Amazon.co.uk Review
The Sagem WA 3050 combines a fully functional mobile phone with the power of a Pocket PC, to give you a single voice and data solution in the palm of your hand. The looks are similar to those of any other Pocket PC, in this case with a sleek two-tone silver finish. The only giveaway that this is anything other than an ordinary PDA is the stubby phone antenna that protrudes from the top of the device. The Sagem comes with a quick installation guide and a detailed 200-page manual that covers the complexities. This is more than enough to get you up and running.
In essence you have the full power of a Pocket PC at your disposal. This includes the Windows CE 3 operating system, plus all the basic apps that come with it, like Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Internet Explorer. ActiveSync 3.1 and a full desktop copy of Outlook 2000 are also provided for synchronisation with your PC, along with a cradle that enables you to connect via USB or serial. The Sagem is a monochrome device, with a 16-greyscale display, which measures 240 x 320 pixels. It comes with a 16 MB memory and there is a slot on the back which will take a separately available expansion jacket to provide more memory as it is required.
It would all appear to be a rather standard Pocket PC, until you look a little closer. Sagem's experience in the mobile phone world shines through. The phone software included is comprehensive, logically implemented and takes up a relatively small amount of the device's memory. Equally impressive and an important consideration is that the touch screen is very responsive, making it easy to dial numbers quickly, as you would with a normal phone. The phone software includes a sync with SIM facility, for pulling your existing phone SIM information. It also has features such as charge monitoring, call log, vibrate and ring settings, plus it links well with your contacts database. Using the Sagem WA 3050 as a data device is simple. As long as your SIM has data capabilities, you just use the dial up settings within the device to configure the Sagem phone as a GSM modem, add your ISP settings as you would for a normal Internet connection and off you go. In future, Sagem claim that GPRS will be available as a purchasable upgrade to the device, which will help with the speed of data transfer, though details of this aren't clear at the moment. The obvious comparison to draw is between the Sagem WA 3050 and the Trium Mondo. While both have their merits and are well-conceived devices, the Sagem unit comes out favourably in several areas. The screen is more responsive, the phone software is superior and takes up less memory, plus the Sagem can be expanded to add more memory. --Jason Weston
Manufacturer's Description
The SAGEM WA 3050 is both a powerful mobile phone and a Personal Digital Assistant combined in a single, stylised and compact product. Equipped with a powerful processor and an expendable 16 MB memory, it is one of the most impressive assistants on the market.
It allows you to keep your professional and private lives under full control whilst on the move: access to WAP and Internet information and services, diary, address book, e-mails, multimedia Microsoft Pocket Word and Microsoft Pocket Excel software make it a real embedded mobile office.
The SAGEM WA 3050 has a wide high-resolution touch screen. In addition, it includes a character recognition system for the digitising of handwritten data and a infrared link to facilitate connections with a PC or another personal assistant.
The SAGEM WA 3050 allows you to send and receive e-mails, SMS and faxes as well as download texts, images and music from the Internet.
New generation phone, it comes with high performance functions such as the hands-free system, the vibrating device or the downloading of new ringing tones. And for complete mobility, the SAGEM WA 3050 is dual-band GSM 900/1800, with large standby time and weighs less than 200 grams !