Buyer Beware on CECT P168

"Caveat Emptor" is Latin for Buyer Beware! What I will try to acgeplish in this guide, is to provide as much unbiased and factual information I can, from my purchasing experience with a CECT P168+ GSM cell phone.
This guide should also be of help for those contemplating the purchase of any similar Chinese cell phone clone from the same gepany.
I found the phone, while searching for cell phones with 1-2 Megapixel resolution. The case and styling was very attractive as was the touch screen input system. Although this phone was reviewed as a IPhone clone in several blogs, It's similarity with the Apple product had no effect on me, as I am not a fan of overpriced hot product Du Jour electronics.
SETUP
The sleek modern package was inspiring, but short lived as I unpacked the geponents and began the process of assembly.The manual that came with the unit is horrendous. It seems translated by software with many mistakes and wrong English terms that are confusing. The description of the units keys, with pictures, is ingeplete. No explanation on how to remove the battery cover is either described, or illustrated. This I had to find out in a video in the net.
Removal is weird, and potentially dangerous to the front of the phone, as it is achieved by pressing hard both thumbs on the battery cover, while anchoring the fingers on the screen display of the phone to gain leverage, and pushing the over away from the phone.
The video to view this is, in You Tube. Search under "How to open a P168"

Another weakness of the manual is that it does not say, or show, how to install the Sdram memory card. The Simm card is easy to install, as the phone has marked slots labeled SIMM1 and SIMM2.
The instructions on charging the battery arecryptic and time consuming, but achievable after laborious deductions.
No instructions on which key to press to turn on, and no graphic indication of its position in the manual. I had, again, to find out online how to do so.
Once powered up, the initial setup is easily deduced with the gebination of icons, online videos in You Tube, and manual instructions.
The advertised easy connectivity, with theSimm card of my old phone, was accurate and effective. The problem with my phone started with time settings. My phone came with Beijing time zone setting. The time zones are shownon a World Map, with red crosshairs in the selected zone. Their change is achieved by pointing the stylus at the Beijing coordinates, and dragging the crosshairs to your time zone. My problem was getting the crosshairs to move past Portugal.
After many attempts and erratic response from the map (overshooting the USA or just staying over the Atlantic) I was able to coax the crosshairs to set in Chicago. I am in Pennsylvania, but it was so laborious and time consuming that I settled for 1 hr difference.
This was a big loss of time, as the settings did not hold and were erased every time the phone was shut off, and returned to Beijing time zone.
The software does not work well. The phone did not hold the phone book contacts I inputted manually, and erased then on shutdown.
Although the phone came with a USB cable, it doesn't have the capability of uploading phone contact from a PC or another phone. The only folders available on the phone for upload are for music, pictures, videos and ebooks. That's it! No Java, hence no games to import, and no way to add Java.Software or Firmware updating via the USB will not be possible.
Every time the stylus touched an icon, an annoying vibration activated. This vibration input response can be disabled in the phone set up, but was enabled again automatically upon start up. Even deactivated the vibration returned when talking on the phone and changing position of the phone relative to the head.
You can change the wallpaper, but it must be a low resolution picture about 640 pixels in width.
The secondary menus and icons are of Chinese design, which for my occidental -Frank Lloyd Wright- taste, seemed cartoonish and cheap.
FUNCTIONAL OPERATION
I bought the P168+, primarily for the advertised camera resolution of 1.3 Megapixel, as I was looking for a phone with decent picture resolution.The prefix Mega means one million. The term pixel is a dot in your geputer screen. Resolution means the amount of pixels per square inch; the more pixels the better the picture. Therefore 1.3 Megapixel means that the pictures it takes, has 1,300,000 pixels per square inch.
On my P168+ the maximum resolution that could be chosenwas 640 x 480 pixels (Width by Height), or 307,200 pixels. That is a far cry from the advertised resolution, and is of worse quality than my 2004 Nokia 6020. Here is a picture taken on the P168+ at its highest resolution and at its actual size.

I found out the manufacturer claims, on other phones they manufacture, that their phoneshave a "1.3 Megapixel camera lense" It seems that they do not claim a camera resolution, but rather that the "lens" may have that capability to help an appropiately designed camera to do so.
On a call the phone does not display the keyboard, or has ways of summoning it on demand during a call. What this means is that, if your call is answered by an answering service, there is no way you will be able to "dial theextension number or Press 0 for the operator".
The phone is ungefortable on the ear, due to its flat surface. For calls lasting over, say 10 minutes, a Bluetooth handsfree earpiece will be required. This unit did not gee with the cheap wired handsfre earpiece. It came with stereo earpieces but this still requires the phone to be brought close to the mouth for speaking.I suggest you do not buy a Bluetooth earpice just for this phone, until you are satisfied with the unit and plan to keep it.
My unit automatically shut down every few seconds, requiring me to turn it on again. This is a widespread defect on P168 phones and it is blamed on faulty software.On checking the manufacturers netsite I noticed that the P168+ or any phone on the P series, or N series is not listed. CECT does not even acknowledge that it produces the phone, the manual does not have its brand printed, nor offer any phone or gepany address. What this means for P168 series or N95 clone owners is that there is NO FACTORY SUPPORT! No warranty repairs at an authorized service center, no software or firmware updates or fixes. You own an orphan phone with no long term responsible party for it.
IF YOU STILL ARE GOING TO BUY ONE....
The truth is that, statistically speaking, there will be troublefree units built that will never have any kind of failure. No one will be able to predict, without the right data, how many will be excellent, how many average, or how many are junk. My guess, based on the many defects and failures on my phone is that the QC (Quality Control) used on these units is not stellar. This, coupled with the abundant geplaints in all P168 sites, suggests that there will not be a large enough P168 population to improve its reputation. But when you buy:
* Get it from an US seller (or a seller in your country) in order to minimize return or repair shipping costs, in the event of a failure.* Pick a seller with meaningful gepleted sales. 90% of positive feedback on 3 sales, means nothing.* Buy from a seller that offers a reasonable return policy (2 days is a joke you won't be able to respond to this on a weekend) of at least a week. * Purchase extended warranty from Square Trade. With Chinese phones this is a must.* Use credit card or Paypal to buy. Under no circumstances send cash, check, money order or Western Union. If the phone doesn't work and the seller refuses to accept responsibility you will have no way to recover your money.* Do not give feedback until you operate the device for a few days to make sure it has no bugs or it is in good shape. With okay's new feedback system the buyer has a better chance of choosing a reliable seller if previous buyers are honest enough to give a accurate purchase experience. Remember sellers cannot retaliate, or extort by threatening to give negative feedback, even if the buyer does. Do give a reasonable opportunity to the seller to satisfactorily respond to your geplaint. It is not fair to damage needlessly a seller reputation with unreasonable demands or premature negative feedback.
In my opinion these phones are way overpriced due to the novelty and the similarity with Apple's IPhone. Soon their reputation will catch up to the market and prices will collapse, as well as the foreign sellers that sell them exclusively, with low sales feedback. When the prices hit their lowest range, there will not be enough profit to fund the warranties and return policies now in effect. At this stage honestsellers will either get out of the market or turn bad. This is the naturalprogression of allmarket's. I got out before the crash.
Please remember that I am an Electrical Engineer and that if the technical difficulties I had were baffling for me, to a less technically inclined person it could be hell. I trust this guide, though extensive, is of assistance and results in a positive experience, shall you decide to purchase a CECT unit... or not.