Samsung Exhibit II 4G is an Android smartphone, which is available now as both post-paid and prepaid option. It offers fast HSPA+ speeds, plenty of bells and whistles, good call quality, good selection of preinstalled applications, fast 4G connection and is less expensive. It also provides 1GHz processor, allows you to stay connected with social network and messaging feeds through Social Hub, access thousands of TV shows and movies with Media Hub and productivity on the go – sync calendars, contacts and corporate email. With 1GHz processor and 4G capability, the Exhibit II 4G keep up to the minute with all the information you require. If you are downloading music, videos or e-books, uploading images, updates, videos or documents, or if you are video chatting or gaming, it is smoother and faster.

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G features a Social Hub, an amazing application, which consolidates all your favorite social networking sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and puts your messages and email in one easy to update, central location. It allows you to synchronize contacts and calendars into one easy to organize location. You can access plenty of television shows and hit movies via Samsung Media Hub. The Exhibit II 4G is a perfect work phone that offers array of features, making it ideal for Android bargain hunters. It is similar to Samsung Galaxy W, which was launched in the month of August in United Kingdom.

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G runs on HSPA+ network of T-Mobile and comes with front facing VGA camera, three-inch WVGA touchscreen display, rear facing camera and 1GHz processor. There is support for T-Mobile TV and applications such as Qik Video, while Swype virtual keyboard comes preinstalled. It is available for the price of $29.99 after $50 mail in rebate. The Exhibit II 4G is the first no annual contract smartphone to be marketed at most Wal-Mart stores. The original Exhibit model featured rounded top and flat bottom, while the all new Exhibit II 4G flips design on its head providing rounded bottom and flat top. It has all hard plastic: glossy front, nubbly dark blue textured backing and matte gray sides.

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G measures 0.45 inch thick, 4.54 inches high and 2.35 inches wide, which is fairly small and thin. So it fits easily in purses, pockets and other carrying contraptions. It comes with 3.7 inch LCD WVGA TFT touchscreen display that boasts 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixel resolution. It looks sharp, bright, clear and colorful. Powering the Exhibit II 4G is an Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system with TouchWiz interface of Samsung. It offers seven customizable home screens, overview screen where you will find all the screens at once, certain feel and look to interface and intuitive access to system services in pull down notifications menu.

Like its predecessor, the Samsung Exhibit II 4G features front facing VGA camera above the display. It is pretty great for easy self portraits and conference calling. Underneath the screen, you will find four touch sensitive buttons currently usual for smartphones. The micro USB charging port and 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top of the device, while volume rocker button on the left. The power is situated on the right hand side of smartphone, while the 3-megapixel camera with flash is at the back. The microSD memory card slot is behind the battery cover and can hold up to 32GB of memory. It comes packed with built in Wi-Fi, nearly limitless phonebook, Bluetooth, multimedia messaging and GPS. You will find typical Google services, including Gmail, built in music player, YouTube, Google Places and Google Maps with turn by turn voice navigation.

Samsung adds its own applications in Samsung Exhibit II 4G such AllShare DLNA, Samsung Social Hub and Kies Air syncing applications. T-Mobile also adds plethora of services such as subscription based T-Mobile TV HD. Other features include 411, Visual Voicemail, Bonus Apps, Wi-Fi calling, Highlight, T-Mobile Name ID, My Account and My Device. There are also Tetris and Bejewelled 2 demos, Blio e-reading application, Zinio Reader, Lookout Anti-Virus, Slacker Radio and Mini Diary Polaris Office.

Standard features on Samsung Exhibit II 4G include 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; 3G Network: HSDPA 1700 / 2100; 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with Light sensor and Proximity sensor with 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixels; Multi-touch input method; Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate; Touch-sensitive controls; Proximity sensor for auto turn-off; Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall; microSD, up to 32GB; HSDPA speeds up to 21 Mbps and HSUPA speeds up to 5.76 Mbps; Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot; camera: Rear facing Camera Resolution: 3.0 MP and Front facing Camera Resolution: VGA with Auto Focus, LED Flash, Self-Portrait, GPS Tag, 2048×1536 pixels and LED flash.

