Sony Ericsson T715 is another slider which belongs to the middle-price category, aimed for the mass market. The novelty can become prominent, as it has all the prerequisites – curious design, it is available in several colors, simple menu, decent functional. Now let’s consider everything in order.

Design

First of all I’d like to mention that I had the pink device. No, I do not mean that I am the enemy of this color but it somehow annoys me. However this can be accepted and understood by the part of the female audience, and may be someone would like to buy T715 because of its color. Corners of the shell are smoothed; however, this device does not cease to be a neat block. In addition, its size of a credit card allows you to put the phone in almost any pocket. Of course, the phone is not a slim one; we can’t call it thick, neither, so it can be called medium.
Now let’s have a look at exterior – the back panel is made of metal. It is removed easily. On the back lid is situated the eye of the camera, LED of the flash, slit of the polyphonic speaker. On the right side there is the camera button and volume control wheel, on the left side – the universal connector.
It has already become a tradition to decorate the backside slider with funny patterns. Sony Ericsson T715 is not an exception.

Display and Keyboard

Sony Ericsson T715 is equipped with a 2.2-inch display with 260 thousand colors. The screen itself behaves well, even in the sun. Though it doesn’t have big viewing angles, but they are enough. You can even e-book or play games.
Above the screen there is almost an invisible light sensor, which is responsible for automatic adjustment of backlighting. By the way, this can be done manually in the old-fashioned way.
Themes of the menu are very beautiful; a couple of them seemed to be drawn especially for girls.

Keys are stylish. Yes, don’t get surprised they are really stylish. However glamorous central navigation button hides a drawback. It is arranged so that when you press it in left or right direction you can easily press the green or red receiver. In addition, the navigation button is not very convenient. In order to stop arguing I will say that I did not like the control elements, but I can assure you that I met much worse ones.
Plastic keyboard is more or less adequate. Initially, small distance between vertical buttons strains a little, but if you press them with pads of your fingers, then you can avoid pressing unnecessary buttons. Due to uniform lighting all designations are clearly visible in the dark.

Menu and Functions

The menu has not changed, however, I did not expect to see anything new. So everything is done like in old models.
One of the most useful functions is “Organizer”. Here we see a convenient calendar; there is also a simple reminder, as well as editor of notes. Here is a file manager, timer, and stopwatch. And finally it is equipped with a flashlight. When you have to go downstairs from the 5th floor in pitch darkness, then you will understand why it is sometimes needed.
Alarm clock is a very useful thing, that’s why it is included in the main menu. Here are five independent pieces.
From useful things we should also mention Google Maps.

Entertainment

Music player is completely inherited from its predecessors. I mean both the interface and opportunities of musical applications. We can not say something special about the sound quality – the volume is sufficient for the underground, rock music sounds a bit synthetic, tint. However, with good headphones – Sony, Philips, etc., you can listen to music though it isn’t Nokia N96.
With the admission of FM-stations there is no problem in the city limits. It supports RDS, respectively, the names of stations and information is displayed on the screen.
To the usual arcade and Sudoku (games of T715), is added chess simulator Kasparov Chess.

Camera

Those who need a 5 MP camera should choose another phone, as T715 can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 3.2 MP, plus it does not have autofocus. The functional reserve of the camera is small. For example, there are several filters, presets for white balance, night mode, and the ability to attach geo notes on the photo. There isn’t any GPS-receiver in the novelty, so the location is determined by BS.

Conclusion

Sony Ericsson E715 is a typical representative of a mid-priced device segment. And it wouldn’t be appreciated, if not pleasant shape, and in our case, a cool color. It has too many competitors, among them this novelty can easily get lost.

Philips continues to produce more mobile phones of its famous line Xenium. The list of models is already so extensive that only the last two phones are held in the memory; however, the replenishment can not be avoided. So, meet this new Philips Xenium 9@9h.

Design
Xenium 9@9h retained the general features of design, characteristic of “literal” clamshells of Series 9@9 – compactness, light weight, easy to use and nice looking shell shape.
The cover of Xenium 9@9h leans with one hand, but there is not an automatic closer, as in many modern phones, therefore, certain dexterity of fingers to the owner of the mobile phone will have to be demonstrated in any case. But the sides of the shell are made of a slightly rough plastic, which helps easily to hold the phone in hand.
The battery lid, on the contrary, is very slippery and thin. In addition, it is clearly recorded a tight clasp, excluding backlash.

