With so many companies making cell phones, one has to wonder why any network operator would want to launch a private label cell phone. But we’ve seen O2 do this on a number of occasions, most recently with its idiosyncratic Cocoon.
Orange has decided to try its hand at branded telephony and has developed two handsets in quick succession with the prospect of more to come. They are named after cities and the two announced so far are Berlin and Tokyo. I’ll look at Dual-Band Tokyo first and come to Berlin later.
Tokyo is a tiny phone that I suspect is aimed at those who want to look rather snazzy but don’t necessarily need a ton of impressive features. The phone certainly does the trick in the looks department, with silver and black the paintwork of choice and a rather nice brushed metal finish for the battery case on the back.
Weighing just 68g, this phone is barely noticeable in your pocket, and it’s also really small in your hand at just 92mm high, 35mm wide and 14mm thick. Holding it in your hand feels like it’s meant to be a little slider, but it’s actually a standard candy bar handset.
The screen and number pad are a mixed bag. The former is pretty disappointing. It’s very, very small, measuring about 1.3 inches from corner to corner, 21mm wide and 26mm high. It delivers 128 x 160 pixels in this space and runs at 65,000 colors. To be fair, the screen couldn’t be much bigger and still fit in this tiny phone, and it’s sharp and clear enough to read indoors. However, it is difficult to read from the outside, which is particularly annoying when handling the camera.
However, I’m happier about the number pad and other front buttons. The number keys are as large as the front of the phone allows, individually shaped and beautifully backlit. The call and end buttons, as well as two soft menu buttons, are relatively large and very clearly labeled, making them well defined.
The navigation pad isn’t the biggest in the world, but I had no problem using it with my flat thumb, and its center selection button is slightly rounded and raised. All of these design features make the keys easy to find and hit. However, I have fairly small hands, so if you have big hands you might not find it that comfortable to use.
When it comes to amenities, the Tokyo is adequate, but quality is generally below mid-range. The phone does support mobile email, but the screen really is too small to do it seriously. You can browse WAP sites and I even managed to get onto a few websites, but the screen size makes the whole exercise a little pointless – you just can’t see enough information to make browsing useful.
Bluetooth is built in and there’s also a calendar, to-do list manager, alarm and world clock, calculator, currency converter, unit converter, sound recorder, stopwatch and three games. You can also create your own ringtones.
The composition software is pretty clever. You use the number keys to place notes on an on-screen staff. The “0” key inserts a pause, the “8” key generates a vibration, and the “9” key flashes the alarm light.
You can choose between three playback speeds: fast, normal and slow. You can choose a variety of instruments: piano, guitar, violin, saxophone, steel drums, flute, harmonica, trumpet, music box and xylophone. And no, none of them sound like the real instrument, but they are all noticeably different from each other.
On the storage front is a 512MB microSD card that comes with the phone to expand internal storage and its slot is on the left edge of the case. You can use Cards to store music played by the phone, photos taken with the camera, and other files.
And so I come to the camera. It has a 1.3-megapixel sensor (1280 x 1024 pixels), which is below average for any phone these days. There’s a self-portrait mirror, but no flash, and not much good to say about it.
When in use, the screen doesn’t quite frame the entire photo area, so you can’t see the edges of a shot. You also have to keep the phone still for quite a while to avoid blurry or mis-framed photos due to the shutter lag.
As for image quality, my photo of the colored dish, taken indoors and under normal household lighting conditions, is grainy, dull, and unevenly lit. Outdoors, the camera never did well with naturally lit subjects, as evidenced by the smeared yellow flowers. The resolution is poor and the exposure varies greatly.
The bowl of chili peppers is a better photo, but the background should be black and white and not contain those loud pinks and blues, especially since it was shot at ISO-100 sensitivity. Even the chilies themselves are grainy and lack clarity. Compare this photo to the one I took of the same subject with the Nokia N95 8B’s 5 megapixel camera.
“‘Verdict”‘
When the Tokyo came out of the box I really wanted to like it. It is small and delicate in the hand and has a beautiful design. But for £160 it just doesn’t deliver what it’s supposed to.
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Used as our main phone during the period
Verified against respected industry benchmarks and real-world tests
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Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps
points in detail
Ease of use 7
value 6
functions 6