Also standard on Samsung Exhibit II 4G are Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread); 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, Hummingbird chipset; SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS; GPS with A-GPS support; Social networking integration; MP4/WMV/H.264/H.263 player; Image/video editor; Digital compass; Organizer; MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player; Document viewer; Google Search, Maps, Gmail, YouTube, Calendar and Google Talk; Picasa integration; Voice memo/dial/commands; Predictive text input (Swype); notifications: Music ringtones (MP3), Haptic feedback, Vibration, Polyphonic ringtones, Silent mode, Flight mode and Speakerphone.

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G gets User Interface Features: Widgets, TouchWiz, Social Hub and Accelerometer; Video Features: HW codec: 720p; Format: MP4, 3GP, AVI, 3GPP,3GPP2, MKV, WMV, FLV; WMV 7/8: 480p; Codec: MPEG4, 3GPP, H.263, H.264, WMV; Fun and Entertainment Features: Wallpapers; Downloadable Content; T-Mobile TV HD, Samsung Media Hub; Bejeweled 2, Slacker Radio, Tetris, Blio, Zinio; Business & Office Features: Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Polaris Office, VPN Access, Qik for Video Chat; Calling Functions: Voice Recognition; Speakerphone; Visual Voicemail; Voicemail; MusicID; Text-to-speech; Multitasking; Picture Caller ID; Hearing Aid Compatible (HAC); Call Restrictions and Airline Mode.

The Samsung Exhibit II 4G features Bluetooth 3.0 Profiles: Handsfree (HFP), Headset (HSP), Generic Access (GAP), Object Push (OPP), Service Discovery Application (SDAP), Serial Port (SPP), Human Interface Device (HID), Service Discovery Protocol (SDP), Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP), Generic Audio/Video Distribution (GAVDP), SIM Access (SAP), Audio/Visual Remote Control Profile (AVRCP), Logical Link Control and Adaptation Protocol, Message Access Profile (MAP), Audio/Video Control Transport Protocol (AVCTP), Audio/Video Distribution Transport Protocol (AVDTP), AMP Manager Protocol (A2MP) and Phone Book Access (PBAP). The estimated battery life of Exhibit II 4G is 15 days in standby mode and 5.5 hours in talktime mode. Overall, it offers decent call quality, solid HSPA+ speeds and irreproachable value.

Beautiful screen; thin design; dual core processor; Gingerbread operating system for fast performance; excellent camera quality; impressive battery life.

Bad

Some parts of phone feel delicate.

Samsung Galaxy S II is the slimmest and lightest smartphone that offers gorgeous display, powerful camera and lightning fast processor. It also offers beautiful 4.3 inch display, great camera, attractive design and endless features with customization options. With great performance, dual core processor and vibrant screen, the powerful and slim Galaxy S II rises at AT&T’s top Android smartphone. It is available for the price of $199.99 with two-year agreement, faster dual core processor, better camera and sharper display. It more closely resembles the unlocked Galaxy S II than Sprint and T-Mobile versions, since it gets smaller 4.3 inch capacitive touchscreen with more appealing design.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is basically an Android smartphone, which was launched in the month of February 2011 at Mobile World Congress. It is at present the sleekest dual core smartphone of the world and is a successor to Samsung Galaxy S. It is one of the first smartphones to be equipped with Mobile High Definition Link that allows up to 1080p uncompressed video output with HDMI while charging device at the same time. Some of the applications on Galaxy S II include Kies 2.0, QuickType by Swype, Kies Air, Quickoffice application, AllShare, Adobe Flash 10.2, Voice Recognition, Lost Phone Management, Google Voice Translation, Navigation, Google Maps with Latitude and Places.

The Samsung Galaxy S II’s Android Gingerbread operating system offers great performance in almost all aspects. It joins the sleekest smartphone lineup of AT&T measuring 4.96 inches tall, 0.35 inch thick and 2.6 inches wide. Its 4.3 inch screen is good enough for comfortably viewing messages, Web pages and video. The AMOLED Plus boasts 800 x 480 pixel resolution and offers sharp text and images with deep colors. The touchscreen is quite receptive offering virtual keyboards including Swype, Android and Samsung. With two fingers on the display, you can tilt to zoom out and in image gallery and browser. It also allows you to perform various tasks including sending and composing a message, launching music player using voice commands with Vlingo powered Voice Talk Application and calling a contact.

