Audiovox CDM 8150

I got the Audiovox CDM 8150 mobile phone on a Pay-As-You-Go plan with Telus Mobility since I lost my Nokia. I was told to get a Tri-band phone in the Vancouver area since it'll provide the best reception. It was the cheapest one offered by Telus and Telus no longer carries Nokia, which is a total shame. This review is very extensive since a copy is being sent to Audiovox as user feedback, also because I'm venting and writing relieves the frustration.

What I like about it:

It provides great reception. Telus has never let me down in that area but I think having a Tri-Mode phone really helps. It's also very durable. I dropped it plenty and put it through some other abuse (I'll tell you about later) and it still kept ticking. It has a larger screen than some Nokias so it is easy to read although the idle screen is too busy ie. full date, time and icons. It has a slim design so it can fit in your pocket although with the antennae, it's too long. The functions I like are the Web and Voice Memo functions. The Web feature was easy to use and when I didn't have my computer hooked up online, I used it to check my hotmail, with a pretty good rate too. I used the Voice Memo function from time to time, but I don't think that everyone would use it.

What I didn't like:

Where do I start? I think my problem might be that I'm comparing it to my last Nokia, but here we go.

First, when browsing the address book, it appears in numeric order of memory location. I found that very frustrating so I ended up using the Voice Dialing function even though I didn't really like that function either. The odd thing was that when browsing the address book through the Text Message menu, the address book would appear in alphabetical order. Also the address book list displays the memory location number which takes up too much space ("[01]First Last") and sometimes even the first name won't fit on the screen.

Second, when writing a text message, the Hang-Up button is very close to the 3 button. If you aren't careful while text-ing and press that button by mistake, it will delete the entire message you are writing. I sometimes rewrote a message 3 times because of that problem. Its very frustrating especially if you write long messages. This is where the durability comes in; my frustration resulted in the phone being thrown to the ground, many times. (Yes I know I have a temper).

And, when entering the Message menu, a "XX% MEMORY FULL" message displays when the text memory is over 80% full. The message has only a hang time of a couple seconds, but when jumping from menu to menu, it slows you down. There is no way to shut it off and when you select the option of letting the phone just drop off the oldest message to make room for new ones, it still displays the message. It also displays this message when you get notification of a Voice Mail Message which has nothing to do with the phone's own memory.

And, if a text message is not able to be sent due to being in a non-digital area, it gives you the option of resending the message in 3 minutes. It never resends the message.

And, the Alarm Clock feature is complicated. Actually its a Calendar feature, but if you use it as an alarm clock it's too complicated ie. too many menus and options.

And, sometimes when you put the phone up to your ear, it can be very quiet because your ear isn't situated perfectly on the speaker

And, the ringer speaker can be obstructed easily and can be hard to hear. Just setting the phone face up on a pillow will reduce the ringer volume quite significantly.

And, the standard ring tones that the phone comes with are not very appealing and are somewhat annoying. I tried to download some ring tones, but they are not available. I'm not sure if that is Telus or Audiovox's problem.

And, there are no games. You can play some online, but it costs money. I would just like something simple to pass the time.

And lastly, since my long distance numbers in my address book contain a 1 in front of the area code, the Caller ID wouldn't recognize the number since the incoming never contains the 1. The number has to match exactly or it won't recognize the number.

Well, I think I got them all. I think there are other problems with the phone but I can't think of them right now. I do not recommend this phone. This phone is not user friendly. I no longer use this phone. Due to my deliberate abuse, the phone started having hardware problems and would shut off in the middle of text messaging. This resulted in more abuse which caused more glitches. I finally broke the phone in half in order to force me to buy another phone. It was pretty crazy to do that, but it was a great story to tell. I'm not sure which phone I will get now, since I really want a Nokia again but want to stick with Telus (I don't like the service and plans offered by Fido or Rogers).