[3GScottishUser]

Yes its just £99.99 with a free Bluetooth headset on 02 PAYG.

It looks like 02 are about to make a real spash in the pre-paid 3G market.

Phone Specifications and Features

Camera 1.3 Megapixel with zoom

Video Yes - record, playback, download & streaming

MP3 Player Yes

3G Yes / High speed downloads Yes

Video calling Yes

Email client No

Ringtones MP3

Screen Colours 65k

Java Games Yes

Picture Messages Yes

Photo Phonebook Yes

WAP + GPRS Yes

Bluetooth Yes

PC Sync Yes

Memory Card Yes - MicroSD

Phone Type Candybar

Band Tri

Size 117 x 49 x 14mm Weight 92g

Standby Time Up to 312 hours Talk Time Up to 6 hours

1.0MB FREE monthly Browse & Download allowance and 20% back on your top ups when you buy a handset

http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/o2uk/jsp/handsets/viewHandsetDetails.jsp?prodID=consumer:O2:Ice:3G:G ROUP

[Hands0n]

Yea, but its damn ugly!

[Ben]

I was going to say... it'd need to be made of ice to stop the side of ones face melting off through the sheer vulgarity of the thing.

[getti]

My review model will be landing on my desk today thanks to O2. Might look better in person?

Il post pics and a initial impresson as it comes before a full video and text review is done

[getti]

Ok the Ice is now here....... will report through the day

[Hands0n]

Come on, hurry up - my replacement X-Box power supply (eBay) came in this morning, its installed and the X-Box is working again. What's keeping you :D

Can we please have a pix of the Ice in context with something to relate its size to (be careful!).

[hecatae]

getti out

oops t before i

wheres a k600 for comparison

[getti]

If i am honest the Ice is poor. For a phone speced to have a 262,000 screen it is quite crap and i would have said more along 4,000. Might be the resolution but it just does not impress.

Not checked out the cam or much yet as i have been using my N93 more as expected.

Add that to the fact i was off sick from work today as i am and have been ill since Saturday with a virus thats going around so i have not left the house today.

Tomorrow i will test the Ice and the day after the N93 as i have much longer with that although my current spending habbit is in overdrive and already have 1 eye on a P990 and the other on my current bank balance.

Maybe i can contact Roman Abramovich and get him to buy a 49% stake in Today On 3G for £100m? Should get me through a fair few phones :D

[3GScottishUser]

I think we have to make comments based on the actual cost of the handsets.

The Ice is a budget 3G handset that needs to be compared with the SE K600i or the Motorola V975. It comes with a free BT headset at £100 so in reality its a £70 3G phone!

It's positioned to compete directly with popular GSM pre-pay handsets and fills a gap that only Vodafone have so far managed to offer anything decent in, namely the sub £100 3G pre-pay sector. It is this market sector that will be crucial for 3G uptake by the masses, not the £500+ feature packed devices like the N93 which will be restricted to the wealthy and enthusiasts.

The task for the 02 Ice is to take on the likes of the Samsung D500, Motorola Razr and SLVR. It is customers considering that level of GSM product that the Ice has to win over.

I have not seen one 'in the flesh' yet but the specs look reasonable for what you pay and the styling is probably targetted at females who prefer slim and curved things!! I would'nt expect most enthusiasts to be that impressed by the Ice or any other sub £100 phone for that matter but I think it deserves to be considered seriously as it is slap bang in the mainstream PAYG segment which still has more users than the contract business. What will they make of the Ice phone + headset package for under £100? And what use will they make of it? With videocalls on 02 the same price as voice maybe more than many contract users would on other networks.

[Hands0n]

I tend to agree, largely, but with only a couple of reservations.

The Ice is [to me] by no means an attractive-looking handset. It is too Japanese, plasticky, tacky and cheap - not that the Japanese cannot make eyewateringly gorgeous equipment! Just that the ICE seems to be on some kind of other-world tack that just does not gel very well with my eye for style. But this isn't Japanese! This one is from Qualcomm, in the good old US of A and is based on Qualcomm's uiOne(TM) solution (http://www.qualcomm.com/press/releases/2006/060905_launch_europes_first.html).

Okay, so that's the aesthetic view of a techie - a quick poll of the family reveals that none of them particularly like the overall appearance of the "iPod phone" (my 12-year old coined that expression). Is that what Qualcomm are doing? Making it fit the appearance of those other pocketable white-goods these days (white being the new black!)? The Mrs gave it a fairly immediate "Oooh, no!", as did teen daughter. Eldest lad said something not repeatable on a public forum, I blame the Testosterone.

Price positioning at the sub-£100 is noteworthy, and essential. But for my
So, all in all, the O2 Ice does not do it for this household - but that is not the case everywhere. A trawl around the 'net finds articles, reviews and owner comments that favour the handset. Typical might be Gadgetcandy.com (http://www.gadgetcandy.com/archives/2006/08/post_470.php) which somewhat goes to support 3GSU's "girly appeal" (I really did not seek that out purposely, its almost the first thing Google came up with :D ). Here there are enthusiastic and interesting owner feeback such as this .....


Just got this phone 2 days ago, there is more to it than meets the eye, little thing that u wouldn't think about which surprise u when u notice them for example, all phones have predictive text where u type a word and it speels what it thinks your typing this phone actually learns how you write a message and adds the next word/words for u, it is unbelievably accurate aswell, pure genius.

The phone charger actually doubles up as a pc cable using USB (another great little touch) so u get everything u need within 5 mins I uploaded music and videos with no hassle or daft crashes like u get with the nokia pc suite! the only bad side is u have to buy the memory card seperate although it does have sufficient built in memory to get quite a few songs on there to tie u over u really need a card to take full advantage other than that it really is just pure class!