Underneath the Samsung Galaxy S II’s display, there are four buttons – menu, search, home and back. The power/lock and volume rocker button are located on the right hand side of the device, while the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top. The micro USB port is at the bottom of Galaxy. In left corner, just above the display, you will find a 2-megapixel camera which is mostly used for video calling. The eight-megapixel camera with flash is at the back. The microSD memory card slot is situated behind flimsy plastic battery door. The package includes AC adapter, reference material and USB cable.

Powering the all new Samsung Galaxy S II is an Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread operating system with TouchWiz 4.0 user interface. You will find seven different home screens, while the notification pull down menu offers icons for easily tuning on screen rotation, Wi-Fi, flight mode, Bluetooth and GPS. There are some useful additions, which includes integrated task manager displaying all active applications, system storage and downloaded applications with option to uninstall along with RAM status.

The Samsung Galaxy S II is a quad-band smartphone that provides multimedia and text messaging, speakerphone, video calling, conference calling and voice dialing. It is compatible with HSPA+ network of AT&T and can also be used as mobile hotspot for five different gadgets including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It also gets Google services including email, YouTube, maps, Latitude, voice navigation, Places, search and chat along with standard tools such as timer, calculator, stopwatch, alarm clock, world clock and calendar. AT&T and Samsung have preloaded with plenty of additional features such as Quickoffice suite, Yellow Pages Mobile, Kies Air, AT&T Code Scanner and AT&T Navigator.

The Samsung Galaxy S II’s eight-megapixel camera is capable of 1080p high definition video capture and offers plethora of tools including effects, ISO settings, white balance controls and more. The image quality is quite impressive and the camera produces detailed, clear and bright images. Standard features on Samsung Galaxy S II include 4.3-inch SUPER AMOLED Plus display for enhanced readability, better battery consumption and slimmer design; ultra responsive Dual Core Application Processor that offers mobile performance, including high speed multitasking, quick web page loading, quick reaction speeds, smoother UI, lightning fast image editing and high performance gaming; screaming fast encoding/decoding ability that supports video playing and shooting; Message: SMS/MMS, Email (POP3/IMAP/SMTP, SSL/TLS) and Exchange ActiveSync Email and Audio: OGG, MP3, AAC+, AAC, AMR-NB, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-WB, MID, WAV, IMY, AC3, XMF and FLAC.

Also standard on Samsung Galaxy S II are video: H.264, MPEG4, WMV, H.263, Xvid, DivX and VC-1 Recording & Playback 1080 at 30 frames per second; image: PNG, JPEG, WBMP, GIF, AGIF and BMP; 2G Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; 3G Network: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100; 4.3 inch Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen that boasts 16 million colors and 480 x 800 pixel resolution; Gorilla Glass display; TouchWiz UI v4.0; Multi-touch input method; Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate; Touch sensitive controls; Proximity sensor for auto turn-off; Gyroscope sensor and microSD, up to 32GB, 8 GB included.

The Samsung Galaxy S II offers HSDPA speeds up to 21 Mbps and HSUPA speeds up to 5.76 Mbps; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot; 8 megapixel camera with 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus and LED flash; Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection and image stabilization; Android OS, v2.3 Gingerbread operating system; CPU: Dual-core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, Mali-400MP GPU, Exynos chipset; Stereo FM radio with RDS; GPS with A-GPS support; Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic; NFC support; TV-out (via MHL A/V link); SNS integration; Digital compass; MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player; MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player; Organizer; Image/video editor; Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF); Google Maps, Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Talk, Calendar and Picasa integration; Adobe Flash 10.1 support; Voice memo/dial/commands and Predictive text input (Swype). The estimated battery life of Galaxy S II is eight hours in talktime mode and 16 days in standby mode. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S II is an outstanding Android smartphone, which makes for a great addition to the lineup of AT&T.

On the other side of the headset, there is earpiece which sits inside the ear gently. There are two ear bud style covers: one having attached loop and the other one without it. You can use the attached loop version without the ear hook but for the other one, you will need to attach a hook for stability. They are made up of soft rubber material to make sure that things remain comfortable. The earpiece was a bit to big for my tastes. Also the plastic round area of the earpiece scratched on my ear a couple of times.

