CECT p168+ Quad Band iClone Review
Feb 4th, 2008 by Jeff
Over the weekend I was able to get my hands on the CECT p168+. It is an unlocked GSM phone that will work on pretty much any GSM cellular network in the world. And it resembles the famous iPhone that everyone is drooling over.
I want to begin this review by saying that if you love the iPhone interface and are considering this iClone, the CECT p168+ is not for you. You will need to get an iPhone to satisfy your phone craving. Trust me you will end up being disappointed. The initial screen of the p168+ and the physical look of the phone are really where the resemblance with the iPhone ends. If you are wanting a phone with a lot of features, or simply want to have a conversation starter the CECT p168+ might be something you will be interested in.
The CECT p168+ is a phone with a lot of features for the price. (available on eBay from $100- $200 ) It is a touch screen phone that also comes with a stylus. The stylus is handy for using the keyboard that appears on the screen, just about every other function you can simply use your finger for. (if you have gigantic fingers you may need to use the stylus for everything).
The phone comes with two batteries and the phone charger can charge the phone and the additional battery. I haven’t had a phone that has come with this since I was just out of high school (over 10 years ago). My first thought was “Oh man, the battery life is going to be horrible.” However, yesterday I used the phone with my Bluetooth headphones for two hours and talked on it for about an hour yesterday and my battery only dropped one bar. So, I am pleased with the battery life so far.
You can also use the included USB charging cable to plug the phone into a PC or a MAC and access the Micro SD Card. This made it very handy to move my .mp3 files over to the phone. ( To accomplish this I did have to make a setting change in the phones engineering mode, and I was really annoyed by this. )
The MP3 player on the phone works. I am not extremely happy with it since it can’t use playlists. But since I will probably only be using it occasionally as an MP3 player this isn’t a huge issue for me. It also displays the MP3 file name rather than the ID3 tag name for the song. This is another annoying little issue.
Bluetooth works perfectly on the phone. I have connected my Bluetooth headphones and headset without any problems. (Motorola M9 headphones and Anycom Headset)
I have taken a couple of pictures, and the quality is ok. But it is a phone so I don’t expect amazing picture quality. This will be handy for those times where I bump into Bigfoot or the Lockness Monster and will need proof so people won’t think I am crazy. Other than that I doubt I will use the camera feature much. The phone can also do video, and I haven’t messed with this at all. I doubt it is great quality video, but hey everyone gets excited about low quality video on youtube.com now, so maybe I can take some clever videos and join the craze.
Overall this phone does just about everything I would want a phone to do. I am very pleased with the CECT p168+. The only feature that I really wish was present would be to say a name and have the phone call one of my contacts. (My last couple of phones have had this feature) I used this feature often, and now I can’t do that. My workaround is to use the speed dial feature on the phone to call 1 of 9 people with only a couple presses on the phone.
I would rate this phone an 8 on a scale from 1-10. I know a ton of people are wanting this phone because they want an iPhone. I want to reiterate that if you are one of those people you will be disappointed in this phone. If you want a phone with some great features or is eye catching the CECT p168+ might be a good addition to your cell phone collection.
Negatives
- The USB port is not standard on the phone so you need their special cable. (it comes with one though, so this is good)
- The USB port on the phone is also the headphone jack so to plug in normal headphones you will need to find an adapter (The phone does come with some headphones you can use.)
- No Voice Dial Feature for the phonebook
- The MP3 player can’t use playlists
- To use the phone as a storage drive you need to change some settings that are far from obvious
- No 802.11x Wi-Fi access
Positives
- MP3 Player
- Camera
- Digital Camcorder
- Picture Viewer
- Video Player
- MP3 Ringtones
- Touchscreen
- Slide to Unlock
If you are looking for setting changes or tons of details about this phone I found a discussion forum http://cectp168.freeforums.org , where you can register and get tons of information about the CECT p168+.
http://www.thebristows.com is an OpenID for Jeff Bristow
I have put in speed dials, but dot really see how to actually use them. When you click on the phone icon it does not bring up anything that says Speed dial. Cant seem to locate that. Can you assist? Thanks!
Gerri - Once the speed dials are setup all you need to do is press on the phone to get the dial pad. Then you press the number associated with the speed dial and then press the send button on the screen.
how do you put music into the phone??? and whats the engineer mode used for? i just bought this phone, i dont know anything…help
Ralph - I am not sure if you noticed, but this isn’t actually CECT tech support. I am just some dude that bought one of these phones just like you.
That said the process is essentially…. put music onto your micro sd card. put micro sd card into phone. open music player navigate to music on micro sd card on phone and presto.
Now there are some settings that you can fiddle with so that you can use your phones micro sd card in the phone as a usb storage device. I don’t know what that setting is though. I would recommend checking out the discussion forum I posted in the blog review so you can talk with tons of CECT P168+ fanatics so they can guide you in your quest to learn more about this little gem from China.
Agree 100%, the p168 is no I phone. The phone does everything you need, if your looking for something new and cool to play with, but nothing right now replaces the I phone. The big neg. for me is that you have to use the stylus for texting people, the keypad is way to small.
does it matter who your provider is when you get this phone?
tot - You need to use a GSM provider. I know AT&T uses GSM and I believe T-mobile may as well. This is a GSM phone so therefore needs to be used on a GSM network. This phone will not work with Verizon, Sprint, MetroPCS or any other non-GSM provider.
Almost there, but not quite.
It’s still a winCE phone with Apple Mac alike skin
Responsive touch screen is a little better but still pretty irritate.
Applications remain pretty much risking of no 3rd party add-ons since it has modified, a normal MS winCE wares will not be compatible.
I got the 168, will not go thru that ordeal again even I’ve test run on my friend 168+ for a day. NOT totally impress. I’ll stick to my RIM until new generation 2 iPhone release then decide from there to get mark down G1 or full price G2… No more killing my brain cells invest into something not really work and a device has no own R&D but rather copycat without own industry artistic designers team.
I’m with T-Mobile and my current phone is 5-Fav capable. Will I be able to use the capability with the CECT p168+?
Jay - Since T-Mobile is a GSM provider the phone will work on the T-Mobile network with a T-Mobile SIM card. Regarding the 5-fav feature, I have no idea. I am not familiar with that feature, so I don’t know how that works ( or even what it is) to be able to answer the question.
I dont think it will work with fav 5 since that is an application added by t-mobile. You will still have your fav 5 since thats stored on their servers but they wont be displayed as bubbles on your screen.
Hi, i am interested in purchasing one of these phones . What is the website i need to go to ? Thanks
Jon A. - http://www.ebay.com