The Telstra F165 country phone is the king of reception. Telstra has awarded this ruggarised handset the blue tick meaning it will give superior performance in rural areas. The F165 also scores points for being very easy to use. The keypad is made up of very large keys and the screen is clear and easy to read. Menus are simple and easy to navigate, with a very intuitive feel.
Although ideal for users requiring top coverage performance in a durable case, the size of the F165 can be a blessing and a curse. You need a pouch or leather case to carry the F165 around.
Features
The antenna has not only an inch high raised knob on top of the handset, but also an extension to bring out your antenna even further. There is a port to connect an Next G external antenna to further improve reception.
Text messaging is easy with the large keypad and T9 predictive text. The F165 supports e-mails either using your BigPond e-mail address or alternative e-mail using POP3 or SMTP protocols. The 2-megapixel camera takes reasonably good pictures and again is easy to use. Memory can be increased with a memory card up to 2GB.
The F165 is a quad-band handset with HSDPA. Music can be imported from your PC using the supplied software and USB cable. The F165 supports Bluetooth 1.2.
Performance
Quoted battery life is three to four hours talk time and 10 days standby on the Next G network. This is probably stating the obvious for rural mobile users, but a car-charger seems a necessary purchase to be sure you always have a full charge.
Overall
It is good to see a phone that is a phone first and a media accessory second. The large keypad and ease of use nature of the country phone should be a blessing for people who work outdoors and require sturdy handsets, and for first time mobile phone users and older people who want an easy to use mobile phone without the complication of a handset with all the bells and whistles of other handsets.
Main features:
Extendable antenna
Latest 3G HSDPA & UMTS standard
Bluetooth V1.2 - Supports FTP / HFC / A2DP (Stereo)
2 mega pixel camera with digital zoom
Dual camera design for video calling
MP3 player and ringtones
Peer to Peer video calling
Send multi-media videos, pictures and emails
T-Flash memory up to 2GB
Personal organiser / calendar
Speakerphone
Java enabled for games and applications
USB connectivity
External antenna connection
Record voice memos
Predictive text with My Words dictionary for easy SMS
High Capacity Li-ion battery (1300mAh) for long life
Technical Specifications:
HSDPA / UMTS 850 / 2100 MHz
GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
250 Hrs Standby, 390 Mins Talk Time
60MB Internal SDRAM (User / Application Accessible), 225MHz Processor
Internal display 176 x 220, 262K colours
JAVA MIDP 2.0
Size 117 x 51 x 16 mm
Weight 105.3g including standard battery
