The Orange Rio II offers the BlackBerry experience for a fraction of the cost, with a touchscreen interface, full Qwerty keyboard and 3G connectivity for (theoretically) speedy Web browsing on the move. Although it has some faults, the low price goes a long way to making up for them.
The Rio II is available exclusively from Orange and costs £70 (plus £10 top up) on a pay as you go deal. Monthly contracts start as low as £10.
Her name is (still) Rio
The Rio II is, naturally enough, a sequel to last year's enormously popular Orange Rio. That phone cleverly mimicked the BlackBerry range -- a huge hit with teenagers -- but cost a pocket-money price. The Rio II has similar qualities, but brings with it a raft of improvements.
The appearance of the phone still owes a large debt to RIM's designers, but it's a little more refined this time around. The faux-chrome surround has been brought forward a little so it encloses the front of the device, and the Rio II has been given a pleasing rubberised back, similar to that seen on the BlackBerry 8520 Curve.
The Qwerty keyboard boasts larger buttons than the original Rio, but there's no longer any space between each key. This can make fast typing problematic, as the buttons are harder to differentiate, but the fact they're bigger balances out this issue.
Resistive touchscreen is futile
The Rio II's 2.4-inch resistive touchscreen is one of the phone's major disappointments. While the brightness is acceptable and the resolution decent for a phone in this price bracket, the amount of pressure required to register input makes it awkward to use. Most phones now have a capacitive touchscreen, so this is a blatant and unhelpful bit of costcutting. As a result, you'll find yourself relying more on the D-pad to navigate your home screens and menus.
The Rio II uses a custom-made operating system that borrows elements from both RIM's BlackBerry OS and Google's Android. You can make use of various widgets to add interactivity to your home screens, and it's possible to connect to various email providers and get banging away on that Qwerty keyboard.
The OS is packed with a surprising amount of functionality, and comes with dedicated Facebook and Twitter applications. This is no smart phone though -- there's no app store to find more widgets or games.
Slow-motion mobile
Moving between apps is rarely a speedy experience, and there's a noticeable amount of slowdown when switching home screens, too. This lack of pace is largely down to the Rio II's very basic processor. When it comes to data, it moves a little faster thanks to the inclusion of 3G. This allows the Rio II to score points over one of the handsets it's trying so hard to emulate: the 2G-only BlackBerry 8520.
Sadly, unlike the 8520, the Rio II lacks Wi-Fi. This is probably to be expected on such a modestly priced phone, but with more and more devices including wireless connectivity as standard, it's an unfortunate omission.
With its 3-megapixel camera, the Rio II offers a pretty workmanlike degree of photographical skill. There's no auto-focus, so you can't take macro shots, and the video recording is naturally limited to standard definition. As a bonus the phone supports video messaging, if you're keen on that sort of thing.
Memory not included
The Rio II comes with just 80MB of on-board memory, but supports microSD cards for storage expansion. You don't get a card with the phone, so it's worth bearing in mind you'll need to make an additional investment to gain space for music, photos and videos.
Another thing missing from the box is a set of headphones, but the Rio II's standard 3.5mm socket means you can use your own pair of cans anyway.
3G connectivity may be a blessing, but it's also something of a curse when it comes to the Rio II's battery stamina. The 1,000mAh cell doesn't put up much of a fight when you're indulging in Web-surfing and email. We found it drained astonishingly quickly, requiring us to recharge it at least once a day.
While this isn't exactly unusual with always-on smart phones, it's worth bearing in mind if you're often away from home and need a device with some staying power.
Conclusion
The Rio II improves over its predecessor with a neater design, 3G and an updated operating system. Issues such as poor battery life, no Wi-Fi, unresponsive touchscreen and a generally slow processor take the edge off its performance, but you have to remember it's costing you well under £100.
If you're considering a BlackBerry 8520, but begrudge spending over £100 for a phone that lacks 3G, we'd recommend you seriously consider the Rio II. It's cheaper and in many ways provides a superior experience.
Edited by Nick Hide
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User reviews8
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prinsj21 10 April 2012
Good: weight
Bad: touch pad,cmera
Comment: my sister in law brought this phone in uk.she give me. i had lot of dreams. but all are going to die.
iloveCOVERDRIVE 30 March 2012
Good: The display is clear, the buttons are well organised, some handy applications
Bad: absolutely abismal battery life, keys are sometimes awkward & frustrating to type with
Comment: Got this phone on the 24/3/12. On paper it is very appealing, amazing price (£50 on orange PAYG right now!) looks exactly like a blackberry [actually got mistaken for one] and in terms of physical appearance, very attractive. But when you have had the phone for a couple of days, the problems start... INTERNET:
The internet browser is poorly designed. You wanna reload the webpage? You can't; gotta go back on yourself to the websites page. You never know if the page is going to load - it doesn't distinguish between 'loading' and 'waiting'. The 3G DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE! it is actually a little slower than my old phone which had a better browser! This also happens when you try to load facebook and twitter. On a positive note, it mostly loads websites and has got a nice display. It also has helpful 'permanently bookmarked' websites that are free for you to look at your account. It had dedicated 'facebook' and twitter' icons.On average, I would give the internet a 5/10.
