The sexiest WAP phone available for under £40! (Mitsubishi Mars)

Member Name: jaffacakemonster

Product:	Mitsubishi Mars
Date:	05/12/00 (768 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic value for money, lots of features, and it's got WAP!!

Disadvantages: Can't compose ring-tones or graphics

The Trium Mars is a fantastic little phone, and is absolutely packed with features that you'd expect in a more expensive handset. I've had the phone for just over a week now, and as I'm now very familiar with using it, here are my thoughts...

I previously owned a Motorola am3180, but because of continuing problems and the fact that the phone isn't even MADE anymore, I decided to make a well overdue upgrade. I wanted to stay with Vodafone Pay As You Talk, who I've been with for over 3 years and who provide excellent service. Another factor to consider was that, if I'm going to bother upgrading at all, I might as well get my hands on the LATEST technology out there - yes, it's definetely got to have WAP. WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocal, and is basically a version of the Internet designed for accessing via mobile phones. It gives you access to the latest news, weather, sport, lottery results, competitions etc... The possibilities aren't limitless just YET, as websites are still convertisng over to this new WAP format. But pretty soon you'll be able to access everything that is available on the 'standard' World Wide Web.

After much consideration and research, I decided that the beauty for me was Mitsubishi's Trium Mars phone. Why? For a start, the trium Mars satisfied the 3 main balancing points that I had for choosing theright phone: It's on Vodafone PAYT, it's got WAP, and it's under £50. The actual price is £39.99, and considering how new the WAP technology is these days, £39.99 is an excellent bargain - it certainly gives those Nokia's a run for their money!

Here are just some of the superb features and specifications, which come the Trium Mars has to offer. I will try and go into as much detail as possible, so that you can get an exact picture of what the phone is like:


- 3 HOURS TALK TIME: 180 minutes of mobile chit-chat ain't bad for such
a small and compact mobile as the Mars

- 180 HOURS STANDBY: This means the phone can be in standby mode (ie. not making or receiving calls), for up to one ful week. But you should also consider that during this time, you'll obviously be making calls, sending messages etc.. just don't expect it to last the full week without charging. However, 180 hours is still an excellent, much more than I was previosuly used to with my old Motorola.

- 20 RING TONES: Quite a good choice of ringers to personalise your phone. Though unfortunately there is no ring-tone composer. However, the can set up different ring tones for whoever it is that's calling you. For example, if you want to have a differnt ringer for those calling whose names are in your SIM's phone book memory, or the phone memory etc... even for those who withold their Caller ID. You can also activate 'Ramping', which gradually increases the ringer until you answer it.

- VIBRATE ALERT: For those moments when you'd rather not let others here your phone ring, you can switch to vibrate-mode which will make the phone vibrate when you receive an incoming call/SMS message. You can even set it to 'Vibrate and ring' or 'Vibrate then Ring'

- HANDS-FREE: Yes, there is even a built-in hands-free speakerphone in this little beauty of a phone. Whether you're in a call, about to make a call, or are receiving a call, you can easily change to and from Hands Free mode. If it's a proper hands-free kit you're looking for, then this can be attached to the phone too (though dosen't come with it).

- ALARM & CLOCK: There's no excuse for being latre for work now, as you can set your phone to wake up up at any time you want, and even choose which ring-tone you wake to (it'll even power-on and alarm if the phone is off!). And of course, there's the all important snooze function. Zzzzz....

- GAMES: You get 2 games with th
e Trium Mars too, and although they're no Tomb Raider, they still keep me occupied from time to time. One is called Reshape, where you have to re-shape pictures to what they look like on the left. And the other is Push, where you have to, well, push blocks of ice into holes. Not as addictive as the first game, but both games have cool sound-effects thanks to he built in speaker.


The Trium Mars is incredibly compact, yet not too small that you hit two keys at once. And weighing in at 115g, it's a mear feather-weight compared to the bulky Nokia 5110 (170g) for example. The navigation controls are easy to use, and after a few hours playing around with your new toy, you'll be well used to them. Beside the main navigation circular button are two Softkeys to the left and right, which give you immediate access to the Internet and your SMS messages. And of course, these two factory defautls can be changed to work as a shortcut to the function of your choice.

Other features of the Trium Mars include Currency Converter, allowing you to convert from eg. dollars to Pounds instantly, and with the latest coversion rate. When entering text into the phone (eg. sending a SMS, or adding a phone book entry), you can activate 'T9' mode, which speeds up the process by automatically guessing the word you're typing in. And then there's ScratchPad, where you can save up to 20 quick notes in the phone's memory (ie. "Buy extra milk" or a PIN number).


I'm sure you can see by now that there are a LOT of features with the Trium Mars, and I haven't even mentioned the ability to add extra skins to the phone. But there's one thing that hasn't been covered yet, that makes this phone an absolute bargain at only £39.99 - it's a WAP handset. This means wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you will ALWAYS be able to keep up to date with the world. Whether you want to hear the latest news headl
ines, the footie results, or e-mail a friend, this can all be done from your mobile phone. To access all this information, you first need to connect to a WAP gateway (similar to an ISP). The Vodafone gateway is called "Vizzavi", and all WAP calls are charged at 10p/min at all times. I was a bit disapointed at this, because it means that just 10 minutes of surfing will wack a quid off your calling credit! But listen up... I've since discovered a much cheaper way to get around this, simply by connect through a different WAP gateway. If you're interested in learning more, see my opinion on "Breathe.com" on dooyoo, titled "Cut you WAP call charges by half".


Well that's it... my comprehensive round-up of the Trium Mars phone. When I decided to get this phone last week (with my dooyoo miles I cashed in!), I looked in this category but could only find one opinion about it. And although it WAS useful to me, it didn't tell me everything I needed to know. I hope that by doing this, my opinion will will help others out there to make an informed choice about this phone. I personally think it's excellent value.

For more details about the phone and to purchase it, visit Vodafone's website:

http://www.vodafone-retail.co.uk or visit the dooyoo shopping mall (left).

And also please leave a comment below if this opinion has helped you. Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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