Review: Orange SPV C550

Orange's latest SPV smartphone looks almost identical to the previous version, last year's C500.

It is slightly bigger than the C500 and heavier too, although only by 10g. The C550 has a 1.3-megapixel camera complete with a 2x digital zoom.

Picture quality is nowhere near what you'd expect from a normal 1.3-megapixel camera but is fine for sending MMS images to other mobile phones. The C550's screen resolution has improved, though.

Bluetooth and infrared are integrated and it uses GPRS for connecting to the internet via Internet Explorer or for Orange's own collection of online content. It comes with a 128Mb mini-SD memory card, which can store media files for playback.

It's certainly a multi-talented mobile phone but, like every other Orange SPV we've looked at, it suffers from a slow interface, slow start-up time and below average battery life - just four days in standby mode.

Various operators are offering the handset free with a contract.

Manufacturer: Orange

Ratings

Overall rating: 4/5

Verdict

A really useful mobile phone if you can bear the poor battery life and slow software