Panasonic RXFT530 Mini AM/FM Stereo Radio Dual Cassette Recorder

Panasonic RXFT530 Mini AM/FM Stereo Radio Dual Cassette Recorder
Manufacturer: Panasonic
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Portable Stereo System with AM/FM radio and Double-cassette recorder/player Soft eject system Built-in condenser microphone CD/Line-in jacks for optional external CD player 2-way 4-speaker system (each channel has a tweeter and woofer) for wide dynamic sound range 4-inch woofers and 1/2-inch tweeters FM stereo indicator Carry handle Telescoping antenna Jack for optional earphone or headphone Uses 6 D batteries (not included) or AC adapter (included)
Amazon.com Product Description
Panasonic's RX-FT530 AM/FM cassette recorder has a two-way, four-speaker system for dynamic sound. The result is rich bass, clear middle to high tones and continuous tone control. The cassette player has two cassette decks. The second deck features one-touch and follow-up recording. The built-in condenser microphone allows for room recording. The AM/FM stereo tuner has an LED FM stereo indicator and stereo/mono switch. The Panasonic RX-FT530 includes CD/line jacks for an optional CD player and comes with an AC adapter. It will also run on six D-size batteries for portable use. Slim styling adds to its portability and use.

Average customer rating: 3.0

Great Phone - Lousy Belt Clip
Very reliable -- and holds a charge
tremendous value, IN SPITE OF Nokia's efforts!
Problems
The Little Phone That Couldn't

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Nokia 6030 myFaves Phone (T-Mobile)

Manufacturer: T-Mobile
Product Group: Wireless
Binding: Wireless Phone
ASIN: B000IZY2MY

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Amazon.com Product Description

Easy to use without sacrificing style, the Nokia 6030 offers great voice communication, plus a number of other great features, like an FM radio, a speakerphone, MMS, and mobile instant messaging, and perhaps most impressively, the 6030 is compatible with T-Mobile's MyFaves service, and comes pre-loaded with MyFaves software and phone features. The 6030 is a powerful and svelte complement to T-Mobile service and is the perfect phone to get the most from your GSM service.

Design
First and foremost, the 6030 is designed for stylish simplicity. Large, easy-to-press buttons are arranged on a sleek oval-shaped case, which is compatible with Nokia "X-Press On" faceplates. A large 128 x 128 color display resides above a five-way center button that controls most of the phone's menus and functions. A 2.5mm headphone jack is provided if you want to use a wired headset for calls or the included FM radio. Note that stereo sound is not available, however. Lastly, the 6030 uses an internal antenna--meaning there's nothing to snag or break off.

Calling Features
The 6030's built-in address book can store up to 500 contacts for quick and easy management of phone numbers and addresses. In addition to a vibrate alert, the phone is compatible with MP3 and MIDI ringtones, as well. Different ringtones can be set for groups of callers so you know who's calling without having to look at the device. A number of ringtones come preloaded on the phone, and more ringtones can be downloaded from T-Mobile's t-zones service. A call log keeps track of your recent dialed calls, as well as your most recent missed or received calls.

Because the 6030 comes pre-loaded with MyFaves software and phone features, you can choose T-Mobile's MyFaves plan, which is a new service that allows you to choose five numbers (from any carrier), and once assigned to your MyFaves list, you can enjoy unlimited talk-time with those five numbers without ever worrying about any overages (additional small monthly fee applies). Plus, there's a speakerphone so you can talk all you want without having the phone to your ear.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
The 6030 has all the bases covered when it comes to messaging and Internet connectivity. Use the phone's built-in picture messaging capability to send text, graphics and pictures to your friends. The phone features support for instant messaging applications, and there's a built-in web browser for downloads and mobile web browsing. T9 text entry, a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

A number of handy software tools are bundled with the 6030 including a calculator, a calendar, and an alarm clock.

Imaging and Entertainment
Customize the graphics on the 6030's screen to give your phone a look that suits your tastes. Plus, the 6030 is Java enabled, meaning it supports games written on the Java platform. And don't forget the handy FM radio. Tune your favorite stations and listen on the go with a headset.

Vital Statistics
The Nokia 6030 weighs 3.17 ounces and measures 4.09 x 1.73 x 0.71 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3 hours of digital talk time, and up to 12.5 days of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/1900 GSM/GPRS frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

Customer Reviews:

Great Phone - Lousy Belt Clip.......2007-05-05

I purchased this phone for use as a cell-phone only. I had no need for all the other fluff ( mp3, camera, etc ). Along with the phone, I purchased the Nokia made, belt-clip.

The phone was great. It's battery life was remarkable and would never seem to get low. Everyone I talked with was impresssed with how good the audio quality was.

