Posted by Mia in 
Philips continues to produce more mobile phones of its famous line Xenium. The list of models is already so extensive that only the last two phones are held in the memory; however, the replenishment can not be avoided. So, meet this new Philips Xenium 9@9h.
Design
Xenium 9@9h retained the general features of design, characteristic of “literal” clamshells of Series 9@9 – compactness, light weight, easy to use and nice looking shell shape.
The cover of Xenium 9@9h leans with one hand, but there is not an automatic closer, as in many modern phones, therefore, certain dexterity of fingers to the owner of the mobile phone will have to be demonstrated in any case. But the sides of the shell are made of a slightly rough plastic, which helps easily to hold the phone in hand.
The battery lid, on the contrary, is very slippery and thin. In addition, it is clearly recorded a tight clasp, excluding backlash.
Made at the outer surface of the housing, the connector to connect the USB cable and the slot for the dynamics of polyphony has no protection, which raises legitimate concerns, especially given the fact that the speaker is placed in a very unusual place – in the upper end of the tube.
Frightening to think what might happen if someone tries to talk on the phone under the rain, not even the strong one.
Keyboard
The keyboard of Xenium 9@9h is pseudo-sensor, i.e. with a minimum speed buttons. And of course, it has both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages, in fact, are purely aesthetic: Yes, the phone looks very stylish, it disguises its budget nature and nothing more. But typing on the keyboard, even if it is sufficiently broad to which the boundaries between the buttons can be discerned only after long training, and it is very inconvenient, there is no any “save” button.
In addition, the buttons seem to be too tight, although it is a matter of habit.
DisplayThe main goal that the developers of Xenium phones set themselves is the maximum battery life, so in this line of clamshells outer screen is either completely absent or replaced by a simple monochrome. In the case of the Xenium 9@9h, we have seen enough of the original decision. There is no external display on this phone. Instead, the outer cover is made of a dark plastic panel hiding 4 LEDs that show several states of the phone: entering a new text message, incoming / outgoing calls, the charging process.
The photo shows that you have a fresh SMS-SC and there is a missed call.
The main screen, is a real TFT-display, although not too large (128×160 pixels), with a noticeable grain, but generally provides acceptable image quality, including bright daylight.
In text mode screen is placed on five lines – more or less sufficient to draw or read a short message.
Options
A significant advantage of Xenium 9 @ 9h is a decent set of installed software, at least compared with previous models from this line. From business applications in the phone there is a calculator with the same nice GUI, as in the younger models. However, given the previously described problems with the keyboard input Xenium 9@9h, it is difficult to say whether this interface is tied to a navigation key.
In the functional set there is also a currency converter (maybe once developers figure it out replace it with a full-fledged universal converter units), clock with world time, alarm clock with three custom slot, voice recorder (maximum duration of one record is 12 minutes).
There is also a personal organizer with three viewing modes and three types of insertion events. Different sounds can be attached to events, as well as specify the regularity of recurrence – from daily to annual.
The notebook of Xenium 9@9h, on the contrary, is functionally very poor. It holds a thousand entries, each of which can store up to three different fields, conventionally marked as a phone number, fax number and IP-phone client. No additional fields. There is no opportunity to create groups of contacts, or the appointment of individual calls to individual contacts.
In Xenium 9@9h there is an FM-radio, and in the sales package you can find a good headset, serving as an antenna. It’s nice, because not every budget phone boasts about advanced multimedia capabilities.
But another problem emerges: the phone doesn’t play MP3-files! All that you can play with the tube (it is not even a player as a separate program) is midi, and AMR-files.
In Xenium 9@9h there is only 3 MB memory, and it does not support a memory card.
Conclusion
What I did not like in Xenium 9@9h is lack of functionality at the hardware level. Even as a budget model, the phone can not offer its users neither built-in camera, or wireless communication via Bluetooth. Given the penny cost of the two modules, we are inclined to believe that this restriction is not enforced due to the cost of production, as dictated by the positioning of Xenium 9@9h merely as a budget model, mimic a more serious mobile tool. Well, if the tube is designed to compete with Nokia 1100, then it has a good chance of winning.
On the other side Xenium 9@9h is equipped with long-life batteries and rather good design. Indeed, batteries, of Philips mobile phone beat all possible records, but how long this figure can persuade mobile users to give up opportunities that their comrades have grown accustomed for a long period of time?
