What are the Smaller brands like? Philips, Sagem, etc

[Gunbuster]

Just out of interest what are the smaller brands like compared to the Big boys like Nokia, SE, Siemens and Samsung?

In particular the Philips 755/855, Sagem MYX7/6-5, LG 7050?

[Swafe]

got a sagem MY V65 for 30 quid last week

big phone, but the screen is too, camera is mint quality for a sagem, and the price

[Gunbuster]

got a sagem MY V65 for 30 quid last week

big phone, but the screen is too, camera is mint quality for a sagem, and the price

What's the menu like? My Mum's MY X2 is abit unintuitive for navigation.

[Tom]

I have to say that I like the design of the sagem's but they seem a bit bulky. I've never actually held any in real life though, only seen pictures and people using them. The Sagem MY S-7 that is coming out soon doesn't look too bad but comes without bluetooth and is a fair bit bigger than the competition (it is a smartphone, guy who works for my site has seen it )

[Aaron]

In general terms, phones from the smaller manufacturers offer quite a few advantages and disadvantages.

The development process for the big players is that they usually develop a phone and then go to the mobile networks operators and say "Here's this wonderful phone we've developed, accept or risk losing a lot of sales to your competitors".

The smaller players can't do this. The operators like to be in control and don't like being pushed around by the manufacturers - something that only really happens in Europe anyway. The smaller firms have to work much more closely with the operators and will get a lot of feedback from them about their devices. Often, they will make operator-specific variants.

The up-shoot of this relationship is that their phones tend to integrate better with operator services like Vodaphone Live!

The downside is that usually the phone will only be carried by one operator. Don't like their tariffs/customer service? Tough.

The only smaller brands I've had any real experience with are Sendo, Panasonic and the now deceased Trium. I still have a strong preference for Nokia/SonyEriccson/possibly Samsung, but the smaller players sometimes bring out some brilliant phones. The signal-to-noise ratio isn't always the best though.

Take Sendo for example. They've released a lot of cheap and tacky phones. They fit a certain niche but they're never going to be all that desirable. However, they've also released the Sendo X, which is a great and fully-featured premium phone. Since they don't have a strong brand name or customer base, it's very unlikely that the phone is going to catch on in a big way though, which is a real shame.

[Swafe]

I have to say that I like the design of the sagem's but they seem a bit bulky. I've never actually held any in real life though, only seen pictures and people using them. The Sagem MY S-7 that is coming out soon doesn't look too bad but comes without bluetooth and is a fair bit bigger than the competition (it is a smartphone, guy who works for my site has seen it )

looks a bit like a sony E k700i to me mate

[Swafe]

What's the menu like? My Mum's MY X2 is abit unintuitive for navigation.

its actually really easy, once you access the menu, theres 9 options, its all laid out in a 3 by 3 design, no up and down scrolling, its all on the screen, just select what u want with the arrows and go - reminds me of the layout of the nokia symbian phones (7650, 3650, 6600, etc)

[Gunbuster]

Sorry meant to mention when i said Sagem My X7/65 I meant the My X7/5-2.

Like I said I am just curious having little knowledge of phones and the smaller firms do have the odd nice feature. Sagem's changeable outsides are nice as my old 3330 lasted because any scratches could be fixed with a £10 fascia. Philip's touch screen sounds equally nice for sketching ideas for work, although I've heard they have bad unshielded speakers.

[Zathras]

The Sagem My X7 has an absolutely mint camera for both video and photos, and back in June when I was still working in the phone industry it produced pretty much the best pictures of all the phones we were dealing in. The UI is okay, nothing special but then again it's not as terrible as the Siemens A50/55 range.

[Swafe]

http://www.uk-vodafone-mobile-phones.../big/myv65.jpg


btw, this is what i have, the camera is really good - as its a budget phone


personally id stick no nokias, etc, but if you find one on the cheap (30 quid recondition from vodafone, if they get any more in) they are a great deal - best polyphonic speaker ive heard yet, almost mp3 quality


i have a sound of a cat on it, and my cat cudnt even tell the difference she was growling at the phone