At one glance, the cellphone above looks pretty much like a Nokia N73. I strongly suggest you take a closer look at the brand name, only to discover that this is actually a NOKIR instead of a NOKIA. What more, this model is being marketed as the E828 which is one digit too high for any of the E-series of business phones currently being offered by the Finnish cellphone manufacturer. I suppose Chinese manufacturers couldn’t give two hoots about copyright infringement, going all out to secure consumer dollars by producing a bunch of copied designs that are good enough to fool the unwary customer. I predict that there are two groups of people who would pick up the Nokir E828 – the first would be those who are caught unawares, thinking that this is a bona fide Nokia, while the latter would be people who want to be seen toting one of the latest cellphones but cannot afford the actual one. Read on more of the Nokir E828 review after the jump.

The E828 comes in a solid cardboard box, where opening it reveals the handset itself, a couple of batteries, a stereo handsfree headset, a USB cable, a battery charger, and a manual. The product page mentioned that a 128MB microSD card was included, so I checked the box thoroughly without any success (you know how small those darn cards are). A moment of brainstorming later, I realized that the microSD card could only be in one place – inside the handset itself. Opening the back of the E828 easily, I found the 128MB microSD card stored safely where it belonged. Before getting down and dirty with the rest of the cellphone, I plugged it into the nearest power outlet.

It took approximately 4 hours to get a full charge from a flat battery, which is pretty much the standard these days. The first thing I noticed was the vibrant display – it was somewhat on par with the Nintendo DS Lite in terms of brightness. Checking out the pre-loaded picture gallery, I found the 2.6″ touchscreen QVGA display to perform satisfactorily at a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The only downside as with all other touchscreen phones would be the layer of oil and fingerprints left over the display at the end of the day – you would be well advised to keep a soft cloth or some tissue nearby to wipe the screen clean after each conversation in order to retain a pristine look.

The phone itself is surprisingly light (104g) for its size (110mm x 55mm x 14mm), thanks to the majority of its plastic parts. Apart from the touchscreen, hardware specifications include an extendable stylus located at the top right hand corner just like the Treo, a 2 megapixel camera behind, volume control buttons on the side, and a mini USB port on the bottom left hand side. This mini USB port is pretty versatile as it can be used to plug in either your stereo handsfree handset or the charger cable. One drawback would be you can’t use both at the same time. The USB charger cable can either be hooked up to the adapter itself, or directly to the computer for charging purposes. Once connected to the computer, you can use it as a 2 megapixel webcam or a mass storage device. I would recommend growing your fingernails beforehand as opening the mini USB port can be quite tricky due to the rubber cover.

Unlocking the cellphone is pretty tricky, as you first have to press a certain key before touching a precise point on the touchscreen. I would have preferred an all-key unlock system, probably due to the number of years I have been spoilt by Nokia’s superb User Interface (UI). The UI here is nothing much to shout about, as it does not run on any of the the popular operating systems. It works more like a Flash-based interface, where each menu consists of 4 sub-menus. It takes a while to get the hang of things, and not being able to read a single character of Chinese in the manual does not help either. Those who are less tech savvy should rope in an experienced gadget lover to help them through the growing pains of navigation.

Software features include a camera, an image viewer, a video recorder, an audio and video player (supported formats consist of MP3, 3GP, and MPEG 4). You can choose to play the video of your choice in portrait or landscape mode, but I would recommend the latter due to the widescreen format. There is a lag of approximately half a second when you use the E828 to take photos, but generally the pictures turn out pretty okay for a camera phone of its class. You get all the usual trappings such as Night and Auto modes, an adjustable brightness level, and different effects.

Using this as a secondary MP3 player is great, as the included stereo headset offers a commendable sound quality. The phone’s speaker itself is unusually loud, making sure you are aware of an incoming call even in noisy social environments. I sure hope the speaker would be able to last the pace throughout the phone’s life and not tear too easily from playing music too loudly at frequent intervals.

The buttons on this cellphone are pretty hard to press, even more so if you are an owner of large digits. The depressed nature of the keys make it easy to make a typing mistake, and the fact that the E828 caters toward the Chinese-speaking market is made all the more evident in the text messaging mode. You won’t find any T9 text prediction input in there, but messaging in Chinese is made extremely simple with a vast array of characters available at your command. I find that using the stylus to key in my messages are much faster when compared to using the keypad, as I am prone to spending almost half the time making corrections when using the latter.

Battery life stands at approximately 2 days before requiring a recharge. This includes conversations of up to an hour a day, playing the occasional song, while snapping a few pictures along the way. I guess that battery life would be even lower if other features such as Bluetooth were thrown in. Overall, it is pretty much average in terms of battery life. Most people charge their devices on a daily basis anyway, so this is a non-issue unless you hit the road often.

Take note that the Nokir E828 operates only on the 900/1800MHz GSM bands, which rules out those living in the Americas (including the United States and Canada). This Asian-centric phone explains why the manual comes in only Chinese, as I expect a vast majority of its buyers to come from mainland China.

At $200, this is pretty much a budget phone for those living in Europe and the U.S., but for the target market in China and other up-and-coming countries in the third world, it would be positioned as a higher end handset at that price. To cap up this review, I will list the pros along with the cons. You can purchase the Nokir E828 from Brando.

Pros:
• Great looking display
• Lightweight
• Extremely audible speaker
• Affordable

Cons:
• Poor User Interface
• No Bluetooth
• Fingerprint magnet
• Software lags occasionally
• Buttons hard to press
• No T9 text prediction input