Samsung U900 Soul: Great touchpad and minimalist chic design!

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Samsung
• Date: Feb 22,2008

Unlike most of Samsung’s phones which just contain the model number and are devoid of a name the Samsung U900 Soul is markedly different. Samsung has not just named this phone but has also gone ahead with a major marketing drive. So is this hype warranted?

Design aspects

In terms of design the Samsung U900 Soul is slim and trendy looking and has the slider mechanism as found in most of their phones. The uncanny resemblance to the LG KF600 cannot be ignored. The sliding mechanism is pretty high end what with slick movement and ease of use. In addition the phone’s design is nothing to rave about although it does have an intuitive Touchscreen interface. Encased in a complete metallic body the phone presents the image of minimalist design with an ultra chic element to it.

Feature rich phone

The Samsung U900 Soul comes with an inbuilt camera with a capacity of 5 megapixels which is much better than most of the phones today. However the camera is devoid of the zoom feature. The phone comes with HSPDA 3G connectivity of around 7.2 Mbps. This again is much above average as compared to several other Touchscreen phones of today. The built in FM radio player also has RDS support. The highlight of the Samsung U900 Soul seems to lie in its interesting and easy to use touchpad. The contextual touchscreen is an added advantage in the phone and it is extremely easy to browse through playbacks, menus and navigate through the various controls on the touchscreen.

Performance aspects

The Samsung U900 Soul has several high end aspects such as the 5 Megapixel camera and fast networking of 7.2 Mpbs HSPDA. These features make for a phone that has above average performance. While browsing through controls and navigation is easy there is still a certain level of innovation left to be desired in the phone. The improved touchpad mechanism is a definite plus in the Samsung U900 Soul which again offers enhanced user friendliness. The phone lacks WiFi but this can be ignored once you consider the superior camera performance and fast connectivity speeds. While the phone does look chic enough when compared to other phones in the market it lags a little behind. Battery life can be expected to be much above average as all Samsung phones are known to have superior battery quality. The great thing about the Samsung U900 Soul though is that when you consider the various features it has and the price of the phone it works out to be a very good deal. Maybe that is the reason why people are so eager to purchase the phone already!

Overall outlook

Going by the looks of it the Samsung U900 Soul seems set to conquer the market. Its relatively good features coupled with the low price it comes at makes for a large consumer base. Besides this the innovative and improved touchpad aids in the navigability factor. On the whole the Samsung U900 Soul can be great to have if you are part of the fashion market!

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tagged: LG, Touchscreen, 3G, Touch, PDA, Samsung, 5 megapixel, KF600, Soul, U900, HSDPA, Autofocus

The Nokia N81: For the Music and Game Lovers

• Author: Moby
• Filed under: Nokia
• Date: Feb 22,2008

The N81 is considered to be the best entertainment powerhouse that Nokia has ever come up with. It is a powerful multimedia device for the music lovers. If you are familiar with the N95, you will probably find them similar in more ways than one.

The N81 is a neatly designed slide phone. It is on the chunky and heavy side, though relatively slimmer than the N95. It exudes a stocky look, which we find classy but not sexy. At first glance, you will notice the much too many buttons and controls found on this handset. Aside from the usual Keypad and navigation keys, it is equipped with dedicated keys for playing and accessing music, video and games.

The N81 contains a whopping 8 Gigabytes of internal memory, which makes it unbeatable. It can store as much as 2,000 songs, and is actually a great music player. It has a 5-band equalizer which can be quite impressive, though the lack of bass is noticeable. It also allows easy playlist management and synchronization with Windows Media Player. If you are tired of your usual songs, you can opt to use the built-in FM radio. The pair of headphones that comes with the package is fairly decent. It supports Bluetooth headsets and 3.5mm mini-jacks just in case you don’t like them.

The N81 has been designed for music-lovers and gamers as well. There are dedicated game keys, and it supports Nokia’s NGage game series. However, we will not recommend you to get this phone purely because of its gaming potential. Though the excellent 3D graphics can be impressive, we are still not fully convinced that this handset can provide you as much enjoyment as a game console like Sony PSP will.

The N81’s connectivity is great. It supports Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and HSDPA for faster 3G downloads. Call quality and reception are also great, as in all Nokia handphones.

The N81 is not the perfect phone though. First, the N81 supposedly features a directional pad which can also be used as a Touch wheel as in the iPod. However, we found it practically unusable since they were just not as sensitive. Also, the built-in camera has a sad resolution of 2-megapixels. This should be good enough; it’s just that we have seen better cameras in the Nokia series.

Another gripe we have about this phone is that it has the tendency to slow down or even freeze if you push it hard on the applications. Although the 8GB capacity helps, it is just not as fast as the N82 (which features a good 128MB RAM). When run in the background, the music player can play lag free, while the currently open application are the ones which take on the slight lag.

Despite its imperfections, the N81 is still one of the best full-featured music- and game-dedicated phones we have ever seen. Though we would have wished for it to be a little slimmer and more fashionable than it is, we have definitely no problems recommending this phone.

The Nokia N81 is available for $496.00 at ElephantCellular

tagged: 3G, HSDPA, Touch, Keypad, Wi-Fi, Nokia, N81, N95, 8GB, Symbian