Made at the outer surface of the housing, the connector to connect the USB cable and the slot for the dynamics of polyphony has no protection, which raises legitimate concerns, especially given the fact that the speaker is placed in a very unusual place – in the upper end of the tube.
Frightening to think what might happen if someone tries to talk on the phone under the rain, not even the strong one.

Keyboard
The keyboard of Xenium 9@9h is pseudo-sensor, i.e. with a minimum speed buttons. And of course, it has both advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages, in fact, are purely aesthetic: Yes, the phone looks very stylish, it disguises its budget nature and nothing more. But typing on the keyboard, even if it is sufficiently broad to which the boundaries between the buttons can be discerned only after long training, and it is very inconvenient, there is no any “save” button.
In addition, the buttons seem to be too tight, although it is a matter of habit.

DisplayThe main goal that the developers of Xenium phones set themselves is the maximum battery life, so in this line of clamshells outer screen is either completely absent or replaced by a simple monochrome. In the case of the Xenium 9@9h, we have seen enough of the original decision. There is no external display on this phone. Instead, the outer cover is made of a dark plastic panel hiding 4 LEDs that show several states of the phone: entering a new text message, incoming / outgoing calls, the charging process.

The photo shows that you have a fresh SMS-SC and there is a missed call.
The main screen, is a real TFT-display, although not too large (128×160 pixels), with a noticeable grain, but generally provides acceptable image quality, including bright daylight.
In text mode screen is placed on five lines – more or less sufficient to draw or read a short message.

Options
A significant advantage of Xenium 9 @ 9h is a decent set of installed software, at least compared with previous models from this line. From business applications in the phone there is a calculator with the same nice GUI, as in the younger models. However, given the previously described problems with the keyboard input Xenium 9@9h, it is difficult to say whether this interface is tied to a navigation key.
In the functional set there is also a currency converter (maybe once developers figure it out replace it with a full-fledged universal converter units), clock with world time, alarm clock with three custom slot, voice recorder (maximum duration of one record is 12 minutes).

There is also a personal organizer with three viewing modes and three types of insertion events. Different sounds can be attached to events, as well as specify the regularity of recurrence – from daily to annual.
The notebook of Xenium 9@9h, on the contrary, is functionally very poor. It holds a thousand entries, each of which can store up to three different fields, conventionally marked as a phone number, fax number and IP-phone client. No additional fields. There is no opportunity to create groups of contacts, or the appointment of individual calls to individual contacts.

In Xenium 9@9h there is an FM-radio, and in the sales package you can find a good headset, serving as an antenna. It’s nice, because not every budget phone boasts about advanced multimedia capabilities.
But another problem emerges: the phone doesn’t play MP3-files! All that you can play with the tube (it is not even a player as a separate program) is midi, and AMR-files.
In Xenium 9@9h there is only 3 MB memory, and it does not support a memory card.

Conclusion
What I did not like in Xenium 9@9h is lack of functionality at the hardware level. Even as a budget model, the phone can not offer its users neither built-in camera, or wireless communication via Bluetooth. Given the penny cost of the two modules, we are inclined to believe that this restriction is not enforced due to the cost of production, as dictated by the positioning of Xenium 9@9h merely as a budget model, mimic a more serious mobile tool. Well, if the tube is designed to compete with Nokia 1100, then it has a good chance of winning.
On the other side Xenium 9@9h is equipped with long-life batteries and rather good design. Indeed, batteries, of Philips mobile phone beat all possible records, but how long this figure can persuade mobile users to give up opportunities that their comrades have grown accustomed for a long period of time?

Sony Ericsson has a new flagship model K850i. This is a heir of serious phones like K810i and K790i, and like no other device it deserves the “brutal monoblock” definition.
If you look at a brand new device Syber-Shot from Sony Ericsson K850i, you’ll understand that this is a real flagship, a kind of severe male phone for touch fans.

Keyboard
I don’t want to play “find 10 differences from K810i”, although some similarities can be traced in the appearance of both typesetting keyboards. Unlike its predecessor, the buttons are not circular and made of metal. Buttons are square.
But the principle of location of these buttons has remained the same. There is a distance between the “squares”, so no mistakes occur while dialing numbers. The proceedings of the buttons are small, fixation is not very clear, however, no inconvenience arises.

