Sagem my150X review

The Sagem my150X is currently being sold instore at ASDA as a pay as you go phone for a great value price of around £10, or you can find it on the Web for £20.

At that cost you'd expect a handset that's as chunky and ugly as a WWF wrestler, but the my150X is surprisingly slim and looks better than some phones we've seen that cost 10 times as much.

Strengths
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if that's true then the Motorola F3 should really be blushing with embarrassment when it casts its eyes on the my150X. Both handsets look almost identical, as this Sagem model has borrowed the F3's silver and black colour scheme, keypad design and slim profile -- it measures just 10mm at its thickest point.

As you would expect from such a low priced phone, you don't get much in the way of frills, but all the basics are covered. The menu system is very straight forward, so it's easy to do everyday tasks such as adding names to the contacts book or checking missed calls.

The mobile's reception is also very good and call quality is crisp and clear. Even the speakerphone mode is very usable, although incoming callers sound clearer to you than your voice will sound to the person you're speaking to.

Given the handset's slim dimensions, we didn't expect much from the tiny battery, but it actually stores enough juice for three hours of talk time and the phone ticks over on standby for around four hours -- that's about par for the course on this kind of phone.

Weaknesses
This is a very basic handset so many of the extras that have gradually been finding their way onto mobile phones over the years are missing. For example, there's no camera, which means you can't take pictures of your mates down the pub. In fact, it doesn't have any support for imaging, so other people can't even send pictures to your phone via MMS.

It also lacks a WAP or Web browser and there's no onboard memory so the maximum number of text messages and contacts that can be stored will be decided by the small amount of memory included on your SIM card.

The other big issue is the screen. Sagem calls the screen a 'neon display' and at first glance it appears quite cool. It shows blue glowing text and graphics against a dark background and looks futuristic.

However, this can't hide the fact that it's essentially a mono screen that can't display any colours and so can't be used to show pictures. The screen is also relatively small at just 46mm (1.8 inches) and has a low resolution, so it can only fit a limited number of words on it at any one time. This means lots of scrolling to read longer text messages.

Conclusion
If you can live without the usual mobile extras, such as a camera and WAP browser, then you'll find that the my150X is a great budget handset. It looks good, is easy to use and, at around £10, costs less than a cocktail in most London bars.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Jon Squire