Cricket MSGM8 – messaging phone with ugly keyboard

For:

Dedicated key on the keyboard for text messaging and calendar applications, Bluetooth.

Against:

Small screen, cramped keyboard, the navigation array buttons are hard to feel, photo quality of the 1.3 mega pixel camera is really bad.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Cricket MSGM8 is a CDMA phone with support for 1900/1700/800 MHz bands. It has a 2.2 inch TFT LCD display with 220 x 176 pixel resolution. On the back the phone has 1.3 mega pixel camera with photo resolution options of 160×120, 320×240, 640×480 and 1280×960

PIM features include unit converter, stop watch, tip calculator, world clock, memo pad, alarm clock, schedule, calculator, multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone and vibrate mode. The full QWERTY keyboard on the MSGM8 includes dedicated keys for calendar and text messaging.

On the sides of the phone, there is a camera key, jog dial, 2.5 mm jack for headphones and a power jack. The battery has rated talk time of five hours and ten hours of standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

Cricket MSGM8 is available only in black and the small screen with the rectangular buttons give the phone a boring look. It is made for businessmen who need to access emails while on the go, so it seems not much care has been taken the make the phone look sexy. The handset is 4.2 inches long, 0.5 inches thick, 2.3 inches wide and weighs 3.7 ounces, which is lightweight. MSGM8’s exteriors are soft plastic which feels great while holding.

Inside Dope:

Cricket communications has given us a good number of messaging cell phones like Cricket TXTM8 and Motorola Hint QA30. They are back here with another messaging device – the Cricket MSGM8. The design of these messaging phones is a bit boring and hence they are preferred more by the business men than the youth. The latter prefer super fast touch screen smart phones with high end features like 5 MP, fully functional music player, GPS, etc. However, there are people who don’t need all these features, all they need is good messaging features on a handset which will let them check e-mails while on the move. The MSGM8 caters to such kind of people. We won’t call the MSGM8 a smart phone because of the lack of features, and it is just an entry level smart phone. The handset doesn’t have anything that we haven’t seen yet, the display is small, the camera is really outdated, the keyboard could have been better. The phone has 2.5 mm head phone jack. We would have preferred a 3.5 mm jack so that we can hook up any standard headphones. The CDMA triband phone (1900/1700/800 MHz bands) is yours for $119.99 without any contract commitments.

Display

The MSGM8 has a tiny 2.2 inch display with support for 262k colors. Being a messaging phone, the text is large enough and easy to read. However, the low resolution of 220×176 pixels is really bad for photos and videos. Also the icons look quite big and ugly due to the low resolution. You can change the backlight time, brightness, clock format, style of the menu and the picture that is shown when there is an incoming call. Just like Samsung’s TouchWiz, this handset has widgets on the left which is for shortcut to applications that you need the most.

Navigation array and keyboard

The display on the MSGM8 is rather small and rest of the real estate on the device is hogged by the navigation array and the keyboard. The navigation array consists of End/power key, back key, speakerphone key, talk key, two soft keys and the four way navigation button with the OK button in the center. The soft keys were thin, uncomfortable to use and rest of the buttons were squishy and flat on the phone. We didn’t like the navigation array buttons on the handset; Cricket could have elevated the keys a little for better ergonomics. The QWERTY keyboard has all the buttons elevated but they are cramped and this makes it look crowded. This is not all; the irregular rectangular keys make the phone look ugly. Don’t buy this phone if you are the type of guy who types a lot. The space bar key is a small and aligned towards the right. We would have preferred it to be in the center, just like a computer keyboard. On the bright side, there is a dedicated key for calendar and text messaging applications and the number buttons are colored in red which makes it easy to recognize while typing.

Phone book and PIM features

The phone book of the MSGM8 has a limit of 1000 contacts so you will probably never run out of storage space. A single entry can take multiple phone numbers, e-mail IDs, memo and birthday. Photo caller ID, custom ring tone and grouping of contacts is supported on the handset. There are six polyphonic ringtones for you to choose from. Other essential features include unit converter, stop watch, tip calculator, world clock, memo pad, alarm clock, schedule, calculator, multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone and vibrate mode. For advanced users, there are features like Bluetooth, wireless web browser, voice recorder, e-mail and voice command.

Camera

We were disappointed to find a 1.3 mega pixel camera on the back phone. We wanted at least a 3.2 mega pixel camera if not a 5 MP one. 1.3 MP cameras are outdated, they take awful photos. The resolution options for this camera is 160×120, 320×240, 640×480 and 1280×960. Settings include three shutter sounds along with a silent option, 9 fun frames, four effects for image color, five presets for white balance, mirror view mode, self timer and three settings for quality. Colors looked good but the images were really bad, they weren’t bright just like a typical 1.3 MP camera phone.

Games and personalization

You get two games with the MSGM8 – Super Street Fighter 2 and Where’s Waldo. You can get more from the Cricket store. The small display and the cramped keys make gamming miserable on the device. This phone is good only for occasional light gamming. You can personalize the device with range of alert tones, screensavers and wallpaper. You can get more from the online store.

Call quality

We tested the MSGM8 for call quality and we were a bit disappointed with it. There were some issues with the voice quality, occasionally there was warble and calls sounded static at times. Our friends said that they could hear our voice clearly but our voice didn’t sound natural, it was mechanical. Speaker phone calls were better but the voice was bit tinny.

Battery life

The MSGM8 has a rated battery life of five hours for talk time and ten days for standby time. However, in our tests the battery lasted only for a little more than four hours.

Verdict:

Cricket MSGM8 certainly cannot compete with what other messaging phones can offer at a similar price. We found the QWERTY keyboard really cramped, the display was too tiny and the camera took awful photos. Few features spawned like Bluetooth and Speech recognition cannot save the handset, we would advice you against buying this product.