If you want to use the Samsung Modus 3500 as a stereo headset, just plug in the bundled stereo earbuds in to the charger jack of the headset. I was disappointed to see that was no 3.5 mm headset jack for attaching any standard headphones. I expect Samsung to issue some optional attachment in the future. The earbuds have silicon soft covers which are designed to fit comfortably in the ear. This is something that I really liked. The cable for the earbud has an inline microphone so you don’t have to take off the earbuds for any incoming calls. There a clip on the cable for attaching the cord to a shirt.

Samsung Modus 3500 features include answering, rejecting and ending calls, voice command support, last number redial, and call waiting support. There is also multipoint technology which lets you connect two compatible phones at the same time.

The Samsung Gravity Smart the recent entrant in the messaging handset world, from the Gravity brand of Samsung. But this is not it about the Gravity; we are delighted to report that the Samsung Gravity Smart is the 1st smart mobile phone of the messaging phone lineup and operates on Android 2.2 Froyo. But that is just it, except for this the rest of the features and specifications for the phone are standard for its series. So as to offer the conventional messaging functionality expected from this handset the Samsung Gravity Smart comes with a QWERTY keyboard that slides-out from under the screen. The Samsung Gravity comes in three ostentatious colors: Berry Red, Sapphire Blue and Lunar Gray.

Holding the Samsung Gravity Smart makes it clear that the handset is a firm pack handset, with strong and attractive build. The strong and attractive construction of the phone is complemented equally well by its respectable set of features that supports the handset in sustaining the sake of modern consumers. One nice thing that Samsung has done in the Gravity Smart is that they have powered the phone with Android, particularly when you look at the concept that the gravity Smart will be going against T-Mobile’s inexpensive Android phones. Seeing at all this we will have to say that the Samsung Gravity Smart might be having specifications at the lower end of the smartphones, but still the phone is perfect for the clients who just have started their journey with Android and who are young demographic.

Design and Build:

The build and design of the Samsung Gravity Smart corresponds a lot with its sibling Gravity T from the same Gravity lineup, but the Smart is a tad shorter and slimmer. The phone also comes with diverse design affects. The Samsung Gravity Smart is a bit more curving at the bottom than at the head , and measures 4.5 in x 2.3 in x 0.6 in (H x W x D). The inherent QWERTY keypad of Smart is the reason behind the hefty 4.6 ounce weight of the handset. But the good thing is that the phone has a decent built quality and feels strong in hand.

A 3.2 inch touchscreen display comprises the façade of the handset. The touchscreen display of the handset has a QVGA resolution of 420 x 380 pixels, which according to us is ideal for the screen size of the camera, and hence the icons and text appears pretty prickly and the colours appears rather pleasing and vivid as well. We would’ve been even happier had the screen size here in the handset would have been of 3.5 inches, and the simple reason behind this being the fact that that’s the size at which we generally are comfy in typing. Now, one would wonder why are we saying that when the handset comes with an in-built QWERTY keypad, we will say that when the handset is displaying onscreen keyboard in the portraiture mode, we think it should be available rather than just being a feature. Reading web sites and maps was also not all that comfortable here and we found it hard.

The Samsung Gravity Smart uses the custom TouchWiz interface of Samsung like many other Android smartphones. The major highlights for the phone lets in the likes of seven home screens that are customizable and comes with pinch and zoom functionality for managing the other screens); straightforward handiness to GPS, Wi-Fi and few other controls that can be browsed from the browse-down notice menu; a task-whipper that appears on pressing and holding the home button for a bit longer than normal; and there also is a clear visual inventive available on the app tray.

Fitted just under the screen are 3 touch-sensitive switches for, back, home and search functions. Placed along side those buttons there is a black middle button that will take you home. Fitted on the right spine of the Gravity Smart is a Power/lock button along with a USB charger port, as the left edge on the other hand hosts the volume rocker. Positioned at the rear of the phone is its 3 MP lens with flash. Positioned behind the rear flap of the phone is the MicroSD card slot for the phone. The microSD card slot fitted is compatible with up to 32GB of exterior storage, but initially the handset comes with a 2GB card.

Talking about the keyboard of the Samsung Gravity Smart, we have to say that the phone has a nicely built keyboard which slides in and out pretty smoothly. Its rather smooth to close and open the keyboard. The Keyboard here also has certain special features in the form of a special emoticon button and a special shortcut buttons that can easily be customized for directly getting admission to the internet, messaging, search and social networks.

