The Samsung E900 is a very stylish looking phone, it measures 93x45x16.5 mm, so it is very slim and lightweight, and it is barely noticeable in your pocket. I have mine in black but it also comes in pink, gold and silver I believe.
The user interface is intuitive and the menu structure is easily navigated. Having expected to have to sit there for hours to get used to navigating new menus, I was pleasantly surprised to find that everything appeared to be where it should be, making the E900 an easy phone to get used to, and use to its full potential.
It comes equipped with a 2MP, 4x digital zoomcamera
with flash, which can also record video with sound. The camera does take very nice photos, and there are a whole host of settings available to alter the type of picture you're taking e.g. Picture size, Picture quality, ISO. More than a basic user would need. Some give you the option of automatic if, like me you don't have a clue what ISO means.
The sliding mechanism works really well, nice and smooth. Easy to open/close, but at the same time, locks well into place so that your calls aren't accidentally terminated. Another nice aspect to the whole sliding thing is the fact that the camera lens is hidden away when the phone is in 'closed' position. Perfect for keeping it clean and scratch free.
I have read some comment about it's durability. I have dropped the phone on many occasions, and I can honestly say there are no cracks and it hasn't broken. In fact I've had it for about a year now and the only damage is some light scratching on the screen which can only be seen when tilted a certain way in the light, which is normal.
There are 3 design features that annoyed me. The first is the use of the 'C' button when writing text messages. In the past with previous phones, when I've had to delete parts of a txt I would simply either tap the 'C' button quickly to delete a word, or, to delete a few words I'd hold down the 'C' button, whereby whole words were deleted at a gradually increasing rate. Unfortunately with the E900, the touch-sensitive buttons aren't responsive enough to be used in such a quick repetitive manner, and simply holding the 'C' button will delete the entire txt. Actually writing a text is easy enough though because the number keys you use to type the text are normal push buttons.
Apart from the use of the 'C' button with text messaging, the touch sensitive buttons work reasonably well. They lock while you're speaking to someone so that your face doesn't accidentally terminate the call. My finger has accidentally brushed a button while doing other things though. I would suggest learning to press the centre directional button very carefully, you could be happily navigating through a menu to the right when you accidentally exit the menu altogether.
The second issue I have with the phone is that fact that the screen back light remains on whilst on charge. I like to charge mine at night sometimes, and it does get irritating when you're trying to sleep.
Thirdly, when the battery is on its last legs, it will continually nag and annoy you every two or three minutes by vibrating (Quite lengthy vibrations too). It's as though it doesn't care that it's about to die, it just wants to waste even more juice by going out kicking and screaming. There isn't any need for it to do this. If you're not at home with your charger the only way to shut it up is to switch it off.
Overall I was quite pleased, these negative points are easy to overlook and avoid. There are many features and all work very well. It comes with software and a USB data cable, making it really easy to transfer files to and from the phone. There is a music player which plays MP3s, WMA and other formats. It has a built-in memory capacity of 80MB and an expansion slot that can take microSD cards.
I do recommend this phone to others but if you're new to touch sensitive buttons, be prepared. It may take a while to learn to avoid accidentally pressing a button and this may mean either holding the phone differently or bending your thumb in such a way that it doesn't rest on any of the buttons.
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Nov 23rd, 2007
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