O2 X7 / Grundig M240

Available now
19th November 2005
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The Grundig M240 is a compact sliding phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, also badged as the O2 X7. The handset is actually made by Spanish company Vitelcom who licence the name from Grunding in Germany. There are a variety of handsets made under the Grundig Mobile name, but the M240 will be one of the most widely distibuted under the "O2 X7" name.

To look at, the M240 / X7 is very similar to the Samsung E800. The similarities are more than skin deep though, the weight, screen size and feature set are almost identical to the E800, plus the camera is hidden by the sliding mechanism when closed, in a similar way to the Samsung. The major difference is that the O2 X7 / Grundig M240 comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera and the Grundig is a little smaller and lighter all around than the Samsung.

It's a pretty basic phone apart from the camera, with a 128x160 pixel display in 65,000 colours, no Bluetooth, no expandable memory (and just 4Mb of internal memory) and no significant multimedia features.

It's a lightweight phone though, the O2 X7 / Grundig M240 weighs 83 grams and it has a reasonable 4 hours talktime and 7 days standby. The O2 version does look quite attractive, probably more than the original version.

However, the handset is just too basic in our view. The 1.3 megapixel camera is crippled by the lack of internal memory, and you'd expect to see Bluetooth on a handset like this. To be fair to Grundig Mobile. they do have much better handsets in their range than the M240. O2's branding of the handset as "X7" is misleading though - it makes it appear to be a high-end handset, while really it's just an entry-level handset. However, price-wise O2 are pricing the X7 on prepay at around the same cost as the Nokia 6020 and Sony Ericsson K700i which makes it pretty reasonable value for money.

The O2 X7 is available now from O2 Germany. As far as we can tell, there are no retail outlets currently stocking the Grundig M240.

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