Display and menu
K850i does not have a touch display. TFT-screen with a resolution of 240×320, caresses view of quality and natural color reproduction, ultra-fine grain (if you notice of course), high contrast. Out onto the actual settings, there is only brightness.
In the sun, just under the rays, the screen behaves properly, ie the image quality is good; the picture fades slightly, so you can work almost at any lighting. Yes, probably, under the rays of the North African sun, you have to cover up the display with a hand, but it’s not a problem.
K850i menu will be familiar to the owners of Sony Ericsson, because the principle remains the same. Bold icons, clear “image”, known from previous models.

Multimedia
Though this is a Cybershot and not a Walkman phone, K850i is one of Sony Ericsson’s flagship phones, and the K850i’s music-oriented feature set is identical to most Sony Ericsson Walkman phones. Auto-rotate of the display works in the Media suite of applications, and it’s generally fairly responsive. Video playback performance is better when auto-rotate is turned off. The display is one of the best we’ve seen on a mobile phone: extremely bright, sharp and saturated.

Media uses Sony PSP interface which is both intuitive and cool looking. The app handles photos, video and music. The FM radio with RDS has a good reception. The FM radio app can save favorite channels and play the radio in the background. K850i has Sony Ericsson’s free TrackID service that identifies songs playing on the radio or in the environment, and this feature works quite well (it requires a data connection since the track info is downloaded over the Internet using the phone’s browser).
The phone supports a wide variety of audio formats including MP3, Podcasts, Audiobooks, MP4, AAC, RealAudio (.ra, .rm), WMA, XMF, M4A, WAV and midi. Video formats include MPEG4 (MP4 with AAC or AMR audio), 3GPP, WMV (.asf, .wmv) and RealVideo 8 (.rv, .rm). The K850i supports OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0 for copy protected music, video and Java applications.

Camera
Obviously, the 5 megapixel camera with an autofocus lens and Xenon flash is the centerpiece of the Cybershot K850i. And it didn’t disappoint us, in fact for the first release firmware, the camera was stable, and overall did an excellent job of imaging. The SE isn’t as fast as a dedicated digital camera, but it’s quite usable and you just might manage to catch a fleeting moment.
K850i can shoot photos at a maximum 2592 x 1944 resolution in 5MP mode and has a variety of lesser resolutions from 3MP down to VGA. The camera can shoot video at QVGA resolution (320 x 240) at 30 fps. The phone has a hardware slider button that you’ll use to select photo, video or playback mode. There’s a tiny camera application launcher button that turns the camera on and off as well as controlling the lens cover. When the camera app is running the entire screen becomes a viewfinder and it runs in landscape orientation.
Photo quality is excellent, with more usable data than K790i and K800i’s 3MP images and better exposure (no white haze or washed out effect which we sometimes noticed with K800i). Colors are accurate, if not sometimes understated and we couldn’t find a hint of color cast in outdoor shots. Indoor shots became overly warm as the camera didn’t compensate well enough for incandescent lighting in auto exposure mode with the flash on (turning off the flash fixed the problem). Indoor evening shots in poor light were pleasing with good blacks, but surprisingly the N95 managed a more exposed shot.

The K850i’s Xenon flash illuminates close subjects very well, but doesn’t add much ambient lighting, which means your subject will be decently exposed but awash in a sea of near blackness. For all but dark club shots and outdoor night shots, we recommend experimenting with turning the flash off – we consistently got brighter and more balanced shots while it was off. The camera uses a LED (actually 3 tiny LEDs) to illuminate the scene for focus and fires the power-hungry Xenon flash only when snapping the photo.
Should K790i owners upgrade it, based on the higher resolution camera? That depends on what you do with your photos: 3MP is really good enough for viewing on the average monitor (if you’ve got a 30″ LCD display, that’s a different story), and you won’t be able to view a 3MP image at 100%, let alone a 5MP image. But if you want to print photos, the extra pixels and sharper images are worth it. From what we can tell, the lens quality hasn’t improved.

The camera has a wealth of manual settings for ISO, white balance, flash control, auto/infinity focus, metering mode and 7 scene modes. Sony Ericsson’s BestPic feature shoots several shots with varied settings so you can choose the best one, and Photo fix lets you tweak photos you’ve taken before transferring them to a PC. The camera has 16x digital zoom, but alas no optical zoom (that’s still a rarity on camera phones). Video quality is very good with no jerkiness or blockiness. Colors are strong and accurate, even in low light, and the sound is clear.

