Telstra F852

Telstra's latest Next G handset offers a 2-megapixel camera, a TransFlash card slot and a fully fledged media player. Although its design is far from outstanding, it should still appeal to those looking at a reasonably priced option to accessing Next G services.

Manufactured by ZTE, the HSDPA-capable F852 is a handset offered on a lower priced plan than many other similar featured Next G handsets. It's aimed at consumers switching to the Next G network for the first time, but aren't willing to pay a premium to do so.

Although it's far from an outstanding phone, the appeal of the F852 lies in the fact that it offers full use of Mobile Foxtel and BigPond services, including Sensis Search, BigPond Photos and WhereIs maps.

Considering the kind of content the Next G network offers, the F852 is a little disappointing in delivering it. The internal display doesn't have a great viewing angle and the sound quality using the included headphones is below average. With no 3.5mm headphone jack nor A2DP stereo Bluetooth, there are no options for changing this.

The keypad and controls are solid, but their flat nature means they do require quite a firm press to activate. The F852 supports standard SMS, MMS and e-mail messaging, all with the standard T9 predictive text input.

Thankfully, the general user experience of the F852 is excellent. Colourful, animated main menu icons in a grid layout and a simple list format for submenus makes using this phone a breeze.

A 2-megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom and video recording is included, but the lack of flash is a sour point. Photos aren't ideal for anything more than a few happy snaps. An internal VGA camera is present to allow for video calling over the Next G network.

A TransFlash card slot allows up to 2GB of extra storage, though there is no card included in the sales package, which is disappointing. The F852 also boasts Bluetooth and USB connectivity, though the latter is proprietary rather than the standard mini-USB connection. Telstra offers the F852 on a post paid $20 Phone Plan over 24 months.