Product Review: F-Fone

Unless you’re living under Iraq, you’ve been bombarded with weeks of hype surrounding today’s launch for the Cony F-Fone. Our editorial team had to see for itself what all the talk was about, so we sent our tech reporter Craig out to pick one up at Big Lots!. Now, having thoroughly played with the thing, we’re ready to give you the complete scoop.

First off, anyone who camped out to be first in line for this thing is an idiot — there were plenty to go around. Craig apparently forgot to set his alarm, and didn’t get to the store until around 11:30, but the shelves at Big Lots! were stacked. $149.99 later, Considered Spew was the proud new owner of a genuine F-Fone.

The first thing we noticed upon opening the package was how small and portable the thing is. At the approximate size and weight of two Swingline staplers, the F-Fone is hardly a burden on the go, especially if you pick up the Cony Carrying Belt, which comes in both brown and light brown and is yours for a mere $19.99.

You’re probably wondering why you would want to take a phone with you when you leave the house. Even my 2 GHZ cordless loses some reception by the time I hit the driveway. But that’s what’s so revolutionary about the F-Fone — it keeps working, even miles away from its charger base (also $19.99). You see, that’s what the “F” stands for: free. You’re free to go where you want, when you want, even if you’re waiting for a call.

To test the thing’s range, we had Craig take the F-Fone with him when he went to pick up the staff’s lunchtime burritos. When we called, there was no response. The phone just rang and rang and then went to an automated voice messaging system, which, we might add, was very easy to use — a friendly operator-bot tells you to leave a message after a tone, which followed promptly as promised. We told Craig to call us as soon as possible, as we were hungry and beginning to snack and lose our will to power through our Chicken Fajita Burritos. And he did! From the burrito restaurant — it worked! Craig said he was just in the middle of paying when we called, but that it totally rang and he had no problems dialing out.

Speaking of the ring, that’s another fun feature. The default sound is a MIDI-powered, musical rendition of Fur Elise (a Beethoven tune that just happens to be a favorite around the office). And if you don’t dig on classical, you can change the song to Carmen (from an opera, we think) or something that sounded like salsa (the musical style, not the dip). But that’s just the tip of the aural hat.

Yes, we’re alluding to the F-Fone’s most ballyhooed feature: the ability to listen to music through your phone. Using the included Songadapter Connection Cord™, you simply plug your phone into your CD or tape player’s headphone port. Then you hit play and the music plays through the F-Fone’s built in speakers! The music feature currently only works on Cony’s proprietary Walkguy or Discfellow portable tape and CD players, but the instruction manual says third-party support is coming soon through an aftermarket adapter.

So … the F-Fone makes and receives calls from anywhere in town, and it plays your favorite recordings. Are there any downsides to this fantastical new product? There are a few, but they’re hardly enough to discourage us from recommending the sexy little phone-on-the-go. First is the Cony Carrying Belt’s current lack of availability. Craig said Big Lots! didn’t have any, and judging from the confused responses from the other stores’ employees we called, you won’t find one at Circuit City or Target, either. Your best bet would be the Cony Web site, which is currently under construction. Just wait it out and get the belt once the site’s up, because unless you have a purse, you’re going to get tired of carrying your F-Fone around, although it does attract a lot of attention from jealous passersby, which is always nice.

The other problem is the battery situation. The F-Fone runs on eight AA batteries, and it sucks that juice down faster than a Trainyard Hobo. The office Game Gear has a similar problem, which we’ve remedied by rotating two sets of rechargeable batteries. Unfortunately, the F-Fone instruction manual is quite clear that rechargeables are not compatible with the F-Fone and will destroy the unit. So until you can get your hands on the Cony Charging Station, which also suffers from availability problems, you’re going to be buying a lot of batteries. The manual says using non-Cony brand batteries will void your warranty, but we doubt they have any way of knowing and recommend using whatever AAs are cheapest.

The F-Fone from Cony is a relatively small package that packs a relatively large amount of punch/features. If you’re sick of missing calls because you’re out running errands or whatever, this is the phone for you. Plus, it plays music!

Product specs:

Dimensions: 6.6 x 2.4 x 2.4 inches

Weight: 2.4 pounds

Screen: No

Range: At least from the office to the burrito place (about 1.5 miles)

Storage: 8 AA batteries

Can be stored in: Cony Carrying Belt (sold separately) or a purse/European carryall

Wired data: Can transmit Walkguy or Discfellow music data via Songadapter Connection Cord™

Power: 8 AA Batteries or Cony Charging Station, both of which provide 40 minutes of talk time (20 minutes if using music player)

Input method: Buttons (on, off, all the numbers) and volume wheel