Mitsubishi Trium Eclipse / not mars. Review on Mitsubishi Trium Mars

I only saw this one recently and it was on sale at Baazee. The price was what attracted my attention. It said rs4999 and color. Of course when I asked if there was warrenty on it and went to order it the price went up to rs5999 and no warrenty, when I asked about jacking the price he called me a liar even though with on line stuff you can save web pages which I did just to make sure I was not going senile. Now there are at least 5 or more versions of this phone. The ones on Baazee are the original old samples which are missing the software and functionality of the newer models. You can hold down the * key while typing 5806 to see the firmware version. Late model 2002's have more functionality like GPRS than early 2002 models which are missing things like GPRS.

I have used cell phones ever since they came out for the public less than 10 years ago. My original one was the original Motorola analogue, I needed phone access and the company I worked for said contractors will not get to use a phone, being desperate anything was doable. The good thing about that phone was, you got a signal pretty much anywhere, the bad thing about it was the weight of the battery and it needed to be charged after 7 to 8 hours of standby. The best phone I still like is the Sony Z1. This is a US model that worked with Sprint. It was smaller than a cigarette box with a toothpick like Mic that you flipped out to talk and dial. You could just wear it on your belt and do anything, not worry about it sticking into painful parts and causing you injury etc.

Now the Eclipse screen is almost the entire size of my old Sony and it is color, in fact it was the first full color cell on the market. It weighs 110 g and the size is 138x24x28mm which seems to the same as many other phones that came out 3 years ago rather than the new slim and light ones available now. The display is 256 color with back-light with a size of 143 x 120 pixels which lets you see the entire SMS message on the screen without scrolling. The weird twisted banana shape makes it uncomfortable to wear it on your belt or fit inside a shirt pocket but since it comes with a hands free you can stick the phone anywhere convenient.

The eclipse also has polyphonic ring tones, although 3 tones is ploy only as in saying it is more than 1. You need to find special 3 tone ring tone files for it since regular midi or 16 tone Nokia sounds are incompatible with it and forget about converting it unless you can write music using the original midi as a template to down convert it to the 3 tones. Being polyphonic also means not being able to hear the rings in crowds and noise. So not only do you get not so good ring tones, you also miss hearing it. But it is definetely better than a regular buzzer.

It does come with 2 games but you get bored with it fast. 2 of the 6 versions the XL and Ex En versions have games you can download from infusio, they were even developing a java version of the phone until they decided these models were not selling enough and scrapped it.

There is an infra-red port which you can use to download wallpapers and ring tones with instead of using the WAP, voice activated dialing, a two minute voice memo where you can record your babies first speech and keep listening to it whenever. A business card function which you can send to others using the IRDA port. The calendar is something which I would very much miss if I had to give this phone up, as it means that I do not miss things like appointments and deadlines. It does require close inspection of the manual, but is well worth it once there. You get to see the entire month displayed on the screen.

The battery life is rather good, lasting for over four days of minimal use. The charging, indicated by the led on the top glowing red or green when it is switched off and plugged it, is a painless affair and takes less than 2 hours.

Some models also have GPRS available. Since the phone comes with a data cable, you can use the phone as a modem or fax. But it will be expensive since you get charged the voice rate and you need an ISP account. If your phone has GPRS then you get cheap Internet access, Orange has a monthly rate of rs100 for unlimited GPRS use. Only 4 of the 6 models have GPRS. Although all of them have a built in modem, the older models do not come with the software CD to be able to use the phone as a GPRS modem or the updated firmware capable of making use of GPRS access.

There are a few bugs which are a real annoyance and some reliability problems. I tried to send some Panasonic ring tones via SMS to it and the phone locked up. I had to open up the battery compartment and remove the battery and turn it back on to get it working again. You might also loose the ability to register missed calls after some usage. Another problem has been the fact that it sometimes will not answer or cuts out on answering a call. This is pretty serious as it just cuts off people and seems to happen often when you go to answer it. Also if you are replying to a text message in an area of poor reception, and the signal fails on sending, you will lose the message, which is irritating and inconvenient, since none of us live in areas of perfect reception all the time. If you have the phone in your bag during warm weather and the phone is slightly hot, it don't work too good and does weird things like resetting and turning off, not doing what you tell it to.

Over all its a real time waster. For someone who likes to play with gadgets and want to figure out what to do with your time this phones a winner. All the bugs and functions will keep you occupied for weeks, which is why I bought it in the first place.

Its great for a techy like me, but I think for any serious user it would be better to pay extra and get the XL or EX EN models with additional functionality like down loadable games or GPRS which will cost you the same as that of a Ericsson T310 or get a better phone like Ericsson T310 which has GPRS as well as being smaller and lighter. Which is what I will be buying as soon as I can get someone to take this great phone off my hands.

https://mitsubishi-telecom.com/products_detail.asp?id=5970