Mission to ..er.. mars, probably just as frustrating. (Mitsubishi Mars)

Member Name: BOBBOB

Product:	Mitsubishi Mars
Date:	30/09/02 (73 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good features

Disadvantages: Cheap material, Brakable, Buttons cease to function after a while of continued use

The term don't judge a book by its cover is applicable in this case although it should be rephrased to don't judge a phone by its outside case. On appearance this phone looks smart and small. It also has good features such as WAP and vibrating ring modes. The phone even comes complete with two games. Sounds pretty good and I admit it is for about the first month or so...

The phone has a pretty slinky design on the face of it although the material used is quite cheap and is very easily subject to wear and tear. The phone boasts the feature of express clip-on covers although finding them is difficult and the price can vary but usually costs around £15. The covers also don't come as elegantly designed as the more popular nokia phone versions but instead come in only one colour throughout and are made of the same cheap and tacky material the phone is made out of. This phone should be available on all tariffs as pay as you go and prices vary from around £40 - £80 but usually retail for £60 as new on pay as you go.

Pressing a round circular button on the top of the keypad can access the phone's features. Navigation is fairly good and access to selected features can be made easier by the use of two hotkey buttons that can be programmed to any function. The phone supports the usual phoning and SMS (text messaging) services. The phone is also Tri-band, which if your network allows, enables you to take your phone out of this country and make use of other networks across the world (basically makes your phone usable abroad).

The phone has a selection of ring tones that are quite annoying but are pretty good. These tunes range from classical tracks to rather boring beeps and blips. Out of all the ring tones only about 3 are worth considering to use. Although a better feature is the vibrate mode.

The phone has a selection of two games, Reshape and push. These games reach new extremes in boredom and shouldn't be classed as ga
mes. Never use them! Push involves moving blocks around a level and reshape involves moving blocks again! Repetition is a virtue in this case.

The phone has WAP access that allows users to access an extremely cut-down version of the Internet in a sort of sub gameboy resolution. This is good for E-mail, although generally speaking this service is quite expensive and is usually not worth the bother. Also because of the sheer amount of menu's and so fourth you have to deal with the time it takes for you to do anything (book a holiday) would probably be closer to 30 mins! It being quick is a major misconception, and an advertising stunt!

The phone can store 100 phone numbers plus the amount you can store on a sim card making a total of 200 numbers. Also 15 messages can be stored. WAP ISP's can be changed to make accessing WAP a little cheaper (normal rate). The Phone also has a rather nice animated graphic in the background and lets not forget the CLOCK!

As you can see the features are pretty good although this phone can be very frustrating to use. Lets look at some of my personal problems. In about a week after I brought this phone the screen had loads of duct behind it. The cheap build of this phone makes dust easy to get in and behind the screen. Every time I look at the screen now there are lots of little white speckles and which usually reflect in the sunlight making the display hard to see. Also the vibrate feature sometimes remains ON when you have answered your phone. This is very embarrassing as you try to talk to people with it vibrating. This tends to make a loud noise whilst being quite humorous at the same time. Another glitch of this pone is the display. It now goes blank whenever I press a button and comes back on when it feels like. But most frustrating of all is the buttons actually cease functioning with continued use. If you text a lot you'll notice the space button will no longer work. As this is also the button
that locks the phone it means I cant take it around with me in case I ring someone (not very mobile). Also the phone tends to make a loud buzzing sound when you have answered a call. This almost certainly disrupts call and can be quite embarrassing.

My advice to you is, steer well clear. Although it has a lot of features the essential features it needs (PHONING!!!!!) is extremely poor.

Rating of (1/5) out of my frustration and a way of me to get even with this bundle of SH..

Summary: