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Review of Lobster 700 TV smartphone - a portable DAB radio with TV and GSM phone in one device December 10, 2006 [MS Smartphone] | By Edward J. R. Since price of this smartphone has been cut in half recently and now it is available (UK only) for ridiculously low price of 99 quids (on Pay As You Go) we concluded that time is ripe to review it. This phone delivers mobile TV for a fixed low price and offers (for free) a high quality DAB digital radio receiver (that unlike most DAB radios on sale in UK offers worldwide DAB radio compatibility)! Actually you can think of this phone also as a "portable DAB radio with a GSM mobile phone in one device"! Firstly let's notice that this phone has unusual, distinctive looks because it is assymetric, and on the right side one can find a TV button: 
On the back side this phone looks like this: 
... and generally it is a bit bigger, than Orange SPV C500 smartphone, but it is not that big after all! This assymetric design is not a bad thing - particularly when being hold in right hand this phone feels well thanks to this design. When one takes out the battery (from Samsung! Made in Korea), one can notice that this phone is made in Taiwan and that it has internal model name "HTC Monet" (please notice SIM card from Virgin Mobile UK under which micro-SD card slot is located): 
Before we will describe the mobile TV and digital radio functionality of this phone, let's talk about unboxing of this smartphone! You can buy this phone in Virgin stores all over UK in Virgin Mobile section of these stores. When you purchase it you are getting a smaller box with a SIM card from Virgin Mobile UK (a virtual mobile operator that uses T-Mobile cellular network), that looks like a box of a CD-ROM and you are getting a bigger box with the phone. The box with the phone should be sealed to ensure that you are getting new handset and not second hand one. The seal looks like this: 
... and it has on it the following text: "SECURITY SEAL - Don't even think about it!" (to break it). On the other side this seal has text in red "VIRGIN MOBILE" like you can see here: 
... where you can also notice a window in the box in form of a lobster! The "Lobster" brand is used by Virgin Mobile UK to sell phones especially ordered by this company, and that are exclusive (not available at other operators). The Lobster 700 TV phone by no means is the first "Virgin Mobile Lobster" but it is the first smartphone with Lobster branding. On the other side of the box one can notice a window in form of a big letters "700TV": 
After breaking the seal and removing the first layer of the box, one can see the internal box, that has TV motives on it: 
After opening of this final box one can see the phone: 
... and other smaller boxes (in black color) with power supply, stereo headset (that at the same time serves the purpose of antenna for mobile TV and DAB radio), user manual, CD-ROM, etc. At the bottom of the phone one can notice mini-USB connector (industry standard, any standard mini-USB cable fits!) and headset connector (typical HTC stereo headset standard - 2.5 mm): 
At the top of the phone one can notice a power switch: 
On the right side there is a camera button (the camera has 1.3 megapixel resolution): 
On the left side there are volume up and volume down buttons: 
The color theme and branding of Virgin Mobile is visible on the home screen of the phone (please notice that the name of current TV or radio channel is visible on the home screen - observe the red arrow): 
There are 3 ways to start the mobile TV (and digital radio) application: by moving the selection on the home screen to TV plug-in and pressing the action key, by pressing TV button or by selecting the "TV & Radio" icon in the Start menu (available from the left "Start" soft key)! When the TV and Radio application is launched, one can notice this splash screen: 
One must remember that headset is used as aerial (as antenna) so it must be plugged-in to listen to radio or to watch TV, because otherwise one will get this message: 
Initially, when you run TV tuning for the first time, the phone is connecting over the Internet (over GPRS) with servers of Virgin Mobile and is downloading a license to receive TV - so that the phone knows which TV channels are paid for and which are free, etc. Users of Pay As You Go SIM cards get 90 days of TV for free and then they must pay 5 pounds a month to receive TV. Users of Pay Monthly SIM cards get mobile TV access for free! Furthermore reception of BBC1 TV channel is always free in any case. The DAB radio receiving is for free for ever - because it is a service accessible also with standard DAB radios that also don't require any monthly fees. The TV over DAB is not available through other devices, is using DAB-IP standard and requires subscrption fees. Once you downloaded the license and tuned your phone you have a list of TV channels: 
... called TV Guide" and a list of radio channels called "Radio Guide". Now you are ready to start watching TV! Just select one TV channel from the list and you will start watching TV in your Lobster 700 mobile: 
The choice of TV channels at this moment (the mobile TV over DAB service is just starting!) is not huge, and includes such channels as ITN News: 
... and Channel 4 Short Cuts (not full Channel 4), full BBC1 (it has no advertisements - public TV), and parts of the full ITV1 and E4 channels. Why parts? Because some programmes (here: Agatha Christie -based show) and advertisements are not aired in DAB-IP TV and are being replaced with information about other programs: 
... or by a static text: 
Apart from TV and other super-fascinating feature of this phone is ability to receive DAB radio stations, that part from digital (!) transmission of sound offer a lot of additional information about current programme (more than through RDS in FM radio!): 
