|
|
| Sendo M550 |
| General |
| Network | Gsm 900 / Gsm 1800 |
| Announced | 2003, 2q |
| Status | Available |
| Size |
| Dimensions | 82 X 45 X 20 Mm, 68 Cc |
| Weight | 77 G |
| Display |
| Type | Cstn, 4096 Colors |
| Size | 128 X 128 Pixels |
| | - Second Display, Inverse, 96 X 64 Pixels |
| Ringtones |
| Type | Polyphonic (32 Channels) |
| Amount | 15 + Custom |
| Customization | Download, |
| Vibration | Yes |
| Memory |
| Phonebook | 500 |
| Call Records | 10 Dialed, 10 Received, 10 Missed Calls |
| Card Slot | No |
| | - Dynamic Memory |
| Data |
| Gprs | Class 8 (4+1 Slots), 32 - 40 Kbps |
| Hscsd | No |
| Edge | No |
| 3g | No |
| Wlan | No |
| Bluetooth | No |
| Infrared Port | No |
| Usb | |
| Features |
| Messaging | Sms, Ems |
| Browser | Wap 1.2.1 |
| Clock | Yes |
| Alarm | Yes |
| Games | 3 - Ten Pin ,kombatclub And Splat |
| Colors | |
| Camera | No |
| | - T9 |
| Battery |
| | Standard Battery, Li-ion |
| Stand-by | 180 H - 400 H |
| Talk Time | 2 H - 5 H |
|
Sendo - M550Sendo M550: A sleek little gem
Object of Desire" – Well that's what Sendo calls the M550, its latest mid-range model. Believe me when I say that for a model of its kind, they're not far from the truth! The sleek little handset became my companion for 2 weeks, and even though I had done my "homework" by reading up on it, its appearance when I unwrapped the standard kit from the British company was more than impressive. The little handset has full support for EMS and SMS Chat, a lot of personalization combos, themes, and impressive 16 tone melodies. More than enough for a young inexperienced user who prefers easy, portable, and entertaining connectivity without the high tech features and services.
Physical Characteristics and Display.
The Sendo M550 is not an elaborated handset, yet still impressive. Primarily designed to meet the needs of demanding youth, or those wishing to reclaim their youth, it features a folder type design, chrome materials, smooth feeling, and complete lack of an external antenna - all of combined into a mere 82 x 45 x 20mm package. With the flip closed, the tiny handset is about the size of an average credit card, fitting in almost any kind of pocket - no matter how small it may be. Additionally, with a weight that barely reaches 77g and only 68cc of volume, it really boasts of portability, ease of use, and risk free transportation. On the outside, the most impressive feature of the M550 is its inverted, dark sub display. With an active resolution of 96x64 pixels, excellent lighting, and an impressive font, it's going to be your only way of communication with the handset when the latter is flip closed. It displays the signal indicator, battery level, the name of the network you're using, the time and date, incoming calls, and messages with animated pictures as well as other alerts. Just as any good display would. The only problem is that there is no way of checking the sub-display at night, since it only lights up when you flip the folder open or when a message or call arrives. There are no buttons on the exterior of the phone at all, not even volume controls. Unfortunately the M550 also lacks an IrDA port and does not even have a serial communication port on the bottom of the phone.
The handset that Sendo offered to me came with a stylish black cover, one of the six that the British company offers as accessories to its users, suitable for every occasion or taste. You can choose from a collection of Blue, Red, Black, Green, Turquoise, or Purple colors that really can make your Sendo look more youth-oriented or trendy. For those more demanding users, there's a vast selection of accessories, such as handsfree headsets, extra batteries, car kit chargers, etc. Talking about charging, the only input to this phone was its 2.5 mm jack that is suitable not only for charging the phone but for the use with a headset, in case you need to free your hands. Nothing more...nothing less.
On the inside things were a bit more interesting and yes, a bit more colorful! With 128x128 pixel resolution, the 4,096 color display did really well in terms of animations, text, and enhanced messaging, but not that well during the daylight. As with most every cSTN display on the market today, it looked a bit dim in daylight - bear in mind that we're talking about daylight in the summer in Greece, which is really sunny! Apart from this, its colors where vivid, with excellent saturation and contrast at night, and without any problem during the 2 week duration of my test. One thing that really impressed me with the M550 was the spacious keypad that looked almost like it was missing something, but nothing was. The Sendo designers did an excellent job in creating a well spaced keypad with 18 keys, but still room for even more! All the keys were soft and comfortable to use, but sometimes during an SMS composition their response was slow, but not annoyingly so. The up and down keys in the center of the phone became my "best friends" since they were the only way to navigate through the usual Sendo Menu.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
Those of you who owned a Sendo phone from the past 2 years shouldn't be concerned with the usability of the M550's menu. It really hasn't changed that much, apart from the vivid colors and well designed graphics. There are 6 sub menus available for each user: Messages – Internet – Sounds – Settings – Services and Extras, each one of them simple to use and quite comprehensive. There aren't any difficult concepts about the menu. I'm sure you'll get familiar with it in a matter of minutes. There are no animations during the navigation, just still images and standard icons, and on the whole it proves to be quite efficient and fast. There were no sudden freezes, no problems or errors with the menu details; on the contrary, I was amazed by its usability and quick response to my commands. There is support for themes (Space, Mosaic, Pastel, Power Flower, Whirl, Carbon, Warp, Funky, Ice, and Red Head) which changes the color scheme and wallpaper at the same time. The ability to choose ringtones for sound effects, welcome animations, as well as a fully customizable screen saver with a user defined timeout period, and a vast selection of animations to choose from was also welcome.
