By July 28, 2009

Samsung S8000 JET review

Introduction:

In June this year Samsung hosted launch events called “Samsung Mobile Unpacked” in London, Dubai and Singapore. This event saw the live launch of the Samsung S8000 Jet. The device is advertised as being “smarter than a smartphone”. Let’s see if Samsung are right?

Samsung S8000 JET

The Samsung S8000 JET

 

The ten second review:

Device: Samsung S8000 Jet

Price: £320.85

Summary: A beautiful device jam-packed with features.

Best of: AMOLED Screen, User friendly.

Worst of: Video recording

 

What’s in the box?

  • Handset
  • Battery
  • Charger
  • USB Cable
  • In Line Headset
  • Software Disc
  • Manual
  • Plastic Case

Also have a look at Matt’s Samsung S8000 JET unboxing video for more.

 

Samsung S8000 Jet Specification:

  • Dimensions: 109 x 53.5 x 11.9mm
  • Weight: 99g
  • Battery Capacity: 1100 mAh
  • Display: 480 x 800 pixels/3.1″ AMOLED Display
  • Network: 2G: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)
    – 3G: 900/2100 (Dual-Band)
  • Camera: 5 mega-pixels (auto-focus)
  • Video: Hi-Resolution VGA Video Recording
    – 30fps Video Recording (VGA)
  • Music: Supported formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ & WMA
    – FM Stereo Radio (RDS)
    – FM Radio Recording
    – DNSe Natural Sound Engine
  • Messaging: SMS, E-mail (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange)
  • Memory: 2GB (internal)
  • 3.5mm Audio Socket
  • Bluetooth (2.0)
  • Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g)
  • AGPS
  • Electronic Compass
  • Accelerometer

 

General:

The top of the handset contains the 3.5mm headset socket and the micro USB port.

Samsung S8000 JET_top

Samsung JET top view

 

On the left hand side only a volume up/down rocker can be found.

Samsung S8000 JET left side

Samsung JET left side

 

The right hand side houses three buttons. The one nearest the top is the device lock button. The middle launches a cube style menu as well as motion features and the bottom key is a dedicated camera key.

Samsung S8000 JET right side

Samsung JET right side

 

On the front of the handset at the top are the secondary camera lens and also a light sensor. At the bottom are the send/end keys as well as a menu quick launch button.

Samsung S8000 JET Front view Samsung S8000 JET Front control buttons

Samsung JET Front view and control buttons

The rear of the device contains the 5MP camera lens as well as the flash. The nice thing about the back is that at certain angles it looks black but when the light hits it right it has a deep red colour.

Samsung S8000 JET back

Samsung JET back view

 

Highlights:

  • Wi-Fi
  • AMOLED screen
  • 3.5mm headset jack,

Lowlights:

  • Video recording
  • sound quality

 

Review

I was looking forward to the Samsung JET arriving on my doorstep. I have always been a Samsung fan and have owned more than ten of their handsets over the years. I was intrigued to see how the Jet compared to its main rival (which I would say is the LG Arena) and also if it was as smart as Samsung say it is. As I recently reviewed the Arena I was looking forward to the battle!

After opening the box for the first time I was pleased with the look and feel of the Jet. At only 99 grams the handset is very solid and just feels well made.

The design of the phone is just as good as the build. Its plastic casing is smooth and its rounded edges make it feel comfortable to hold.

The Jet comes with a case inside the box. This is only for protection and does not have a belt clip/loop. I initially thought this was a nice add-on but the case is made of thin plastic and feels cheap.

Using the Samsung JET was a real pleasure and a better experience than I imagined it would be. The AMOLED screen is absolutely stunning! Its colours are so bright and vibrant.

Samsung use there Touchwiz interface on the Jet. This contains the widgets bar on the left of the screen. From here you can drag and drop widgets of your choice onto the home screen. A nice additional feature is that you can swipe the home screen left or right to give you a total of three home screens. By adding widgets to these it can give you quick access to your most used features. For example: on one home screen I had the myspace, facebook and youtube widgets. The only downside to these are that they are not applications but links to the websites. Still a great feature if you use them a lot but not perfect. Could be “smarter” Samsung!