Performance:

The performance of Samsung Gravity Smart was pretty respectable and although at times the volume was a bit low at our end, we didn’t have any serious problem with the device’s performance. We surely were able to carry our conversation without any drop calls, but still the voices that came weren’t all that clear.

The same was reported from our callers end and they also said that though we did sound a bit echoey and distorted, our sounds were pretty loud and comprehensible, but the imperfections in the sound were pretty apparent.

The Speakerphone functioning was a lot telling and we received decent sounds.

Conclusion:

The Samsung Gravity Smart is the first smartphone of Samsung’s Gravity lineup of strong messaging phones and we must say that it’s a strong messaging phone for android newcomers looking for a physical keyboard at affordable prices.

Samsung Replenish is a smart green phone that offers tactile QWERTY keyboard, wallet friendly price and surprisingly decent camera. It is available for the price of just $50 and provides excellent value as an easy to use basic Android phone. After the rush of Samsung Reclaim, LG Remarq and Samsung Restore, Sprint announced Samsung Replenish, the first eco-friendly cellphone. It is equipped with extensive list of features such as 2-megapixel camera, Android 3.3 Froyo operating system and 600MHz processor. The Samsung is constructed from 34.6% post consumer recycled plastic, with 82 percent of the cellphone crafted from recyclable materials.

The Samsung Replenish is available for the price of $49.99 and is offered in three different colors: Raspberry Pink, Arctic Blue and Onyx Black. It resembles recently launched Motorola Titanium and Motorola Droid Pro, both candy bar designs with vertical QWERTY keyboard and smallish touchscreen. Like other cellphones in the market, it is offered in black with silver accents. The Replenish measures 4.8 inches tall, 0.5 inch thick, 2.4 inches wide and weighs 4.1 ounces. It features a high resolution capacitive QVGA 2.8 inch touchscreen that boasts 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 16 million colors. The resolution can be compared with proprietary and premium offerings such as Samsung’s Super AMOLED Plus and Super AMOLED screens.

Underneath the screen of Samsung Replenish, there are four hardware buttons such as search, menu, back and home. Under these keys you will find four-row QWERTY keyboard with rounded buttons that are raised above the backlit and surface. The volume rocker button is located on the left hand side, while the camera shutter and voice command button on the right. You will find the 3.5mm headphone jack and power button on the top and micro USB charging port at the bottom. The microSD card slot is behind back cover, while the 2-megapixel camera at the back. It supports up to 32GB memory card and is equipped with 2GB starter card.

The Samsung Replenish features Froyo with Sprint ID Android 2.2, which is one of the recent operating systems in the market. The Froyo is just fine for entry level smartphone like Replenish that supports integrated message and email inbox for various Exchange, POP and IMAP accounts, Facebook, Twitter, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS. It also comes with Google Maps with Google Talk for chatting, Android Market Storefront, Google Places, standard music player and YouTube. Some of the standard features include applications like calendar, clock and calculator; other preloaded applications are SprintZone, LogMeIn Rescue and ThinkFree Office. It is the one of the first eco-friendly smartphones in the market, which is constructed with environmentally sensitive reduced materials that are free of brominated flame retardants, polyvinyl phthalates and chloride and beryllium. However, the Replenish is a unique combination of good platform performance, affordable price tag and ecofriendly features and design.

Samsung i900 is the latest Windows Mobile smartphone and it is Samsung’s answer to HTC Touch Diamond and the Apple iPhone. The feature set is great and it looks really sexy and cool. For me, it could be the king of smartphones. There is a five megapixel camera, 8/16 GB internal memory, A-GPS, 3G, Multi touch screen, and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, etc.

Samsung i900 is 112 by 56.9 by 12.5 mm and it is a bit bulky. The weight is about 127 grams which isn’t really heavy and considering features, the body seems quite compact. The design is really similar to LG Viewty KU990. The design is quite clean and there are smooth surfaces and on the back, there is brushed finish. The phone’s front has big screen, secondary VGA camera, earpiece, and ambient light sensor. On the bottom, there are Call/End keys with Optical Joystick. On the left side, there is just a USB 2.0 port and nothing else. Right side has volume rocker, Menu button and camera button. Bottom side has mouthpiece and on the top, there is Power key and reset hole. The phone has metallic finish on the back and you will also find a five megapixel camera along with LED flash. Samsung i900 is a really sturdy phone having great build quality and the design too is really simple. It should withstand accidental drops.

