Quad Sim Quad Band phone now being sold

[GadgetKen]

I just ordered a quad sim quad band phone over ebay from Hong Kong. Couldn't resist the novelty of having all 4 of my sim cards (Jolt/AT&T, Tuyo/T-Mobile USA, E-Kit Simple Calling (Immix USA/Manx Telecom UK?), and Digicel Bermuda) working at the same time.

Yeah, I know it will run only 2G not 3G sim cards, it is GPRS (not EDGE, 3G or LTE), and it has analog rather than digital TV, but it should still be a lot of fun having a phone with 4 signal strength meters on the screen and a qwerty keyboard for SMS. Currently use an MFU V200 dual sim phone, but now I won't have to change sim chips when crossing borders.

Pictures of this strange little device:

The Latest F160 Quad Sim Quad Standby TV Java Phone with Qwerty Keyboard | Tri Sim Phones

Flying F160: The World’s first quad-sim smartphone | UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping

[Bossman]

Very interesting. Those talk and standby times listed certainly cannot be real. At least not when all 4 sim cards are simultaneously active.

[GadgetKen]

Agreed, it definitely will be a thirsty little toy. It comes with two 1000mah batteries so I can swap(unless it takes both at the same time, which I doubt).

Other option is the battery is reported to be a clone of the Nokia BL-4U battery so I could use a higher capacity battery pack. I've seen 1500 mah or 1800 mah aftermarket packs offered by several dealers on ebay(or I could probably get them at a mall kiosk or Radio Shack). If it runs down the 1000 mah packs too fast, then I'll get the higher capacity ones.

[inquisitor]

Does it also include a spare brain after your old one has been toasted by the four emitters?

[GadgetKen]

While it's 4 sims active, only one of them can actually be on a phone call at any given time. Since I don't make a lot of mobile phone calls (<10 minutes/day; and often as little as 3 minutes) and the maximum output is only 6/10's of a watt, I'm not overly concerned. Plus if I use a bluetooth headset, the phone is not near my head (but then of course a bluetooth headset is also a type of weak wireless transceiver).

Excessive battery consumption I think would come more from using the FM radio or TV receiver, or the standby mode of having 4 GSM sim chips in the phone (mostly standby receive with very brief "I'm still here" data packets to the mobile phone network). Newer multi-sim Chinese mobile phones are using single transceiver integrated circuits from Spreadtrum and others so this may actually be fairly thrifty with battery consumption.

For a phone with truly questionable health benefits take a look at this mobile phone/cigarette lighter hybrid: 6208C Dual Sim Quad Band Touch Screen Lighter Mobile - eBay (item 260682246239 end time Oct-30-10 13:51:22 PDT)

[dg7feq]

i'd love to order one and put it in our EMC chamber and measure it cool stuff

[Stu]

I'm sure you can trust the radio emission label on the device as well.

[dg7feq]

Originally Posted by Stu

I'm sure you can trust the radio emission label on the device as well.

oh yes indeed.

[GadgetKen]

If it has a SAR label, it's probably as accurate as the 12.1 Megapixel label on the camera

SAR output on Chinese mobiles varies considerably. The dual sim Beyond E-Tech Duet series that are sold in the US (one of the very few FCC registered multi-sim handsets in the US) actually were on the list of the 10 lowest SAR emission handsets. Some of the highest were actually popular brands.

What the SAR rating is of this handset is a question though. If it's really high the phone could be used as:

A handwarmer
To heat my lunch
To defrost my windshield

[GadgetKen]

And it arrived by registered airmail today.

Setup consisted of turning off the noisy welcome and shut-down music, installing 4 sim cards and a 4 gb micro-sd card, pairing my bluetooth headset and my mac, and charging one of the two battery packs they sent. Still have to set new ringtones and screensavers.

Bottom line is "it does exactly what it says on the tin." It really will run 4 sim chips without any problems and has some fun functions like an FM radio, analog tv set, mp3 player, dual cameras with video capability, etc. It also has what has to be the thinnest extendable antenna I've ever seen on a device for the radio and the TV. In theory it can also browse the web, but a wap browser at GPRS speeds would be pretty slow.

It does eat batteries fairly quickly when you are using various functions on the phone. When just in standby it's not as thirsty. I'll probably get high capacity batteries...the batteries are Nokia BL-4u clones, so should have no problem finding them. I've seen 1500, 1800 and 1930 mah batteries instead of the stock 1000 mah batteries they sent with the handset.

In terms of size and weight it's heavier than the dual sim MFU v200 phone I've been using, but still it's much lighter and smaller than an AT&T Tilt/HTC TyTyn smartphone I used to use.