Emblaze Sting 6 - on Virgin

[admarky]

Hi Everyone

I have been waiting for the arrival of the Emblaze phones in the U.K for some time, they went on live sale yesterday afternoon, I phoned Virgin direct within hours of launch and ordered two - it arrived today, next day, not bad at all. I am opening up this Post now and will report back once I have it all powered up and have been using it.

Initial observations is that it is one very tidy package, it is a lovely little clam shell design and comes with nice little silver headphones. The battery is very slim and on charging, the phone displays a pulsating colour bar, in colours orange, green, blue. It is light and compact but with number buttons that you can actually push rather than fingernail..! It has built in camera for pictures and video capture and it is Tri-Band with the expected colour screen.

For an entry level phone I can see it selling like hotcakes, given its retail price of £69.99. If you want to buy it online - then go straight to Virgin Direct who have it bundled as a special offer with £35.00 worth of free airtime vouchers. I have ordered two, one for me and one for the wife. We did previously have Motorola's on contract with Orange, but we have been waiting to go PAYG with the Sting 6 on Virgin. The Sting-6 cannot be any worse than the Motorola we are swaping from, mine the camera went after about 2 months and the amount of people I have spoke to moaning about Motorola's leads me to believe they are not the most reliable phones. I guess Nokia, Samsung and SE are still the the ones to follow but they better be aware of new entrants such as Emblaze, who are producing very tidy and credible phone packages.

It is the first Emblaze phone on the market and if this is anything to go by then this company could well be one to watch. Emblaze Mobile is part of the Emblaze Ltd group of companies (LSE: BLZ) and they look to be at the forefront of mobile technology. To my mind they would certainly make excellant Christmas presents and at an effective net 35 quid (Virgin - offer) they also offer great value.

Here are some links to follow (hope they work):
http://www.virginmobile.com/mobile/cms/view-page?page=EMB-STD-STING6-1
(although some of the description is not accurate e.g there are more than 2 games)

http://www.thelink.com/martprd/store/lin_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0426847788.1133367511@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccckaddgggjeddjcflgceggdhhmdfho.0&page=Product&sku=526538&category_oid=-18464&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

http://www.emblazemobile.com/data/images/STING6.pdf

http://www.emblazemobile.com

http://www.emblaze.com

Will keep you posted and if there are any other users who would like to comment on the phone or you have any questions then please post to the Forum.

[admarky]

As I understand Virgin Direct have sold out at least twice since launcing the phone last week, but the Link and Dixons still have stock available and some of the Virgin stores have limited stocks. It seems they have been in high demand, particularly from Virgin direct, partly explained by the current promotion they are running online but also due the phone being competitively priced. Virgin sales are delighted with the response so far, the next question is, are they going to bring any other of the Emblaze mobile range to market.

For all those who have managed to purchase the phone, you will have to log on to virginmobile site and set up the phone for MMS, this is easily done via the messaging section on the website. You enter a code and your mobile number and they will send you OTA settings for MMS, all pretty straight forward. Battery life seems good and there have been no problems in the operation of the phone so far. There is also a speaker phone function, which is a feature that was not metioned by Virgin.

Anyone else using yet ....please add any comments

[Shell]

Hi

Can anyone give me any reviews on this phone as I can't find any reviews on any web site - someone must own one somewhere surely? Any reviews would be appreciated as I am thinking of buying one.

Thanks

[admarky]

Hello

The phone has literally just been released at the end of November, so the reviews are probably a bit thin on the ground at the moment.

The Link stores described it as the best value mega pixel camera and you will probably be aware that Virgin are big fans.

I think the review I have written on this forum is one of the first to come from an actual user, so if you want to hear if from the man on the street, you have heard it.

I don't think you will be disappointed with your purchase of the Emblaze Phone - it's good to be different.

[Shell]

Hi
Does anyone know if this phone should have sound when you video and also the 'call key' on mine does not light up, phoned Virgin and they said it probably should but don't know for certain (sounds like no one has had training on this phone yet cos its new) so they have sent me another phone and guess what this one doesn't light up either!
Any responses would be appreciated
Thanks
Shell