Working with K850i
When you connect your phone via cable to the USB-port on your computer, mobile phone becomes visible as a normal flash drive, for ie it is available as a card, and built-in memory about 40 MB.
Data transfer rate floats from 75 to 60 kB / s, for example, the absence of the cable makes it easy to transfer a few tracks in MP3-format into the phone.
The battery power is enough for about two days: you can listen to music, make few shots a day and for an hour and a half use the Bluetooth-headset and talk 15-20 minutes a day. If you find yourself a more active user, then the battery life will decrease accordingly.

Conclusion
We get a very feature-rich (and not in vain) phone that can compete with brand new smart phones from top manufacturers.
Significant functional and somewhat dramatic appearance make K850i unless a bestseller, and surely one of the most cherished and sought after market mobile phones.

After releasing GSmart i120 and i128 with an analog TV – receiver, the manufacturer offers its new communicator with a digital TV support.

Design
Among other communicators, GSmart t600 stands out for its unusually cheerful and bright snow-white shell, covered with a nice touch transparent plastic.
The black bezel around the perimeter of the shell makes the device much catchier to the eye. The black plastic on a white background and decorated with the camera lens, are located on the upper part of the back side. In fact, such a design is more familiar for MP3-players or game consoles, but not for communicators.
For someone this device will seem too pretentious, but someone will be delighted by its unusual design. In any case, no one can remain indifferent.

GSmart t600 has compact dimensions (110,5 x 55,5 x 18,5 mm, 140 g), it perfectly lies in the palm.
However, it doesn’t cause any discomfort while being in the pocket of its owner (even in the shirt pocket). The main controls for GSmart t600 have unusual design, though they are located in the same places. So under the screen the user will find seven round transparent buttons of various diameters, including the attractive navigation button with which it is very easy to work. The remaining buttons perform normal functions, although they have another design idea. Proceedings from the buttons are very clear and moderately short, but because of large gaps between the keys, the communicator is easy to control.
Another important control button is a sound control. It is located on the upper corner of the left side. The power button is on top.
GSmart t600 should be connected to PC via a normal USB-Cable – miniUSB port is located on the lower end.
The metal telescoping stylus is located in the corner of the upper end. Together with the stylus I found the telescopic antenna for TV.

Display
To equip this device with an unusual bright display with a resolution of 320×240 pixels would be quite wrong. Therefore t600 has a touch-sensitive TFT-panel with a resolution of 640×480 and a diagonal of 2,6″. All the main characteristics of the display of the communicator are almost close to the ideal – an excellent image sharpness and color rendition, wide range of changes in brightness, excellent contrast. But on the viewing angle the display leaves much to be desired. There is a slight distortion of the colors and brightness. That is the readability of the display is almost not affected, but the impression of the picture deteriorates.
There is one more drawback – the reverse side of the fashionable high resolution. Diagonal 2.6″ for this device is not enough. It’s quite difficult to get the stylus to the right button on the screen, and especially typing on the touch keyboard.

GSmart t600 runs the operating system Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro.
Among other communicators, t600 is one of the most powerful CPU – Marvell PXA270 520 MHz. Onboard memory is 64 MB RAM and 256 MB of ROM (from this are available 49 MB and 152 MB respectively) which is not the smallest amount among analogue t600. As graphics accelerator Intel 2700G is used here.
With such a system, the communicator can solve the most diverse tasks, including calculation, games and multimedia applications. Performance was tested using Spb Benchmark. For comparison, the table shows the results of testing the communicator RoverPC S6 (TI OMAP 750 200 MHz, 64 MB RAM and 128 MB ROM, Windows Mobile 6.0).
Characteristics GSmart t600 RoverPC S6
Spb Benchmark index 268 953
CPU index 2001 975
File system index 464 98
Graphics index 4325 2359

The difference compared with communicators with 200 MHz processors is evident. The novelty can play smoothly even unconverted files.

Communication capabilities
GSmart t600 is a quad-class Communicator (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) with a support for GPRS Class 10. There are both wireless modules for the latest versions of modern communicators: Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi (WLAN 802.11b / g).
GSM-communication device keeps stable even in remote places. When you work with Wi-Fi, breaks occur, but rarely.

Built-in TV
Predecessors of GSmart t600, i120 and i128 models have the support of analog TV. Because of its compact size, built-in solid-state receiver often gives significant disruption, noise and other artifacts, for which users disliked it. However, many countries have replaced analog TV with digital. Naturally, having a digital TV receiver you can significantly improve picture quality.

