Apr 02, 2010 03:00 PM
6197 Views
(Updated Apr 09, 2010 09:12 AM)
Introducing the CMIP
The wave of Chinese Made Indian phones (CMIP)which includes most phones available in the market under Indian brands are only cosmetically different. Same wine, different bottles. Maxx, Micromax, Onida, Videocon, Karbonn, Spice etc are some phones that share similar menu systems (or firmware) and spares (chargers and batteries, mainly).
This is a huge advantage for these brands since users do not need to worry about availability of spares if one brand closes down, or users can easily feel at home when they buy a phone from a different brand since the firmware are similar. There is a general feeling among mobile buyers that buying these local brands is not recommended since it would be difficult to find spares. They argue that finding a replacement battery for a Karbonn will be more difficult that getting one for Nokia. The best solution to this doubt is to view all such Indian phones as one brand - CMIP! Though nothing would give me more happiness to be able to call them IMIP (Indian made.... and hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later).
Review of CMIP v. 2.0
Now to the task at hand - reviewing the Spice M-4242 ( though it would be more correct to call this a review of CMIP version X.X, since all phones with this firmware version will share the same features. I have referred to Karbonn K330 of a year ago as CMIP version 1.0 and the Spice M-4242 as CMIP version 2.0 arbitrarily, it is possible that there are other versions of the firmware released before and between these models )
One year after using the Karbonn K330, I am glad to report that the Chinese makers behind CMIPs have considered most of my suggestions in the review of the Karbonn K330 (CMIP version 1.0) and rectified most of it's shortcomings in Spice M-4242 (CMIP version 2.0)
Briefly, the Spice M-4242 is the Karbonn K330 devoid of most of it's shortcomings with a few useful features thrown in.
After being with the K330 for over a year (and a brief affair with the Samsung C5212 - also reviewed on this site) , few days back I bought the Spice M-4242. I was surprised to find the same menu system in it that I had become accustomed to in the Karbonn!
The improvements
No double click needed (in most cases) - a trademark of the K330 was the need to press a key twice, since the first click would only bring the phone out of power saving mode.
Start-up and shut-down tunes can be turned off, and the animations changed. Even the wallpaper can be changed.
Display black out interval is more thoughtfully set. Unlike K330 where the options were either 5 sec or 30 sec, the M-4242 offers a scroll bar allowing the user to set any convenient interval.
The speaker can be switched on even before the call connects.
A short-cut key dramatically reduces the number of clicks needed to get to one's SMSs to 3. But, the older pathway exists and still takes 7 clicks.
It is not entirely a happy journey. Some shortcomings that have been aggravated
Though the M4242 has a longer screen than the K330, the number of lines displayed in the SMS is halved! The reason: of the 7 lines that can be displayed on the screen, the top four lines are reserved for the header containing the message details - date, sender number etc. See attached image. There is a lot of scrolling needed to read the SMS body.
It may be a personal bias, but I feel uneasy referring to the two SIMs as "Master" and "Slave". The K330 was just fine with "SIM1" and "SIM2", though being able to rename them entirely to suit my tastes would have been best (like the Samsung C5212 permits). The Master/Slave nomenclature could be a reflection of the pathetic mental state of the poorly paid, overworked, powerless (or more appropriately enSLAVEd) employees in the chinese factories where these phones are made. Hopefully something more pleasant will appear once IMIPs start rolling out. (and hopefully no one from the Chinese commie party reads this and imprisons the poor firmware writer for "bringing a bad name to his/her country")
Additional features
- The dual LED torch, and a dedicated key to switch it on. Quite helpful. This torch button and the short-cut button (enabling quicker access to SMSs) are extra keys on the keypad.
Spice specific issues
One area where the Karbonn scores over Spice is in build quality. The K330 is quite a solid phone where as the M-4242 seems fragile, especially the battery compartment which doesn't seem to have a tight fit and fidgets, and more importantly doesn't seem to have strong locks. So while the K 330 took a few drops without any issues, I am confident that if the M-4242 falls down, the battery will come off.
The rest of the features are quite similar to K330 and I shall not repeat them here.
Conclusion
Overall, I am pleased with the Spice M-4242. The only thorn which makes it's use uncomfortable for any freedom loving human is the guilt inducing message that pops up every time the phone rings - "SLAVE SIM calling". It is just sad.
