Dual personality
The concept of dual mode phones, that is phones sup¬porting both GSM and CDMA networks, is not new. Spice launched the first phone in this segment a few months back, which was followed by Samsung and Fly. Now the lat¬est to join this bandwagon is Melbon, with its MB 877. Available in colours of black and silver, the phone has a crystal clear voice quality. Mind you, we did have some difficulty while inserting the SIM card. The SIM card slot for GSM is named 'G' and the CDMA one is named 'C,' but these are written in such fine print that one has to strain their eyes to read it.

The phone is capable of offering both GSM and CDMA networks simultaneously.
Two keys with receive icons named 'G' and 'C are placed above the alphanumeric keypad. All you need to do is dial the number and hit one of the keys for the connection you prefer to use while making the call. Similarly, every incoming call is tagged 'G' or 'C. And it is not as complicated as it sounds accessing and making calls is relatively simple once you get the hang of it.

It's a touchscreen!
What makes the MB 877 stand apart from other dual mode devices is the set of powerful features packed into it. The most striking of these is the touchscreen, which is normally not seen at devices in this price segment. And it is a good touchscreen too it responds at the slightest touch of the finger or stylus, once calibrated it with the stylus. The phones' 2.0-mega pixel camera turned in a very good picture quality, giving us the option of determining the resolution and quality of the picture along with effects like sepia and emboss. What's more, it clicks pictures in flash mode and can also be used as a web camera, if needed.

Other features include an audio player (that delivers loud and clear voice quality), a
video player, video recorder and audio recorder (that can record ongoing conversations in addition to acting as a dictaphone). You can also take snap shots of an ongoing video and store it as an image. And to round matters off, you can tag a picture or video with your contacts, so that when the person calls the next time, you can see not only his/her name, but also the corresponding image or video.
For a phone with so many multimedia features, the device comes with only 505 KB of onboard memory.

Thankfully, a 512 MB memory card comes bundled with the phone. And that's not all The MB 877 comes with Bluetooth as well as USB connectivity, and can also be charged using the USB cable in the pack. Qyite surprisingly, the phone does not need any additional software for PC syn¬chronization it is really plug-and-play. And users will be thankful for that. Another nice touch is the option of 'locking' all your data you can set up 'information lock codes' sepa¬rately for messages, received, missed and dialled calls.

Given all the features packed into the MB 877, we were surprised by the absence of an FM Radio something that is 'given' in phones of this segment. And even though the phone claims to support GPRS connectivity, we were unable to give it a try because the operator does not have the settings for this particular model. However, the real let-down was the battery life it did not even last for even three hours on a single charge, notwithstanding the company's claims of 3.5 hours of talktime.

Alternatively
Priced at Rs 8,250, this device faces stiff competition from the Spice D88, Samsung Duo and the Fly B700, which are priced at Rs 7,599, Rs 8,999 and Rs 8,000 respectively.