Camera
Built-in camera for t600 can be found in most modern communicators. Its resolution is 2 megapixel with CMOS-sensor, there is an autofocus and the ability to capture in macro mode. The camera has a LED backlight flash.
Camera activation button is located at the bottom of the right end; it is placed quite deep in the shell that is why pressing on it is a little bit difficult.
Interface software application responsible for the shooting is quite stylish.

Photographs are available in JPG format with three options for image quality and resolution from 160×120 to 1600×1200 pixels, video – in 320×240 format wmv, mp4 and 3gp.
Quality of the photos can be estimated as average. Noise in the bright sunny weather is quite a lot, but the color rendition is lame.

Sound
The communicator has a mono speaker, located next to the camera lens. The sound of the dynamics is clean, noise-free even at a very high volume.

Battery
GSmart t600 is equipped with a Li-Ion-battery with capacity of 1300 mAh. This is sufficiently large, and, guided by experience in communicating with other devices, you can pre-suppose that two days of work without recharging should be sufficient. However, the assumption, unfortunately, is not justified. With sufficiently intense work (calls, phone book editing, checking e-mail) battery needs to be recharged in a day.
It should be noted that the t600 is not the first communicator, with a long battery life. The latest high-performance vehicles consume more and more energy, losing its most important feature – mobility.

Conclusion
GSmart t600 model is just as interesting, as controversial. Among the obvious advantages of the novelty the high performance, ability to work with unconverted video display with a resolution of 640×480, and the availability of the wireless modules can be mentioned. But without the drawbacks it can not succeed – there is no support for EDGE, low battery life, non-standard connector of audio input.

It is well known that the most long-expected novelties are rather expensive and sophisticated smartphones, or as for Sony Ericssonn – these are popular devices of Walkman series. A new clamshell Z555i by Sweden-Japan partnership is not the one of super-expected models and that is why it can stay unnoticed even by those whom it is addressed to. Although girls might like it.

Design

We can see a typical not expensive clamshell, something from a series of “phone for USD 250″.
In order to make its typicalness stay within the limits of allowable, the producers put on some glam to the front panel. Its surface is alike covered with small prisms that are playing in the sun beams falling on them. It looks especially effective in the sun when the phone just flashes out in the lights.
The obvious minuses are weakness of the front panel for showing all the fingerprints and other kinds of contamination, but we do know very well that such behavior is typical for the great quantity of modern phones. That’s ok; we are getting accustomed to that little by little. Except decorations on the front panel we can find a camera lens with a tiny LED (flashing upon certain circumstances), polyphonic loudspeaker and a single-line black-and-white inverse display showing service information.

In standby mode it is “hidden” under the glossy panel and reminds of itself while there is an incoming call, incoming SMS and if you press a volume control wheel. Everything is typical and accurate. Oh, almost forgot that even if it is rather hard to open the cover with one hand, still it is possible, nevertheless, you should not try to do that while walking, in other way you can badly drop the phone. The back side, to be more exact the cover of the battery, is fulfilled with a rather thin rough plastic; the same is used for the W910i model.
In fact, we do not have a “hot” change of a memory card, but a “warm” one, because we still have to take off the battery cover for that purpose. On the upper side of the phone there is an “ear” for the thong, on the left – a jack, on the right – a volume control wheel. Everything is traditional. No patterns, flowers, ornaments and other decorations of modern phones, oriented first of all to women’s attention.
The interior of Sony Ericsson Z555i is more modest, than stylish.

Keyboard and display

The disposition and the form of keys are rather typical, but frankly there is one novelty about this. For example, the key responsible for turning off/on the phone is placed right in the middle of the front panel, “clutched” in between the browser key and the key of quick menu launch.
Such arrangement does not make problems in working, because you get used to that for 1-2 hours and besides, short pressing this sacred key does not lead to turning off the phone. In spite of this you can see the profile list on the screen. On the picture we see a slightly curved shape of typesetting keys that plays a good part practically as well as aesthetically – it is pleasant to look at it, and fingers are not making accidental pressing.

