MessagePhone QS150 and QS200

Available now
10th February 2010

The MessagePhone QS150 and QS200 are two BlackBerry-style messaging devices aimed at emerging markets, pitched to sell at less than $100 for the cheapest version of the handset.

Although these two MessagePhone devices do support standard email protocols, the real thrust of the parent company Synchronica is to sell a complete package of handsets and supporting infrastructure to carriers who want to provide a low-cost way of providing customers with push email and internet access on the go.

Initial markets are anticipated to be Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Africa and South-East Asia, where operators will be offered the Synchronica Mobile Gateway. This "Gateway" offers push email support, data synchronisation and instant messaging. It also acts as an interface to various social networking sites.

These two MessagePhone devices themselves are quite similar. The MessagePhone QS150 is a tri-band GSM / GPRS handset with a 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel TFT display, VGA resolution camera, MP3 player, and 10MB of internal memory plus a microSD slot and a QWERTY keyboard. The QS200 adds quad-band GSM and EDGE support, 32MB of memory 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio and Bluetooth.

Both handsets offer 5.5 hours talktime and 17 days standby time, which is very reasonable. They are also very lightweight, with just 65 grams being quoted for the QS150 and 73 grams for the QS200.

The Phones are made by KC Mobile of Korea who are not particularly well-known, but they have been in business since 2003 and have enjoyed some success in China, but most end users won't be aware of that as carriers are likely to use their own branding.

There's a lot more information at the Message Phone website at www.message-phone.com including a 3D model of one of the handsets which doesn't look at all bad.

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