We recently decided put the Olive FrvrOn V-G2300 phone thorough a test on the battery front as well as others in this detailed review. For mobile users who are more of road runners, a long battery life plays an essential role in staying connected. And it isn’t uncommon to see most business users towing in two phones to suffice their travel needs. Olive’s FrvrOn phone bearing the V-G2300 nameplate released this March with claims of probably being just one among the scores of handsets designed specifically for the purpose of offering a long battery life. While most manufacturers just scream their guts out with their phones sporting an ‘x’ amount of battery life, Olive raises the bar for entry-level phones. The company decides to take the next most practical step by pairing the phone with AA batteries.
We had earlier brass tacked Olive’s OliveMsgr V-G8000 and OlivePwrr V-G200 Dual-SIM phones. Both the phones we thought pretty much lived up to the company’s dibs as far as their functionalities were concerned. Boasting of being India’s first Hybrid mobile phone that also functions on an AAA battery, a glance through the feature set on the FrvrOn V-G2300 box too had us interested. Revealing standard mobile attributes, a 1.5” color display was complemented by built-in FM radio, stereo headset, speaker phone and included AAA batteries. The phone is backed by a 1 year warranty and packed in a headset, a travel charger and user manual as supplements.
We spotted the tiny phone resting in the center of the box and it was easy on the eyes. Weighing just about 250gms, the phone appeared light in weight and doesn’t play it up on the design front. Though decent, the form factor did appear boring which you can’t really blame the company for considering the attached price tag. Adorning a plastic chassis that’s simple, the phone’s back panel is slightly concave and exhibits semicircular patterns. Beneath the tiny screen of the candy bar shaped phone is the Olive logo, right below which is the rubberized keypad. The keypad comprises of four main buttons standing out among which were the yellow call answer and red call end buttons. A five-way navigation pad in a circular form is also infused in the keypad. With an eye-catching red scrubbing, the pad is seated between the four main buttons and its right, up and down keys can be assigned short cuts of desired functions.
On switching on the phone, we did the most obvious by clicking its Menu function. A very simple and uncluttered interface is revealed once inside. Almost instantly we loved the appearance of each function appearing as if reclined in boxlike buttons. The phone is a simple entry-level device and sticks to the basics. Its Messaging function buttresses simple text messages and voice mail. There’s also a Call Records feature that offers a log of the calls. You can opt to tweak the call waiting, forwarding and barring attributes with the network service attribute while its 200 contact saving capacity should suffice primitive needs. The handset also includes FM Radio the reception of which we don’t think even deserves a mention. Olive certainly didn’t work around this function and seems to be taking baby steps in this direction. The poor quality radio seems forced on the phone and topped by a manual frequency setting, it was plain annoying. The loudspeaker too we thought was no good and music seemed like ‘noise’ rather than sound.
Interestingly, the phone’s overall call reception ability was nifty though we found the earpiece speaker to be a little shoddy. Its rubberized keypad was comfortable and easy on the fingers, allowing us to send text messages effortlessly. We could also choose between Standard, Conference, Outdoor, Mute and My Style profile settings while selecting from a large number of polyphonic ringing tones. We were also surprised by the number of display settings the phone supports. Letting us pick from three wallpaper and theme settings, the LCD contrast too could be adjusted to a maximum of 10. The handset also staves English, Hindi, French and Indonesian languages. Basic applications such as Alarm, Calculator, Calendar, Memo, Stopwatch and Time Zone are further accompanied by two games Tetris and Sudoku.
The distinguishing feature of this phone is of course its inclusion of AAA battery. On tucking in the accompanied AAA battery, the phone displayed two charge statuses with the housed phone battery. The charge modes appeared on the right top corner of the display with the green one indicating the AAA battery. Essentially the phone does need its Li-ion battery and with just the AAA battery pair it will only show the Olive logo. The main function of the pencil cell is to power up the phone when Li-ion battery is out of juice. Simply insert the AAA battery and it will in turn charge the low power 600mAh battery Li-ion battery. This should give you enough power to at least last an emergency in case of no external power supply. In terms of battery life, the handset’s 2 hours of talk time was added with about half hour worth of power thanks to the AAA battery. With just the Li-ion battery, the phone would need a charge at the end of the day.
Pros:
The phone’s support for an AAA pencil battery is definitely its high-spot.
Though navigating around the phone was not up to the mark, we didn’t witness any lags while moving between functions or applications.
The handset’s rubberized keypad surpassed our expectations of being comfortable.
Road warriors will appreciate the feather light form factor of this phone.
Cons:
The handset’s radio reception and audio quality could certainly have been much better. We also couldn’t access the radio when the phone was being charged.
Considering call reception is one of the key functions of the phone, Olive should have thrown in a superior ear speaker.
We would have also liked if the phone was available in a few more color options.
On the whole, the Olive FrvrOn offers most basic features at an affordable price. It’s compact, comfortable and neatly fabricated suiting the needs of mobile users on a low budget. The handset’s compatibility to an AAA battery certainly works in giving it that extra edge over other competitive entry-level phones. If simply sending messages and making calls is what your interpretation of mobile phones is, the handset seems to be good at it. On our scorecard, the phone manages to get 7.5 out of 10. The phone carries an attractive price tag of just Rs 1,999 including taxes.