My stereo Bluetooth earphones of two years is giving up with a charge not lasting as it use to. So naturally I was keeping my eye out for something with more features but nothing that I'd cry about.
The Sony Bluetooth sets have some extra features other than there's usual remote control buttons like text display, an ear speaker but cost more than US0.
Enter a local Philippine brand, Cherry Mobile which offers a small sized basic phone called P1 that bluetooth pairs with your better Android device to remote access your calls, SMS, audio media, and itself is a basic phone with its own SIM card. It retails for only Php 799 (US .16).
It works with the Galaxy Note 3 on Jellybeans 4.3 without the need to install extra software. It uses the Message Access Profile or MAP usually used for current car radios for calls and SMS for your smartphone.
Key features:
*A smartphone remote dialer
Smartphone SMS viewer (Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) needed)
*Single regular SIM card
*Dual band GSM 900/1800 Mhz
*1.77 " LCD @ 176 X 220 pixels
*VGA camera
*FM Radio
*Music Player
*Bluetooth 3.0
*Built-in battery
*Micro SD slot up to 4GB only
*Available in 4 colors - white, light blue, orange and red
*54 x 89 x 10 mm (with buttons slightly protruding)
*No specs on battery or weight
Pros
*Acts as a secondary phone and remotes your Android device for answering and making calls and SMS
*Decoy device where you shouldn't be flashing your more expensive or larger Android device
*Acts as bluetooth audio for your main device
*Compact and light
Cons
*No thrills plastic build with 1990s inexpensive cellphone design (but that maybe a good thing)
*Basic dumbphone with all low end features with no wifi access or Internet capabilities, or social networks and email notifications
*No 3.5mm earphone jack, and only takes micro USB earphones which is NOT provided
*Sound only comes from the ear speaker and is low quality
*Built-in battery with no user replacement
Okay, the P1 doesn't aim to give any visible first good impression. It looks cheaper than any of the current low end basic Nokia phone. The P1's choices of colors of light blue, cherry red, Vermillion (orange) and white aren't exactly attractive either. I got the less atrocious white. Its buttons are made of hard translucent jelly with strange dotted text styled numbers and small crate numbering styled letters, but they won't be fade away like past generic 2G phone devices of late 1990s.
Don't hold your breath on the VGA camera too. It'd probably be OK for some quick urgent pictures... if you navigate to the camera function quickly enough. You'll need to place a micro SD card for this to work.
The P1 doesn't have a regular 3.5mm jack for audio. It only has a micro USB for you to plug in old earphone or adapters for your usual earphones with this connection socket. The FM radio will not work at all without a wired audio as it uses the wire as an antenna. Don't expect stellar audio quality as your main Android device.
Conclusion
It's as tiny as my extra battery case. for my Note 3. The unspecified battery seems to be decent enough to last the entire day connected. The P1 is unapologetically unattractive, but it's a perfect compliment to the Note 3.
Well, you'll get the FM radio receiver missing in the Note 3, and it's functions surpass that of any Bluetooth earphones. You can probably put in that 2nd SIM card of a different network for signal differences when you need to make that call.
The remote dialer and sms functions are probably the main features to get the P1 for those less appealing places. This is the first I have heard of of such a device. No guarantees in keeping you from harm, but at least it gives less reasons for anyone to stop you on the lonely streets seeing you using an expensive device. It would be a selling point for other established brands out there to add a MAP feature on their dumbphones. They'd make a killing.