.....and this from another site....


O2, in its role as a leading supplier of mobile telephony services to both consumers and businesses, has been particularly busy of late with a raft of announcements regarding new products and accessories on offer. Leading the way is the new O2 Ice which has been designed exclusively for O2 (that's the company and not the device) and is being promoted as an extra-cool, chic handset.

The O2 Ice is a 3G phone that fits 32MB of internal memory and a micro SD card slot into its slim candy (a contradiction in terms to my mind) bar appearance. Other features included in this device, that I saw encased in an ice sculpture, are video calling and downloading of video messages plus accessing O2 Active for the latest news, celebrity gossip and sports result. Hotmail, Streetmap and O2 LookAtMe service, where you can display self-promotional videos and the like, are all supported.

Source: http://www.gadgetspeak.com/gadget/article.rhtm/757/343421/article.html?rss=yes



At the end of the day, you pays your money and takes your choice. Functionally the ICE appears to be very well specc'd indeed - and certainly not under par from some other [older] handsets. The differentiation being that this is brand spanking new for 2006, not some unused warehouse stock.

For under the £100 the ICE is certainly going to be a good introduction to 3G, if you use any of those features.

If you've gone and bought one, do post your impressions and experiences on here.

[getti]

Its pretty crap to be honest. No email support, a terrible screen and a poor camera

Does not exactly look nice either!

Full review up tomorrow

[Ben]

I wonder if it can compete with the Vodafone V600i - I believe it can be had for about £70 now!

[getti]

V600i is better.

Better screen, better camera, FM radio, flash light.

[Hands0n]

It is another first generation product - Qualcomm's uiOne. Almost bound to be pants. In four or five generations more they may just about produce a handset comparable with the norm for the day.

I'm just a bit staggered that O2 decided to hang their hat on something so very .......... new, and lacking.

But not doubt it'll get some folks juices flowing.

[3GScottishUser]

I don't really want to offend anyone but I am somewhat sceptical about the reception any sub £100 handset will get by those who are not in the target market. I have sat and watched others buying the latest most expensive top of the range handsets month in and month out. Howls of excitment at almost every expensive new cutting edge device that launches, meanwhile in the real world most mainstream folks on a budget have a limited amount to spend an mobiles and many prefer to budget using PAYG.

The Ice may not have the best camera available or styling that those accustomed to N Series finish and quality find to their taste but what you get is a brand new device with Bluetooth, Videocalling and plenty of 3G features for under £100 with a BT headset thrown in. It is a package deal on 02, an exclusive that combined with treats, same cost video calling and some free surfing opens the door to 3G to a whole new range of customers. It should be able to cope with web/wap based e-mail services like Yahoo and Hotmail services too if it has support for WAP browsing. I have an SE V600i and it's pretty good but I can see why the Ice would be more attractive to some as the V600i is a bit brick like.

There realy has not been much in this price bracket from any of the networks so anything new that extends the range should be welcomed. I think the specs of the Ice leave the Moto C975/V975, Amoi MOS1 and ZTE for dead and the slim styling might just appeal where the SE V600i/608i does not.

02 had some success with their NEC e343 slim i-mode phone last year at a sub £50 price point (it sold out on Amazon pretty swiftly) and I think with the BT headset included the Ice could make a decent showing for them at
The point I suppose at the end of the day is the 'Clarkston' phenomena. Jeremey never really has much good to say about mainstream cars because he can afford to buy and drive the top of the range models. I can accept that as he has made a living out of that viewpoint but its not a realistic one as most mortals who only can stretch to a Mondeo or Vectra know all too well.

[hecatae]

saw it today.

ugly

[getti]

Trying to get a pic of a white phone on a white background is a nightmare!. Once thats done the review will be put up as they need it back by Wednesday

[E616Vboy123]

saw it today.

ugly

Look at the old NEC's Three sold when they first began selling phones. They were big, heavy, unreliable, mostly ugly phones that sold in their drones. Why did they sell in their drones? Because they were cheap. People will put up with things like that if they can get a 3G phones with expandable memory and bluetooth and a MP camera for less than a hundred squid.

[3GScottishUser]

I know where you are coming from with the above but lets not tarnish the Ice by associating it with NEC's early 3G products as they were truly shocking.

[Ben]

I'll be truly amazed if these sell in any significant number. Still, a few price reductions later and we could have a popular Christmas stocking filler I guess.

[Hands0n]

I'm curious enough to want to try one ....... :p I want to know what this new UI is all about.

[E616Vboy123]

Seen one the other day in the o2 shop - looks and feels truely terrible. This is my honest opinion: Apart from the size, I would rather start using my old E616V again - its really that bad. Don't know what the internals are like.

[Ben]

Oh dear. Sounds like it'd still be pretty unfavourable at half the price :\

[Hands0n]

If its that bad then give it a few months and it'll probably be down to half the price :) I think I'll wait this one out :D

[gorilla]

this is only £79.99 now.

I have to say that I quite like it :o and with expandable memory could be a nice stocking filer.

[Ben]

Bill, have you been chatting to Sandra Vogel again? :p http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=3516

Seems somebody else likes it, gorilla. I'm still at a loss to see why.

[E616Vboy123]

Was in my local o2 shop the other day, and some woman with no clue what she was reading was reading off the spec list of the ICE, and sounded very impressed with it:confused:

I was very tempted to go over and beg her not to even consider, or even look at the phone ever again. But, I decided to let her go ahead and buy it and allow her to learn from her expensive mistake.:rolleyes: