The Japanese phone with the French accent (Trium M320)

Member Name: tomshanks

Product:	Trium M320
Date:	12/05/04 (498 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very easy to use, fast menus, Lots of useful features for the price, Design rather pleasing and unique

Disadvantages: Lacks MMS and decent games, Ringtones could be louder, Support for downloads non-existent

At the end of 2002, I became aware that the phone that I was about to purchase, a Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse, had already been replaced by a new model, but that it was currently only being sold in Asia. This mysterious new handset, with the name M320, was interesting for many reasons. It was the first Mitsubishi phone for many years to have dropped the Trium moniker in its official name, for a start. However, mine, originally bought in France, does have a Trium badge on it, so I would presume that for some markets this is actually correct, although there is nothing else to suggest that this confusion will continue. This was also one of the first phones from Mitsubishi after the Trium years to be given a model number, as opposed to a name, like 'Cupid', 'Mars' or 'Galaxy', as had been the case before. It seems that this decision was undertaken in order to bring the company in line with the way in which everyone else seems to name their phones, but it does mean that the certain degree of individuality achieved through this, which has to be one of Mitsubishi's strong points in the mobile phone market, has been lost. This desire to blend in seems to have been matched by a total lack of sales of sales on the UK market.

Try as i might, it was actually impossible to find an example of this phone in Britain. I even rang up Mitsubishi and asked them when it may become available in June 2003, and they were unable to tell me. Being one of their most loyal customers (the M320 is the fifth Mitsubishi phone I have owned), I was severely disappointed with the lack of effort that they had put into their UK marketing programme, and it was only about six months later that I found out that the M320 was never going to be released in Britain. I resigned myself to upgrading to anothe
r manufacturer when the time came, and did not think any more of it until the end of January 2004 when I found an M320 for sale on Ebay UK. Nobody appeared to know what it was, so the bids on it were really rather low for what I considered to be its true worth, and the fact that it had a Continental charger, which is more useful for me as I have been in France and Germany quite a lot recently, made its appeal to me greater still. It appeared that the phone had been purchased in France, which explained why it was for sale in the first place, and the charger, and that the seller no longer needed it. I was only too happy to pay the 41.50 GBP (or 60?) that was asked of me to take it off his hands.

Upon returning back to Britain (I had bid for the phone whilst in France), I found the phone waiting for me. I once stated in the review that I did for this site of my Trium Eclipse that I really liked the design of the phone, apart from the external aerial. The M320 really seems to be the answer to this qualm, since it is still distinctively a Mitsubishi, but the aerial has now been put inside the phone. Many people who have had the older Trium models will also be pleased to hear that it is an awful lot thinner than they were, so it fits comfortably into a pocket, rather than being the rather embarrassing bulge that it was before. However, I was slightly disappointed to see that the phone was still much the same length as the old Mars and 110 models, which are looking more like bricks by the minute. In comparison with my other phone, a Sagem MYX-6, the M320 really does look ridiculously long, especially as it has a smaller screen than the MYX-6! This so-called 'form factor' unfortunately seems to have been retained in Mitsubishi's susbsequent M330 and M21i model
s, but has finally been changed in the brand new M341i and M342i, both of which are cameraphones. That said, an integrated camera was something of a pipedream except on really expensive PDA-type handsets such as the 450 GBP Nokia 7650 when the M320 was launched back in October 2002, and even upon its launch it was never designed to be a top-end model. Mitsubishi phones have always offered superb value for money, and this would have been no exception, had it ever been released in Britain.

One criticism I have come across upon reading reviews of the phone when it first appeared was that it was too similar to its predecessor, the Trium Eclipse. I had an Eclipse for a good six months (and during that time also wrote a review of it for this site), and was exceptionally pleased with apart from in a couple of respects. The first was that it was on the large side, partly due to what in 2001 was a massive colour screen, and had the characteristic Trium external aerial, and the other was text messaging concerns. I am extremely pleased to say that on the M320, both these concerns have been addressed. The newer model, although not as small as something like a Nokia 8310, is certainly not as big as the phone by which others are still judged, the Nokia 3310/3330, and naturally has a lot more features than any of these. Those people who would initially have moved from any other Mitsubishi phone at the time to this one would have been most pleasantly surprised with the changes.

