iFoe a.k.a. iFon a.k.a. CECT P168
London baby! I finally got my brand new CECT P168 (also called iFoe or iFon)! The P168 is a very nice immitation of Apple’s iPhone. The design is pretty much the same, the only thing you notice at first sight are the four more buttons it has at the bottom. Only after taking a closer look at it you’ll recognize it’s not an iPhone – it is a big thicker than the iPhone and it’s case is made of typical “Nokia-plastic”. The touchscreen contains a small bar at the bottom with five different icons: Home, Mail, Phonebook, Call and Audioplayer. The phone’s backside is simply black with a cool sky-blue border around the lens of the integrated 2.0 megapixel camera, two slits with speakers beneath and a “Bluetooth” logo. On the right side of the phone you’ll find the slot for connecting the USB cable, covered by a piece of flexible plastic labeled with “USB” and a small button labeled with a “C” (what seems to stand for “Capture”). When pressing that button the camera-mode starts up. After pressing it again (in that mode) a picture will betaken. The phone’s left side contains the buttons for increasing and decreasing the phone’s sound volume.
The main menu (which popps up after pressing the quadratic button at the bottom) is pretty nice and simple built-up. On the left side you see the menu-categories and on the right side you see the selected category’s menus. The theme is pretty “Aqua”-like, unfortunatelly I couldn’t find out till now what operating system’s running on that little gadget. When browsing the internet you’ll find (too) many different statements: Windows Mobile 5, Symbian OS, Embedded QT, etcpp. You really can’t figure out by just looking at the interface, though I could think of it being QT.
However, the phone is quite intuitively to use and it supports different languages like for example french or german. Till now I’ve only seen two disappointments: First of all it somehow makes a difference between the number 017xyz and +4917xzy. Because of this, there’s a problem with displaying the according name to the person that wrote you an SMS or called you. When I receive an SMS, the person’s number will be displayed as +49-number. But when the same person calls me, I see the 0 at the beginning. A possible solution to fix that is to enter the +49-number into your Phonebook’s entry “Mobile”-field and the 0-number into the “Fax”-field. By that it gets display both times – though this is an very lousy workaround. I’ve got to keep on searching for an option which fixes this problem.
The second disappointment was not to have UMTS available on the phone. The phone unfortunatelly only speaks GSM and GPRS – but hey, it’s “just like the iPhone dude!!!”. 
I have a SIM card which is bound to an UMTS-flatrate-contract and I would even have the possibillity to use a second SIM with my iFon, thanks to the two SIM-slots and the on-the-fly SIM-switch-feature. Too bad.
Altogether the phone is very sexy, its appearance is cool (and not because of the fact that it looks nearly like an iPhone, just because of the fact that the iPhone look is a fresh and creative new design) and its features are quite okay. I got it for around 170 bucks from a german distributior/reseller which imports these gadgets from far east and also gives me warranty – so if it breaks I can talk to a german speaking person, what’s the main reason why I didn’t choose one of the many private sales on eBay to get one for 140 bucks.
Anyway, just take a look at my gallery to see some snapshots of this cool new gadget! 
//comment: By the way, I didn’t knew that “TouchScreen” implies that everyone who wants to see your cool gadget needs to touch it with their greasy fingers and press the screen like trying to make a whole into it. *grml*
I have a Ifoe too, I am a sucker for buying it. It cost me much much more than 140 bucks. Does anyone want to buy it.
It’s still brand new because I thought it was an Apple, hehehe. How stupid of me. Yeah and I know the feeling when everyone has to touch the screen to see how it works. It’s not apropriate to them for you to show it to them. They want to touch, feel, work. And of course I am telling everyone I have an Apple Iphone. And now it’s a IFOE….
Anyway… email me.
I just got my IFOE, sincerely I was positively surprised by the design, it does not slide out of your hands like the iPhone does. I paid 200$C tax included, came with car charger, wall charger, hands free headset, USB cable and two batteries. The best deal I ever had on a cellphone of this caliber.
Easy to use and set up, it’s a great sexy phone if that is all you need.
My only problem is to access the key pad while talking on the phone to input for example my mail box psw. I haven’t figure this one out yet, it must be somewhere in there, but where? I would appreciate an answer to this question if someone has it. Please email me.
I would not suggest it for Internet services cause many service providers don’t bother to give you tech support.
The Internet setup is a mystery, I don’t care really, not interested in the feature.
Thanks
I live in the states and bought an ifoe on the internet…I want to know how to set up the browser and…kind of a stupid question…what kind of memory card does it take?
Hi,
you mean the GPRS stuff? Well, actually I don’t know.
I’ve found some documentation on the internet about how to set up the GPRS stuff for some german providers but somehow it didn’t really work.
As far as I remember it takes microSD cards up to 4 GB.
Bye.
After playing with my new P168+, I have few comments. (1) Where can I get programs to run in my PC to manage address book? I don’t want to enter my 400+ contact list manually on this phone’s touchscreen interface. (2) Can I update ROM to support JAVA so that I can install some games, etc..? (3) When I adjust the volume with the buttons on the side, as I lower the volume all the way, it does not switch to neither mute or vib mode. (4) Some of the icons that you have to press (to enter PIN when calling voice mail, phone dial pad, etc.) are too samll to press with my thick fingers. (5) Manual says that it takes microSD of only up to 4GB. I want to put in more memory for all my music.
If the manufacturer can update these, I will be very happy with this phone.
