Mitsubishi M430i review

2011 was a year in which my phone collection grew, adding rare gem after rare gem. First was the Alcatel OT-710D, the Neonode N2, the SoftBank 707SC, and last but not least, the Mitsubushi M420i!

Let me put things in perspective -- the last Mitsubishi phone we got in Canuckland goes back to 2001. Fido, the first GSM provider in Canuckland, got an exclusivity deal and released I believe three models.

This is not my first Mitsubishi phone. My first one was a G310:

http://www.pscp.info/phones/phone.php?p=135&gi=1

It was a drizzling pile of shit. Granted, the FIDO network had flaws, but this phone was downright terrible. It dropped a lot of calls, had no vibrate mode, and voice quality was blah.

So what was I thinking purchasing another Mitsubishi if the first one was terrible? Yeah, it was taking a chance. Does the m430i redeems the Mitsubishi brand, or does it suck as bad as it's predecessor?

It does not suck. Far from it!

The M430i is a tri-band GSM phone, 900/1800/1900MHz to be precise. Only 1900MHz is supported for North America, making the phone a single-band, while in Europe it is a dual-band. I do not have a lot of single-band phones, but my SoftBank 707SC fits the bill, so I will bench the M430i against the 707SC.

The M430i has some pretty damn good signal for a single-band. I have yet to see the phone lose the network, it was even able to make and hold a call in the backstore at work, something I cannot do with the 707SC. Speaking of calls, they sounded pretty good, but there was a very slight hint of distortion when the earpiece volume is set to maximum.

Physically, the phone is tall. The top section houses the camera module, and it adds a LOT of height to the phone. The phone is also a bit on the thick side, but the M430i was released in 2004, so I look past the age of the phone.

The external screen is fairly big, which is nice. Easy to read, down to basic, signal, battery, time, your wallpaper, and that's it. The internal screen is 240*320, which at the time was HUGE! It is a TFT LCD, and looks very damn good, hell it's not only huge, it is 262,164 colors, or 18-bit when the rest of the world was with 12 (4096) and 16-bit (65535) displays.

The camera is a bit on the quirky side. It points directly at me when the phone is open. When it is closed, slide the back cover open to reveal the lens. The external screen becomes the viewfinder. There is also a flash. The camera is 1.3MP, again, for the time, this was great.

The keypad is great, I can easily tell the keys apart, and extra points for the SWEET blue backlight!!

The menu is different and takes some time getting used to, but it's no-nonsense and works well, WAY better than the G310.

Bottom line? The M430i is another exotic addition to my collection, and one that works superbly, too.