Sagemcom MC920 Cell Phone
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- Performance: Dual Band
- Network Type: GSM 900 GSM 1800
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Going Mobile: The Frustrations of Sagem
Pros
cheap, small, light
Cons
odd menus, hard to text, bad customer service
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
A bit annoying, but I can live with it.
Preparing to come to England for a semester, I came across an ad in my home university's student newspaper that a girl was selling a British cell phone (European phones don't work in the US and vice versa), so I figured I'd be really smart and save tons of money by buying it from her. I got it for $15. If I had bought it new here, it would have cost around $90. However, the girl I bought the phone from had lost the charger. She told me that it would be really easy to find a new charger, but it was a nightmare. I think I went to about 50 mobile phone shops in London looking for a new charger for this phone. I went to the Sagem website, but the only charger they sold came with a leather carrying case and a contraption that enables the charger to sit on your desktop-- extra stuff I didn't want to pay for. But eventually, I had to shell out the #22 to get their over-priced packaged deal. The Sagem company wants you to buy an entire new phone if you lose the charger.
Customer Service
I accidentally entered the wrong expiration date on my credit card when I ordered the charger online, so I had to call the company. They put me on hold for several minutes and the people didn't speak English very well. They assured me that my charger would arrive in one week (five business days). A week and a half later when it didn't arrive, I called again and they claimed it had been shipped. I emailed the company a bunch of times, but they didn't reply to my emails. When I called, they said, "Oh, we got your email." The charger finally arrived about 2 and a half weeks after I had ordered it. And it was a French plug! (i.e. 2-pronged, as opposed to the three pronged British plugs.) Aaargh! I have converters, so it wasn't a problem, but, on principle, I was mad that they had sent me the wrong product.
Using the phone
The girl who I bought the phone from had also lost her owner's manual, so I had to play around with the phone a lot in order to make it work. You can download the user's manuals from the website, but they are largely unhelpful and are for 4 or 5 different types of phone!! So, it says things like, "your phone may have this feature..." and it is really confusing.
To start using the phone, you press the downward arrow key that takes you to the first of 8 menus, which are:
0) PayT (pay as you talk) Menu
1) Directory
2) Messages
3) Calls
4) Ring and Beep
5) Settings
6) Security
7) Accessory
When you get to the one you want, you press OK and it takes you to another list, etc. etc. I am not familiar with many other types of phones, but other people's seem to be a bit less time consuming. There are, however, at the top, three buttons that you can program to do things that you most often do. For instance, mine are "Call message center" i.e. check voicemail, put silent mode on or off, and "read message."
I won't go into all of the features, but I will say, in general, some of the ways you have to go about using the phone seem rather counter-intuitive. For instance, replying to a text message. When you finish reading a text message, it will ask you if you want it to clear. You have to say no and then back all the way out of the read message function and go to "Send Message" and then to "Send existing message," which takes you back to the message you have read. Then you press OK and scroll down to reply. This makes no sense!! and is very annoying.
Talking
Talking on the phone is fine. It is small and light and has good sound. To change the volume, you press the memory buttons (the furthest right makes it louder and the left softer). To activate speaker phone, press the pick up the phone button again.
It has caller ID and tells you if you have missed a call, etc. etc. Standard things.
Texting
This phone was definitely made with talking in mind. Texting is very difficult and time consuming as compared to Nokias that I have seen others using. Instead of pressing the same button twice in a row to get to the next letter or symbol, you have to hold it down. This is annoying because you really have to pay attention to what you are doing in order to hold down the button for the exact amount of time necessary to make it an R and not an S.
Also, when you get a text message from someone, even if they are in your directory, it just gives their number and not their name!! When you are done with a message and want to send it, it says "Addressee" and gives you spaces to fill in their number. The Vodaphone people told me that you actually have to enter the number every time. But, it turns out (one of my friends has this phone, as well) that if you press OK when it asks for the number, it will take you to your directory and you can enter saved numbers. Again, this feature is not obvious and it is difficult to figure out how it works since the owner's manual is so poor.
Battery
The life of the battery is pretty good. I am extra careful with keeping it charged, so I'm not sure how long it lasts. I usually keep it on all the time and charge it every other night.
Durability
There's dust under the screen and the numbers are starting to wear off some of the buttons. Also, it is really hard to hold down the # key which is what you need to do punctuation for texting. But I've dropped it a couple of times and I keep in in my pocket sometimes, so it is in relatively good shape.
