Find the cheapest Virgin Mobile Lobster
Overview
The Lobster 700TV is not just for making and taking calls. Its for watching TV and a whole lot more. Virgin offers 50 DAB digital radio stations and four TV channels – BBC1, ITV1, C4 and E4.
The phone offers a seven-day electronic programme guide (EPG) so you can find out what’s on now and next and features ‘red-button’ interactivity for you to interact with the programme you are currently watching.
Review
This option is a far cry better than what we are used to getting with jerky screen images and poor battery life. With the Lobster 700TV, Virgin offers a solution in that it has an onboard DAB decoder using BT’s Movio platform. Stay in one place and as long as you’ve got coverage you can lock on to a signal and watch television to your heart’s content. However, as soon as you start moving, like on a bus or a train for example, things start to go downhill. The sound quality and battery life is excellent and I was able to get a good couple of hours before the battery died.
You’ll also want to use the phone for other things such as, making calls, and the Lobster 700TV is perfectly good at this, too. It’s a smartphone, using Windows Mobile as its operating system, so it can also handle cut-down versions of Outlook among other programs. There’s a camera on board, but this is unexceptional at 1.3 megapixels
The main drawbacks are it’s not the best looking phone. With it disappointingly large in size and weight (it’s 140 grams and bigger than the early 3G handsets), you may start complaining about it taking up soo much room in your bag. Also, aside from the TV and Radio options it gains average marks for it’s other features such as offering a poor camera and no Wi-Fi.
Specification
Dimensions: 112 x 58 x 24 mm
Battery: Removable, rechargeable Lithium-ion (5 hours talk, 140 hours standby).
Display: 2.2 inch, 240 x 320 pixel colour screen (64,000 colours)
Memory: 64MB RAM / 128Meg ROM
Expansion: MicroSD storage cards
Navigation: four-way navigator
Processor: 201MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 750
Connectivity: GSM/GPRS, USB, Bluetooth
Includes:
- TV services including BBC 1, ITV 1, ITN News and E4, with content from Channel 4
- DAB Digital Radio (up to 50 stations)
- Electronic Programme Guide
- 1.3 Megapixel camera
- Smartphone powered by Windows Mobile v5.0 software
- Triband
The Gaj-it Verdict
- Design: 6/10
- Usability: 7/10
- Features: 7/10
- Love: TV on the move is an eye-catcher with a good, sharp screen
- Loathe: chunky design and DAB TV and radio don’t work on trains.
We say: We really like this phone to kill five minutes waiting for the train or waiting for garlic bread to cook, however it’s TV channel range is limited, and it’s large and heavy and the battery is something of a let-down, which explains the bulky and heaviness of the phone. If you’re not bothered about trading your pocket friendly phone for this bulky option just to be number one in the cutting edge of the mobile phone world, then go on give this one a whirl.