Salora SM401

DO NOT CONSIDER THIS AS A CHINESE PHONE. IT ISN'T
Bought blue one which is quite beautiful, typical desi phone i must say. I had salora tv and radio long back which tempted me to buy another electronic gadget of salora.
Awesome battery life, 2days on a single charge (calls, net surfing & bluetooth included).
Some subtle features but v.important like sms scheduler, call blacklist (sends busy tone to the caller directly, whereas my symbian v60 rings once and then blocks), answering machine (awesome, u can record tour message and set time limit for recording), call recorder, fm recorder.
There is also Flight mode
Can be flawlessly used as a webcam.
GPRS is fine and quick.
Bluetooth is fast. Faster than motorola phones, transfer is v.quick via my computer on bluetooth (impressive)
Memory expandable upto 16gb.
Also an ok 1.3mp camera with flash(not powerful though)
USB charging & mind blowing sound (not like chinese ones), one can play in background and swiftly browse the songs via dedicated keys on the top. I connected this phone to a 5.1ch outdoor & the effect was AWESOME.
&
all these for 1.6k
Cons:-
Initially, one may find typing tough as the alignment of keys is tight and elongated.
Only 2 themes.
Have to compress images to set them as wallpaper/contact image.
Has to keep camera on night mode always as to get clearer/bright picture even during daytime.
Overall, I would recommend this phone to all those who wanna buy cell with a budget of 1.5k with pro features like FM & call recording, answer machine & call blacklisting. This one is better functionally than spice/micromax under 2k.
finally, flipkart is awesome in packing matters.

Hi,

I had drafted this b/m feedback within 2 days of receiving mobile, but wanted to know more about battery backup.
Charging is not very fast, but on full charge (unbelievable) it lasted for 5 full days (and then also - enough power was remaining in it to carry it on for some more hours.) In this 5 days i didn't use music on loudspeaker. Approx 10-15 sms per day recd and fwd, and 4-5 calls per day.

review in detail:

I gave order on Friday - late night with COD option and recd verification call on Saturday and received courier on Tuesday. So service of Flipkart is good.

I had low budget and shortlisted Micromax X266 & X265 but then saw this mobile, which was offering almost at par features with it, but at bit lower price. Many years back, we had Salora B/W TV and it worked very well, so i thought to give it a try.

It is actually at par with Micromax, Maxx kind low range phones with some added features.

Phone looks good (though not extremely impressive - Yellow color X265 looks more better) Rather, only drawback is its looks. Salora defenitely needs to work on it.

Large Display & Easy keys accessibility is good. Key pad is bit tough but it might be initial stage.

Dedicated shortcut keys for music at top, but they are slightly difficult to use, probably deliberately made it like that so that accidentally Music should not start while taking phone out of pocket. Music on speakers is good (it has got equalizer also), but full volume goes very - very loud and then sounds like china mobile - though music is distortion free

Camera is digital camera. It has got flash, but not very strong. It takes decent pics in day time.

Torch is within camera flash

Voice on speakerphone is decent

While entering phone number, it also has option to input DOB of person, something I never seen in low end phones.

Photo caller ID option is working well (but photo should be of smaller size - max 150kb or less)

Phone book is 500 for phone and 250 per sim i.e. 1000 phonebook

Ebook reader reads Text file but not PDF file

not tried GPRS

As of now - seems value for money.

Earlier my friends were laughing at this peice - never heard of brand, but on checking the features specially 5 days battery time - they are quite envy of this at that too at this price.

If one can compromise on looks (which is not very bad)- its steal at this price.

1600rs... worth every penny.

LOOKS:
simple, yet sleek.
big sized buttons, responsive
screen extremely bright

BATTERY LIFE:
trust me, extremely good.

CAMERA:
average, clicks decent pictures during the day. flash not powerful at all.

SPEAKERS:
mindblowing clarity and volume.. almost makes it a music phone.

EARPHONES:
good. tried others too, they work great.

OS:
java, extremely well setup layout of icons, good default theme with bright animations.

FINAL CONCLUSION: as i have bought it for my grandfather, he finds it simple and easy to use. personally i think its a great bargain.

Positive Comments
Its a good dual sim low price phone with many good features. Best part is its battery life, which easily goes for an average 3-4 days. Sound quality is of K series,hard to believe that its emerging from a mobile phone. Bluetooth is very fast. FM is good. Display too is very good. Network support is fast. I believe that Salora will go a long way in mobile business. Perhaps the company needs some strengthen its advetisement policy. Many think that its a Chinese phone, which is incorrect, its an Indian brand.

Negative Comments
Package does not include PC Suite CD, which can only b installed online. Windows 7 can't install it as a modem either automatically or online, hence internet on PC cant b used with this OS.

Its a good phone.
I got it delivered on 13th feb, i ordered it on 5th of feb.
The phone operating system is a better version of the Chinese mobiles available in the market.
Good side:-
1200 mAh, good battery life.
Sound is loud and crisp.
sounds good on headphone.
bluetooth works well.
data service is there with pre loaded apps(google,orkut,facebook etc)
Bad side:-
Camera quality not so good (well one should not expect at this price range)
keypad is bit hard

verdict:-
Good phone at this price range,with larger screen and a good music and FM player