So apart from the "title of current song" (music stations) or "name of the current programme" (talk radio) one is getting some background information and even phone number to which users can send SMS messages with questions to the radio presenter or with song wishes: 
During listening to the radio station one theoretically should be able to get interactive Internet-located content/website that is pertinent to the current broadcast - by pressing the TV button, but currently there is no such information available for most channels: 
Interestingly the DAB radio that is built-in into this smartphone supports various DAB bands: 
... what means that you can use it anywhere where DAB radio is available (whole Europe, Korea, Canada), not just in UK! Most DAB radio receivers sold in UK is not working at all abroad of UK. Please note: due to the fact that USA has satellite radio networks that work with small antennas and require no fixed satellite dish - XM Radio and Sirius, DAB radio is not available in USA. Another nice feature of the TV and Radio application is ability to select a menu item "Loudspeaker" what redirects the sound to the loudspeaker of the phone instead of the headset! In this way the headset trully serves only one purpose - antenna and user can listen to radio or watch TV without having headset in his/her ears! Interestingly the whole DAB-IP TV broadcasting was developed by B.T. - a renowned British telecommunications company and also the "TV and Radio Player" application has been written by this company: 
In the Communications Manager one can notice that this phone has no Wi-Fi, just Bluetooth: 
... but it is not necessairily a problem because this phone already has something unique - mobile TV and digital radio - and built-in Wi-Fi would make this phone more expensive. Anyway the target market of this phone - young people - in most cases don't even know what Wi-Fi is so it would not be very widely usable. Lobster 700 TV has been manufactured by HTC so HTC's add-on software like task manager: 
... and camera application (that makes still photos and records videos): 
This phone is powered by Windows Mobile with AKU 2.6: 
... what means that this phone is also A2DP compatible although usability of stereo Bluetooth headsets is questionable because for mobile TV or digital radio to work one needs to connect wired headset to the phone to use it as antenna! Conclusion: this phone is so cheap that you can't do anything wrong! We recommend it as secondary mobile for anybody or as a gift for your family or friends. The ability to receive DAB radio is unique and no Symbian phone offers it. DAB radio in UK has much better offering than in other countries. While in Germany DAB radio has superb coverage it offers there only state owned nationwide and local channels (something like BBC) but in UK not only numerous BBC channels are offered through DAB but also many private channels - both music radio stations and chat radio. In other words: DAB is much more popular in UK than in other countries what also means that content offered through DAB is much bigger! When it comes to the mobile TV available through Lobster 700 TV the offering is obviously initial one and it will be extended in future. Already now however the TV offering is well worth having! Moreover watching news gives much more information (maps, photos) than just listening to them through radio, so even if you don't like Eastenders having mobile TV is worthwhile. It is crucial to remember that users (after initial 3 months) pay flat fee for the TV in Lobster 700 smartphone, so unlike TV over 3G networks, this service is cheaper and not dependent on 3G network coverage. Moreover it is vital that broadcasting is used and not streaming: if 3G network is congested the speeds go down and sometimes users can't use it at all (in WCDMA/UMTS technology used in 3G in UK so called "cell breathing" effect occurs). With broadcasting there are no capacity problems at all and generally one should also admire cleverness of the solution used - DAB-IP - that is reusing existing DAB radio network to transmit TV. In this way there is no need to build additional infrastructure for mobile TV like it is the case with other broadcasting technologies for mobile TV: DVB-H and DMB - but existing DAB radio infrasture can be re-used. The DAB infrastructure in UK is run by several companies so there are several indpendent sets of transmitters run by various companies. In this way a company like BT can innovate and offer more than just radio! In other countries where DAB radio infrastructure is only state-owned obviously there is no place for DAB-IP. In other words: British tendency to privatize companies (visible also in British train system that is not run by one big company like in other EU countries) and British entrepreneurial spirit resulted in such brilliant solution as mobile TV over DAB! If you forget about TV and DAB radio, Lobster 700 phone is just a low-end Windows Mobile smartphone, but still even then it has nice distinctive design and very good quality of phone calls. Lobster 700 smartphone is amazing (never underestimate the ability to show off your mobile TV to friends! DAB radio "rocks" on many levels too...) and we recommend it unconditionally to anybody! With such a low price you simply can't go wrong. If you are located in UK you can purchase Lobster 700 TV smartphone in a Virgin store near you (sometimes you must ask the salesperson explicitly about it, because it is not displayed) or you can purchase it online by clicking here. * * * * * Please note that you can SIM unlock this phone here for 20 pounds (28 Euro or 38 USD). After this unlock you can use this phone with SIM card from any operator - Virgin Mobile SIM card is then no longer necessary for anything more than downloading TV licenses from time to time. DAB radio can be used for free in any case. Also reception of BBC1 TV channel is free. * * * * * You are watching version 4 of this page. Please come later to this page to see more photos and more information added!  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later)
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