The M320 has all the features which made the Eclipse a superb phone, such as polyphonic ringtones, an Infra-Red port, GPRS, that large colour screen, the ability to send and receive V-cards, a speakerphone and a couple of excellent games. In addition to this, the screen has even more colours (4096 as opposed to 256), the phone is s
limmer and has better buttons, and probably even has a better standby time, even if the battery is smaller. But what sets Mitsubishi phone apart from others, and why I continue to seek them out of obscure places as opposed to merely buying the latest Nokia like my friends is the attention to detail.

Mitsubishi appear to know their customers well. The excellent calendar application is not so complicated that it would be better suited to a laptop rather than a mobile phone, and has on more than one occasion been responsible for me not missing an important engagament. The speed of the phone is also something for comment. Rather than so many other colour screen phones these days, such as the Sony Ericsson T68i and the Sagem MYX-6, the M320 never misses a beat, and manages to keep up with whatever key presses I can throw at it. This is particularly the case when it comes to text messaging. My Sagem can be almost a word behind me when I am trying to compose an SMS, and the old Ericsson T65 which I had was worse, even without a colour screen, but the M320 is absolutely spot-on all the time. Clearly, Mitsubishi owners are not concerned necessarily about having the most gadgets in the smallest possible phone if it means that the software is going to lag behind kep-presses, and being one of them I can see why. Irritatingly, there is no character-counter on the screen when composing a message, although if you do run over into a second or a third message, the phone will let you know, which I suppose is better than nothing when you are low on credit, and are not willing to pay for more than one at a time if you do not have to. Indeed, the whole messaging aspect of the phone has been drastically improved from the last time I used a Mitsubishi, which is cause for celebration.

Although the illogical way of presenting
options in a message press down in order to toggle T9 on and off, and the only other functions available being clear text and OK) remain from the days of the ancient Trium Mars model, if, for some reason, the phone does not send the message on the first attempt due to network problems, the message will be saved. This was a real issue on the old models, and I am very pleased to see that this has been dealt with. However, the fact that the language cannot be changed within the message, and that the phone does not capitalise the beginning of each sentence, which is pretty much a requirement for text messaging for most people these days, is something of a concern. With the third ?select? button now introduced on the M320 which was not present on any other model before, the left softkey, which used to be the ?OK? button, has become redundant. I know of no other manufacturer which gives such a limited range of options during the the writing of a text message, which appears to be even more of a staple way of communicating than making a phone call these days, and it is high time that this was altered. That said, once one gets used to it, sending a message really is just as fast as any of the other functions on the phone, so it is something of a pleasure to use, as long as, unlike me, you are not in the habit of changing languages in order to send messages very often. The actual viewing of text messages in the inbox, however, is nicely thought out. Rather like Outlook Express, it is possible to view up to five different ?headers? for messages at once, whilst only having the text for one of them selected. The third button now comes in handy, since before, simply reading the whole text of a message required two keypresses from this stage, when actually now it only takes one. It would still be nice to be able to use the four-way D-pad as a four-way D-pad whilst in a message, however, since
having one dimension of this entirely taken up by pressing down activating T9 and pressing up having no function at all seems to be a bit of a waste. No such qualms are necessary when making calls, however.

Although no Mitsubishi phone has ever supported Bluetooth, it would be possible to get a wired handsfree kit for this phone if the other two methods available for making a call did not suffice. Personally, I expect a phone to have a speakerphone these days, and I am glad to report that the one on the M320, although in no way comparable to those offered by Sagem, does do a good enough job if one is wanting to talk whilst typing and the such-like. It is not quite adequate to use in a car, but then there is the optional handsfree kit which would make more sense for this situation anyway. I have had no complaints about call quality or volume using this particular handset, and although there are no external volume controls on the side of the phone, merely pressing up or down on the D-pad during a call will change the volume level, which is fine. Reception is also very good, admittedly quite as incredible as the Sagem MYX-6, which appears to get a signal virtually everywhere, but certainly on a par, if not better than, something like a Nokia 3410. My house, which is a very patchy area for Vodafone, the network I use the phone with when I am there, did not cause the M320 any trouble, and I do not any longer need to worry about where I place the phone in order to get a decent signal.

