Look back - A mobile ahead of its time (Mitsubishi Cosmo)

Member Name: monkeywarrior

Product:	Mitsubishi Cosmo
Date:	08/03/05 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very unique looks, Great features at the time, Great value

Disadvantages: Well out of date now, A little plasticky

I appreciate this review is rather out of date now (the Cosmo came out in 2001) - but I thought some people might be interested in this strange little phone that never really took off.

If size was anything to go by, the (Mitsubishi) Trium Cosmo should cost a million dollars because it was the smallest WAP phone in the world. It also looks rather sophisticated too, with clean curvaceous lines and a champagne finish. It's surprising then to find it only cost £80 when it came out. But then after further investigation, you'll find that it lacks perhaps the solidity of some larger phones, with a plasticky flip... but its certainly not lacking in the features department - there's a built in organiser, infrared PC connectivity and the typical Trium user friendly menu system.

A generous sized screen allows you to view up to five lines of text and most WAP based images without the need to do too much scrolling. The joystick key makes navigation simple by scrolling up or down the page. Clicking right selects a link to another page but clicking left takes you back a step. The function of the soft keys depends on the way that the WAP site navigation has been designed but generally the right hand key will take you back a step. T9 predictive text input helps speed up writing WAP based email and text messages.

This handset isn't endowed with a great selection of ringers but there is an optional software pack that allows you to compose ring tones on a PC and download them to the phone via a serial cable. There are call logs which record the last ten dialled, missed and received calls including the time, date and duration. The Cosmo does have a vibrating alert that can be set to vibrate even if the audible tones are switched on.

This phone actually had the fastest WAP modem available at the time - an impressive 14400kbps - but you were only able to utilise the full bandwidth of this on Orange - other networks only supported 9600kbps. Still, its another ground breaking feature worthy of mention...

Most phones offer a diary feature and the Cosmo is no exception. Viewing the diary is limited to a seven-day period only but you can set recurring appointments and alarm reminders for daily or weekly events. Under the office tools submenu you'll find a scratchpad where you can tap in small notes and the odd number. There's no calculator but there is a currency converter-useful if you travel frequently. One very useful feature is an auto switch on/off facility saving valuable battery life should you forget to turn the phone off after a hard day at the office or pub.

The quoted 80 hour standby doesn't look too impressive on paper but for once this actually an accurate figure! Normally, phones quote the maximum standby if you keep the phone in a locked box at the top of a mobile transmitter - but in normal, day to day usage, in strong or weak reception, heavy or light user, this phone actually lived up to its claims.

This was the funkiest phone from Trium and made a great alternative to more common Nokia and Ericsson phones. It served me well for several years and I never had any problems with reliability. It may not have been to everyone's taste, but it was great to see Trium trying to take the mobile market beyond black bricks... It performs brilliantly, is packed with features and most importantly was INCREDIBLE value for money!!!

We haven't seen much from Trium in recent times, which in my opinion is a real shame as their fresh approach to making mobiles that little bit different was much needed in a rather stagnant market of 'camera' phones.

Summary: