Growing up

When British cell phone maker Sendo introduced itself here last year, it did so by launching a product that reflected its nature and the market it wanted to reach. With a toy-like shape and animated user interface, Sendo’s first offering in the country – the S200 – virtually hammered its message on Filipino’s doors: It’s a young company targeting the youth.

Now, Sendo, which is only three years old, has placed another product on local shelves. This time, the product is more sophisticated-looking yet carrying the same fun-out-of-the-box features that have become Sendo’s trademark.

The J520 is the first in Sendo’s 500 Series, a mid-range product line aimed at teenagers who got an S200 as their first phone or their older brothers or sisters who may have been borrowing their cute phones all these months.

It is definitely sleek. With its aluminum-like face and straight sides, many may mistake the J520 for a Nokia (the phone resembles a shrunken 3210). The J520, which we tested, is comparable in size to the 8850, only slightly bigger. But being bigger does not translate into being heavier. On the contrary, at 75 grams, the J520 felt better in our shirt pocket than the 8850.

Being light also does not mean being a lightweight. When it comes to features, the J520 can probably match the heavies. Consider these:

• It is the only phone available in the market with a Microsoft Mobile Explorer browser for use in checking e-mails, reading news and visiting various WAP sites on the Internet.

• It is the only phone in which you can compose a ringtone by plotting notes on musical bars. Those wanting to follow in Ryan Cayabyab’s footsteps can start here and plot notes, set their duration, sharpness and tempo. They can even adjust the bass and treble of their composition through the "equalizer" feature of the phone.

For those who got hooked on the S200, the J520 will surely give a stronger attraction. The three games that come bundled are – this is a warning – addicting. From the Quaddro (you compete with the phone using chips), the Splash (you probably know this game as Pipe’s Dream) to the graphically enhanced Tenpin bowling, the J520 can be an insomniac’s best friend.

Sendo passed on to the J520 many winning qualities of the S200. The long battery time is there: You still get 235 hours of standby and 100 minutes of talk-time. The menu system with cute animation was not only retained but was even upgraded. Instead of the message-in-a-bottle cartoon, you’ll see a letter on a table folding by itself and swooping through the door whenever you send an SMS. And a load of pictures now comes handy for your messages, although you can only send them for now to your fellow Sendo users. This may change soon, however, as Sendo bosses in Birmingham work for "more compatibility" with other manufacturers.

Just like any product, the J520, of course, has weak points. The major shortcoming we spotted was its shortage of phone memory which, to our dismay, is the cause of the 70-character limit in our text messages, the five-character limit on each phonebook entry, and the five-melody limit in our composer file. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Too bad for this text-hungry market. Well, this the price to pay for all those funny graphics that eat up most of the phone’s memory power.

Another thing we think is the J520’s weakness is the predictive texting or T9. This feature, which is definitely not useful to us and probably to majority of Asian texters, is default – yes, default , meaning automatic on the J520. You have to turn it off each time you text. Over time, it becomes a nuisance.

Overall, the J520 is definitely a welcome addition to Sendo’s product line-up in the country. In deeper reflection, it probably mirrors what Sendo, a very young company, is experiencing as it grows older and wiser. Yes, it is growing more sophisticated and getting more sleek. But along the way, it never ceases to have fun. In the process, it makes others have fun, too.