First impressions of the Sendo M550 (Sendo M550)

Member Name: chinieng

Product:	Sendo M550
Date:	24/09/03 (7058 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small and light, stylish with internal aerial, low price

Disadvantages: basic contact list, narrow angle screen, small fiddly keys

A keenly priced stylish clamshell phone with colour screen and polyphonic ringtones.

>> About this opinion

I won't give an exhaustive list of features, as these are comprehensively described at Sendo's website from where you can also download the manual in pdf format for even more details. Certain comments such as battery life will be fleshed out later once I've used the phone more; this review is more of a first impression. I'll also be drawing comparisons with my previous phone, the Sony J7, to highlight the differences in features and annoyances. My review for that phone can also be found on this site.

>> Why did I buy this phone?

As for my previous phone, I'm not big on features. I don't like gimmicky ringtones and I'm not bothered about games, GPRS or even colour screens. What I do look for is size; the smaller the better. This is *the* selling point of the Sendo M550. It's a little bit wider than the widest point on the J7, though about an inch shorter and a similar thickness. Contrary to what I tell my my girlfriend, the extra inch in your pocket is noticeable. It appears to be thinner than some Samsung clamshell phones and has the further advantage by having an internal aerial. I've always been put off by external aerials, so this was another major factor in me taking a second look at this phone in The Link.

>> The exterior

This phone looks very stylish with a dark blue lid and chrome effect surround. It doesn't appear to have removable fascias. The bottom half is a silver colour, though less shiny than the chrome effect. It feels comfortable in the hand with its curved edges, though slightly slippery as there are no grooves or rubber. I guess Marketing would use the word 'sleek' rather than 'slippery'. There is only one external connection located on the top of the phone that doubles up as the charger and hands-free socket. I guess this means you ca
n't use both at the same time, which is a drawback for people who spend a lot of time in cars. The manufacturer's markings are on the front and back and unusually for Virgin phones, its logo is not anywhere on the body of the phone.

>> The screen

Actually there are two. A colour one on the inside and an inverse-video black and white one on the outside. The one on the outside shows the time, battery, signal and, when receiving calls, the name or number of the caller. There is an option to display just the time and date. When not illuminated by the blue-white backlight, the details on the external screen can be difficult to read. The colour screen is the main navigation screen. Although it is clear and bright enough, it has a very narrow field of view, especially vertically. This hasn't caused me a problem in normal use, but users of latest phones or digital cameras will notice that it is not leading edge. It dims automatically after a few seconds of inactivity, and the threshold is configurable. The screen at about an inch square is roughly the same as my J7, though it does appear to have a higher resolution.

>> The keypad

The keys are small, though this is to be expected given that the phone is a small clamshell. The whole keyboard has a low profile that is almost flush with the body making it harder to use than the J7. All the keys are hard and responsive. They are opaque, save for the digits which allow light through when the keypad is illuminated. This doesn't work as well as the J7 which does the opposite; the digits are printed and the whole key is illuminated around it. To compound the problem the green keypad illumination is not very bright or even across the whole keypad.

>> Test messaging

Thumbs up to Sendo for providing a one-key shortcut to creating text messages. It has T9 predictive text, though I don't think you can add words to its dictionary. This was an undocumented feature on
the J7 that I think I will miss. When reading text messages, the time and date of receipt is not displayed. To see it, you have to navigate to a menu option to display the message details. My J7 also stored sent messages - I can't find a menu option for this on the M550. The small size and poor illumination of the keypad has slowed me down a little bit, but let's see how I get on with a bit more practice. I've not tried the EMS or chat features on this phone.

>> The contacts list

One feature I'll miss from my J7 is the contact list. It allows you to store several numbers for one person with an icon indicating a mobile, home, office, fax even email. No such fancy stuff here. One name, one number, which means multiple entries if you like to store home and mobile numbers for the same contact. You can move through the contact list by typing the starting letters of the contact but you can't scroll through easily, as holding the up and down keys has no effect; you must repeatedly press to move through the list. The M550 does feature speed dial. The call history is not split into different menus for incoming, outgoing and missed calls like on the J7. They all appear in the same list in reverse chronological order with icons next to them to indicate which type of call it was and I think I prefer it this way.

>> Using the phone

Calls can be answered automatically by flipping the phone open and you can see the caller's name or number on the external screen before deciding whether to take the call. When opened, the external screen displays the Virgin logo and there's no obvious way of turning this off or customising it. Call quality seems good though I need to spend more time using it to give a proper judgement. Similarly, I'm not able to judge battery performance just yet. There was something my J7 couldn't do and that was vibrate and ring at the time. The Sendo M550 can do this and the vibrate works wel
l. Additionally, there is an option to have the phone vibrate and then ring. These are handy features to have. Polyphonic ringtones are not my bag and I'm not likely to be downloading any, but the quality of the sound is far superior to my J7 and with decent volume. Some of the ringtones do push the speaker to its limit, occasionaly rasping slighlty at high volumes and sounding slightly tinny on some. One annoyance is that it is not possible to assign a custom sound to an event like receiving a text. It's either the default or nothing at all. And I don't like the default.

>> Conclusion

You have to be impressed with what Sendo have achieved - great looks on a small clamshell phone with an internal aerial and at a price way, way under similar style phones like the Samsung ones. Of course there are trade offs - it is low on features and the screen has a narrow angle of view, but at 90 pounds you can't really complain. The corners are cut in the right places. Except the basic contact list. If you need any features like Infra-red, Bluetooth, the latest WAP browser or PC connectivity this won't cut it. If your needs are the same as mine, this phone is a treat - I didn't think I'd be able to get a small and stylish phone on pay-as-you-go for less than 200 pounds let alone 90 and as an added bonus they're made by a British company.


Price: Bought from The Link for 90 pounds including 5 pounds airtime and SIM on Virgin Mobile.
Useful sites: www.sendo.co.uk



















Opinion History:

23/9/2003 First version

Summary: