my401c

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Sagem's my401C is another product in their mid range line of mobile phone handsets. Aimed at the fashion conscious buyer on a budget, the my401C provides a reasonably stylish phone that packs in most features required by the average consumer. With digital music support, Bluetooth 2.0 and all the standard PIM options it is quite well specified and should satisfy those after an entry level phone with a few bells and whistles.

Pros

  • Quite stylish for a budget phone, lots of features

Cons

  • Poor internal memory

Bottom Line

Overall, the Sagem my401c is a solid entry level handset. It has a strong set of features that will appeal to many people.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 229.00 (AUD)

The most notable feature of this phone is its design. Sporting a relatively minimalist but suave black and silver colour scheme, it looks great and will satisfy those after a phone they can show off to their friends. The simple motif won't suit everybody, but we thought it was a great departure from Sagem's typically plain aesthetic.

Weighing just 81g and measuring 86mm x 43.3mm x 18.5mm, it is quite slim, and slips easily into the pocket, so it is suitable for those with a constantly on-the-go lifestyle. The flip mechanism operated well, and although the whole unit is constructed from plastic rather than metal it feels relatively sturdy and should be able to take the occasional knock.

Call quality was decent but not outstanding. We noticed a slight echo on both ends of the call and while volume was great during regular voice calls, the speakerphone could have been a little louder.

The interface is quite impressive. It reminded us to some degree of Sony's new Playstation interface, with simple, silhouetted icons on a coloured background. They are laid out in a three by three grid, and we liked the simplicity which suited the overall style of the phone quite well. Navigating around the menu was quite speedy, however there was a noticeable delay when opening and closing it, as well as when firing up applications. This isn't a huge deal, as the my401C isn't designed with power as a primary concern, but it still slowed down the user experience a little.

Meanwhile, we found the controls to be comfortable but usability was not outstanding. The my401C uses a standard five-way directional pad, two selection buttons, answer and end call keys and volume controls along the side. The directional pad is a little fiddly, as it is only a few millimetres thick and several times we hit the wrong keys at the wrong time. Aside from that we had no major issues. The keys are slightly raised and are constructed from thick, black plastic that had decent tactility. We were able to punch out reasonably fast SMS messages and were impressed with the way the keys are structured, considering how small the phone is.

The internal 128 x 160 pixel 65,536 colour screen looks decent, but was a little blocky for our tastes. It lacked detail and wasn't as clear as many other screens on the market. It is more than adequate for basic phone functions but during media playback it lacked the clarity necessary to make it truly useful for watching video files.

Audio quality during media playback was fairly good, although not outstanding. It was more than adequate for the occasional bout of listening on the train. The my401c comes with 32MB of internal memory and has a micro SD card slot for optional expansion.

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