Samsung U900 Soul review
21/07/08 02:00:34 pm by Matt - 837 words
Categories: Reviews |
 |
The Samsung Soul U900, which is the latest phone offerings from Samsung, Samsung is sticking to its slider guns with the Soul U900, which incorporates modern technology into a classic design. I thought on first impressions this was just another slide phone that looked good but lacked functionality, I WAS WRONG!!
The Samsung U900 Soul
Samsung U900 Soul Specification:
- Size: 105 x 49.5 x 12.9 mm
- Weight: 112 grams
- Camera: 5 MP, 2592?1944 pixels, autofocus, image stabiliser, video(QVGA), flash
- Battery life: 400 hours standby & 6.5 hours talk time
- Display size: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.2 inches
- OS: Custom flash UI on S60 OS
- Bluetooth: 2.0 with A2DP
- Memory: 240MB shared memory & MicroSDHC
- Networks: GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
- HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
- FM radio with RDS
- MP3/AAC/AAC+ player
- AC Charger: Output 9VDC, 2.5A
What's in the box?
- The Samsung Soul handset
- Battery
- Mains Charger
- Hands-free wired headset
- USB Data Cable
- CD-ROM
- User's Guide
GENERAL
The Samsung U900 Soul is an attractive looking candy-bar style slider phone with a funky touch window below the main 2.2" TFT colour display. Either side of the touch controls are a couple of physical buttons or selection keys along with call send and end keys. Above the main screen you find a single VGA camera for video calls as well as the loudspeaker.
The Samsung U900 Soul
Looking to the right hand side of the U900 you'll find a plastic cover over the MicroSD card slot as well as a dedicated camera button.
Samsung Soul right side
Left hand side is home to the volume controls, USB/Audio/power connector and finally a eyelet for a lanyard or phone charm.
Samsung Soul left side
Slide the screen up to reveal a 15 key numeric pad. The keys have a brushed metal finish to them that looks pretty cool, it looks even better in the dark when the numbers are illuminated from behind.
Samsung Soul Keypad
If you turn the phone over with the screen open you'll see the excellent 5.0 Megapixel camera with LED 'flash' and self portrait mirror.
Samsung Soul Camera
Highlights and Lowlights
+ Attractive Design
+ FM Radio with RDS
+ Decent Digital Camera
- Only Tri-band
- Battery life not as good as promised
REVIEW
To be honest, I didn't understand what all the fuss was about when this phone was first introduced to me, but when I took this out of the box I soon came to realise that all the fuss was about something rather stylish and attractive.
When I was out using this it felt right, sitting there in my hand, the solid look and feel that you get from the metal casing, the way the keypad and screen are laid out it just feels right, some people might think its chunky or oversized but I think that Samsung might have made a phone that could just be right.
When I reviewed the KF600 I was not struck on the split/dual screen but with the Soul it just goes together perfectly, the navigation touch screen at the bottom is very responsive and provides an adequate amount of vibrating feedback.
Fortunately, all the heavily-used keys such as cancel and soft keys are mechanical. You can avoid the irritation of deleting a whole text message as you could on the Samsung E900 when you mistakenly brushed the touch-sensitive cancel key.
The Samsung Soul U900 is built in a way that kind of puts across that Samsung acknowledges its past mistakes and has cleverly engineered the Soul. The 5-megapixel camera, for example, is protected behind the slide mechanism similar to the Nokia N95, which is a small detail that adds to the overall user experience.
The aim of having a navigation touch screen seemed redundant at first, but starts to make sense when you use the Soul. When you access an app such as the camera, it offers a series of camera keys making it easier to change all the settings.
LG tried to achieve a similar thing on the KF600 but the often unresponsive touchpad left me frustrated. Samsung's Soul reacts well to touch and you can even adjust the sensitivity of the touchpad to be higher or lower.
Fortunately, the touchpad isn't the only thing on offer. HSPDA (3.5G) allows for high-speed browsing, which is made better when you download one of our favourite programs.
Using the music player is straightforward and it supports a variety of formats including MP3 and AAC, but the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack or adaptor means that you have to use the provided headphones.
Battery life lasted for over two days with moderate use. It started to drop when I used more of its features, particularly while browsing the Web over HSDPA and listening to music for a prolonged period.
Conclusion
The Samsung Soul is fairly straightforward, but that's what impressed me. It's by no means a do-all phone: there's no GPS and no Wi-Fi, for starters. It just works well and provides an enjoyable user experience.
Review by: Phillip
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Samsung, U900, Samsung Soul]
Permalink10 comments
talking on it and a message or call came through, this
would make the touch-screen active and I was then cut
off because I touched the screen with my face whilst
talking. This also happened whilst accessing messages.
Sarah
Cheers
Smelrond
AVOID!
the phone when it’s playing up? It’s soooo annoying! I am
so frustrated with my phone. It loves replying blank
messages.
Also the touch screen is far too sensitive. Does anyone know how to stop it being so sensitive? It drives me mad, sometimes it jumps about all over the place and will not do what i want. I dont like it at all, unfortunately Im stuck with it till my contract ends.
Comment feed for this post