Call Functions and Reception Levels
Well here we are. The dual band (GSM 900/1800Mhz) handset did really well in the 1800Mhz band, but not that well with the 900Mhz band. Its reception levels were really impressive one day and a bit disappointing the other, but on the whole it served its purpose without any dropped calls, even in places with average coverage from both networks. Talking on the handset proved to be an easy task even in noisy places such as the city, or inside a car with loud music playing. The active flip was a true blessing for the times where speed was more important, and the speaker volume was more than sufficient for me to hear the other person at the other end of the line. In addition, my own voice was transferred smoothly without disturbing noises, even though sometimes the lack of the external antenna became apparent. At the day of the tests, Sendo had not released a suitable handsfree headset, but the one I borrowed from my Motorola T720i worked really fine with almost excellent results. Overall the call quality was really good, suitable for a mid range handset. Things became really impressive when it came to the M550's melodies, though. Clear and vivid sound effects, true 16 voice polyphonic sounds, and impressive melodies filled my room when I searched for an appropriate melody for my incoming calls. There are 15 polyphonic melodies to choose from, both loud and entertaining - the way it should be. They were easy to hear even in crowded places, but I have to say, that the vibration alert served its purpose really well in certain cases. In addition, there's enough dynamic memory for Over The Air download of at least 20 more melodies, via the embedded WAP Browser, so you won't run out of new sound effects and melodies - no matter where you go.
Messaging Features
The Sendo M550 is, above all, a youth oriented handset. As such, it was tested with this in mind. Don't expect to see impressive multimedia messages, email support, or video messaging. This model is for serious messengers but... Enhanced at most. There is an embedded EMS editor which is really easy to use, with the ability to add pre-installed pictures and animations to your messages. The images and animations were designed for almost every occasion, from love and romance, to anger, sorrow, and other emotional outpourings. There's also full SMS Chat support, so if you are in the middle of an IRC chat, and you've got to go, there's no reason why you can't continue your conversation with your friends. Just bear in mind that you should first give a chat name to your friend and save it in the phone's dynamic memory. The M550 features T9 predictive text input, which offers support for most of the European languages (but not mine (Greek) yet), and reduced the time needed to complete a message by almost 30%. There is also full support for concatenated messages, Nokia Smart Messaging, predefined quotes, and a internally allocated memory for at least 10 messages in case your SIM's memory runs out.
Games and Applications
As a mid range model I expected the M550 to support at least some kind of Java technology, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. There are three embedded games in the phone that offer many hours of fun and entertainment. But if you get bored some days later... don't expect to find more. They are the same games that the Sendo J530 had one year ago, except now they're in full color. The "Kombat Club" comes as an SMS game with yourself as a fighter and your friends as enemies, trying to get you, while "Ten Pin" and "Splat" are single player games for serious fun and effort!
Other Features
Being Sendo's current flagship, the M550 has even more to offer than just what I have mentioned so far but still; don't get your hopes too high. There is full GPRS support for high speed surfing WAP pages, with 4 downlink channels and 1 uplink, but unfortunately no way to connect the handset to a PC. The WAP browser is v1.2.1 compliant, which works really well with the GPRS and CSD service, with GIF, BMP, bookmark support, and pre configured settings. An internal alarm clock with snooze and reminder function is also present. You can store up to 500 phonebook entries in the phone with room for a chat name, but there is no contact management system at all, nor an organizer or calendar.
Battery Life
The Sendo technicians seem to have done a remarkable job with the power consumption on this handset. The dual band M550 has a battery life that could satisfy most any demanding youngster, no matter how active they might be. According to the official Sendo press release, the Li-Ion battery of the M550 offers up to 180 - 300 hours of standby time, and up to 120 - 300 minutes of talk time. In real world conditions with heavy use, I was able to get standby times of about 2-3 days with talk times of around 3-4 hours before I would reach for the Sendo travel charger. Of course such times will vary by network, the number of phone calls you make, and the SMS messages you send and receive, but overall I was really pleased with the power management of this sleek little gem.
Conclusion/Comments
Object of Desire? Well perhaps not for a truly demanding user, with the need for high tech features and camera shots. The M550 has no intention to impress this kind of perspective buyer. But it's a real fun machine, with a sleek design, minimal dimensions and weight, that make it ready for entertainment and portability. If you're interested in a tiny handset with attitude and certain multimedia aspects, then do take a look at the latest creation of Sendo, the M550. Rest assured that you won't be disappointed... |
| Common misspellings on this brand: ssndo , senrdo , sendo0 , sedno , senxdo |
|
|
