Sagem VS1 and VS2 (Vodafone Simply)
Discontinued 21st May 2005
Here's a true story. About a year ago
we had a look at a Sony Ericsson P900 here at Mobile
Gazette. A hugely impressive Smartphone with bags of
features.. but one of the few things we couldn't work
out how to do was make a phone call from a contact on
the SIM card. A simple operation that required a great
deal of fiddling around and eventually a consultation
with the manual. Now, we're not stupid at Mobile Gazette,
but the problem was that the phone had so many features
and such a confusing interface that often the more advanced
tasks were simpler to use than the basic ones.
It turns out that we're not along in
the struggle with technology, and a partnership between
Sagem and Vodafone has come up with the VS1 and VS2
models, which Vodafone is calling the "Vodafone
Simply" range. The Sagem VS1 is a curvy silver
phone (pictured right), and the VS2 is a straight black
phone (pictured below left ). As far as we can tell,
the Sagem VS1 and VS2 are basically the same devices
in a different case.
Vodafone
are a bit vague about the specifications, but a close
examination of the press material seems to reveal that
both the VS1 and VS2 have 128x160 pixel colour displays
and are cameraless. In fact, both handsets are designed
purely for phone calls and messaging, and lack Bluetooth,
a web browser or email client. We thing omitting the
web browser is a big mistake, because the Vodafone Live
service that you normally find on a Vodafone exclusive
handset is actually pretty easy to use out of the box.
One nice thing about the VS1 and VS2
handsets is the way that everything is spelled out very
in simple terms. No peculiar little symbols here that
have you reaching for the manual. Indeed, the whole
interface is based on plain old text descriptions rather
than beautiful but obscure icons. We rather like this
approach - keeping it simple rather than pretty appeals
to us.
The Sagem VS1 and VS2 comes with a calender,
alarm clock, predictive text messaging, calculator,
integrated handsfree, polyphonics and some useful contact
management features, but this is a handset you could
master pretty easily. You can connect the handsets to
a PC via a USB cable to back up data too.
There's no information on size and weight
at present, but our best estimates are that the VS1
and VS2 measures something like 115x45x18mm and probably
comes in at about 90 grams. Expect around 3-4 hours
talktime and 8-10 days standby time too.
Who
will the Vodafone Simply handsets appeal to? Well, clearly
one market are those consumers who have just become
fed up with reading the manual. Vodafone mention "over
55s" as a target range, but we suspect that most
people over 30 get frustrated with over-complicated
devices too. At Mobile Gazette, we've championed back-to-basics
phones for a long time - we like to see handsets that
are designed to just work for normal everyday
stuff.
The Vodafone Simply / Sagem VS1 and
VS2 handsets should start to become available for Vodafone
customers from May and June onwards.
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