Samsung E1080i Mobile Phone Review

I bought this sim-free mobile phone (Samsung E1080i) a few weeks ago. It was slightly cheaper at that time with free delivery from Amazon UK. It’s now for sale on Amazon for a bit more then I paid, but in my opinion it’s still well worth it. When I say a bit more money, it’s literally a pound or two more. Reviews for this phone are mostly good. That is if the person buying the phone is aware that they are not buying the latest iPhone and knows what to expect. A basic mobile phone.

This phone is for someone who just wants a mobile phone to make calls and send texts, someone like me!. It doesn’t have all the up to date features of today’s more expensive phones like a camera, Internet access, music player etc. But it does have little things that can come in handy like an alarm, memo pad, countdown timer and a stopwatch. It also has a “torch light”, and I thought it would be a real L.E.D torch located at the top of the phone, just like some of the Nokia’s used to have, but the torch on the Samsung E1080i is just the display screen turned completely white, which isn’t much better then just pressing a button to make the screen light up normally.

One feature that I do love about this phone is its “Fake Call” option. You can easily set the phone on a timer to give you a fake call . The timer ranges from 5 seconds to 3 minutes. Once you set the timer to your preferred duration all you then need to do is press the activate button, then after 5 seconds, or whatever amount of time you choose, I use 30 seconds, the phone will ring and show a call coming in from “Anonymous”. So many customer reviews tend to highlight this option as one of the phones best features.

This is a great feature for getting you out of a difficult situation or annoying conversation. As well as many other uses for the fake call, I also think this feature would be excellent if your someone who sells items face to face. You could set the fake call to ring while someones viewing an item your selling, and pretend it’s another person calling you that’s interested in buying the item there looking at..It would help close a sale no doubt.

The screen resolution is a bit dull, and the ring tones, text alert tones are minimal, but what more can you expect from a phone in such a low price range. Battery life is also very good, actually it has the best battery life I have ever come across in a mobile phone. It really does last for weeks at a time. Other then the screen resolution and tones, this phone is an excellent choice for the price and you would have to look very hard to find another phone in the same price bracket that can compete with it. The Samsung E1080i is a great phone for the price.

Leave your own Samsung E1080i Mobile Phone Review below.

C-Scope CS1-MX Metal Detector Review

The C-Scope CS1-MX is a very easy to use metal detector. It only has two dials. One is used for the on/off and power / Depth, the other is for discrimination (Eliminating Junk Metal). It takes one PP3 square battery which lasts around 15 – 25 hours. The battery will last longer if you use headphones rather then the built in speaker located inside the electronic housing box. This detector is very light in weight, so swinging it for the whole day is not too tiring. Reviews for the CS1-MX are quite hard to come by.

Make no mistake about it, this is a good metal detector, it’s not a toy. However, for the beginner it would probably be wise to go for the Garrett Ace 250 due to it’s built in pin pointer and easy to use LCD screen. If you want to stick with the C-Scope brand you could go for the C-Scope CS3-MX. Great machine, and does have a built in pin pointer. And it can also detect deeper than both the Ace 250 and CS1MX.

With the CS1MX it can be tough to locate an item without using a pin pointer. So for a complete beginner to metal detecting it might be quite annoying to use. You may end up digging up a lot of junk. But this is the case even for the more expensive machines. It’s just part of metal detecting. But some machines can be better than others.

The CS1MX does have around the same depth capability’s as the Ace 250, being able to detect a large coin at around 6 – 8 inches. Some people prefer a metal detector that has a readable screen and different tones for different metals, where as other people prefer a single tone detector that has no screen. It’s really down to an individuals preference. In terms of discrimination the CS1-MX is pretty good. It can notch out certain metal types like Iron. However, it can have problems eliminating Foil because in order to eliminate detecting Foil on the CS1MX the discrimination has to be set fairly high, which can lead to missing some of the good targets. Another downfall is that the coil can not be changed or upgraded, it’s hard wired. The Ace 250′s coil is removable and easily upgraded.

C-Scope-CS1MX

A good point about the CS1MX is that it runs at 17kHz and is dual channel. This high frequency is said to be better than the lower frequency machines at detecting gold and other thin valuable metals. But in saying that, I have owned both the Garrett Ace 250 and the C-Scope CS1MX, and with all the comparison tests I did, and I did do a lot, the CS1MX was no better than the Ace 250 at detecting Gold or any other items. They were quite evenly matched. I still own the CS1MX by the way. Both are very capable machines. But if I had to pick just one out of the two it would be the Garrett Ace 250. That’s mainly due to it being more easier to locate items with because of the built in pin pointer.

