Olive recently pulled out a handful of devices for the Indian market, like the OliveMsgr V-G8000 on our review table. Seemingly, the company plans to target the entry-level, growing mobile market in India. The company has launched its handsets at nominal prices, making them within the reach of users. What we’ve received from Olive is their familiarly designed OliveMsgr V-G8000 phone.
Clearly, the device is a BlackBerry look-alike and appeared as a hi-tech mobile device unless we unfolded its features one by one. Separating the threads, the device emerged as a simple, entry level handset that aims at better typing and brings QWERTY to the masses at an affordable price. However, this basic phone has bid good-bye to several essential features in order to offer the QWERTY keypad at an appealing price point.
‘Truly simple’ could make a perfect description for this Olive phone. It’s sleek enough to slip into pockets yet slightly broad. The front surface dipped in glossy black hue, the device does emerge pretty good looking (guess we’ve BlackBerry to thank for this). On the other hand, the back surface sports a matte black finish, ensuring a good grip. The device attaches itself to the term ‘light’, Yes! light on the pocket as well as light weighted. Weighing 102 grams, the front surface has a 2.2-inch TFT screen while lying below the display is a round navigation button/D-pad surrounded by Call Answer/End buttons and also Menu and shortcuts to Messaging, Phonebook and Radio in much small circular form.
The speakers are integrated on the back surface while Olive has placed a mini USB port on the lower edge that helps to charge the device and also connect the headset. Besides, the D-pad enables accessing texts, date and time settings, volume and contacts. The Menu reveals a simple one-page layout that displays Phonebook, Messages, Calls, Settings, FM Radio, Organizer, Games, Alarm and STK. Moreover, the Back button on the homescreen otherwise serves as a shortcut to the Radio function.
Apart from the QWERTY, this basic phone is integrated with Radio and Olive has pushed in games like Docker and Minesweeper. These days’ basic phones come with a handful of features while the OliveMsgr stands by its name and decided not to integrate any of those, not even a camera. So simply forget about GPS, W-Fi, Music Player or dual SIM capability.
As aforesaid, the phone aims at better typing and does its job well. The QWERTY keys are considerably small and we did take some time to get the hang of it. However, this typing is limited to SMS only as there’s no room for Internet browsing. The keyboard is backlit and one can type even in low light conditions. Though slightly small (fine for the price it carries), the display viewing was good. Strangely, on typing a key the display would flash back in the form of a small blink.
The network reception was satisfactory but we faced issues with audibility. The voice quality is low rather the caller was unable to hear us while on the go. This was partially solved only by keeping the voice volume at maximum. Even in the hands-free mode, the voice quality didn’t impress us. The Settings option enabled us to make some changes to the display with Idle display and Backlight options while one can also tweak Sounds, Network settings and Factory Default. In case you have numerous near and dear ones then just pick the best 100 as the Phonebook houses only 100 entries while the SMS storage goes up to 250 messages.
The Menu includes the Alarm function that can drag one from slumber with loud and sharp alarm tones. On the other hand, the ringtones follow the same path and could get quite embarrassing in public. Moreover, one has to do with the pre-installed 16 polyphonic ringtones as the device does not allow adding any tones. The included STK function brings in options like Cricket, News, What’s new, Masala Chat and more. Besides the games, you can look forward to these options (not for too long) during those long waiting moments.
Pros: The typing experience using the integrated QWERTY keypad is smooth. The Radio with RDS offers good reception. The device carries an extremely affordable price tag.
Cons: It could have been integrated with a couple of more features. The screen blinks back as each key is pressed. The voice quality is poor.
The OliveMsgr V-G8000 is certainly not a high-end or even a mid-range phone. It’s clearly a simple and very basic phone for those wanting to try the QWERTY and ready to compromise on the other features. With its large font size and simplicity, the OliveMsgr seems to be a good phone for the novice as well. Yes, it doesn’t integrate several features which even the basic phones employ, but overall Olive has put forth a good simple phone with nominal features and a QWERTY at a super-affordable price within the reach of the common man. As a basic entry-level phone, the OliveMsgr has managed to gain a rating of 7 on 10 from us. This device is priced at Rs. 1,999 in India.