The Exterior, 360-degree Analysis.

Judging by the stated price (100 EUR), this should be a phone between the budget and middle class, but when we’ve opened the box and took the phone in hands, it felt a lot more “premium”. Of course, that’s the effect of the metal case which gives the phone weight and straight design, with other words, you have the same sensations when taking in hands a Nokia from the deluxe 8800 series. From metal are made the back panel and the front frame which surface is not glossy, but matte - this must be an anti-fingerprint measure which partially works, but does not hide at all the traces, well, that’s the price to pay for a good-looking design.

Let’s analyze the exterior of the phone step by step. On the perimeter we will find only the 3.5mm audio jack and the USB slot which also serves for charging the battery. On the back side, upper half, we see the 1.3Mp camera and the speaker grille. The downside is entirely covered by the metal battery lid which has the name of the model engraved on it (it will not be removed with the time). Turning the phone with the front side up, we can notice the “Dual SIM” label before the screen and then the brand name right after the screen ends, then we have the control panel consisting of four keys with the D-pad on center. The four keys are absolutely identical and when you want to switch on the phone for the first time, you will have a short hesitation not knowing what to press. However, the intuition (or the manual for those who lack intuition) dictates you to press the right bottom key and when the phone turns on, you can notice the backlight which shows up the signs for each of the four keys. The button you’ve just pressed is also used to drop the call and exit all the menus to the desktop. The next key up is a soft one used to access the phone book and to get “back” in the menus. On the left side of the D-pad are the Call buttons for both SIMs which once pressed from the desktop, displays the list of all calls related to the respective SIM. Of course, when dialing a number you will choose from what SIM to call by simply pressing the first or the second button – we find this solution more comfortable if compared with other dual phones even from Samsung, where you have to switch the SIMs to primary and back to use the one you need.

A minor minus is the backlight for these four keys, it is really weak and dim, that’s why the signs are not seen in daylight, only at dark. However, you need to see these signs only once to know the functions of the buttons in the future, but if you borrow the phone to a friend or person who is not yet accustomed with the phone, he will need to learn as you did from the start. The D-pad is usual with five keys, where the four cardinal buttons are customizable shortcuts. The numeric keypad is comfortable having the buttons large enough for all kinds of fingers. The numbers and letters were written behind the varnish, so, there’s no change to erase them. On the keypad, only the rows are delimited, no columns, however, each pressed button responds correctly and does not interfere with the neighboring ones.

Inside the phone: Menu, Multimedia, Organizer and more

Now, let’s head to the menu of the phone. To unblock the keyboard, you will have to press consecutively two keys like in Nokia phones. The 2” screen unveils a sharp and saturated image which reflects the quality of the TFT matrix, 260K colors and 240x320px resolution. The display performs very well in sunlight, so no problems with that. Commencing from the left up corner of the desktop we see two icons of the antenna signal strength for each SIM card, then we have the active profile and, in the opposite right corner, it is the battery meter. A little lower on the center it is shown the operator of the first SIM card, which is also highlight with some red, then it comes the second SIM operator. You can also activate the option to show the number under each operator (in case you have a lot and do not remember them all), that’s helpful. The date and time are at the bottom of the display, which ends with three shortcuts: Calls, Menu and Phonebook.

Of course, you can change the background from the respective menu line, but Allview found one more function for the integrated accelerometer, you can change the image by simply tilting the phone to right or left and you will see the next picture from the respective folder – interesting.

You can enter the main menu by pressing the center button of the D-pad. It consists of nine icons arranged in a 3x3 matrix. The icons are animated and very bright. The first one is the Messages menu where we can choose text SMS, MMS, Email and Chat (through SMS-es with a given phone number). Next is the phonebook which has two kinds of search methods, one quick and the second advanced. For each contact you have a lot of information fields available like all kinds of numbers, image, ringtone, birthdate, group etc. A special line is the “Additional numbers” where you can edit your personal number, SOS numbers and the customer care of the manufacturer. Next on the list we have a “Call center” where you can see the call history for each SIM, plus you can make a lot of settings regarding the calls from which we want to mention the possibility to make a Blacklist, to set an Auto call end (for airtime saving) and the usual but very useful speed dial.

The second row starts with Multimedia, where you can find the digital camera, image viewer, video recorder, audio and video player, sound recorder, FM radio and FM recording schedule. The camera is not something astonishing, 1.3 Mp, but you can make good pictures in light conditions. All the following players (video, audio and image) are linked with the accelerometer. Tilting the phone horizontally during video playback will switch to full screen. In the case of songs and images, you can use the accelerometer to play the next/previous track and to view next/previous image. Even the FM radio stations can be switched by shacking the phone to right or left.

On the audio player and the sound quality we would like to comment a little more since this is a music phone. The clear strong sound is explained by the Yamaha audio amplifier and it can be played through the loud speaker, the professional headphones included with the phone or even through the Bluetooth headset. The playlist can be generated automatically from the phone or from the memory card (by default is the memory card since the phone has only 100Kb memory, so this second option is practically useless), but you can do this manually too. Repeat and Shuffle are mandatory and the equalizer can be switched on and off. Very convenient is the possibility to resume the player to background and to continue your SMS or something else.

The next section is Fun&Games where it is only one puzzle plus the settings for accelerometer. It is very well that the user can control the effects of the accelerometer, everything what we’ve mentioned above about the accelerometer can be turned on and off plus the function Turn to Mute. It is very elegant when you can mute the phone just by turning it up side down - from my memory, this feature was first seen also on the Nokia 8800 series.

The Settings section does not reveal something unusual except the dedicated line “Sound effects” from where you can control the equalizer – this seems to affect the sound in general, not only the audio player. In “Services” we can find the SIMs’ menu and the internet browser. For internet connection you can use only GPRS, no other possibilities, but that’s normal for such a price.

The Organizer is well stuffed: Calendar where you can add events, Tasks, Alarm, World Clock, Calculator (comfortable), Currency converter, Stopwatch, Ebook reader and by some reasons, the Bluetooth is also managed from here. Interesting is the fact that for Bluetooth you can compose a black list. The last icon from the menu is the File manager which once opened shows you the phone and the memory card accompanied with a memory status bar – quite convenient, but less comfortable is the navigation – pressing the center key from the D-pad we are accustomed to open the selected item, but it’s not happening here – you are prompted all the options, the first being to open the folder, so, you have to make two clicks for each level. Regarding the memory card, the phone can support up to 8Gb - we’ve used a 4 Gb card and are happy to see that it is managed with no delays compared with some expensive LGs for example.

Dual SIM performance

As everybody have already understood, S2 Guld supports two SIM cards which operates simultaneously. Of course, no problem to call any of the SIM while the phone is in standby mode, but you can not call the second SIM while talking on the first, however, you still can receive another call on the first if you make forward to the second – this situation is possible for both SIMs. The user also can control individually each SIM (disable/enable, set number etc.), so, the Dual SIM feature was given maximum possibilities by Allview.

Conclusion

Even from the stat the phone made a good first impression which was progressively confirmed by the quality materials and assembling, the crystal clear and high volume sound, the bright display and convenient menu full of features, many of them linked with the accelerometer, plus a reliable, well developed Dual SIM mode, combined with a powerful battery which lasts at least 4 days.

If we are getting back to what we’ve started, that every new mobile phone manufacturer must bring something worthy of attention, we can conclude that Allview S2 Guld is worth not only your attention but also two times its price, since this is a reliable, good looking Dual SIM phone with a lot of features conveniently exposed to the user.

Starting with the second half of March, Allview S2 Guld will be available in Moldova via the “Alo” shop network and in the near future check the “Conect” network too.