Travelocity Travel Phone – Beyond E-Tech K250
Thumbs Up:
Two SIM card slots; passable call quality
Thumbs Down:
Cramped keyboard; single port for charger/headset/USB; unimpressive media features
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: GSM
Band: Quad-band of GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Slider
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: USB mass storage, micro-SD card slot, GPRS, Bluetooth.
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Travelocity Travel Phone is also known as the Beyond E-Tech K250. The messaging features are Voice Mail, text and multimedia messages.
2.8 inches LCD display supports 65,000 colors. The connector set includes 1×mini-USB port. The VGA camera takes picture in 640×480 pixels resolution.
Accessories supplied inside the box are wired headset, power charger, battery, and user manual.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Travelocity Travel Phone is 4.37 inches tall, 1.96 inches wide, and 0.66 inch deep and weighs 3.95 ounces. Its design and size is quite similar to that of Sony Ericsson Walkman W995a. The slider mechanism is sturdy and the trim profile is good for traveling.
Inside Dope:
The dual SIM card phones are not a latest concept in the United States. They hardly come with any carrier, so you can purchase their unlocked versions like the Duet W002, the D8, and the 888 from Beyond E-Tech – Houston based importer. Now, the company has launched latest – Beyond E-Tech K250, also famous as Travelocity Travel Phone. It costs $179 for unlocked version and comes with U.K. based SIM card. However, its speakerphone and media features are totally unimpressive. Its keyboard is a bit cramped. The design of the Travelocity Travel Phone is a reminiscent of the Sony Ericsson Walkman W995a. It has similar navigation array, curved ends, and slider design. It is a surprise that it has Walkman like logo behind the battery cover. What’s more – the menu interface is quite similar to that of Sony Walkman mobile. As the Duet W002 was clean clone of the Apple iPhone, it seems that Travelocity Travel Phone is a clear reminiscent of the Sony Ericsson Walkman W995a.
2.8 inches LCD display of the Travelocity Travel Phone supports 65,000 colors. The Walkman W995a has smaller display, but supports more colors – 16.7 million. The display of the Travel Phone shows good graphics and colors. As already mentioned, its menu interface looks like that of the Walkman W995a, but does not have the same animations. You can change the backlight time, display brightness, and wallpaper.
The navigation array is located beneath the display and consists of separate two Talk buttons for both SIM cards, two soft keys, round toggle with middle OK button, TV button, and End/Power key. You can slide down the phone to access the alphanumeric keypad. Its buttons are cramped and flushed inside the surface. We do not like that their backlit is also tiny.
The combined mini-USB port sits on the top and works for wired headset, connecting USB cable, and charger. We are disappointed that it limits to use one peripheral at a time. You will find the speaker and camera lens with flash on the back; while memory card slot is behind the battery.
The Travelocity Travel Phone comes with U.K. SIM card having $29 calling credit. You can also insert the U.S. SIM card inside the phone. The Cellular Abroad – Travelocity’s service provide charges 90 cents to $3 per outgoing calls. It also provides free incoming calls in 83 countries from France to Turkmenistan. However, you have to pay incoming and outgoing charges in other countries. It also offers voice mail account attached with provided U.K. number, but you have to additionally for checking messages. It keeps the account valid as long as you pay for calling credits.
The Travel Phone can store 300 contacts in its phonebook and each SIM card can hold additional 250 entries. Each entry can save four phone numbers, a birthday, an email address, and a company name. You can categorize the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone, a video and photo for caller ID.
The basic features are a calendar, a to-do list, 15 polyphonic (64-chord) ring-tones, a file manager, an alarm clock, a world clock, a calculator, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messages, a stopwatch, and a currency and unit converter. The advanced highlights are Bluetooth, USB mass storage, menstrual and BMI calculators, and E-Buddy.
The camera is labeled as 8-megapixel, but basically it is a VGA camera. It features flash and video-recording. The overall picture quality is average. The media features include Phone TV app that does not work in America, music player, voice recorder, and FM radio.
It is a surprise to find shake control feature on the Travelocity Travel Phone. It can be used to attend incoming call, changing wallpaper, and music tracks. The shake control worked well while testing. There is also an inbuilt accelerometer that works in certain applications including photo gallery. The Travel Phone comes with four java games: Super Beat Star, Horror Island, The Mummy, and Kungfu Chicken. The only Travelocity content is a good range of wallpapers that features Web site’s gnome.
We made few calls through quad-band based Travelocity Travel Phone via AT&T for testing. The overall call quality was only good. We received loud sound at our end with strong signal strength and a bit voice distortion. It was easy to make and receive calls from any SIM card. The callers received good sound at their end with a tad breathy volume. It is important to mention here that the call quality depends on the selected carrier. The speakerphone call quality was not sharp and the sound suffered with some voice distortion.
The battery life of the Travelocity Travel Phone is 5.4 days of idle standby time and 10 hours of talk time.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a dual-SIM phone for just making calls while traveling, then the Travelocity Travel Phone is good. However, please do not expect so much beyond simple calling.