You notice one thing in the above paragraph. Everything is discussed in a past tense. I had the phone for less than one month. The phone came out of the belt-clip while I was driving in a rental car. I still have the complete 2-part belt clip ( anyone want a cheap belt clip ? ;-)

Nokia, shame on you for allowing such a bad design to go into the public.

I liked the phone and may buy another and would recommend it to anyone who desires a good basic phone. Just don't buy or trust the belt-clip.

Very reliable -- and holds a charge.......2007-04-19

I bought this to replace a junky Motorola V180. I use a cell phone for calls and text messages and an alarm clock.

My dropped calls have gone to zero. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be the network, but this phone is just better at not dropping calls with Cingular.

It took me awhile to figure out how to make unique ringtones for a person -- you can only have unique ringtones for a group, so first you put the person in their own group. I guess that's pretty useful because I have a bunch of people that I like to ignore, so I was able to put them in a group that was silent when they called.

I don't like the middle navigation key. It is too hard to push and it's easy to accidentally push the other ones. I use the middle key a lot because carrying the phone in my purse means that I need to lock the keys. You use the middle key to lock the keyboard.

tremendous value, IN SPITE OF Nokia's efforts!.......2007-03-11

I chose this phone simply because it was the cheapest, and is made by Nokia whose phones I've always had a great experience with---solid, reliable, intuitive and great reception.

I was not disappointed, this phone delivers on all counts. Thirty bucks shipped, direct from T-Mobile Prepaid plus thirty five bucks of air time credit, what more could you ask for?

Sure it's not state of the art, doesn't have any of the bells and whistles like an MP3 player, camera, etc.---but COME ON folks, how much do you REALLY need all that useless crap? Cell phone manufacturers only cram all that fluff into their phones in order to reel in the suckers and gadget geeks out there. Those of us who just want a simple and reliable way to make and receive calls and text messages, have a personal voicemail box, etc. certainly don't. Sheesh, if I wanted to listen to music on the go I'd buy an MP3 player and if I wanted to take pics I'd buy a cheap digital camera that actually has a real lens and has more than the usual lousy .5-1.0 megapixel.

I only have 3 semi-significant dislikes about this phone:

1. There doesn't seem to be any way to turn off the chime that the phone makes when turning off, which is a pain if you want to turn it off at the cinema right before the movie starts, unfortunately. This means that you can only switch it to "silent" which is fine unless you're already on low battery. Luckily the battery life on this phone is quite good so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

2. There is no voice recorder. I'd gladly have this feature instead of the gimmicky and useless mono FM radio. It's very useful for taking quick notes on the fly, shopping lists, etc.

3. There is no way of assigning different ringtones to different people in your phone book (Ringer ID) so that you can tell who's calling w/o having to look at the screen, even though the phone does offer Caller ID and maybe 2 dozen different ringtones to choose from. And the available ringtones are not terribly great, but that's really a very trivial point.

All 3 of the above are completely unnecessary inconveniences from a technological and economic cost standpoint, so I suspect that Nokia has saddled this phone with those 3 disadvantages on purpose, for deliberate sales/marketing reasons. Why? Because Nokia, like manufacturers of all things, obviously would prefer to upsell you to its higher-priced, and of course higher-PROFIT, models. I suspect that's where a lot of the unflattering reviews on these entry-level models are coming from, probably Nokia shills who just want to steer consumers towards the higher end models. Either that, or there are a bunch of flaming idiots out there who honestly expect to get all the high-end bells and whistles at a bargain basement price.

*** CORRECTION: to #1...actually there IS a way to turn off the power-down tone, it's just not in the manual for some reason. All you need to do is hit the Menu button twice, once to select "turn off" and then once again immediately---this silences it completely while it turns off.

Problems.......2007-02-15

My friend got the 6030 w/ Tmobile Prepaid. I have had a Nokia 6010 w/ Tmo Prepaid for over a year. His phone is very disappointing. Construction is flimsy: it creaks and squeaks anytime you touch it. The buttons are tiny and challenging to manipulate.
Worst of all - his reception is TERRIBLE! When I call him I frequently get his voice mail. His phone frequently will not get a signal. While this could be due to his location, I've held his phone in one hand, and my phone in the other hand. My phone acquires the network without trouble; his phone usually will not. He formerly had Tracfone and had much better reception with a Nokia 1100. I think his 6030 may be defective, and I urge him to return it for a different unit, but he doesn't have his receipt any longer, so he's worried about trying.
It's too bad he didn't sign up when they were still using the 6010.

The Little Phone That Couldn't.......2006-10-03

If you just want a phone to make calls, this one is it. ONLY for making calls. If you plan on making full use out of all features advertised, it is disappointing.