The display of the Samsung i900 is 3.2 inches big and it has resolution of 240×400 pixels. There is support for 65k colors and the display is a bit smaller than the iPhone 3G. Resolution seems quite odd and there are some problems of incompatibility with a few games and applications. The widescreen is great for watching videos though. The screen is bright and good but reading it in direct sunlight is very difficult.

Samsung i900 has Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. There is a new custom made user Interface from Samsung and it is called TouchWiz which is quite similar to TouchFLO 3D from HTC. It is a touch screen and the phone doesn’t have stylus compartment. There are few buttons like Camera, Menu, End, Call and an optical joystick. The latter can be used in 2 different modes –navigation using mouse pointer and normal touchpad. Mouse pointer is a new and cool concept. Using it is fun and I had a great time navigating around this phone. The display has built in accelerometer and it rotates automatically when you tilt the phone. The display is sensitive and nice and there are nice animated transitions.

Samsung Blue Earth is an example of the fact that this company is doing their two bits to go green. We first had Samsung Reclaim some days ago and I got the Samsung Blue Earth in my labs for review. I was excited to see this phone as Samsung had held all the details for several months. The shell of Samsung Blue Earth is made up of recycled materials just like the Reclaim. These materials include plastic water bottles and on the back, there are solar panels.

There is a standard wall charger in the box but these panels too can help you get the phone alive and kicking. There are no harmful materials used in making the phone like polyvinyl chloride and the battery usage of the phone can be minimized if you adjust the display settings. Apart from this green features, the phone has a functional feature set but the tiny touch screen hampers usability. Also, while testing, I saw some static on the calls.

Samsung Blue Earth is offered unlocked for $447 without any service. It doesn’t have support for 3G networks of North America. I wouldn’t really recommend you this phone looking at the high price; better focus your green efforts somewhere else.

Samsung Blue Earth a royal blue casing along with clean lines. The phone is really attractive looking and I would go as far to say that the design is soothing. It is true that the design is similar to other touch screen phones too but the solar panels on the back are unheard of. These panels cover almost the entire battery cover and they are located beneath the camera lens.

Samsung Blue Earth is 4.25 inches x 2.11 inches x 0.56 inch. This phone is on the small side especially for touch screen phone but not everyone out there needs an iPhone like screen. The phone is quite light too at just 4.2 oucnes; carrying the phone in the pocket is very easy. Extra heft of the phone gives a good feel in the hand.

The display of the phone is a mixed bag. On the positive side, it is vibrant and brilliant. The photos and graphics look sharp. However, a lot of users will say that the screen is too small. You will have to scroll loads for going through the messages. The main menu itself spans three pages. The lack of discrete keyboard makes matter worse as you need to use the on-screen keyboard for typing messages.

Samsung U300 is a very attractive looking slim phone. It is 100mm by 51mm by 9.6mm and the thin profile will surely make you drool. On the outside, the phone has simple OLED blue strip. Flipping it open will reveal a 2.2 inch QVGA TFT screen which is located above the keypad. It looks like its touch sensitive but it is not. Also, there is no travel for the stylus and the screen is quite flat. On the left side, the Samsung U300 has slim volume control button along with a proprietary port for USB and headphones.

Samsung U300 is a tri band GSM device having EDGE capabilities. There is no HSDPA, 3G or Web browsing. It does have the capability but why would you crawl in the Web at slow GSM speeds? On the back, there is a 3.2 megapixel camera and the phone also has Bluetooth support. For media, the device is equipped with low power Bang & Olufsen speakers which sound impressive considering the thin profile of the phone. But you don’t have much space to load music on the player, there is just 70 MB onboard memory and you don’t get any memory expansion slot either.

Samsung U300 has a rated talk time of six hours and the standby time is 300 hours which is quite average for a GSM phone. In my lab tests, I could use the phone for about 12 days with light use. Again, the battery life is impressive considering the thin chassis of the phone but there is a catch. The battery is non-user replaceable and there is just one slot on the back for putting in the SIM card. If the battery goes dead, you will have to ship the phone back to Samsung for a battery replacement.

