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On 31 August 2007, I wrote about my latest purchase of a free sample kit from Everyday Minerals. I've been patiently waiting and waiting since then, but to-date it has yet to arrive at my doorstep.
The website of Everyday Minerals says that I should allow for 2 days for the processing of my order and between 8 - 15 days for the International Shipping. Now these are business / working days, which means that weekends are excluded. By my calculations, my sample kit should have arrived on 25 September 2007.
On 25 September 2007 I sent an enquiry email to Everyday Minerals using the email address provided in the PayPal receipt (everydayminerals [at] austin [dot] rr [dot] com). I waited, and today, 2 days later, I still haven't received any reply. So I have sent another email to the shipping email address of Everyday Minerals (shipping [at] everdayminerals [dot] com).
Let's see if I get any response this time. I really, really want to have a good experience with purchasing online with them!
This is Part Three (the final part) of my Nokia N80 review. You can see Part One and Two here.
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Games, office and surfing
I haven't really explored the games on my phone to date but it did come bundled with the Spanish version of the Sims for mobile phones. Pity that it was only a demo version, so the game automatically ends after a few minutes. Not that I minded much anyway, because there wasn't anything to do with the Sim except make it go to the loo a lot. LOL!
There are a number of office applications bundled with the phone like notes, Adobe reader, calculator and others but I seldom use them too. So, any office users out there who want to comment?
Ahhh... we come to my favorite part of the review. Surfing the Internet! Woot! No as I've mentioned previously, the whole reason why I wanted this phone was because of its Wifi capability. I specifically got the N80 internet edition because I had read that they had bundled a mobile browser that was specially optimized for surfing. And let me tell you... it rawks! Even my Dad commented that surfing on my phone was far better than surfing using his PDAs - the O2 and the Dopod 818 Pro. Scrolling thru a webpage is a breeze with the mini-map application that lets you jump to wherever you want to go. Surfing speeds are also significantly faster when we are testing out the phone vs. PDA at the same wireless spot. But... there is one drawback to the N80 - the range of wireless reception is not as sensitive at the PDA phones. I have to be nearer the Wifi spot to be able to detect and connect, and in a place with overlapping multiple access points, the N80 detected fewer access points compared to the Dopod 818 Pro.
Overall, a good phone for those who will make use of its features (especially the wifi!). If you're looking for a normal phone or a really good camera / video phone, I'd suggest you look at other brands / models.
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What I like about it: Wifi capability, Internet browser optimized for surfing, 3 megapixel camera with inbuilt flash and dual shooting modes
What I don't like about it: Battery runs out rapidly, seems a little sluggish in response, erratic wifi pick-up signal, no autolock feature, bulky
If you've been to Tesco recently you would have noticed that they have stopped offering Bonuslink points for shopping at their stores as at 23 August 2007 and instead introduced their own inhouse loyalty card called Tesco Clubcard. I found out about this over the Merdeka weekend and at first thought about signing up for it: a) Because it's free; and b) Because we do a fair bit of shopping at Tesco. Then after some thought, I decided against it. Why? Because what they offered just wasn't good enough to entice me to sign up.
You can only collect points at Tesco and no other place. Unlike Bonuslink, where I can collect points at Parkson and Shell, just to name the two places where I do my shopping. And, I can accumulate my Bonuslink points to redeem free stuff, like the Panasonic Dect cordless phone we just redeemed two weeks back. But what does Tesco do? They send you a rebate voucher for the amount of points that you are entitled to every quarter. As you get only 1 point for every RM2 you spend there, it's not that much in my opinion. Let me prove my point.
My family shops on average, say RM75 at Tesco every week. Over three months in the quarter, that works out to RM900. Being given 1 point for every RM2 spent means that I've accumulated 450 points. Sounds like a lot? Not really. Each point is worth RM0.01 or 1 sen only. So for spending RM900 at Tesco, I get back a rebate voucher for RM4.50.
Worth your time and effort to shop at Tesco using the Tesco Clubcard? I really don't think so. Not for me anyway.
For more about the Tesco Clubcard, please visit their local website here.
Part Two of my Nokia phone review! You can see Part One here.
Sound and Sight
The speakers and sound quality is rather good, especially when compared to both my Dad's O2 and Dopod 818 Pro. The N80 renders clear sound, and my only gripe with it is a lack of bass. Some songs with a thumping bass riff and drums turned into lite versions of their former selves. LOL. But since merely having the ability to play mp3s with the phone is a bonus for me, I was not too chuffed about it. However, running the music player (or video player) on low sound (around 30 - 40% strength) seems to drain the battery more rapidly than I expected - I had to recharge the phone after 1 1/2 days of use (and even faster if I have been surfing).
One thing that puzzled me (and still is puzzling me!) is how to get the phone to recognize mp3 files as ringtones. The phone comes with the predownloaded Nokia pack of ringtones that can be selected through the Profile menu, but mp3 files stored on my Mini SD card were not recognized as such to enable ringtone selection. You can only select ONE mp3 tone as your main ringing tone through the gallery menu and this is set for all profiles, meaning you can't customize it further to suit your liking. This kinda bothers me because I'm the type who likes to assign different tones for different people / groups. Not being able to expand my SMS and clock alarm tones from the standard Nokia tunes also turn me off a bit.
Playing MTVs using the N80 also rendered reasonable graphic quality, although faster moving scenes would be blurred around the edges. As the phone isn't a tv, I don't expect crystal clear moving pictures from it, so this wasn't much of an issue for me. Folks who like to play lots of MTVs and shoot their own videos should opt for the N93 instead, which is optimized for that purpose.
The N80 boasts two cameras - a higher resolution camera in the back (main) and a lower resolution camera (secondary) in the front for video calling. Both cameras take both pictures and video and supports an image capture resolution of up to 2048 x 1536 pixels. Taking pictures with the N80 was a breeze, although I admit that I was more interested in clicking away rather than fiddling with the numerous shooting modes available. Testing normal picture taking and macro shots with the N80 showed accurate color rendition and high picture quality. A comparison macro shot of sushi by both my N80 ( 3.2 megapixel) and my dad's Dopod 818 Pro (2 megapixel) resulted in both pros and cons. The Dopod won out for being better able to focus on the sushi, but the N80 had better color rendition and picture clarity. (Or maybe it was the photographer's lack of skill in handling the N80. LOL!)
Having test run the N80 in a party-like gathering, the inbuilt flash garnered quite a bit of attention as my friends asked if I was carrying a camera or a phone! Haha. But the picture taking response is a bit too slow for my liking as I like to capture candid shots of people around me. A 2 second gap between when you depress the capture button and the saving of the actual shot results in people moving, unless of course, they are busy posing for you. Posed photos are clear and fine, but shots on the go are blur and grainy.
Part Three is coming up soon!
