Concept?
I think that we have good relations with XXL GSM. Still, they have surprised us, with an M800 watch-phone, which is part of the small, but exciting category of completely meaningless mobile devices. We once had a Hyundai watch-phone; at least we knew what it was. This M800, however, came from an unknown manufacturer; one thing is sure – the country of origin is China.
Watch phones – for the time being – have no meaning. They’re good to have fun with, some people can be astonished because we can play Knight Rider with it, but for an everyday use, it would at least need to be completely voice-controllable, even message writing. As this would be a costly thing (if possible at all), we have to face the simple fact that a mobile device fastened to the wrist is not suitable for telecommunication, at least I don’t wear my ears and mouth on my arm and I would usually use buttons for writing an SMS, but these cannot be crammed on a gadget with a such a size, due to its physical limits.
Still, room has to be made for the battery, the SIM card, the display, maybe for a memory card (although M800 doesn’t have this feature, but that Hyundai watch had it), a microphone and a speaker. This is results in the device being too large for a watch and too small for a phone, which makes us feel that we have another hand, with constantly clenched fists.
Hirdetés
Packaging - excellent
The M800 excels in terms of packaging. Not only because it’s neat (not counting the golden Chinese pattern), but the upper and lower parts of the box twist one over the other, so it’s easy to search the accessories. It is worth taking a look, as just near the protagonist watch there is a headset. I have just simply put it apart at first, but then I have found a small leaflet that made me consider a more hands-in approach of the headset.
That’s because we have a stereo Bluetooth headset in the package. And, even more, it works fine, as it is an earplug and can be easily attached to clothing. It is simply surprising that such an accessory made it to the box of a gadget like this M800. Furthermore, the watch supports A2DP, but it’s funny that after connecting the headset we have to choose between this profile and using the headset as a simple one, the two cannot be combined.
The package also includes a backup battery; we will probably need this, as such a large device (70 grams) runs out of power pretty fast; a 40 minute long call through Bluetooth sucked the battery dry, so such a backup is really welcome. Even more because the display is lit up during conversations.
Up to the wrist!
As opposed to the Hyundai watch, M800 cannot be detached from its strap. But, surprisingly, it doesn’t feel like a large lump on our wrist, as it would seem at first glance. Still, the watch has a thick plastic case, with the 128 x 160 pixel large, 1.3” wide TFT touchscreen display in the center. Of course it shows the clock after knocking the display.
The buttons are on the side and they are sitting unlabeled. We can try to guess them, experience with the Hyundai watch helped me a lot. Based on this, it wasn’t surprising that we can set the volume and navigate in the menu with the buttons on the left, while right-hand buttons are for handling calls. Everything else needs the touchscreen, for its handling we can use the very, very (not joking, veeeery!) small stylus, which is in the strap. Awful.
There’s no problem with the plastic strap, but it’s worth looking at its pattern on the back, because I have first started to laugh when I have seen that small Adidas logos are printed here. Cool. We can plug the USB cable amidst the two buttons on the left, this is also included in the box.
Usage, that is torment
What does the software show us after turning the phone on? Yes, with a Superman logo! What does this have to do with a watch-phone?! We can access the menu by stroking the lower left part of the screen. Put your jaws back to their place: the graphics is completely Samsung BlackUI, but this time only with nine icons. It’s roughly the same, the only mistake committed in copying is that they have mixed up the icons of call log and phone book and a couple of functions are not at their appropriate place. If we wander deeper than the main menu, then we can see the usual graphics, specific of Chinese devices, which can be characterized in many ways, except low-keyed.
The phonebook causes immediate heart attack, because during browsing 1/3 of the 128 x 160 pixel large display is covered by a QWERTY keypad, so the user can have fun while hunting down the letter he wants. There is a strong chance that he won’t be able to do it, but his process is still fine compared to message writing. That’s because there is not even a virtual keyboard for text entry, only handwriting recognition, which is probably made by someone really retarded, whi hasn’t ever seen European letters, as it took me 20 minutes to draw a letter “t” (and I succeeded only because the software always shows 10 possible results and one of these was letter “t”, after 30 trials).
The calendar has only month view (and it is small) and one kind of note. The calculator is a basic one; there is a currency- and a unit converter; the latter can only convert lengths and weights. Under the “Health” menu, there is a menstruation calendar and biorhythm, but the world clock is really nice. The icon that used to take to our own files at a Samsung, now pops up the games (a puzzle), themes (three color schemes) and the stopwatch – what a brilliant logic.
Multi? Media?
The little watch has an MP3 and an MP4 player too. The first is shipped with fine Chinese melodies, but they sound surprisingly good through the stereo Bluetooth headset. Furthermore the player runs in the background too, there is an equalizer and the watch can also function in flight mode, if we only want to use these functions. The only problem is that the memory is not expandable and the 128MB capacity is far from enough in order to use the gadget instead of a separate MP3 player, although it would be good for that. There is no camera, but no one misses it.
For data transfer there is only GPRS, thus the watch supports WAP and MMS messages too. There is no email client, but I didn’t miss it. The supplied USB cable, however, brought about a positive experience, as the device is visible as an external drive for USB, without the need for any additional software, although the phone gets off the network when connected to the PC. However it can also be charged through USB.
We won’t go into any further details, as there is nothing left to talk about. This is what the M800 Watch Phone knows. One thing is sure to be a benefit when buying it: the headset. Everything else could be dismissed, mainly because both batteries and the headset have to be charged daily, so I can’t even say that it’s ideal for calls. Usability is a real horror, the menu is completely illogical, but at least they have stolen the graphics from somewhere else. I can hardly wait the first 100% Chinese phone that wins our approval, as I couldn’t find any until the present day.
Translated by Szaszati
Bog
M800 Watch Phone has been provided by XXL. The device can be bought at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| M800 Watch Phone | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 70 x 45 x 16.4 mm | |
| Weight | 70 grams | |
| Colors | white, black | |
| Display | ||
| Internal display diagonal | 1.3” | |
| Internal display resolution | 128 x 160 pixel | |
| Internal display type | TFT | |
| Number of colors | 262.000 | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | 250 entries | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | na / 100 KB | |
| Internal memory | 128 MB | |
| Memory expandability | none | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / none | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | none / none | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| WiFi | none | |
| USB | 2.0 (proprietary connector) | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | none / none | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra functions | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice calling / voice commands | none / none | |
| Sound recorder | present | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | handwriting recognition | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | na | |
| WAP / HTML browser | 2.0 / none | |
| E-mail client | none | |
| Java | none | |
| Games | puzzle | |
| Currency converter | present | |
| Extra software | BMI, menstruation calendar | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | none | |
| Secondary camera | none | |
| Video recording | none | |
| Music player | present, runs in background too | |
| Equalizer | present | |
| FM radio | present | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 700 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | na | |
| Talk time | na | |
| Other | ||
| mini stylus | ||