However, if the phone does ring, it may not be possible to hear it. There seems to have been a change of policy down in Japan as far as ringtones are concerned. Any other Mitsubishi I have had rang incredibly loudly, and I never missed a call because I was not able to hear the phone. Now, however, it seems impossible to turn off rampi
ng (volume increasing as the phone continues to ring), even if I have checked that I am not using the phone on the ?Vibrate then Ring? setting. That said, with vibrate enabled, I have not missed that many calls, but it would still be nice to answer the phone sooner rather than later. As far as the ringtones are concerned, they are all the same as the ones on the Eclipse. For a newcomer to Mitsubishi, this will be fine, but currently being on my third phone from this company which has polyphonic ringtones, I would have preferred something a little different. True, it is possible to set a different tone for incoming calls, the alarm clock and a second line, unlike Nokia phones where the standard alarm tone cannot be deactivated, but one would have thought that the Japanese, who are obsessed by the latest developments in mobile phones even more so than we are in Europe, could have come up with something new in twelve months. The text message alert feels like it has been the same forever, and cannot be changed either. That said, Nokia phones have the same issue, since 95% of their users do not appear to want to change it from the standard one which appears to have been around since primeval times, so it will at least still sound different. Downloadable ringtones are available, and polyphonic ones at that, but not from the Mitsubishi website, where their policy of giving out free ringtones was abolished about a year ago.

Another area where the phone has not moved on is in the games. Mitsubishi had the foresight to license then Rayman character for their new phone in 2001, and I enjoyed playing both Rayman Bowling and Rayman Garden on the Eclipse, and to a certain extent on this one too, but when everyone else has Java and In-Fusio games on their colour screen phones, one cannot help but begin to be slightly envious. Neither of the
games can be played over Infra-red, either. It has been good to see that Mitsubishi?s latest offering, the M341i, does have Java, and in France comes with about 60 games pre-loaded. This really is good news, but just makes the M320 owner more envious.

In terms of the design of the phone, it is just possible that some may have seen this one badged as an Alcatel OT 531, but with identical specifications. This is because I believe that this phone is made in France, at the Alcatel factory, and this is why Mitsubishi phones have been so cheap over there. Although this sits rather uneasily with Alcatel?s other models (the menu system is entirely different, as is the charger), the usual problems that some can find with French electronic goods in terms of build quality are not an issue with the M320. Everyhing seems to fit together fine, and the phone does not creak during usage, as ones with exchangeable covers are prone to do. The face-plate of the phone around the keypad area can be changed, but I have never seen anywhere which sells them. However, mine is an all-silver example, which I consider to be my favourite colour for mobile phones anyway, so no complaints on my behalf! Vulnerable parts of the phone, such as the charging port and the area for the handsfree connector, are protected by rubber bungs to stop them getting damaged, in a typically efficient and Oriental fashion. However, unlike some phones, the rubber bung does not need to be removed in order to attach the charger, only for the data cable, which means that wear and tear is kept down to a minimum.

The final aspect of the M320 which is worthy of attention is that colour screen. Although it is not especially detailed at 4096 colours, which more than pales in comparison to Mitsubishi?s own M341i at 262,000 colours, this is actually the same as many a N
;okia, including the popular 7210, 6610, 6100 and 7250, so the colours are relatively vivid. The pre-installed wallpapers are rather good, but when these replace the standard colour-schemes, the ability to automatically display the network operator logo in colour, or the battery and signal bars pictorally are lost. This is an absolutely unique feature of Mitsubishi colour screen phones, and does not require any downloading at all. Currently I am using an O2 Germany SIM card with the M320, and the blue and red logo sits very nicely on the standard Mitsubishi background with the animated butterfly, which has become something of a trademark. There appears to be plenty of space to store new pictures, colour schemes or banners, should the need arise.

Although the phone does not support MMS or a camera attachment, it does support EMS, voice-dialling, a 2 minute voice memo and office functions, such as a very useful currency convertor, alarm clock and calculator. All in all, the M320 can still be considered as fantastic value for money for those who do not want something which is as basic as the desperately dull Nokia 3310, but are not concerned by the latest craze for cameras. It has been nothing but reliable for me, and the only drawbacks which do exist should not worry those in the market for such a mobile phone. It may be best described as a slightly updated version of the old Trium Eclipse, but the Eclipse really was not a bad start, so this is more of a compliment than it first appears. If you can find one, I certainly recommend getting one!

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