Dual SIM review: Mobiles go two-in-one

Saying a few introductory words for this particular phone is not an easy task at all. Although a relatively well-known producer, the Chinese company CECT makes it a real hard job identifying its different models. We cannot even be sure about the name of the model we have in our hands, because there is no info on it. The policy of the company is to obviously put as little branding on its phones as possible, so dealers can put any label they want. At least the model has all the typical characteristics of a CECT phone - touchscreen display, a band with icons in its lower end, combined with a bit strange keypad, whereby the buttons that are typically placed on the lowest line - the asterisk, the 0 and the hash buttons - are placed on the right side of the keypad. This is not the only brand that makes such extraordinary keypads - for example Philips are known for producing similar keypad layouts for quite a while now. This layout however does take a little time getting used to. Now to the essence of our review - call handling and all that is related to it.

The typical CECT phone keypad layout plus an extra "b" button • The Dual SIM slots

Telephony

Making and receiving a call

The earpiece behaves quite well when making or receiving a call and is loud enough. There were some problems with the microphone, which prevented the opposite side from hearing very well at times, but this only happened in a small portion of the calls we made. The four loudspeakers are really good and you have little chance of missing an incoming call, even in very noisy surroundings.

Phonebook

Browsing the phonebook

The phonebook is quite straightforward and lists all contacts from the phone along with the ones from both SIM cards. A small icon next to each contact indicates what location it is saved in. Navigating around is relatively easy especially once you get used to operating the touchscreen and the keyboard cooperatively. The phonebook can save up to 300 contacts with 12 fixed name fields for each of them - 4 of these fields can be used for phone numbers. Unfortunately there is only a single field for the name so switching between first name and last name ordering view is impossible.

Call Log:

Nothing extraodinary about the call log

The call log is divided in three different tabs: dialed, received and missed calls, and each is able to record up to 20 entries. Each entry has information about time and duration as well as a tag to show which SIM card was used. There is also an SMS counter and a call timer.

Call management:

Receiving a call on each card an receiving two calls simultaneously

Now, that's where the young Chinese's strength lies. With both SIM cards active, you can place and receive calls on each of them at any time. Other types of such phones have two dial buttons - one for each SIM - so you can easily choose the SIM card of choice for a particular outgoing call. In our test handset though designers have taken quite a different approach by adding a button labeled "B" which stands for SIM card B. You can also use the display where two small green receiver icons represent each card. There is only a small catch regarding receiving calls - if you're in a call on one of the SIM cards and at the same time someone is trying to reach you on the other, the second call will be canceled. If both calls occur simultaneously, they are displayed on the screen and it is up to the user to decide which one to accept. The other call however is then rejected. There's reason to believe however, that other models of the company are able to deal with this issue better - meaning that they should be able offer call waiting for the second incoming call instead of canceling it.

A few products have already been announced and about to hit the shelves in the near future. The one worth your attention is the WND Telecom's Wind DUO Atom. Equipped with a gravity sensor for seamless alternation of the SIM cards, it's got the looks to please the style-sensitive users, without compromising performance.

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Text messaging:

Sending a text message is never a problem with this phone. You can compose the message using one of the three input methods: keypad, touch QWERTY keyboard or handwriting recognition. That latter one though, we're not so happy about. The CECT doesn't seem to handle it that well. Then, you can choose the SIM card to use for sending and select the number of the addressee. Any number in the phone is available no matter which SIM card you're using to send the message.

Other features:

Home screen and main menu screen

Call handling is impressive enough, but the handset has a lot of other features to offer. The touch screen we already mentioned. There is also a video and audio player, both of above average quality. By the way, few other phones can match the sound volume of the CECT we tested. Sound quality is not that impressive, but decent is the least we can say. There's a microSD (labeled as T-Flash on the phone) memory card slot and a connector combining a USB port and charger plug. Moreover, the handset is charging during PC connections and file transfers. The handset we tested has most types of organizing features: a to-do list, a calendar and alarm. You also get a number of games, as well as a calculator and a unit and currency converter.

All that said, it's safe to conclude that if you are a person with two mobile numbers and you don't believe that all the latest technologies in the mobile realm are a must-have, this phone is completely capable of doing the right job for you.

Advantages

• Operating two SIM cards and still on the compact side
• Easy navigation thanks to touchscreen and keypad
• Easy PC synchronization via USB
• Loud sound and dedicated multimedia buttons
• Great Video player

Disadvantages

• Questionable construction quality
• No Bluetooth
• Poor camera

The Future

A few products have already been announced and about to hit the shelves in the near future. The one worth your attention is the WND Telecom's Wind DUO Atom. Equipped with a gravity sensor for seamless alternation of the SIM cards, it's got the looks to please the style-sensitive users, without compromising performance. A promise has been made and we'll hold the DUO Atom to it.

WND Duo Atom