- The Medias 101s is the first water-resistant phone that doesn’t look too ridiculous sporty. (Remember the Nokia 3720 or Motorola Defy?) Instead, it’s light and slim—and thankfully, looks just like a regular smartphone.
The signature feature just works. We’ve left the phone to sit in a bowl of water and it survived just fine. The touchscreen doesn’t work underwater, though, so no playing Angry Birds while snorkeling. (The guerilla-glass screen is also scratch-resistant if toilets are not the only place you drop your phone.
- NEC’s exclusive user’s interface is pretty sleek, and offers a refreshing change from Android phones from Korea.
- The single-core, 1GHz processor struggles with even simple tasks like swiping from page to page, especially when you try to browse through pictures or open several web pages at the same time.
- In fact, the touch screen isn’t very responsive in general. You’ll need to press applications more than once to launch them, or tap-tap-tap your screen to focus on a particular area when taking photos. As for bathtub Angry Birds sessions, wet fingers are even less responsive.
- Everything feels a bit dated, from the design to the camera and the sound quality.
Verdict: Did they just throw in the water-resistant feature at the last minute, as this phone desperately needed a talking point? Too bad we didn’t have it for Songkran, or don’t work outdoors (motorcycle taxi drivers new fave phone for the rainy season?). As it stands, the NEC Medias 101s is an affordable, but lackluster, smartphone.
Dimension: 108 x 65 x 8.2 mm; 117g
Spec: 4-inch capacitive screen (854 x 480 pixels), 1GHz processor, 5MP camera, HD video recording (1,280 x 720 pixels), Android 2.3 Gingerbread, 3G compatibility
Price: B12,900
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