Design your own mobile phone
Posted by DavidM in Interesting stuff | 14 July 2008
There are an enormous number of mobile phones on the market but sometimes you still can't find the exact one you want.
Now zzzPhone aims to fix that. They supply two basic models from their factories then you customise the colour and features.
There model without GPS starts at $149. For this you get an unlocked phone with dual SIMs, 2.8" touchscreen, MP3 and MP4 video playback and 1.3 megapixel camera.
Custom features include case colour, gold plating, adding your own logo, more speakers, handsfree, flashlight, TV and FM receiver and even - for an additional $225,000 - 14 one-carat diamonds! Although the site is priced in dollars they claim to offer a worldwide service.
That's the good news. Before finishing the post with a positive message I thought I'd see if there were any reviews and I'm glad I did.
BostonPocketPC identified some serious irregularities with the zzzPhone offer - such as claiming to use a Windows operating system when it's actually Linux (not a big deal for me in itself but do I buy from companies that lie?). The other big issue they highlighted was that it doesn't actually work with US carriers so in that market is more like a PDA. The comments included two from people who were still waiting for delivery four months later!
I also came across a full review of the basic zzzPhone which essentially found it a decent piece of kit (once it arrived) though again primarily as a PDA as it couldn't connect to US networks.
Whether it works better in the UK I'll never know as these reviews have raised serious doubts about what sounds like a great idea.