Philips 355 mobile phone

Philips 355 is a dual band camphone with a distinctive candy bar shaped body. This model is targeted at the budget end of the market, for users who want an affordable camphone with good features, and this handset is certain to compete for buyers’ interest. Philips have created yet another different look to stand out from other designs, with a choice of 4 available colours (Turquoise, White, Black, and Anthracite), the unusual hexagonally shaped honeycomb-style keys, and the rounded ends to the phone’s body.

Philips 355Other features that the 355 offers are integrated GPRS and WAP technology, MMS messaging, voice control (up to 15 voice tags may be used), an e-mail client, and a selection of polyphonic ringtones. There is also a sound recorder that is capable of recording sound clips of up to one minute in duration, or up to 20 short sounds depending on the available memory.

The 355 has a TFT active matrix type of LCD display, which offers a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels, and this can also reproduce up to 65,536 different colours. The screen enables you to view pictures, graphics and the icon driven menu system, and to be different Philips have used what they call a “carousel” system, which is a circular loop of icons that rotates, rather than the usual menu with fixed rows of icons. But pictures will be something that users will want to play with on this phone, and being MMS enabled means that you can receive and send MMS multimedia messages containing a combination of images, sounds and text to other compatible MMS phones.

An integrated camera is included, and this enables you to take pictures of 3 different resolution qualities: QVGA (320 x 240 pixels), SQVGA (160 x 120 pixels), and 128 x 128 pixels. Although this camera cannot compete with VGA quality, or the latest megapixel models, it will probably be good enough for those who want a simple snap and send camphone, and it does mean that the pictures are small enough in memory size to be sent by MMS. There is a 2x digital zoom included, as well as a night mode exposure setting, and a timer to help with the taking of self-portraits. The phone also comes with a feature that Philips call Foto Talk, which means you can use the phone’s digital sound recorder to add a voice comment to pictures that you take, and then send these to your friends via an MMS message.

Some special effects may be added to your pictures with the colour mode, which lets you select whether you want your shots to be in colour, black & white, sepia or blue. For example, the sepia setting will give you a picture with the brownish tint of old pictures. You can also make use of the pictures you take of your contacts by adding them to the phone’s photo phonebook, a feature that Philips refer to as Fotocall, so you can see who is calling. You may even set the phone to play a unique melody for selected callers, to help identify them when the phone is in your pocket.

An expected feature in a phone these days is the opportunity to perform some personalisation of its look and sound, and the 355 is capable of being customised with new content, such as wallpapers, animations, screensavers and ringtones. It is possible to download new content over-the-air, in MMS messages and e-mail attachments, or via a PC connection; you can even use pictures taken with the phone’s camera as your own personal wallpapers if you wish. Although you may find new ringtones from several sources, there is also a ringtone composer installed into the phone. The BeDJ composer allows you to create your own ringtone melodies by mixing up to 16 tracks from different melody and percussion instruments, and you can also set a style (Groovy, Techno, Disco, etc) and adjust the tempo to suit your taste.

There is not much in the way of entertainment, with just one game (Brick Game) coming preloaded in the phone. However, this phone will work with the In-Fusio™ range of games, and more of these may be downloaded when you want to play something new. The phone does not support Java™ software. Applications included in the phone are a Calculator, Alarm Clock, Organiser (for events and reminders), and a Currency Converter.

The 355’s onboard GPRS technology provides you with fast data rates for rapid access to the network, and this also means you get an “always on” connection, where you pay for the amount of data you actually transfer rather than the length of time you are connected to the network. When GPRS is combined with the WAP 2.0 browser this provides quick and easy access to the mobile Internet, and the chance to use the many WAP services and information sources available. You can benefit from such useful facilities as news bulletins, sports reports, weather forecasts, travel updates, online shopping and banking, entertainment news, business stories and stock market prices. There is also an e-mail application, offering an Internet e-mail service via the standard POP3 and SMTP protocols, and this will provide you with the chance to keep up with your e-mail correspondence whilst on the move.

Not surprisingly, as this is a budget phone, there is no Bluetooth™ featured here. The only connectivity option available is a USB data cable link, and you will need to purchase the Philips data connection kit to get access to the software and cable to carry out file and data exchange with a PC. Once connected you can update and synchronise your personal information in the organiser and phonebook with that on your PC. This connection to a PC also enables you to send faxes, as well as to download pictures and melodies between the 2 devices.

Philips 355 Cameraphone specification

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Last updated 30th January 2008, 14:39 GMT