Samsung Exec – No Wi-Fi

For:

Sleek design, QWERTY keyboard is easy to use, e-mail support is solid, GPS, Bluetooth and 2 MP camera

Against:

Windows Mobile is a bit clunky to navigate, lacks Wi-Fi.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung Exec is 2.36 inches wide, 4.61 inches high, 0.45 inches deep and weighs about 3.7 oz. The phone is based on CDMA2000 1X technology and has a candy bar design. The preinstalled OS is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 and the phone has 80 MB of internal memory. Messaging features include HTML Browser, E-Mail, Multimedia messages (MMS), Text messages, Instant messages and HTML Browser.

Supported video formats are H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG-4, WMV, and H.264. The camera has a two megapixels camera has three special effects, Black & White, Negative, and Sepia. Other features include video recording and multi shots. Organizer includes currency converter, calculator, reminder, stopwatch, calendar and alarm clock. The LCD display has a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. MP3 format is supported for the music player. The lithium ion battery has rated talk time of 480 minutes and stand by time is 480 hours.

Razzle Dazzle:

This phone has an uncanny resemblance to the Samsung Code of MetroPCS. Both have the same design also come with the sleek 2.4 inch QVGA display with home screen courtesy of Samsung WizPro. The navigation controls too are the same but there are some differences inside.

Inside Dope:

There are not a lot of cell phones under U.S. Cellular’s repertoire but they are slowly starting to increase these days. Samsung Exec is the latest addition to its collection. This phone is available for $99.95 and you have to sign a two year contract after a mail in rebate of $70. This is a sleek smartphone made for people who message a lot, and it has an excellent keyboard and the multimedia and productivity features too are impressive. The performance of the phone doesn’t suffer due to the extensive feature set and the handset handles applications quite well. We will recommend this phone as an alternative to the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630. Samsung Acclaim and HTC Desire are hitting the market soon and they these two will compete with this handset so it will be interesting to see what features they have to offer. Both these phones belong to U.S. Cellular and come with Android OS. The feature set is enhanced and there is more power so it will be worth waiting for those phones. Both the handsets are slated to release this summer.

Display

Samsung Exec has a 2.4 inch QVGA display just like the Samsung Code and you get a resolution of 320×240 pixels on the non-touch display. The resolution is a bit small but images and text still look good on the screen. When in bright sunlight, the display comes down on its heels.

Phone book and PIM features

Address book of the Samsung Exec is limited only by the onboard internal memory and a single entry takes in multiple numbers, company information, e-mail address, etc. Photo caller ID is supported and you can also make groups of your contacts. The handset comes with multimedia and text messaging, voice dialing, conference calling, three way calling, speed dialing and speaker phone.

Connectivity

Samsung Exec has GPS/A-GPS and Bluetooth. Supported profiles for the latter include audio-video remote control, A2DP for stereo Bluetooth, file transfer, hands free kits, object push, remote control for audio-video, basic printing, personal area networking and phone book access. There is no Wi-Fi integrated but you do get 3G EV-DO capable. U.S. Cellular also gives you Your Navigator, a location based service but Exec doesn’t support it. You can use Bing to get text based direction and to conduct business.

Camera

Samsung Exec has two megapixel camera which can also record videos. There are a lot of options for effects, white balance settings, shooting modes and editing. The camera doesn’t come with flash but you get a night mode. 2 MP resolution belongs to the low end camera category but still we were impressed by the quality of the photos. Colors were slightly brighter and richer and the pictures looked clear and sharp.

Features

Samsung Exec runs on Windows Mobile 6.5 instead of Code’s 6.1. This is not a Windows Phone 7 but you still get some features like My Phone backup service by Microsoft and improved Internet Explorer Mobile browser. Other Windows Mobile offerings like full Microsoft Office Mobile Suite are included. This phone also has Bing search along with productivity tools like MSN Money, PDF viewer, MSN Weather, RSS reader, notepad, voice recorder, stopwatch, calculator, and measurement converter. You can download more apps on the phone through Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

Call quality

We tested the Samsung Exec for call quality and we had a few issues. Our friends sounded muffled and we had to strain our ears for listening clearly. On the other side, our friends has a totally different tale to tell. They could hear our voices clearly and were impressed with the loud volume. Speaker phone calls were also good but there was a bit of hollowness to the tone. Volume level was loud enough here too. For Bluetooth tests, we used Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset. Both these gave excellent call quality.

Performance

Samsung Exec is equipped with 667 MHz processor which was fast enough but there were occasional delays. We did experience pauses when lots of applications were opened on the phone but there were no crashes and we didn’t have to restart the phone.

Battery life

Samsung Exec has 1,500 mAh lithium ion battery which has a rated talk time of eight hours and the standby time is 18 days. We are still conducting battery drain tests and this section will be updated as soon as we finish it.

Verdict:

Samsung Exec is a good smartphone with sleek but we will recommend you to wait for U.S. Cellulars upcoming phones which promise more features and power.