Appeared on the Italian market a couple of months ago, a little bit on the quiet, the model MW 3020 is one of the most recent models of the big and little known Sagem family.
For years in the sector of the mobile telephony, the French Sagem regrets not to have made a name for itself, at an international level, and in particular way in Italy, both for the little publicity, and also for the anonymous design.
Consequently, today Sagem is still considered a little or not at all by the general public, despite offering solutions of all respect and an elevated qualitative level, the MW 3020 has, in addition, an original design and an uncommon display for its width (in relationship with the very contained dimensions).

The dimensions are of only 105 x 50 x 23 mm., plus just 20 mm. of prominence of antenna, even if the impression we have, looking at it, is of a much bigger telephone, perhaps because of the oversized display. The weight, despite the not very light NiMh battery, is contained in just 112 grams. Anyway the telephone can be comfortably held in every pocket, including the one of the jeans.

The display, as we said, is of very big dimensions, surely the widest of its category and it displays up to 8 lines of text: it is high-resolution graphic (96 x 64 pixels), backlit in green: to this purpose it must be said that the illumination has been improved in comparison to the previous Sagem of the series 900, of which everybody complained for the scarce and not homogeneous illumination.

The keys are small but sufficiently outdistanced, decidedly improved, however, in comparison to the previous Sagem of the series 900, since they are in harder rubber, less yelding, and they respond better to the commands. The software is, besides, faster in the execution of the commands. Another peculiarity that marks the new series 3000 is the possibility to change the whole front cover (mask), unlike the old models of the series 900, for which it was possible to change the only mask around the display. In the model we have tried there were two masks in endowment: a silver one and a red cherry one.

The user interface and the graphics one, very similar to the previous Sagem, are simple and intuitive enough, in addition it is now equipped with nice animated graphic icons, like those of the Nokia, that make the navigation of the menu more pleasant and intuitive.

Among the salient characteristics of this model we can find the integrated live voice, that is, by now, a classical and peculiar characteristic of all the French telephones, live voice that offers a good audio return and a very high listening volume. Well done is, also, the messagings section, where we find the, by now, inevitable T9 and 10 locations of memory inside the telephone, besides those available on the SIM card (10/20). Besides the internal memories for the SMS, there are also 50 locations of memory for the telephone numbers (on its predecessor MW 930 there were 100 of them!), besides those available on the SIM card (100/200): they are not many but, however, they are useful. All the numbers available in index book can be organized in different calling groups (friends, colleagues, family, etc..) which are personalized for ring tone and graphic logo (with some small faces). The ring tones are about 40, plus 5 which can be personally arranged, or received through SMS. There are also the games, that are the same present on the old models of the series 900: Taquin, Solitary and Bill-sweater. They have a pleasant graphics and thet are nice to play with.

There are, besides, the following and useful functions:
- date, time, alarm clock (it also works when the telephone is turned off) and timer;
- calculating machine and currency converter;
- log of the made/received/missed callings, with indication of the date and the time of the same;
- vibration;
- microbrowser Wap, in version 1.1, of the Phone.com.

In the best of the Sagem's traditions (the MC 810/820/830 still remain among the best GSM in receipt and transmission) the MW 3020 has proved to be very good both in receipt and in transmission, both on band 900 but, above all, on band 1800 MHz. Good is also the quality audio, both in transmission and in receipt.

The telephone, that is provided of series with a Ni-Mh ultraflat battery, guarantees an autonomy of about 60 hours, while waiting, on band 900 and 80 hours on band 1800 MHz, and between 3 and 4 hours in conversation. Not exceptional but however enough times.
Optionally a lighter lithium battery is foreseen (the weight goes down of around 15 grams) which is of series on the older brother MW 3040. The battery charger plug and the headphone is the same as the previous series 900, only the batteries and the cases are different.

Besides the standard endowment, composed of trip charger and of the battery, we find a second interchangeable cover (red cherry colour). For the time being, the price of sale is of around 440.000 liras.

CONSIDER ALSO...
In this price band we find the dangerous rival Nokia 3330, a little bigger, heavier and with a smaller but better readable display, without live voice but with the Voice Dial (to recall vocally up to 8 numbers), with all the other similar functions, but with the usual plus of the operator logos, of the SMS with drawings and of the ringtones which can be downloaded from Internet. Or, always spending the same amount of money, you can buy the fellow citizen Alcatel 501, smaller and lighter, with, in addition, the Voice Dial, the notebook and a much bigger index book (500 numbers versus 50).

FINAL VERDICT
Very good Dual Band in receipt, as much good is the quality audio, useful and powerful the integrated live voice. Enough simple and intuitive user interface and very pleasant graphical user interface. We can also find functions which are now in strong demand from the young people such as T9, games and ringtones. In comparison to the models of the previous series 900, the illumination and the keyboard have been improved. GSM of good quality, well made, but with little charm. The price is decidedly not very competitive.