DualSim Slider
A GSM mobile phone with the ability to run two SIM cards simultaneously.
Pros
- Dual SIM cards, single integrated phone book, Bluetooth, FM radio, 2GB microSD card
Cons
- Questionable design and build, poor Magic Touch pad control system, no 3G connectivity, proprietary charging/headphone jack, battery life
Bottom Line
The DualSim Slider will appeal to people who use multiple SIM cards. Unfortunately, the Magic Touch pad control system is frustrating to use and build quality is questionable. It's reasonably priced, though, and does a relatively good job with its dual SIM card functionality.
-
Price
$ 399.00 (AUD)
According to the company behind the DualSim Slider, it is the first mobile phone available in Australia to support the use of two SIM cards simultaneously. Unfortunately, it is let down by a mediocre "Magic Touch" control system.
DualSim claims more than 5 million Australians have two SIM cards, either switching them in and out of one phone or owning two active handsets. The DualSim Slider is designed to make life easier by allowing the use of two SIM cards simultaneously in one phone. This method works quite well, and it allows you to make and receive calls and send and receive text messages from both SIM cards. For calls, there are two call centres, one for each SIM card, while for messages there are two inboxes — labelled SIM 1 and SIM 2.
The home screen displays both networks and has two signal strength indicators in the status bar. Conveniently, the DualSim Slider integrates the phone number listings of both SIM cards into a single phone book.
Call quality is not outstanding. Outgoing audio is loud and clear, with little complaint from our callers, but incoming audio wasn't as loud as we hoped and it does lack clarity. The hands-free speakerphone also suffers from the same problems — it’s a struggle to hear, even at full volume.
The design of the DualSim Slider is a mixed bag. The body is largely gloss plastic, which in addition to attracting plenty of grubby fingerprints raises some build quality questions. The rear battery cover squeaks when pressed, the slider sways slightly from side to side and the keypad buttons creak. In addition, the poor placement of the external volume controls towards the bottom left of the handset means it is hard to adjust volume when holding the handset to your ear.
The DualSim Slider forgoes the traditional five-way navigational pad for what the company has dubbed the Magic Touch pad — a touch-sensitive display window with buttons that change depending on which handset functions are being used. For example, when using the camera, digital zoom icons appear, while during general use the Magic Touch pad acts as a regular five-way navigational pad with direction icons and a centre key.
Unfortunately, the implementation of the pad is far from magic, resulting in a frustrating user experience. You need to press the pad with your fingernails for best results, and quickly scrolling through lists or items is nowhere near as fast as it should be. There is an option of adding haptic feedback to the Magic Touch pad, but this seemed to slow down responsiveness even further. A regular five-way navigational pad would have been far better.
The DualSim Slider is a tri-band GSM phone, so there is no 3G or HSDPA support. There is also no e-mail client, so the handset probably won't appeal to businesspeople. With a feature set that is skewed more towards multimedia than business functions, the DualSim Slider should appeal to younger buyers who may have multiple prepaid SIM cards.
Multimedia is fair, with a 2-megapixel camera that doubles as a video recorder, audio and video player applications, an FM radio and a sound recorder. There is also a built-in WAP browser and a microSD card slot for extra storage. DualSim includes a 2GB microSD card in the sales package. Unfortunately the phone employs a proprietary USB charging and headphone jack — so you can't use regular 3.5mm headphones — and there is no A2DP Bluetooth profile.
Other features include SMS and MMS with T9 predictive text input, an 800 contact phonebook, Java games and a range of PIM features such as a calculator, stopwatch, e-book reader, calendar, to-do list, alarm and world clock. Battery life is fair but not great, especially considering this is only a GSM handset. The 850mAh battery has a talk time of up to 200 minutes and a standby time of five days.
Brand Post
Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 Acer K242HYL review: An affordable monitor for any occasion
- 4 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 5 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
Latest News Articles
- Europe moves to develop standard mobile phone chargers
- Michael Jackson's death knocks Google & Twitter offline
- Palm CEO: We don't have to beat each other to prosper
- RIM patches BlackBerry PDF vulnerability
- Big Profits from App Store? Maybe Not for Apple
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks
Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers
Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world
Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles
PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D
The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D
Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G
Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65
This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76
It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- Which Lenovo Laptop Should I Buy?
- Every TV in Samsung's 2022 line-up: OLED, Neo QLED and more!
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?