HI- my brother bought the i-Foe and used it for a few months then passed it to me. My prob. is he doesn’t have a set-up book and I can’t figure out hoe to change it from silent mode to a actual ringtone. Please if anyone could explain it to me step by step I really appreciate it. Thanks, Sassy
I’ve just uploaded the CECT P168 Manual:
http://www.devilx.net/~devilx/blog/docs/Cect_P168__2007_06_09_EN__Manual.pdf
Maybe this answers your questions.
to get keypad during a call press the little green fone icon in middle at bottom of display icon
I just received a new Ifoe as a gift but I can only talk to people thru hands free, the handset does not work they can hear me but Ican’t hear them, this is quite a dissapointment, does anyone have any suggestions.I’ve already restored factory settings.
hello hello if you have your previous phone place the sim card in it and write down all your browser info on a sheet of paper. Replace the card back in the ifoe and go into your gprs settings and input all the info from your sim card and others phone. Then if you done everything right you should have the internet working on your phone and most likely mms but on my girls phone she can’t send or recieve cause of the memory capacity of mms. If you know how to delete the mms templates, I already know you can delete the standard sms templates, please tell me. thanks
does anyone know a compatible head set for this phone? mine broke, if u do tell me the phone that has the compatible headset, thanx
The only way I know, would be, to build one yourself. It shouldn’t be that hard to do so. Cut off the connector of your broken headset and measure where to connect the new one.
hello my name is sommay ,can someone help me up date this phone on my sims card vodaphone uk and sfr french (vodafone) because this phone is not on their list for updating to receive mms or sending.Waiting for your answer and advice,thank u
Doesn’t anyone else have a problem with the keypad locking system? The screen “locks” after 15 seconds without use, but if you carry it in a pocket, a purse, anywhere, it unlocks itself constantly. And then calls random phone numbers on its own. I’ve tried the keypad lock setting, the sim lock setting, and the pin lock setting. Nothing works, it’s still dialing 27039588888246 several times a day.
Isn’t this happening for anyone else? And, more importantly, is there any way to fix it?
I got my IFOE from a friend of a friend. i only had to pay $25 for it! yay! my biggest problem with it so far is that i can’t get it to connect to anything through bluetooth. has anyone else had this problem? if so do you know how to fix it?
My friend has had the same problem with the phone unlocking itself, she just got her phone bill and it’s huge! It’s been calling random numbers while in her purse. Does anyone know how to get in to lock and stay locked?
Maybe you could try adding an password that is needed for unlocking the phone. I’m not sure if this is possible, since I didn’t work with it for a long time now.
does anyone know how to change the internet language to english?
hi does anyone know where i could find a for my ifoe?plz
hi does anyone know where i could find a charger
for my ifoe?plz
ok i have a question… I have the ifoe and i haven’t used it in a few months and i went to turn it on and now it’s asking me to “input phone lock pin/code” I don’t remember making up 1 when I got my phone. But I have tried every number I could think of using. Is there like a dummy code I could use to unlock it????
The default PIN is 1122…it’s in the user manual, it’s just not translated into english. I saw the ’1122′ in the middle of the chinese characters and took a chance. It worked!!! yay! So I can FINALLY lock my phone, which is the one thing I’ve hated about this phone!
ok, so now that i figured out the illusive PIN, i’m having trouble figuring out how to turn the ‘keypad’ lock on. i found the ‘slide unlock’ feature but not the lock itself…that manual sucks, lol!
Hey Whitney,
thank you for the information!
I’m sure, you’re not the only one that was searching for the PIN, heh.
Anyway, unfortunately, I can’t help you with the keypad lock. It’s been quite a long time, since I last used this phone, heh…
I got a 168 + ifoe no one can hear me when im talking when i paired it with a headset you can hear me thats the only way can talk to someone. Oh yeah even with the headset it’s a bet staticy. any recomendations
hi ..i am having the same problem with the phone asking for an unlock code…tried the 1122 but its not working…any other suggestions?????
im after a ifoe charger or usb cable for ifoe…. drop me a holla people…. beauz84@gmail.com
i need one lol
me from NZ
Hello! Do you know where i could find a USB-cabel to a ifoe p168?? i´m thankful for answer
got a Question, anyone know what a p168 hold up to in micro sd(GB) is it 2G or 4G? heard
hi plz i did have the same problem with the pin code and i write it wrong and now its asking about the puk code…. so plz do anyone have it????
ya im having the same problem mine keeps unlocking in my pocket and ive tried everything in the settings but nothing working can someone help please!
Bonjour
un ami m’a donné son ifoe p 168, il est genial, mais j’aimerais savoir si je peux installer l’application msn dessus? pouvez vous m’aider s’il vous plait?
I Live in the U.K and im having trouble getting on the internett helpp???
como se formata o ifoe por complecto sem ser atraves de voltar restauro de sistema ?
I just got the iFoe P168+ from my mom. It works wonderfully I just CANNOT GET IT ACTIVATED? It asked for the pin, I put in 1122 it then didnt give me the wrong message and now is asking for a PUK number? I have only 10 chances to get tthis right and have used 2 with the serial numbers and codes off the back of my sim card as suggested other places… somebody HELP PLEASE???
hoopsdi@hotmail.com
just got mine out the bottom draw, put my o2 sim card in and it worked fine, so i sold my old phone that afternoon, BUT NOW that darn clone phone only will pick up o2 network when it feels like it, had enough now, will stamp on it, (hard) then purchase a cheap tesco mobile phone on my way home from the office, my advise to you is to bin the pile cheap junk xxx