Feature

Virgin mobile 575

The Lobster 575 is Virgin Mobile’s second own-brand handset, made like the Lobster 485 by of the Korean company Bellwave. To our eyes it’s not as good-looking as the 485, but it’s still pretty smart
– and weighs in at a modest 77g, just right for the youth market (especially the female side) that Virgin Mobile has made its own. Jet black or shocking pink as the colour options? Sounds spot on.

This certainly isn’t a phone intended for feature-set nerds. The spec is a real mixed bag. On the one hand the punter gets a decent 1.3mp camera, a workable web browser, and a reasonable MP3 player. But there’s no Bluetooth and no memory card slot (you get 64Mb built in), no flash on the camera, no email, indifferent battery performance, and the main display is a weedy disappointment – just 128x160 pixels, which doesn’t exactly do justice to the 262K colours it can show.

It still looks pretty good value for money at around £80 on pay-as-you-go. And if Virgin Mobile continues shopping with Bellwave we can expect a load more interesting phones in the future – Bellwave has a large and varied portfolio ready and waiting.

Good-looking well-priced phone for a specific market.

FEATURES - 50%
SALEABILITY - 75%


SPECIFICATION
  • Size                       Length 83mm
  • Width                     42mm
  • Depth                    22mm
  • Weight                  77g
  • Main display        TFT, 262K colours, 128x160 pixels; secondary VGA screen
  • Camera                1.3mp, 1600x1200 pixels, video,
  • Connectivity        Triband GSM
  • Battery                  Standby 158h, Talk time 3h
  • Features               Music player, 64Mb memory, web browser