There have been a lot of cheap phones recently that have the ability to do many things, but are crippled by bad or intentionally modified software. The Nokia 6030 from T-Mobile is no exception. The price may look low, but a LOT of phones are cheap these days. A low price is no excuse for bad software.

Ring Tones:

Fortunately it does MP3 ringers, but not much is included. Only a few are on the phone. You don't get all of the 20-30 classic Nokia ring tones you might be used to. Good for customizers (or not, read on...), bad for people wanting simple ringers included.

Games and Java Applications:

The phone can run Java applications, but does not allow them to access the internet. This makes many applications useless. The menu option to allow this is "grayed out" so it can't be selected. This is not just dependant on your data plan, the phone simply does not have this ability.

The phone also has trouble downloading some games. "File too large to save" appears, even though the phone shows enough available memory. Maybe there is some arbitrary limit to file sizes.

The included games are demo versions. To continue playing, you have to buy them. How cheap are they to give you a DEMO version of Tetris?

They don't even give us the basic Nokia classics like Memory or Snake. Pay to play only.

Multi-Media Messaging (picture messages):

The phone has a folder for "clip arts" which on most phones would be a variety of small pictures to put in messages. This folder is empty. No goofy pictures to add to your MMS messages. For a phone with no camera, they ought to include SOMETHING to send as MMS. The only thing you can send as MMS are 4 included wallpapers.

MMS can also send sounds. Of course you can't send copy-protected ringers you buy from T-Mobile, which is standard, but Nokia has copy-protected the few ringers which are included with the phone. The phone has NO included sounds that can be sent by MMS, and with no available data cable, or any other transfer method, options for making working MMS messages are kind of limited. You can still point the phone's browser at 3rd-party websites for free ringers, but there are some problems with that too, to be described shortly.

Web Browser:

This may have been the most disappointing part of the phone for me, because Nokia phones used to always have pretty good web browsers, certainly better than Samsung.

Unlike the browser on older models like the 3100 and 8390, this one works slowly, probably due to a slow processor in the phone. Even going to simple text-based T-zones pages that would pop up instantly on older models, this phone at least briefly shows a "Processing data" waiting message before showing the page. THIS IS SEPERATE FROM THE DOWNLOAD and appears after the page is loaded. The phone is trying to figure out how to display the page it already loaded. On pages with any kind of fancy stuff, "processing data" will be staring back at you for a while. On some really big pages handled OK by an Ericsson, the browser will "process" data for a few minutes, then display "memory full" (even though it was already loaded, just not "processed"). One time the browser even crashed and dumped me back to the standby screen.

Unfortunately, this happened on a website I had previously used to download ring tones to other phones. So the phone with hardly any included ringers, and no data cable available from Nokia, has a crummy web browser for trying to download ringers over the web.

It's still usable, but annoying.

But if the included web browser stinks, why not just download Opera Mini like you can with other Java phones, and use that to view the websites? Because, if you recall, the phone won't allow Java applications to access the web!

So if you plan on customizing your phone, also plan on either paying T-Mobile more money or having a headache trying to download free content like everyone else can with their phones.

Overall Construction:

It's not Nokia's best-made phone ever. Some parts fit together with larger gaps than you would expect, even for a cheap phone. The old Nokia 1100, a cheap featureless model, looked better-assembled than this, even with it's simple design.

The battery cover doesn't fit perfectly. When new, it feels like a used phone. It doesn't snap on firmly, and it doesn't fit tightly against the back of the phone.

Buttons:

The select key in the middle of the navigation pad is kind of stiff to push, while the other keys are all relatively easy. Depending on how it is pushed, it is either difficult to do without bumping the direction buttons of tiring on the thumb.

Just recently, the 2 key started creaking sometimes. It didn't do this when it was new.

Display View:

The display looks brighter in dark areas than older color Nokia screens. The 3100 had pale-looking colors, but was visible even in bright light. This phone trades daylight visibility for a display that looks "better," but actually has worse function.

The only "theme" included is a T-Mobile customized theme with a dark blue background behind all screens. It's really not easy to look at, especially with a display that does poorly in sunlight.

Completely Stupid Stuff:

There is an option to turn off the annoying startup sound, but there is no option to turn off the shut-down sound (the official T-Mobile jingle). Unless you switch to silent mode first, you can't just turn your phone off to make it silent. You will look like an idiot who doesn't know how to use their phone.

There is a customizable shortcut menu, but the voicemail shortcut can not be removed. You can unselect it and you will think it is gone, but the next time you turn the phone off and on again it comes back. Not only is this incompetent programming, but it's dumb to have a voicemail option for the shortcut list at all, because like every phone on the planet there is already a voicemail speed dial printed on the 1 key.

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