Philips Xenium 9@9++ review from China

Battery life has decreased from around 25 days to 15 days over the 3 years of continous use.

The ringtone became a bit 'noisy', but it doesn't bother me at all.

1. This is a very tough mobile. Two years ago I was in a theme park, sitting on something that goes round and round very fast, and the mobile phone was accidentally thrown out of my pocket, and hit a concrete wall and dropped to the ground. The first thing I thought was, it's gonna be cracked severely and it's gonna die. But, when I got it back, I found it was fine, apart from a scratch on the top of the phone (made from metal). It is still fully functioning and working very well now, even though I dropped it hard some times during its life.

2. Battery consumption is very low. When new, the battery lasts 3-4 weeks with few phone calls. After 3 years, it still goes for around 2 weeks. This was the main reason that I bought this phone when it just came out. I just love something that lasts long. Plus, with the phone turned on, the battery can be fully recharged in 40 minutes.

3. It looks classic. Partial metal silver colored body, white back light, and the weight in your hand that is not filmsy.

4. Very easy to use. It is logically programmed, and I found using it very convenient and it feels very straight forward (compared with Samsung, Ericsson and Nokia, the old Sony I had was better, but now it's discontinoued and replaced by S&E).

5. No fuzzy, flashy functions. It has a black and white screen, SMS, and WAP & GPRS (which I never use). I love it, but some people may find it boring.

6. The reception was the best I have had, better than Nokia, Samsung etc. But the voice quality I hear is very very average. I hope Philips can do something better.

I have used several Ericssons, a Nokia, a Sony, and a Samsung before. All Ericssons I used had battery problems, from the old anologue ones to the 768, 788, t28, t38 etc. The battery lasts a very short period, and sometimes it terminates, which is very annoying.

The Sony was very easy to use and very reliable, but the battery life is only 2 days. I had it for 6 years and my dad sometimes uses it.

The samsung T100 was the newest phone I had, but was also the one I disliked the most. Bad battery life, not logically programmed and too flashy. Looks like a toy to me.

My Nokia (8250) was good, about 1 week battery life, plastic body. It's like a lower version of the Philips. I liked it very much, but it was stolen.