Design and Looks
The DS 210 Style looks similar to Nokia's influential and ground breaking 5300 music phone. But unlike the 5300, the 210 makes use of metallic parts in the exteriors instead of plastic. This adds to the phone's build making it very robust. Slider phones on average have generous room in the upper chassis to incorporate large screens and on the DS 210 we see a sufficiently big 2.2” TFT screen that produces 262K colours over QVGA resolution. Picture quality is great on this screen but the viewing angles are narrow and sunlight legibility is poor. Fly have a long way to go before they can begin to make screens like Nokia or Apple. Below the screen are the D-pad and soft-keys. While the D-pad is easy to work with, the flat soft-keys are neither tactile nor comfortable to work with.
Sliding the phone up is easy. Sliding it down requires a forceful push but we prefer this to a slider that may become loose over time. Getting back to topic, sliding up reveals the alphanumeric keypad which at first may seem finger-friendly but is in fact not quite so. The keys are hard to press and there is insufficient head room at the top-most row to work comfortably with the 1, 2 and 3 keys. The back of the phone follows the same metallic theme and sports a metallic battery cover. Here we also see the lens of the 3.2MP camera that remains largely unprotected except for the metallic rind surrounding it. This rounds-up the exteriors of the phone- now for the interiors.
The phone's UI is the same as the one on many mid-range Fly phones but this time this UI features a cosmetic makeover. It is very nice to look at but is easily overshadowed by the lack of full intuitiveness of the UI. The dual SIM phone packs in a good amount of features including a camera, FM radio and music player. The camera is a 3.2MP unit that does not perform very well. Even at its best, the photographs from this shooter turn out noisy.
The music player on this phone sports a Spartan interface but is sufficiently user-friendly. It also packs in eight equalizer presets, six reverb settings, and three spatial sound effects in addition to bass boost. The FM radio is nothing special- it does its job if not as well as we expected it. The sound quality of the bundled headsets is average and does not scream music phone.
Connectivity options on this phone are less- and the phone's has the old Bluetooth 1.02. At the price the DS 210 is selling, we can think of better phones than this but if it's the allure of the Style you are after, then the DS 210 is for you.
Features
- Slider form factor
- Brushed metal exteriors
- Dual-SIM handset
- 3.2MP camera with video recording
- 2.2” 262K colours QVGA resolution TFT screen
- FM radio
- Music player with equalizer presets
- Bluetooth with A2DP profile
