Samsung GT M7600 Beat DJ

== Samsung M7600 BeatDJ ==

In the past few mobile phone manufactures have managed to dislodge the Sony Ericsson's Walkman range from the top of the pile where music phones are concerned, the only model to come close is the almighty iPhone… Nokia tried and failed with their 5310 XpressMusic handset, as did LG and until recently Samsung didn't quite make it with both the Jet and F400.


However, Samsung have not ...
...latest handset demonstrates, the new Samsung M7600, aptly named the BeatDJ. The BeatDJ takes the genre of the music phone to an entirely new level; it is the first to incorporate a virtual turntable, but is this enough to steal the title of the 'Ultimate Music Phone,' or is this just another gimmick?


== Appearance ==


At first glance the Beat DJ looks a little odd, but at least it is different. It has ... more

Samsung M7600 BeatDJ

In the past few mobile phone manufactures have managed to dislodge the Sony Ericsson's Walkman range from the top of the pile where music phones are concerned, the only model to come close is the almighty iPhone… Nokia tried and failed with their 5310 XpressMusic handset, as did LG and until recently Samsung didn't quite make it with both the Jet and F400.

However, Samsung have not given up on the music phone market - as the release of their latest handset demonstrates, the new Samsung M7600, aptly named the BeatDJ. The BeatDJ takes the genre of the music phone to an entirely new level; it is the first to incorporate a virtual turntable, but is this enough to steal the title of the 'Ultimate Music Phone,' or is this just another gimmick?

Appearance

At first glance the Beat DJ looks a little odd, but at least it is different. It has a elliptical shaped body with a 2.8 inch AMOLED screen in the centre. As with most touch screen handsets, the Beat DJ is completely baron of buttons, making the screen the dominant feature.

The screen is actually very good, it is as bright and as thin as an OLED screen, making picture and videos look very nice. In theory the used of an AMOLED screen over and OLED one should reduce power consumption and so increase battery life. In reality though, the Beat DJ's battery life is very poor, I had only had it for 8 hours when it needed to be re-charged.

Music Feature

The Beat DJ includes Bang and Olufsen audio features, but unfortunately the pedigree of the name is not demonstrated by the Beat DJ's sound quality. I was expecting a revolutionised way of listening to music on a mobile, but was disappointed when I actually used it. When compared to a standard MP3 player, the Beat DJ lacks a depth of sound, and while the 5.1 channel surround sound effect works OK with some genres of dance music, when listening to anything vocal or instrumental the sound is not good.

There are a couple of good features for the music function of the Beat DJ. I was pleased to see the inclusion of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the top, as well as the duel purpose the lock key button, which as well as activating the key lock also launched the music player. Another nice feature is the ability to drag and drop an album into the Beat DJ's CD player to get a track going. However, this is where the user friendliness of the Beat DJ's music function stops, there are no dedicated keys to play, fast forward, rewind or change the track. What I found is that short of starting all over again, this makes navigation through your music very difficult. This is where I have a slight issue with the design of the Beat DJ.

The square screen is in the middle of an oval shaped handset, Samsung could, and probably should have utilized the area underneath the screen which is touch sensitive for these missing features. However, this touch sensitive area beneath the screen is successfully used while using the DJ application, allowing you to navigate menus and select sound effects and filters as well as 'scratching' your tracks. The only issue I have with this is that it is bad enough sitting in front of someone on a train or bus playing tinny sounding music tracks, without the noise being made worse by these people trying to scratch them!

The DJ function itself is easy to use, while it will take a little practice to get to the point where you actually achieve a decent sound, you will have a lot of fun trying, but realistically, fun is the as far as the DJ function will go, I will go out on a limb and say that no one will ever produce a track on a Beat DJ mobile phone… why would you when there is already such a huge selection of specialized music production software available…

The Beat DJ only has 50mb of internal memory, which means that the memory card slot is essential. It is located on the side of the handset and is easy to access, I am pleased to be able to say it is very easy to get at the files on a microSD, the Beat DJ quickly detects any media on the card.

User Interface

The Beat DJ uses the Symbian OS, which you may be familiar with if you have ever owned a Nokia handset. Nokia have repeatably tried to get this operating system right and have never really succeeded. However, Samsung seem to have done a better job. It is better looking and the responsive touchscreen is also quite good, but is not as fast as is offered by more powerful phones (cough...iphone....cough!).

Despite the relatively good touchscreen, texting on the Beat DJ is not a lot of fun. Typing is done through an on screen alphanumeric keyboard, and unlike many new handsets, there is no QUERTY keyboard option. Typing on the Beat DJ is slow and sluggish, in my experience when typing quickly letters where consistently left out and the time consuming T9 predictive text function is awful.

Samsung have stuck with the idea of customizable widgets which can be dragged around the home screen which we have seen with the, Jet, HD and Tocco range. However, on the Beat DJ they are infuriating, you will find that instead of activating a widget you will drag it around instead, worse still, the smaller icons are particularly fiddly.

The Verdict

I liked

The range of features is very impressive

It is unique looking

Relatively Inexpensive

Innovative user interface for the DJ App

Standard 3.5mm headphone jack

Expandable memory

Customisable Home screen

I disliked

The user interface feels unfinished

DJ app while innovative, is pointless for most people

No Wi-Fi

No GPS

Tiny 50MB Internal Memory

Poor Camera

Poor music quality for a specialized music phone

Would I Buy One?

The Beat DJ benefits from a very nice looking screen and good range of features, and although it has looks that only a mother could love, at least it is unique. However, the sound quality is not as good as it should be, and while the combination of the DJ app and touch sensitive area of the screen is innovative, the rest of the Beat DJ fails to build on this potential and feels poorly thought out.

I was worried that the Beat DJ was nothing but a cheap gimmick, and unfortunately as far as I can tell that is exactly what it is, despite its relatively low price, I can't think of any reason whatsoever for buying one.
 

...less