There are more problems on the Samsung U300 apart from the battery. The keypad is one of the most frustrating things I have ever set my hands on. It was really unresponsive and I struggled a lot with it. I had the phone in my labs for about four days and was uncomfortable with keypad all throughout.

Samsung U300 has a modern, cutting edge design wrapped around a kind of technology that is either just plain or creaky. The phone has awesome looks but I wish the performance was better. I would recommend this phone to fashion enthusiasts or to people for whom looks matter more than how the device works on the inside.

The best feature about the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch is the AMOLED screen. This technology is better than traditional LCD screens and you get better quality pictures. The blacks are bold and deep and the white colors look rich. A big advantage of AMOLED screen is that you can view it from any angle and hence you don’t need to keep the phone in front of the face for reading it clearly.

Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch is just a few millimeters thicker as compared to the slimmest touch screen phones in the market. The phone has a slider design and there is a numeric keypad hidden beneath the upper half. You can either type your messages with physical buttons or through the virtual on-screen keyboard. I really liked the slider mechanism, it is brilliant and moves smoothly for closing and opening. There is no loose rattles at all. The slider also contains an eight megapixel camera and it is accompanied by LED flash.

I was also glad to see that the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch uses standard microUSB port instead of proprietary ones on the earlier models. One advantage of this is that you can use any USB charger for this phone and you don’t need to hunt for Samsung proprietary ones if you lose you original charger.

The design of the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch is really good; I liked its controls, camera and screen. Under the hood, there is high end hardware and you get Wi-Fi and HSDPA. There is also GPS receiver but my review model didn’t have dedicated navigation software, I just got Google Maps for the location searches.

Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch has an eight megapixel camera and it is the highlight of this phone. The camera lens is protected by a slider and there is also LED for taking photos in low light conditions. The flash is just a light but it is handy in dark conditions. This camera has 4 focus modes, some white balance presets, flash on/off, blink detection and anti-shake technology.

At first, the Samsung SGH i550 gives you the impression that it has got everything that you’d need in a cell phone. It has a metal keypad and the candy bar smartphone is running on the latest S60 OS 3rd edition Feature Pack 1. There is GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, three megapixels camera, microSD expansion card slot, 3.5 mm headphones jack, lots of RAM, USB charging and 2.6 inches screen. It is just 13mm thick and is all black.

The layout of the Samsung SGH i550 could have been better, it looks like kitchen sink design. The design is pretty solid with plastic molded chassis and the metal keypad plate adds a classy touch to the phone but overall speaking, the phone is not really as pretty as it should have been. Apart from the usual smartphone/S60 buttons, there are shortcut buttons for navigation, Web, and the media. You cannot change these assignments for your own choice of applications and this is really disappointing. Pressing the media button will show you RealPlayer, Music Player and there is also FM radio built in.

The keys of Samsung SGH i550 are calculator ‘retro’ style but they work well enough. The labeling on them is good and things are easy to read. The main screen too is very clear and colorful. Things get blurred when you take the screen outdoors in bright sunlight but this is not unexpected. One big change on this phone is that there is a trackball instead of d-pad. When you switch the phone on, the trackball glows in a cool blue color and when the phone is getting charged, the light starts glowing red in color.

The switch, according to me, isn’t really smooth though. You don’t get a way to implement ‘down and hold’ or ‘up and hold’ for fast forwarding and rewinding the music. I bitterly missed these functions since they are used a lot. Instead, Samsung asks you to use ‘8’ and ‘2’ keypad buttons for music player and in RealPlayer, it is ‘5’ and ‘0’. These buttons aren’t really as intuitive as a regular direction pad. I also needed some time to get used to the trackball for the direction pushes. Things were very fiddly in the beginning and I often ended up going in the wrong direction. Also, there are some games which you cannot play through this controller.

One odd thing on the Samsung SGH i550 is that when you push the trackball in one direction, you’d expect the cursor to go in that direction. For moving further, you would just spin the ball faster with more momentum. But in this phone, the cursor moves just a single step for one spin. There is nothing like holding the down button of the D-pad for faster movements. It can be a bit frustrating when there is any cursor intensive thing like moving down in Options menu. I would still applaud Samsung for thinking out of the box here.