FutureFive New Zealand - Consumer technology news & reviews from the future
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Tue, 1st Feb 2011
FYI, this story is more than a year old

If you’re one of those people who cart around two mobile phones – whether it’s to keep a business and personal phone simultaneously or to take advantage of the pricing benefits of different carriers – LG has released a phone that you should really take a look at. The C310 has two active SIM-card slots, so you can have a SIM from, say, 2degrees and Vodafone simultaneously in the same phone. The benefits of only having to carry one phone for two accounts are many and varied. For instance, you might be able to get better data rates with one carrier and better call rates on another. Even better, you can set the C310 to automatically make calls from one SIM while using the other exclusively for data if you so desire. And toggling between SIMs to make a call is as simple as pressing a button on the side of the phone (although you can receive a call for either SIM at any time).

If you’re wondering why such a seemingly features-rich phone has such a staggeringly low price, unfortunately there are a few fairly sizeable trade-offs. Despite its appearance, it’s no smartphone. It runs on its own proprietary OS, and the handset itself does feel a little bit like a cheap BlackBerry knock-off. There’s a BlackBerry-style full-QWERTY keypad, and the general construction of the handset feels a little cheap and plastic-like. The biggest omission, for my money, is wi-fi support. Perhaps LG presumed that, with two SIMs, you’d always choose to use the 3G data connection of at least one of them.

PROS: The convenience and benefits of two SIMs without having to haul around two handsets. Quad-band GMS for global roaming.

CONS: It’s a rather low-end device at the end of the day. External memory capped at 4GB. No wi-fi.

VERDICT: If bells and whistles matter not and the convenience of a single phone that supports two SIM cards sounds appealing to you, the C310 is certainly worth a look. It’s incredibly priced, but those trading in a BlackBerry or an iPhone (or both!) will certainly miss a fair few features.