At the bottom of the screen are four on-screen shortcut keys. These are keypad, phonebook, messages and main menu. These work like a dream as the screen is so responsive.

Another shortcut option is the button next to the camera button. A short press of this button opens up a cube interface which contains easy access to the media features on the handset (photos, music, video, radio, games and internet). Although a nice looking feature I found this a bit of a novelty after a while and I could access these features just as quickly through the main menu. It looks nice though!

A longer press of the same button opens up the motion sensor. This teaches you how to use movement and taps to change music tracks etc. I couldn’t get along with this option and found it quite frustrating! Again, it sounds a nice feature but how many people are going to be walking down the street listening to music and then waving there phone around in the air just to skip a track. It may be quite funny to watch though!

Using the Samsung music player was a nice experience. Once opened the player is extremely easy to use with nice big on screen buttons and a graphic equalizer. If the phone is rotated into landscape the screen auto rotates and shows you the albums cover work. You can then scroll left or right to choose the album you wish to listen to.

The sound quality was not as good as I expected though. The supplied Samsung earphones are nice and I actually use these myself but I have had better quality on a lot of other devices. The speaker produced a decent volume but lacked the sound quality. This is one of the few areas where the LG Arena was much better.

Creating both SMS and email on the Jet is a quick and simple. The onscreen keypad is great as the keys are big and responsive. You also have the option to auto rotate the screen and this gives you a full QWERTY keypad. Although in this option the keys are smaller it is still easy to use and with the T9 option messages can be typed with minimal mistakes. The Jet also gives you the option to use handwriting recognition. This actually works well but if its speed you want then stick to using the keypad.

The Jet also has email capabilities. The only down side to this is that you need to input all the settings manually. This is something most “smartphones” do automatically. The upside to this is that you only have to do it once and once it’s done it works well.

The phone contacts menu on the Samsung JET is super cool. It will store up to 2000 contacts and each contact can have a photo attached. In addition there personal information such as email and home address can be stored. A nice feature.

The main menu on the handset is beautiful. The background in the menu is black and this really makes the colours of the menu icons jump out. The main menu consists of three pages and again these can be accessed by swiping left or right. As there are twelve icons per page its very easy to find what you want, unlike some other operating systems which will have you going into folders to find the feature you need.

Web browsing on the Jet is pretty nice. The pages render well and it gives you the option to tap the screen to zoom. Using the Jets Wi-Fi is an added bonus and the whole browsing experience was as good as any other “feature phone”. A nice feature is that you can have several pages open at the same time. By clicking an on screen button you can view the pages you have open and then scroll left or right to select the chosen page. This is actually better than on a lot of “smartphones”.

The 5MP camera does a reasonable job. Its pictures are not fantastic but are as good as you would expect. What really helps though is how easy the camera features are to use. The on screen option buttons make changing the cameras setting simple. There is a nice selection of “scene” modes to choose from. These include portrait, landscape, night, sports, indoors, sunset, dawn and a few more. A decent amount for getting the right shot. The flash on the Jet is pretty decent and has an auto option as expected. There is certainly plenty of space for keeping photos. The Jet has 2GB of internal memory with the option to insert a micro SD card.

Using the video recording option though was a bit of a let down. On screen the video recording look fine but once transferred to a PC they are grainy and a bit blocky. I used QuickTime to view the videos and even watching the videos at half screen size it was not good. Compared to the LG Arena the JET’s video recording was a major let down.

As expected the Jet has lots of additional features such as alarms, calendar, radio, voice recorder, timer, stopwatch, world clock and a few more. All worked a treat and were really easy to use.

jet_angled_right

 

Conclusion

Overall the Samsung JET is an amazing little phone. Its jam-packed with features and so easy to use. Although the camera and video features are not as good as on the LG Arena pretty much everything else is better in my opinion.

“Smarter than a smartphone” I don’t think so! It’s smarter than most other “feature phones” but compared to Windows Mobile, Symbian and the iPhone it’s a little bit behind.

If you want a good all round device without the business features then buy a Samsung JET. I would! In fact I think I may well get one for my other half!

 

Review by: James

Posted in: Phones, Reviews
Tags: ,

About the Author:

More than 20 years in the IT industry. Blogging with a passion and thirst for new technology since 2005.
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