Vodafone
Once you buy a phone, you are stuck with the network it comes with. I didn't want a Vodafone because most people I know are on Orange , but too bad. So, even though it costs me a bit more to call other networks, the money I saved in buying this phone for #10 makes up for it. Plus, I also don't like Vodafone because it is on the shirt of Manchester United! So, every time I Top-Up my phone, I think, "Eeew, this money might be going to the English equivalent of the New York Yankees." (That was for the benefit of those Americans who don't understand why everyone hates Man. U. aside from their supporters...)
Conclusion
This phone was really cheap, so I can't really complain. It is smaller than a lot of the other pay as you talk phones. It's also relatively nice-looking. (It looks better than the one in the photo on epinions). Calling and talking is fine, but texting is a pain.
Customer Service
I accidentally entered the wrong expiration date on my credit card when I ordered the charger online, so I had to call the company. They put me on hold for several minutes and the people didn't speak English very well. They assured me that my charger would arrive in one week (five business days). A week and a half later when it didn't arrive, I called again and they claimed it had been shipped. I emailed the company a bunch of times, but they didn't reply to my emails. When I called, they said, "Oh, we got your email." The charger finally arrived about 2 and a half weeks after I had ordered it. And it was a French plug! (i.e. 2-pronged, as opposed to the three pronged British plugs.) Aaargh! I have converters, so it wasn't a problem, but, on principle, I was mad that they had sent me the wrong product.
Using the phone
The girl who I bought the phone from had also lost her owner's manual, so I had to play around with the phone a lot in order to make it work. You can download the user's manuals from the website, but they are largely unhelpful and are for 4 or 5 different types of phone!! So, it says things like, "your phone may have this feature..." and it is really confusing.
To start using the phone, you press the downward arrow key that takes you to the first of 8 menus, which are:
0) PayT (pay as you talk) Menu
1) Directory
2) Messages
3) Calls
4) Ring and Beep
5) Settings
6) Security
7) Accessory
When you get to the one you want, you press OK and it takes you to another list, etc. etc. I am not familiar with many other types of phones, but other people's seem to be a bit less time consuming. There are, however, at the top, three buttons that you can program to do things that you most often do. For instance, mine are "Call message center" i.e. check voicemail, put silent mode on or off, and "read message."
I won't go into all of the features, but I will say, in general, some of the ways you have to go about using the phone seem rather counter-intuitive. For instance, replying to a text message. When you finish reading a text message, it will ask you if you want it to clear. You have to say no and then back all the way out of the read message function and go to "Send Message" and then to "Send existing message," which takes you back to the message you have read. Then you press OK and scroll down to reply. This makes no sense!! and is very annoying.
Talking
Talking on the phone is fine. It is small and light and has good sound. To change the volume, you press the memory buttons (the furthest right makes it louder and the left softer). To activate speaker phone, press the pick up the phone button again.
It has caller ID and tells you if you have missed a call, etc. etc. Standard things.
Texting
This phone was definitely made with talking in mind. Texting is very difficult and time consuming as compared to Nokias that I have seen others using. Instead of pressing the same button twice in a row to get to the next letter or symbol, you have to hold it down. This is annoying because you really have to pay attention to what you are doing in order to hold down the button for the exact amount of time necessary to make it an R and not an S.
Also, when you get a text message from someone, even if they are in your directory, it just gives their number and not their name!! When you are done with a message and want to send it, it says "Addressee" and gives you spaces to fill in their number. The Vodaphone people told me that you actually have to enter the number every time. But, it turns out (one of my friends has this phone, as well) that if you press OK when it asks for the number, it will take you to your directory and you can enter saved numbers. Again, this feature is not obvious and it is difficult to figure out how it works since the owner's manual is so poor.
Battery
The life of the battery is pretty good. I am extra careful with keeping it charged, so I'm not sure how long it lasts. I usually keep it on all the time and charge it every other night.
Durability
There's dust under the screen and the numbers are starting to wear off some of the buttons. Also, it is really hard to hold down the # key which is what you need to do punctuation for texting. But I've dropped it a couple of times and I keep in in my pocket sometimes, so it is in relatively good shape.
Vodafone
Once you buy a phone, you are stuck with the network it comes with. I didn't want a Vodafone because most people I know are on Orange , but too bad. So, even though it costs me a bit more to call other networks, the money I saved in buying this phone for #10 makes up for it. Plus, I also don't like Vodafone because it is on the shirt of Manchester United! So, every time I Top-Up my phone, I think, "Eeew, this money might be going to the English equivalent of the New York Yankees." (That was for the benefit of those Americans who don't understand why everyone hates Man. U. aside from their supporters...)
Conclusion
This phone was really cheap, so I can't really complain. It is smaller than a lot of the other pay as you talk phones. It's also relatively nice-looking. (It looks better than the one in the photo on epinions). Calling and talking is fine, but texting is a pain.
