I own this phone and i got it when it first came out at the end of last year some time. I got it on contract with Orange, so i can't really comment on what the price/value of the phone was. But, as with most contract phones, the handset was free and was delivered free of charge.
LOOKS - When i first saw this phone, i thought it looked quite nice and compact, with the very slim and sleak stylings that was widely talked about and advertised on tele. I opened the box, and my initial thought was that it looked alot bigger than was shown on the tele, but was very thin, and looked good none the less. With the big screen and stylish front panel with the basic buttons on. With a silver trim around the middle arrows and okay button, and a small part along the top for the speaker, keeping in line with the Samsung logo on the front. I was pleased
with how it looked. Apart from the fact it did seem bigger than what i was expecting.
There is also a small ridge on the front of the phone, this is to make it easy to slide up and down. But, it doesn't really work very well. When you slide it up the 'up' arrow tends to get pressed by mistake alot, and a small error message flashes onto the screen. I have found it easier not to use this. Although i do get quite a few grubby finger marks on my screen. Also, when the phone was up, it felt as if it was quite flimsy and plasticky, and that it would break quite easy. Though now it does seem quite durable. Because it was my first really nice, stylish phone i was very aware of this problem, and was cautious with it.
After a while, i realised that the phone was quite small, it was just that i was expecting it to be smaller, and it definitely grew on me.
PERFORMANCE - The inbox of the phone can only hold around 200 messages i believe. When mine gets that full, i am told to delete some to make some room. This may be because i do have pictures and videos stored on the memory aswell though. The phone has 60683kb of memory altogether. Which is tiny compared to other phones on the market, that are designed specifically for music and photos.
The video/picture taking function is very easy. There is a button at the side of the phone that when pressed automatically brings up the camera function, then when pressed again takes a photo. This makes it very easy to use as you don't have to fiddle around with buttons. However, i do not think that the quality is very good. With a 3 megapixel camera it just seems like it should be better. It doesn't pick the sound up very well, and when it does, it is muffled and there is always a lot of background noise. As well as this, the flash is poor. It doesn't work very well at all. Its good as a torch, close up, but if your taking a photo on a night out. Use someone elses phone!
You can also store MP3s on the phone's memory. But if you have an iPod or other kind of MP3 player i would say to use that, because the sound is very tinny. You can change the equaliser setting, but it doesn't make much difference. It still doesn't sound very good at all. With the memory only being small, they can take up alot of room aswell. It's not worth it. Any sounds that are stored can be used as a ringtone, but not a message tone. Which i find annoying. They can also be assigned as an alarm sound.
NAVIGATION- It is very easy to navigate. Everything is clearly set out and easy to fins, with big writing and display pictures which correspond. There is also a shortcut key function. This is very useful because it enables you to assign a key to the things you use most. For instance, writing a text or the alarm feature. This makes it even quicker and even easier to do the most common things on your mobile. A good feature.
OVERALL- I have enjoyed the usage of my phone for the basic functions like calling/texting and things like that. But it isn't very good for the more advanced functions on the phone. The Walkmanw800 series of phones seem more suited for this cause.
Also, a few months ago, i did have a bit of trouble with it. It kept turning itself off randomly and when i closed it. I don't know why this was, but it seemed to sort itself out.
The battery life is very poor on this phone. I am constantly charging mine. But when the battery is low, the phone does alert you, so it is hard for the battery to run out. It flashes every 15 seconds or so, warning of a low battery.
I would recommend this phone if you want something quite basic, but still looks stylish.
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Dec 8th, 2007
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