Great body - shame about the rest! (Sagem MW 3020)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	Sagem MW 3020
Date:	15/01/02 (3159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, looks nice

Disadvantages: Unstable

Six months ago I hardly knew how to use a mobile phone. A friend had given me her old pay-as-you-go but I rarely used it. Hardly ever turned it on even. My daughter’s were mobile mad, sending text messages to everyone and anyone (or so it seemed) but it all seemed rather silly to me.

Six months seems like a long time ago now. I’m now totally dependent on my mobile and get very stressed if I go out and forget it. Why? Because of those silly text messages. They’re a great way of staying in touch, and staying in touch is high on my list of priorities right now.

Anyway, as my interest in text messaging grew, I realised that the phone I had just wasn’t up to the job. I couldn’t send messages directly from the phonebook, and I couldn’t reply without typing in the number. What a pain! Into the phone book, look up the number, write it down, back to messages, find the one I was intending to reply to, read it again, key in number and send. No, that just wouldn’t do.

I would’ve liked a Nokia, but couldn’t afford one, so I off I went to the shops to find out what was available within my price range. As I wanted to keep my old number, and wasn’t sure whether pre-pay phones are locked to networks or not (some say they are, some say they aren’t), I didn’t want to take any chances and needed a phone on the One2One network. If you're happy with the operator, why change anything? As Argos had the Sagem MW3020 for around £70, and the phone seemed to have all the features I wanted for text messaging, I decided to buy one.

After using this phone for 4 months, this is my opinion of it:


BODY

Small and compact, measuring 105mm x 45mm x 20mm. The body is slightly tapered towards the middle (it sort of has a waist) so it’s very comfortable to hold. The aerial is 16mm long and although some people have warned me about how easily aerials can be damaged,
my phone has so far lived through 4 months of being in my handbag, pocket and left on chairs for somebody to sit on, and the aerial hasn’t been damaged. The phone weighs 112 grams and comes with a choice of two covers, one silver, one a deep metallic red. I like the red one. It’s sexy! I haven’t seen any others available anywhere, but there may be some. If you’re after a phone that you can put a Winnie the Pooh cover on, this isn’t it.


SCREEN

Large and clear, with blue backlighting. Both of my daughters have Nokias and I find the Sagem screen to be far easier on the eye, especially if it’s being used in a dark place.

The font size can be changed to fit 8 lines of text on the screen. This is evidently useful when using the WAP functions, but as this isn’t something I’ve made any amount of use of, I’ve left mine on the standard setting of 4 lines.


RINGTONES/ALERTS

Hmmm…. let’s put it this way. Every time my phone rings, people think the ice cream van has arrived. That’s what they sound like. Or perhaps an electronic organ grinder would be more apt. Whatever way, it’s not the kind of sound you’d usually expect from a mobile phone. Whether that’s a good thing or not depends on whether you like ice cream van music. You decide.

There are 40 “ringtones” to choose from, although as some of them are simple bleeps, they’re more useful as text message alerts than actual ringtones. From what I’ve understood, it should be possible to add new ringtones (there’s space for 5 user defined ringtones), but after spending £1.50 to have one sent to my phone, I’m buggered if I know how you add them. The instruction manual doesn’t have any information related to it, and the instructions I found on the web didn’t work. There is also a composer, but my one and only attempt at composing any
thing failed miserably. It was easy to use though, it was just me that wasn’t much good at it.

The phone has a vibrating alert which I find very useful. I don’t always want my phone making a noise, but would still like to know that a text message has arrived or that somebody is trying to call me. I easily feel it vibrate in my pocket without disturbing anybody. There is also a “vibrate then ring” option, but I haven’t found any use for that one.


TEXT MESSAGING

I love the T9 predictive text. Writing a message is done in a flash. However, there’s no facility for adding words to the dictionary, and there are some words that I use regularly which aren’t available.

The message box holds 15 messages, 10 on the phone and 5 on the sim. Incoming and outgoing messages are all stored together, rather than in separate in and out boxes.

Switching between T9 and manual (ABC) mode is relatively easy, but not done as quickly as on one of the latest Nokias. I sometimes use my daughter’s phone, and texting is easier with her 3310. The keypad is softer on the Sagem, but reacts too slowly. If you don’t push the key down hard enough, it’s easy to miss a letter.

Messages can be sent directly from a phone book entry. If you write a message first, you simply press one button to go to the phone book on completion. For some reason, not all messages are given the “forward” option. Replying is also a very quick and easy process.


STORAGE CAPACITY

The phone will store the 10 last called numbers, 10 last incoming numbers and 10 last missed calls. It took me a few weeks to figure out how to get rid of the missed call alert, as this wasn’t in the instructions and I’m not very quick when it comes to things with buttons on them. It’s really quite simple though. You just press the main key (the big round one at the top) on the left
-hand side where it’s marked with a C. The C obviously stands for clear. Why did it take me so long to work that one out?

The phone book holds… err… phone numbers? 50 on the phone plus 100 on the SIM. Adding and accessing them is easy enough but can’t be done directly from a text message.

Fifteen text messages can be stored, ten on the phone, five on the sim. Not a lot, but enough for casual use.


WAP

I can honestly say that I’ve never used this. I put enough money into my phone as it is, without bumping it up further by using the Internet through my mobile. I can only tell you that the phone has a version 1.1 WAP browser, if that means anything to you. But ok, being as I’m writing an op on this phone, I gave it a go. I keyed in www.dooyoo.co.uk and was connected to the site. I couldn’t log in though. I gave me the options to register, do a power search, read opinions and a couple of other bits that seemed to be the addresses to graphics. I chose to do a power search, but was told that the page had expired and would be updated. So much for that! Maybe DooYoo just isn’t WAP compatible, I don’t know. If you want to use this facility, you’ll have to sort it out yourself I’m afraid. Connecting was easy though, I can tell you that much.


OTHER FUNCTIONS

- Hands Free. This is one facility that I like and use quite a bit. By pressing the call button an extra time (or once if it’s an incoming call), the loud speaker is activated and a conversation can be held without the need to hold the phone. I’ve never had a problem hearing anybody when using this option, and they always seem to hear me too.

- Currency Converter. Accessed through “Accessories”. No instructions for use of this facility were in the manual and I’ve no idea how it works. I’ve tried it and it seems that you have to key in the exchange rate
and then key in the amount to have it converted to sterling. Probably useful if you travel a lot.

- Calculator. Accessed through “Accessories”. This works fine, but again, there are no instructions for use in the manual. You simply key in the first figure, choose either plus or minus using the keys directly under the screen (the screen shows you which ones), but multiply and divide are not shown. The star key is multiply, the hash key is divide. OK will give you the answer.

- Alarm. Accessed through “Accessories”. Easy enough to set, but unfortunately, the phone is somewhat unstable with regards to sound. Sometimes it will only beep a couple of times and then stop, so not really useful.

- Call Forwarding. Accessed through “Call Services”. Calls can be forwarded to another number or to the voice box.

- Clock. Accessed through “Controls”. The clock can be displayed either as analogue or digital. I like the analogue alternative; it’s large and clear so a quick glance at the screen tells me what the time is. The date is displayed on the right of the clock.

- Customisation. Accessed through “Controls” There’s a choice of menu types, Essential, Restricted and Expert. There’s an energy saving option that turns the backlight off. Handy if you’re trying to save the battery power and don’t have your charger handy. There are four animated screen savers to choose from and you can choose how long a delay there should be between using the phone and the screen saver being activated. I have a coyote that wanders across my screen. Kind of cute!

- Programmable keys. Also accessed through “Controls/Customisation”. The two keys on either side, directly below the screen can be customised to directly access the services you use most. I’ve programmed mine to access text messages and the voice box. This is a handy function, and
quite honestly, I can’t even remember how to access the voice box through the menu after being used to using the programmed key.


GAMES

Ok, I don’t use them. Have never actually played them, but for the sake of this op, I gave them a go.

Picture Puzzle – This is an electronic version of those little puzzles where your slide the squares around to make a pattern. You can choose between “easy” (9 cells), “medium” 16 cells or “difficult” which is called “sweetheart”. I tried this one, but it was both difficult and boring. I think the idea was to get the man and woman together, kissing. I’d much rather be doing it myself, than trying to get somebody to do it on my mobile screen!

Mini Golf – Looked ok but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to play it. Maybe that’s just me, but there you go. It probably works.

Megabox Conquest – This one was actually quite addictive. The idea is to box in the spaceship (I think it’s a spaceship anyway) by firing bombs from one of the screen edges to the other. The spaceship mustn’t touch the bomb on its way so it takes some skill. That explains why I haven’t got a high score to be proud of, but now I know it’s there, I shall keep trying!


OTHER

Standby time : 170 hours. That’s a week! I fully charged my phone before going on holiday recently, and it lasted 4 days even though I turned it off at night and had the screen lighting and vibration turned off. I did use it for text messaging, although tried to restrict the amount I sent, and for voice mail retrieval, but even so, the battery lasted a lot less than a week. Maybe it would’ve done had I not used it at all, but I doubt it.

Talk time : 4 hours. Probably about right.

Charge time : 2 hours. I’ve found that even if I charge my phone 30 minutes, it’l
l hold its charge for at least a day, which is quite good.

Indicators : Battery, signal, incoming text and voice messages are indicated on the screen.


SUMMARY

I’m reasonably satisfied, but not entirely. The main problem is that a “sim not available” message pops up far too often. I’ve no idea why this happens, but it’s very annoying when you’re in the middle of writing or reading a text message. It seems to happen a lot when a message is being sent.

The phone has an option for receiving message receipts. Another handy facility. If I’m sending a message to my daughter to tell her I’ll be delayed, I want to know that she’s actually received it. Sometimes messages can take hours, even days to get through, and I don’t want to be thinking that an important message has been received when it hasn’t. Could lead to all sorts of problems.

The sound quality from the phone isn’t particularly good. I’ve never actually made a call to it myself, but I’m told that I sound as though I’m sitting in a tin can. Lots of echo. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure it isn’t too good from the caller’s point of view.

The menu system could be more intuitive, but once you get to know the phone, it’s easy enough to use.

As I mentioned earlier, the alert tones are inconsistent. Sometimes mine doesn’t sound at all, which is VERY annoying. I could miss a text message! Worse still, the past couple of days, I’ve noticed that I’ve had a couple of missed calls because the phone didn’t ring. Seems ok again today, but for how long?

The phone was launched on the UK market too early, as accessories weren’t available. I wanted a car charger for my holiday, but was unable to find one anywhere. However, I saw one on the net yesterday, so presumably they’ll be in the shops any day
now.

Quite honestly, if I had the choice over again, I wouldn’t have bought this phone. I’d have saved for a bit and opted for a Nokia. My daughter’s phones seem to be far easier to use and they never have a problem with the alerts. I like the shape and feel of the Sagem, but what good is that if it doesn’t ring? It simply isn’t stabile enough.


~~ One2One ~~

As I’m posting this under One2One/Sagem MW3020, I’ll tell you a bit about the pay as you go service.

You can choose between buying vouchers, which start at £10, or by topping up an electronic swipe card. The latter option is very easy to use as credit is automatically added to the phone. No scratching cards with coins or keying in numbers. You can also register your credit/debit card details with One2One and use the automated system to top up from this, but there’s a limit of £20 per month for this option. No good for me I’m afraid.

Calls to landlines and other one 2 one customers are charged at 30p per minute for the first 2 minutes, then 5p per minute. Calls to other networks are charged at 30p per minute. Text messages are charged at 10p per message. There’s no extra charge for message receipts. Voice mail retrieval is free.

The service seems stabile enough. As with other service providers, they crashed on New Years Eve, but otherwise I haven’t experienced any real problems. Coverage has been good, although there are some areas where I’ve had problems getting a decent signal. However, these are few and far between.

I’ve used the roaming service when abroad, and although I experienced no problems when sending and receiving text messages, making a call wasn’t so easy. It just wouldn’t connect. That was rather annoying as it was somebody’s birthday and I really wanted to talk to him, but it wasn’t to be. I was also unable to access my voice bo
x, but I’ve a feeling this can be blamed on me doing something wrong. There’s a code that had to be keyed in first, and I may not have noted it correctly. Do be aware that it’s expensive to use the roaming facility.

All in all, I’m satisfied with the One2One service. Shame about the phone!


~~+~~+~~

Summary: