Cheap and cheerful (Sagem My 300C)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Sagem My 300C
Date:	17/12/08 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, Works as a phone

Disadvantages: Poorly designed keypad, camera

As my last cheap and cheerful mobile phone had become temperamental and only charged when it felt like it, I decided it was time to splurge on a new link to the outside world. Now I had a very limited budget, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to afford anything fancy, as long it could be used for making calls and sending texts, it would have to do. So when I found the my300c for a paltry £19.99 I just had to go for it, as not only does this mobile boast the ability to make calls, and send and receive texts, but it also houses a camera and is WAP enabled.

Impatient to see what this phone could do, I took it straight out of its box, inserted my SIM card, put the battery into place and switched on. As with most modern mobiles, there was already about half charge on the battery, and although it would have been better for the battery for me to charge it fully, I was ready to have a play. My my300c looks nothing like the picture here; well ok it is the same size and shape, fitting perfectly in my hand or jeans pocket. But mine is white with metallic pink detailing and butterflies on the front of the flip lid. At first glance, it doesn't look like that cheap a phone, but once in the hand and up close it is a little plasticky and there's no way I could get away with pretending it's anything other than cheap and cheerful.

But never mind that, it is a phone and it does do its job reasonably well. Making calls is a simple as it should be, but I do find the keypad isn't particularly fit for purpose if you have long nails. Now this wouldn't be a problem for most males, but this is a very girly phone, and I do have reasonably long nails and get very frustrated, whether while entering numbers or writing texts. But of course once numbers are entered into the contacts, which is a very painless procedure it's far easier to call my mates. There are also extensive call lists, including dialled, received and missed; and to be honest I tend to use these whenever possible as it saves me a great deal of hassle. I honestly couldn't tell you how many contacts can be stored on the phone, as I keep my numbers on the SIM card.

On receiving calls or texts another big disappointment with this phone comes into play. There is only one ringtone for calls and another for texts; there is no choice what so ever. Until I can download some more I only have the choice of the very naff tone or silent. I know the phone was cheap, but even the cheapest of the cheap normally come with a choice of tones. The tones themselves are loud enough to hear in most normal situations, and when the flip-screen is opened it's easy enough to see who's calling, and if I don't want to speak to them closing the phone will cut them off. Once in a call the audio quality is certainly good enough, as long as reception is reasonable, but I wouldn't say it's fantastic. Battery life is also reasonable, I'm a moderately heavy user, and find that I need to charge the phone every other day.

Before I go any further, I'm going to have a little moan about the menu system, which I find convoluted and poorly organised. Now this may just be me, but I find that many applications (such as the alarm) are placed in a sub-menu that just doesn't seem that sensible. Also it takes at least one key-press too many before I can even start to write a text. But once into the new message screen choosing between t9 and multi-tap is simple enough, and excepting the poorly designed key-pad, it is simple enough to write a text and there are some cool emoticons. But there are other niggles with texting, including the phones annoying tendency not to change case after a full stop and the relatively small amount of memory to store texts. Maybe I'm expecting too much....

So, a short while ago I told you that this mobile, boasts a camera. Well, they really shouldn't have bothered. And I mean that from the bottom of my heart. Imagine a low-end web cam from 5 years ago, well that would probably beat this for picture quality. Pictures are grainy, indistinct and dark; I can only just about work out what it was I've taken a picture of, a complete waste of time, in my opinion. There are also a couple of games on the phone, that were entertaining for the first month but I now rarely bother with them. Finally there is the WAP, now this addition I like. Connecting via either GPRS or WAP (depending on network reception) this works exactly as it should and allows me to access my hotmail whenever, wherever which is finally a plus for this phone.

Ok crunch time, am I recommending the my300c, well with some reservations, I guess I am. This is not a top-end phone, and is dirt-cheap, so as long as you don't expect some wonder machine then this is ok. It allows me to keep in touch with family and friends, via calls and texts let's me check my email (as long as I have enough credit) and has a couple of games to while away the time while waiting for the bus. For the amount I paid, it is value for money, but it does try and pretend to be something it isn't with the camera. So as long as all you want is cheap, cheerful and pink then this phone is worth trying.

Summary: You Get What You Pay For

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