EMAIL:
You have also got to be careful about pressing the email button (which as I found out, is unfortunately very easy to do) one touch and if you're logged in, you will be charged and you may leave it on it for a very long time, and this will 1) drain your battery [which I will come to later] and 2) cost you to the moon and back. This email service is very basic, which is funny, since its got a button expecially for it! It sometimes just, forgets to load and leaves you for 20 minutes wondering what's happened. On a plus note, it doesn't log you out when you turn off, which admittedly, is very basic, but is the only thing that's NOT remotely annoying about the email service. I would give it a 3/10.
BATTERY LIFE:
The only thing I can say about this is ITS TERRIBLE. You charge it for two hours, use it for maybe half an hour collectively during the day, and its gone to 40% by the end of this day. And that's when you're not using the internet You use the internet for maybe 5 minutes, and the batteries' dead by the end of the day.The battery icon isn't even that clear, just an indication of where it could be - its always changing. So basically, if you want to use the internet a lot, this phone will not help you AT ALL - battery life 1/10.
EASE OF ACCESS:
getting to something isn't really a problem on this phone. Just press the buttons and your there; clear and bright colours make for an interesting display. And remember there's two ways of doing everything; by hitting keys or by touching the screen. ease of access = 8/10.
TOUCHSCREEN:
You've probably read the official review before mine, and seen the whole "touchscreen is worse than other models" stuff. Don't listen to that. The touch screen is pretty decent for a £50 phone. It always registers and 99% of the time does what you want, when you want it to. very, very smooth. - 8/10
TEXTING:
texting on this phone is a relatively easy thing to do. Its also been clearly though-about; it offers a predictive text option, and here's the brilliance about it: It suggests words while your typing say "th" for 'the' BUT if you want to let loose say with a few 'oo's' "ooooh" it doesn't stop you from doing that. its awesome! every else i will cover in the keys section. for now - 7/10.
CALLING:
calling is a little more tricky with this phone - first of all; you have to make sure your phone's on 'general' mode for a call or to receive one; because you won't hear them or the dialing sound if its on SILENT. stupid, I know! secondly, its very easy to [while the phone's against your ear] to press the 'back' touch button on the calling screen and hang up. very annoying. overall, its not too bad, but easy to slip up on it. - 6/10.
APPEARANCE:
a light note on appearance - sleek, 'pretty' if you'll accept that xD the chrome silver around is makes it look very nice. BLACK is nicer than WHITE if you wanted to know which. the silver and black look very nice. the back is really smooth; the casing is hard to open but obviously there's no danger if it falling off! keys are very attractive, more about that soon. - 9/10
CAMERA:
quite good pictures for a 3MP one - although getting to the album through camera mode is difficult, the screen isn't always clear about how you get through options, but its adequate enough and the pictures are relatively clear. if you want a more in-depth study of this just send me a message - iloveCOVERDRIVE. (they're the best!)
APPLICATIONS:
the applications this phone boasts are: facebook, twitter, email (basic), and orange photo + orange widget.
1) facebook, is very good, nice display. doesn't load sometimes, but offers good range of facilities. 2) twitter -won't lie to you, is not working for me. It sounds the same as facebook but I can't be sure as it never loads properly. 3) email. well you've seen my review - not the best I've known. 4) orange photo is not free, but is quite good and organising and reliving memories and photo albums from the past. 5) orange widget. This is also not free and its does have some good apps for doing things :)
overall not great but worth a try! 6/10
KEYS:
I know you've all been thinking this "are they as easy as the blackberry's?" "are my chubby hands too much for them?" well I'm here to answer these questions. Take it from me, the keys are great. Firstly, it's a full 'qwerty' keypad, with the numbers on the left-hand side. You should also note that the commar and full stop have a button for themselves. selfish huh! The phone is slightly longer than the blackberry; and the keys are smaller and tightly packed in. But it has made little difference. The keys have an edge so it is easier to type with. It's quite comfortable, very satisfying with every click. and okay so yes occasionally you tap 2 or more buttons at the same time and its frustrating when you do, but its very smooth. 7/10.
So sorry for the long-winded report, just wanted to give you an (EXTREMELY) clear idea of how good the features are. Hope it helped just a tad. It better have, because I spent half an hour writing it. so last of all, here's my overall rating of the phone:
7/10
70%
0.7
you get the picture.
char89 19 February 2012
Good: good look easy to use
Bad: no flash
Comment: i am enjoying this phone and it is true that the battery life isnt too great, however charging up phones isnt exactly rocket science so not too much of a bother. i am dissapointed that there isnt a flash on the camera as i like to take pics when i am out at night i.e clubs and pubs. but as a phone in gerneal i am happy with it. but would suggest shopping round for different phones before settling for the rio 2.
See all 8 user reviews