcatel.