Mobile phones are buzzing these days, with thousands of models released, developed, trashed, stolen every year. While most of these have evolved into multifaceted, omnipresent devices without which one can’t seem to survive, their functionality hasn’t improved much. So high costs, idiosyncratic functions and flimsy bodies ensure that most people continue to use their bulky, obsolete dinosaurs, ignoring the new flash in the market. But hope endures: new phones that are wallet-friendly, overloaded with functions and designed for the non-nerd user are creeping into the market. We decided to test three such models—Motorola W180 and the LG twins, KG 288 and KG 285—to see which gives more bang for the buck.

All three are the standard candy-bar models with tight 1.5-inch screens that display 65,000 colours. Bare to the bone, the phones are rooted in functionality, with the menu options limited to contact list, messaging, call history and a few bundled games and tools. Even the keypads are strictly utilitarian, with two keys for picking up and cancelling calls, two for selecting options from menus and a four -directional key for running through games and other options. Not surprisingly, the phones have also gone in for an entire Hindi set-up, which gives the option of texting Hindi SMSes and furthering the cause of Hinglish.

But the similarities end there. While all the phones are targeted at the entry-level user, the differences in functionality, memory allocation and user interface give each phone a distinct personality. As the FM bug has become endemic, both the W180 and KG 288 have an FM player which promises to keep you connected to the airwaves even on the move. The KG 285, on the other hand, doesn’t have one, the only significant difference between the two LGs.

... contd.