Sagem MC920: Cheap and Nasty! (Other Mobile Phones...)

Member Name: garrymac

Product:	Other Mobile Phones...
Date:	20/07/02 (426 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Vibrate feature, Light, Quite cheap

Disadvantages: Gets a lot of technical glitches over time, Drives you crazy with frustration sometimes

You know that old saying, 'You only get what you pay for'? Well the Sagem MC920 handset is a definitive example.

I purchased this mobile phone handset during January 2001 at a time where I had little cash but was in desperate need of a mobile phone. When the shiny little MC920 appeared I thought it was a godsend at first at only £39.99 but I soon realised that what the phone saved me in money it would cost me in patience.

The phone doesn't look to bad. As far as I know it comes in 3 colours which are green, black and silver and the phone is also quite light although it's not very small compared to most of the other phones on the market today.

The dispaly on the phone is quite large and easy to read and is also backlit for reading it at night or in the dark. It has an easy to use keypad system with the large buttons sticking clearly out of the base. This means you don't have to check numbers as you are dialing them unlike other hansets such as Nokia phones ect. There are 40 ringtones on the phone to choose from although you can't download any new ones and there is also a vibrate feature.

Unfortunately these are the only good points about the phone. There are however several bad points about the phone which I'm sure will make you want to avoid it like the plague.

The main problem I now have with the phone is that every now and again it will come up as SIM MISSING when I try to access my numbers list for calling someone or sending a text message. This means you have to turn the phone off, open the back up, remove and replace the SIM card, close the phone again and then turn it on again which is a terrible inconvienence if you are in a hurry.

I'm not sure what causes this problem although the back of the phone has become quite loose during the year and a half or so that I have owned it for and the SIM card has become quite scratched as well.

Another main cause of concern w
ith the phone is that the vibrate function has also become tempremental as well. As most people know a vibrate function on a phone is almost essential for those who don't want to miss important calls or text messages in a crowded room or meeting.

The vibrate function on this phone though, which I use all the time, is now practically useless. When I first got the phone it worked without any problems at all but after about 6 months or so I started missing a lot of calls due to not feeling the phone vibrate.

At first I thought I just didn't notice the phone vibrating but then I actually witnessed a call coming through and there was no vibration at all. This has been the case ever since and although the phone does vibrate some of the time, more often than not it won't and it has nothing to do with the battery power either.

One of the little things that irritates me personally about this phone is that you can hardly hear the person speaking to you on the other end. This makes it practically impossible to have a conversation with anyone if you are in a noisy area and there is no option to increase the volume.

The final and probably most irritating problem the phone has is that when someone sends you a text message it does not display the name of the sender if they are in your address book like most other phones do. This coupled with the fact that there is no option to reply once a message has been sent to you can cause a lot of frustration as it really means you have to know everyones mobile phone numbers off by heart in order to determine who has sent you a text message.

I'd say I enjoyed using this phone without any faults for roughly about 6 months before I started having trouble with it. If I had the money I would easily get rid off it for something else but unfortunately I have to stick with it just now despite it being practically unusable.

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