[access-uk] Telorion New User Review
- From: Deddajay <maillists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 28 May 2014 12:35:08 +0100
There has been a lot of interest in the new Telorion phone, and based on
posts here and some additional research, we bought one last week.
This is a review of it's use so far, written from both a blind
perspective and a sighted perspective.
Firstly, we opted for the S4 mini, rather than the larger S3. This is
not only a bit cheaper at £500 against £560, but it is a nice size to
fit in the hand.
The phone arrived well packaged, albeit all the accompanying literature
is in French as it is a European model. However, the English manual for
the phone itself can be downloaded from the internet very easily. The
phone is set up for immediate use and a manual is not strictly necessary
but a sim card is needed, and this may require sighted help to install,
which is where the manual does come in handy.
Once that has been done, the phone just works. The main menu is shown in
the screen at the top, whilst the rubberised number pad fits over the
phone covering the bottom half of the screen. The menu can be accessed
by typing the number item or by using the up and down keys, which are in
the top 2 rows of the number pad, along with the menu key, ok button,
back button and correction button. The correction button also doubles as
an information key providing information about network, battery and
wireless status. The menu key also turns on the speech on for dialling,
text and email. Another way to navigate the menu is to use one finger on
the screen and move the menu up and down. When the item is spoken you
can select using the ok key. We have found this to be easier than using
the up and down keys.
Depending on which application you are using, the menu key provides
additional options too.
The reason that we chose this phone is that, not only is the user
totally blind, but also has reduced sensitivity and mobility in his
fingers. He tried a normal android phone, but was unable to feel the
screen sufficiently well and tapping was difficult for him. The addition
of the keypad means that he has more to guide him to the right place
each time. It has taken a few days, but he can now navigate fairly
quickly. One of the problems we did find was that to answer the phone
you need to press the ok button. In theory, this is fine for most people
but if you are not very quick to find the right button the caller has
rung off before you can answer. Marie at Telorion was really helpful
about this and advised that we could change this by going into the basic
android settings so that we could change the answer button to the home
button at the bottom of the phone, and the cancel call button to the
on/off button on the side of the phone. Telorion are going to put this
as an option into a future update so that it can be done from within the
Telorion menus without having to go into the android environment.
This phone is the easiest phone we have used to date. The radio is
great, the initial selection is limited to the main BBC stations and a
couple of others, but if you use the menu key to access folders when
using the radio, there is another selection of all the UK stations you
could possibly want. There is also the option of adding in your own
stations if one is missing off the list. You can then add your chosen
stations to the favourites folder and make that the default every time
you go into radio. The sound quality is excellent.
News is also very good, although limited to just 3 UK papers at present.
We usually use Webbie to download RSS news feeds, but the Telorion phone
seems to download them faster than on the computer and they are read
well. The downside is that the speech doesn't seem to recognise
apostrophes so pronunciation can be a bit peculiar at times, but that is
probably a limitation of the android speech rather than Telorion itself.
The colour application seems to work reasonably well, the OCR can be a
bit tricky and you need to move the phone up and down to get the best
position, but it is quite accurate when you get it right. It just needs
a bit of practice.
From within the Telorian menu you can access android apps and settings,
although we have found that they are better used from within the android
environment itself. This is easy to switch into from with Telorian and
just removing the number pad makes it a basic android phone with all the
usual functions. Just turning the phone off and back on again returns it
to Telorion.
We are still discovering new things within the menus and exploring more
options and features. More are due to be added as Telorion update the
phone and as these are free, the phone should become even more
functional in time.
For basic phone calls it is straight forward and you have the option of
dialling the number into the keypad, using voice to call a contact or
using the contacts address book. Loudspeaker can be turned on and off
using the ok key during the call. Text messages are done the same way.
The keyboard is the old Nokia style rather that querty, but you can add
an external keyboard via bluetooth if you need this. Alternatively,
dictating your message is simple and reasonably accurate. Again,
practice makes perfect and it is best with a clear, precise diction for
accuracy.
GPS seems good, although we haven't had the opportunity to try it out to
any great extent yet. Internet browsing seems ok but we are still
working this one out, but it is not a high priority on a phone. We
haven't tried emails yet, but again this is not a priority on a phone
and this feature will probably not be used. However, if it works as well
as the rest of the phone there shouldn't be any problem with it for
those who do want this feature.
So far, this phone has exceeded expectations. It is extremely easy to
use and I would imagine that even non technical sighted people would
appreciate the ease of use. It also looks good from a sighted
perspective. Classy, even.
As far as Telorion themselves are concerned, they have been really
helpful with advice regarding one or two queries we had. They are open
to suggestions for features or reporting any difficulties the user may
be having and come back to you with answers very quickly. As a company
we are very impressed with them. This contrasts with Georgie, which was
also some thing we were considering as it seemed to be similar to the
old Mobile Speak which we had used before. There was no one to answer
the phone when we called to speak to them and, despite leaving a message
for them to call us for a pre-sales talk, we are still waiting for them
to come back to us 3 weeks later! Sorry Georgie, but you have lost a
potential sale and any confidence that you would be able to support your
users.
For anyone considering buying this phone, we would highly recommend it.
In just a week it has made such a difference to someone who had all but
given up on mobile phones.
Cheers
Deddajay
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