Posted by Mia in MP3-players by Philips over the last year have won a reputation of stylish and original equipment, pleasantly standing out against the background of models of the majority of manufacturers both with the design and convenient operation. Perhaps that is why the company decided to enter the market with new musical mobile phones, the most brilliant two representatives of which we are going to speak about today.
Appearance
The new models are similar to each other like two brothers, and their size is almost identical: Philips M200 is 105 x 44.5 x 13.2 mm, and Philips M600 – 105 x 44 x 15.3 mm. But to understand which of the tubes is more expensive is not a great trouble.
Philips M200
The glossy black plastic of Philips M200 is emphasized by two pink circles – despite the sharp contrast of colors, they fit well in the overall design. The first circle is located on the front panel – this is a 4-position joystick, framing the large silvery “play” button. The second is at the top of the rear panel and is a purely decorative element, enhancing the internal speaker.
The side facets are bordered with a wide black stripe of opaque plastic. The telephone would certainly look more interesting if the border was silver – the color of the large “play” button. But for those who do not like bright colors, this model would be fine.
Philips M600
The main components of the shell of this phone are again made from glossy plastic, but the back panel, unlike the Philips M600 looks slightly more impressive due to a net of many grey dots – something from the series “a la carbon”. However, this “carbon” just as well attracts fingerprints and dust, as the unpainted plastic under it. Like with the Philips M200, when looking at the case of the more expensive “brother” two pink circles strike the eye, but in this case, they look much more elegant and complex. By the way, the circle on the back of the M600 highlights is not the speaker, but the built-in camera, while the net of the speaker is on the side.
The ends are also bordered with a wide stripe of opaque plastic, but not of dark black colour, but bright pink. The phone looks harmonious and cheerful and can appeal to the youth.
Time of autonomous work
The tubes are fitted with Li-Ion batteries of almost the same capacity: 1050 mAh in the M200 and 1100 mAh in the M600. Nevertheless, the time of their autonomous work differs greatly.
Philips M200
If you do not use the MP3-player, but talk on the phone about 20 minutes a day and regularly work with address book, you will have to charge the device on the third day of operation. Continuous listening to music will discharge the battery in 18-20 hours. Of course, simple MP3-players are capable of better results, but it is a good indicator for a phone.
Philips M600
While talking on the phone about 20 minutes a day and working regularly with the address book you can forget about charging for about three or four days. But, with continuous listening to music the device requires charging after 35-40 hours, which is also an excellent indicator, comparable with the best modern MP3-players, with no GSM-module and other communicational opportunities.
Philips M200
Unfortunately, the phone will disappoint all those who are looking for a device that supports Bluetooth. This module is missing from the M200, so it will fail to connect to other devices. Instead of this, the novelty has a built-in FM-radio with an extremely modest interface, but high-quality reception.
To change the structure of the menu or even the design of the icons is not possible, but to put wallpaper (even with animation support) is possible. The office abilities are presented in a standard set of tools: address book, alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, a list of calls, an Internet browser, etc.
But the multimedia, except for the aforementioned FM-Radio, is presented by three simple games, a picture viewer and an MP3-player, which will be described in more details later.
In general it may be noted that the M200 with its possibilities can be considered a typical budget phone.
Philips M600
Unlike the M200, the more expensive version of the musical tube of Philips is equipped with Bluetooth, but … does not have an FM-radio. The reason is uncertain, but anyway, it is a minus for a musical device.
The graphic Russian menu of the new item is most similar to that which we have already seen in the previous model. Only that the matrix of icons, due to greater resolution, has a dimension not of 3 x 3 but 3 x 4.
Office opportunities of the M600 are the same as those of the M200 (see above), but the multimedia presents more. Thus, the unit supports java-applications, and can play video files, for which there is a video-player, modest in its capabilities, with support of MPEG4, 3GP and H.263video formats.
Unfortunately, the absence of an on-board FM-radio narrows the range of the users of the new item, but with all other resources the M600 is a classic modern youth phone.
Camera
Actually a musical phone does not necessarily need a good camera, but unlike other manufacturers Philips saved on this function as much as possible.
Philips M200
The main “hit of economy” fell on the junior model of the M200, in which the camera is non-existent. However, in many cases nothing is better than something but of a very poor quality. So everyone who is tired of cheap low-quality cameras of modern budgetary tubes will be pleased with the new junior Philips.
Philips M600
M600 is equipped with a camera, but with its characteristics, it is suitable for phones produced some three years ago. Judge yourself: the absence of flash and autofocus, a resolution of 1.3 MP. The camera stores photos in JPEG format with a maximum resolution up to 1280 x 1024 pixels and videos in MPEG4 or H.263 with a resolution of up to 352 x 288 pixels. Settings of the camera are few: just standard white balance, exposure, the possibility of imposing one of the few digital effects.
The quality of images is unlikely to endure any criticism – color rendition is unnatural (all images are in cold colors), the image is blurred, minor details are lost. Furthermore, after pressing the button “start” about three or four seconds pass before the camera shoots. By the way, just as slow is the album viewing. Below you can see some examples of photos.
Philips M200
The younger model is replenished with simple headphones, but replacing them will not be a hard work because the phone has a standard connector for their connection – minijack 3,5 mm. We have already talked about additional features – the player on the left hand edge, and the existence of FM-radio, so now it is time to say a few words about the program of work with the MP3-player.
The player works with file formats, MIDI, AMR and MP3. The absence of support for WMA is not a tragedy, but for a musical phone it is a drawback. The program can work in the background, so while you listen to music you can, for example, work with the notebook. The player interface is simple – choose from the available list any songs (by title, by artist or by genre) add to the playlist and play.
Of the options are worth noting the six preset EQ modes – it’s apity though that manual settings are not provided. The program works quickly, without brakes and hang-ups, which is extremely important for a music phone.
Philips M600
The MP3-player of the elder model does not differ in anything from that of the M200 so we won’t speak once again about its resources. However, it should be noted that the player of the M600 together with support for formats MIDI, AMR and MP3, supports WMA files as well. But now we will refer to other equally important differences of the M600.
The main feature of this tube is the existence of a separate on-board audio processor responsible for the quality of sound. As it turned out, it is not a spare function, because the sound of the M600 is deeper and clearer than in the M200.
In addition, the phone plays perfectly throughout the entire frequency range. Another feature related to audio functions of the new model, are earphones with silicone tips that are included in the standard set of the device.
These headphones will satisfy most music fans, but even they do not show all the possibilities of the new model. Those who want more, are advised to take advantage of more expensive headphones; the standard jack will not create problems for their connection. It is a pity only that the device provides a low volume, so in the subway the music is hardly audible.
And finally – the M600 supports work with wireless bluetooth-headsets, which by no means every modern MP3-player can do. Of course, the quality of audio transmission via Bluetooth is far from ideal, but the chance to dispense with the wires is still attractive.
Conclusions
Philips M200 is a record low price musical phone with a standard audio and integrated FM-radio. Of course, the absence of Bluetooth will prevent someone from the purchase, but for young people who rarely have extra money; this phone will certainly seem a worthy acquisition.
Philips M600 is significantly more expensive than its younger brother. But you will receive a full-fledged long-playing MP3-player and no less than a full phone into the bargain. It is a pity only that this apparatus is without an FM-radio and has an extremely inconvenient administration.
