Philips 859 A Comprehensive Review of Features Prices Pros & Cons

Overview of Philips 859

The Philips 859 is a feature phone that was initially announced in the third quarter of 2004. Although it is now discontinued, it remains a noteworthy model due to its distinct features and the technological environment of its time. The device was built to offer basic mobile services and some added functionalities to users, focusing mainly on voice communication, messaging, and limited multimedia capabilities.

Design and Build

The Philips 859 boasts a compact design with dimensions of 88 x 46 x 23 mm and a weight of 94 grams. This makes it a fairly portable device compared to modern smartphones but was typical for feature phones of that era. The handset is constructed to accommodate a Mini-SIM card and comes with a TFT display capable of showing 65K colors. The screen resolution stands at 128 x 160 pixels, structured to display up to 7 lines of text.

Display Characteristics

The device's screen does not support touch input but is adequately vibrant for the time with its 65K color display. Despite the absence of backlighting adjustments or a high pixel density, the Philips 859 screen is legible under normal lighting conditions. The display resolution of 128 x 160 pixels allowed users to view basic graphical content and navigate the phone's interface with reasonable clarity.

Network and Connectivity

With support for GSM technology, the Philips 859 operates on the 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz frequency bands, providing substantial coverage for 2G networks. The phone includes GPRS Class 10 for basic internet connectivity, enabling features such as email and basic WAP-based browsing. However, the device lacks options for EDGE, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth, limiting its connectivity options.

Camera and Photography

Equipped with a single VGA main camera, the Philips 859 offers basic photography capabilities. The camera holds a resolution of 0.3 megapixels, typical of budget phones from that period. It does not support video recording, restricting its utility to mere snapshots. As a feature phone, the imaging quality was never meant to rival modern smartphones, instead focusing on providing a means to capture and share simple images.

Memory and Storage

Internally, the Philips 859 comes with 7MB of storage, which now seems modest but was satisfactory for the time, given the phone’s lack of multimedia demands. It does not offer expandable storage options via a card slot. Users are able to store contacts and call logs on the device, including 500 phonebook entries and enough space for 30 call records. The absence of a selfie camera emphasizes its primary focus on voice calls and messaging.

Battery and Power Management

The Philips 859 is powered by a removable Li-Ion 600 mAh battery. This energy capacity provides a standby time of up to 400 hours and a talk time of approximately 4 hours. While these metrics fall short of modern standards, they were considered efficient for devices not constantly running high-power applications. Battery life would have easily seen users through a full day without the need for frequent charging.

Multimedia and Additional Features

The phone supports multiple message types including SMS, EMS, MMS, and email, while its browser capability is limited to WAP 1.2.1, allowing for the loading of simple web pages. It includes downloadable polyphonic ringtones and 4 pre-installed games with additional Java-based games available for download. Though Java MIDP 2.0 support is included, multimedia functionality like music or video playback and radio is absent.

Conclusion

Although the Philips 859 lacks the sophisticated features of contemporary smartphones, it remains a representation of early mobile phone capabilities, aimed at fulfilling fundamental communication needs. Its design and functionality take us back to a time when mobile phones were transitioning into portable devices with added utilities beyond voice calls. Today, the Philips 859 stands as a reminder of mobile technology’s evolution over the last decades.