Phones

The buzz in the mobile phone market is ‘Made in China’. We all know that most of our Nokias, Samsungs, LGs, Sony Ericssons are all made in China but this one is about the Noklas and the Samkungs.
Having seen the Chinese phones and shunned them in all patriotism and a healthy dose of snobbery I head for Guardian Electronics, which appears to be just another mobile phone store on the outside. But what a world of discovery awaits inside. P. M. Rasheed, the proprietor, opens the door to the world of Chinese made phones
The Chinese phones are a happy marriage of imagination and technology. Imagine being able to use two SIM cards in the same phone without the hassle of carrying two handsets or for that matter a phone that works on both GSM and CDMA technology.
At the time of writing, it was too good to be true but now there are some brands marketing this kind of handset.
“For those who travel abroad these phones are a blessing. For a businessman who travels abroad it makes sense to have two SIM cards, one from India and the other local. Things are so much simpler than carting around two mobile phones or paying exorbitant amounts of money as bill for every necessary and unnecessary incoming call,” says Rasheed.
The workings of the twin SIM phones are rather simple, if you are on one line and you get a call on the other line, the caller would be simply put on call waiting till such time that you can take the call. There are several varieties of such phones.
And, if you thought listening to FM or surfing the Net were as far as you could go where mobile phones were concerned you are clearly outdated. You can watch television, live television on these beauties; in fact some of these have small tripods on which to rest these phones…for viewing comfort. If you clip on the cable connection, you won’t miss your favourite soap or cricket match. Use and dispensation of technology…the Chinese sure know how to do it.
All this technology at not more Rs. 6,200 at the most. The quality then? “There is strict quality control when it comes to these phones as well,” says Rasheed.
Warranty then? “There is no warranty!” as simple as that. “But look at it this way, if you were to buy a branded phone with the same facilities you would have to pay not less than Rs. 35,000. But if you want the same when it comes to phones of Chinese make, you can buy five of these,” says Rasheed