Dual SIM phones are pretty clever, they use two SIM cards, one for voice and normally one for data. The Acer Liquid Gallant Duo does quite a bit more though, with Ice Cream Sandwich the options to control exactly which SIM did what where plentiful.
I reviewed the Gallant Duo a while back and found it to be potentially really useful. With only really the screen and the camera letting it down. You can read the review here.
Expansys currently have them on sale for £139.99 including VAT and delivery.
It is pretty basic spec wise with a GB of RAM, only 4GB of internal memory, a 1GHz processor, qHD screen and a 5MP camera. But for the money the dual SIM functionality should be a winner, if you want dual SIM anyway.
Running Ice Cream Sandwich with 1GB of RAM and a 1GHz processor purring under the bonnet, it offers a smooth user experience in a portable design (less than 1cm thick and weighing 145g). As a dual SIM phone it’s convenient and can even save you money.
Don’t want a business phone plus a normal phone? Switch between SIMS to adapt your Liquid Gallant for your requirements. Travelling abroad? Simply pack an extra SIM and pay local call rates in your destination country. Sharing your phone? Easily alternate between SIMS to change your number and phone settings.
Other features include the vivid 4.3 inch HD display, decent 5 mega-pixel camera for taking snaps and recording video as well as a hearty 4GB of internal storage. If you manage to get use the 4GB, there is an expandable memory slot for up to 32GB of extra memory. It has good connectivity too with Bluetooth (3.0), Wi-Fi and micro-USB port (2.0).
Source – Expansys
I didn’t consider that you could use the second sim in a dual-sim phone as a data card! Not sure why – I suppose mainly because I haven’t seen many dual sim smartphones. This actually makes quite a lot of sense when you look at the cost of bundles on some contracts.
It would certainly be a nice feature for a high-end phone – I mean, you don’t have to use it and the sim cards don’t take up too much space these days (micro/nano sims). I’ve carried two phones around with me for a long time now, so even if not used for data this could be useful.
I bought one of these for my wife who is Norwegian and has lots of people in the UK or Norway who only know one number or the other, so for her its perfect. The clever thing with it as well is you can set up defaults so when in the UK her data/text/call default is Orange and when in Norway she switches it to Ventelo, but anyone texting or calling the other number will get through. It eats up battery a bit, but works remarkably well. I’m just surprised more phones don’t have this as there are lots of people who tend to carry two phones for different reasons.