I should add though that dealing with the C-Scope company has always been a pleasant experience. When I bought my CS1MX the delivery driver delivered it to the wrong house. As a good will gesture C-Scope sent me a pair of headphones for free. A good pair too!. I have also heard of C-Scope fixing some of the older metal detectors that people have sent to them for repair free of charge. So no doubt about it, they are a great company to deal with.

With all that I have learnt about metal detecting and metal detectors over the last few years if I could pick a low priced detector upgrade right now it would be between the C-Scope CS3MX, Minelab Musketeer Advantage, and the Tesoro Cibola. All very good machines. Although the Minelab Advantage is quite a heavy detector to use for several hours non stop. Maybe swap the Advantage for an old school Minelab Sterling or Minelab Colt.

Got your own C-Scope CS1-MX Metal Detector Review. Comment below.

Garrett Ace 250 Metal Detector Review

This is not a full, in depth review, but more of a quick longish talk about the Ace 250 and some of it's features and capabilities. Over the last two years a lot of people have caught the metal detecting bug. Have you seen how many people have been finding hoards of treasure over the past year or two. Seeing this has made many people think of buying a metal detector and giving it a go. Metal detecting businesses have been doing really well lately, and some have even reported the highest recorded sales ever. One of the most sought and bought metal detectors through out this metal detecting boom is the Garrett Ace 250.

Sure, there are other alternatives within the same price range like Tesoro Compadre, Tesoro UMAX, and the C-Scope CS1MX, but none of these models come with a built in pin pointer. Have you ever tried finding a small item without a pin pointer. It can be quite annoying. A pin pointer makes it much easier. If you can live without a pin pointer then maybe the Garrett Ace 150 would be a good choice. It’s basically a Garrett Ace 250 without the pin pointer.

The Garrett Ace 250 is without doubt one of the most popular metal detectors to hit the market in many years. From complete beginners to seasoned professionals, the Ace 250 is highly regarded by many as an excellent performer for the modest price tag. Robust and simple to use, the Ace 250 is perfect for new comers to the hobby wanting to give it a try to see if metal detecting is for them. The Garrett Ace 250 is a multi-tone machine.

This means that it gives a different tone for each different metal type, which is a great and very helpful feature for people new to metal detecting. The user can easily tell the difference between ferrous and non ferrous metals (Junk and potential valuables). 

The Ace 250 also has a fairly effective discrimination. This means you can notch out certain metal types that you want to ignore from being detected. They will still register on the Ace 250′s digital screen but they will make no noise through the speaker or headphones. A common metal that you might want to ignore is Iron, which the Ace 250 does a good job of eliminating.

If you consider that “toy like” metal detectors cost around £50 – £80 and don’t have many useful features or real treasure hunting capability’s you will see that for the extra £100 or so Pounds extra you pay for the Ace 250 your actually getting a “real metal detector”, that can not only find interesting items like coins, artifacts, relics, silver, and even gold at acceptable depths, but can also give the more pricier professional machines a run for their money. 

How deep does it detect? Well, that’s a heated discussion in many circles but I think we can safely say it will detect a large coin at 6 – 8 inches. It really depends on the size of the item your detecting though. Let’s say you have buried a car, a huge hunk of metal by any standards!. The Garrett Ace 250 would be able to detect it about 1 meter deep (maybe even deeper) because of it’s size.

The Ace 250 is capable of finding good items at decent depths. Other common items people find are Bullets from World War II, coins, old buttons etc. Depending on your luck and location you might just find something valuable. 

After all, the Garrett Ace 250 has been one of the metal detectors that have actually found huge hoards of treasure on more than a few occasions. So it’s definitely up to the job. All in all, The Garrett Ace 250 is a superb, easy to use, low priced metal detector that is easy to use and finds the goodies. Definitely the best and most feature packed metal detector within it’s price range.

Looking for the cheapest price? You will be hard pressed to find a brand new Ace 250 for sale at a cheap price. You could try your luck on eBay but most brand new Ace 250′s are either Buy It Now sold by a company at full price or one that’s slightly used and had one or two outings. In which case it will have hundreds of watchers and your chances of winning it for a low price are not very good. Bite the bullet and spend the money for a brand new Garrett Ace 250.