New Mobile Phone Review: Samsung SGH E700A

Right. I've gone and done it again. Barely 6 months after what I promised myself would be the last tech related buy (well, major one at least), I went and traded in my trusty Nokia 6510 and got myself the smashing-spanking new SGH E700. I seem to have a penchant for twin buys. In 2002 it was two GBA units followed by two Palm m130s (which I still use religiously till now). This year kicked off with me and a significant (well, to me at least) other equipping ourselves with said mobiles.. sort of a new year party pack thing.

Heheh. Okay, I'll wipe the silly grin off my face now and concentrate on the review. I've been wanting a flip phone for awhile, since I've never had one before. Internet buzz was very favourable towards Samsung clamshells (especially for the displays!), and I would have gotten one sooner if not for one fatal flaw: the T9 dictionaries on previous models didn't allow users to enter new words. For a guy who thrives on texting, phlogging (and now moblogging!) I find that to be a serious issue indeed. The E700 promised to fix the bug and also add some more features which would be deemed desirable to the fashionable crowd. I'm no fashionbug, but one has to admit, Samsung's been consistently good with design (well, better than the horrendous things Nokia calls phones nowadays). Which brings me to my first point: the form factor.

In a word: gorgeous. People who know me well will tell you how much I love curves, and this phone is no exception. There's no sense of enforced roundedness, but there are loads of subtle, sleek hints in the outline of the phone. Closed, it almost begs to be picked up and opened. And once you do, you'll find that it sits nicely in the palm or on your ear. Very good job, Samsung.

At the end of the day, I'm still a practical person. A phone therefore has to be able to do its job regardless of its style. The E700 doesn't really boast the most features of the bunch, but I find that they're more than enough for me. A word of warning though: this phone DOES NOT have Bluetooth, so for those BlueJackers out there, you're out of luck. Otherwise, it contains what you'd expect of a typical next-gen phone: built in camera, 40-poly ringtones, the ability to assign tones and graphics to different callers, PIM functions, a very fast WAP browser, and JAVA games. Unfortunately, for some reason this variant of the phone does not allow pictures taken with the built-in camera to be used as phonebook entries, while the E715 (US edition) does. A boo-boo for some, but not something I can't live without. It has about 9MB of onboard memory, which is shared dynamically between applications. For a phone this size, that's a lot.

The UI is similar to previous models, and though I had some difficulty initially adjusting to the menus (and especially texting) I found that it's pretty easy to get used to. The 65K display is clear and very sharp but don't expect it to be too sharp in sunny conditions (typical of LCDs). The outside display only supports 4096 colours but also doubles as a viewfinder for self-portrait shots and displays battery status, caller info and the time, among other things. The built in CMOS sensor camera allows shots of up to 640x480, and so far I've been quite pleased with the results. Don't expect Exposure Bracketing or other advanced features, but this is definitely one of the better camera phones I've seen. It can also take up to 9 exposures in rapid succession, which can then be turned into screensaver animations, which is cool. Other than that, there are framing options and several effects (including sepia and emboss). Again, good job.

I've never had a poly ringtone phone before, but I CAN say that the tones from this baby sound really good. They DO have a tendency to be very loud, so be aware. Samsung failed to take Nokia's cue in presenting users with different sound profiles. I miss my Silent and Outdoor settings. Nothing detrimental, but it can turn off prospective buyers.

The built in GPRS and WAP browser is quite fast, and I've had no problems so far accessing any sites online. There's even space on the phone for additional JAVA games and apps, and with the ever widening variety of games out there, this is definitely a plus factor for me. Battery life is about what you'd expect from a phone like this, lasting about 3 days on a full charge. I've read on the net that apparently Samsung has pushed the Li-On battery to its limits with this phone, and I can see why. So pick up an extra battery or car charger if you expect to be on the go a lot.

Finally, there's no software included in the package. You'll have to download it from Samsung's site. This is where it gets a little iffy. The phone's still too new right now, and you can't really find ringtones/graphics that are fully compatible. Give it a couple of months to get the user base running, and I foresee this problem shrinking. The PC-Link software requires a data cable or IR link and you need to fiddle with it a bit (since the English isn't too good) but it gets the job done. I expect some more updates to be available on Samsung's site.

In the end, all I can say is the E700 is not for everyone. Techies will be repulsed by its lack of Bluetooth, Nokia die-hards by its lack of User Profiles and so on. But if you're looking for an uncomplicated, stylish flippy, this one won't be far off the mark. Recommended, with reservations.

The Ox gives the Samsung E700A a 4 out of 5.

By the way, check out my moblog! It's at http://ashtheox.textamerica.com/. As you can see, I'm having a blast!