The size of the keys is optimal, and as for me I liked the short response. Its clear that the digital block is not ideal, but we have what we have. It is pleasant that black keys have light inserts, but it cannot be considered a super-stylish decision, it looks satisfactory, nothing more. The navigation is not very comfortable, mostly because of the flat 4-position key at the same level with other keys. It’s just hard to feel the keys bounds with a finger and you have to be careful. The micro-lights depend on the light sensor which is working very correctly – the battery economy is never something extra.

The main display is very common – TFT matrix with a resolution of 176╤Е220 pixels. I remember that such display characteristics were the same as people-music-youth device of 2005 – Motorola E398. We should frankly tell that Sony Ericsson Z555 matrix is better of course, the lights are richer, the image angles are enough to write SMS when you are elbowing in the transport. The image quality is not bad, the grains are almost not seen, and the brightness resource is good. One thing is bad – a small physical size and that is why you can feel that the producer did not spend much for display.

Menu, Control

A typical menu presented with a usual set of 12 icons is quite common for SE devices that is why it will hardly surprise anyone or call admiration. It is comfortable to move around the icons because the device is slightly vibrating, showing every movement like that.
There are functions list, and you wont be accompanied with vibration moving around there. And yes, as always there are several themes in this device (to be more exact – four of them).
They are cute, one of them is even nice (with flowers), and that is definitely for girls.
Shortcut menu consists of 4 marks. One of them shows information about events, the second shows the applications you are using right now, the third – quick access to the functions you are choosing yourself, the fourth – web URLs.
Besides that, you can program the directions of the 4-position key for quick launch of these or those functions.
Its a pity that you cant change a web browser launch key, because surfing the net at using a small display is not so pleasant.

Useful trifles

Unlike Nokia devices, Z555i has five alarms versions, activated on certain days of the week and you can choose any MP3 melody as alarm ring tone.
I liked a simple reminder function; for writing down a new event (meeting/call) I needed not more than 20 seconds. The notebook is of the same style, just without a remind function.

The calendar has a rather good functionality, but the month table looks a bit small there. I am serious; you have to look intently to see what date will be on next Saturday. If the letters were bolder and the table was bigger there won’t be such problems.

There are common things like timer and stopwatch with nine intermediate results.
The memo book is of the same kind like the previous models have and has very comfortable horizontal keys too.
You can write down five numbers for one contact, e-mail and web address, choose a personal ringtone and a picture, and fill in the personal data like mailing address, company name, place of work, birth date.
On one hand – not so much, on the other hand – quite enough for the majority of users. As usual, the phonebook of the device itself and a SIM card are not shown as a single list, but you can choose showing the SIM card contact list by default.

Camera

Sony Ericsson Z555i is the type of the phones that you are not expecting anything unusual about them. That is why, frankly speaking, I was not even surprised when I saw a 1,3 megapixel camera. Of course it would be more pleasant to see a 2 megapixel camera, but…

There are not so many adjustments. The user can chose the size of the picture (1,3 Mp or VGA), a single frame or a series of 4 pictures, two types of the image quality, night mode, balance of white, several color effects, 4 sounds for confirmation of the shutter actuation, timer.

In other words, everything is more than usual. Not the whole display is used for the viewfinder purposes (we can see that on the pictures); the upper part is given to the series of icons, which, in fact, you don’t need, the lower part – for the signatures of the context keys. It is quite easy to use this simple camera; the picture is taken when you press the left context key or the central key. The camera is working really rapidly, the image recording to the phone or a card memory lasts for no longer than 1,5 seconds. The quality of the pictures is expectedly not high; in fact, you can see it on your own.

Player/radio and games

MP3 player (to be more exact – its interface) is also familiar due to the previous models. A rather strict, imperceptible design, several preinstalled equalizers, working in a background mode. There is also a function of sorting by an artist, track, and you can make your own playlists.

The quality of sound of our test example was not bad, we were especially surprised with a high volume (the music was heard quite well in the other end of the room – 12 m), but as for the bass function – it is not so good if you wear the earphones from the set as well as inlay earphones by Philips and Koss. I guess that the commercial examples of the player will be better.

The FM receiver sensitivity is not bad. Five of the stations make noises, the rest of the twenty were quite fine (the sound is clear with minimal noises).
There is also a mode of automatic tuning working quite correctly and finding out the radio stations even with a weak signal. The RDS system is working quite well.
As well as a player, a radio can turn into tray releasing display for other things. The most comfortable way to activate it is to choose it among the mentioned list of the applications.

Games are: logic Jewel Quest II and photo hunting FotoQuestFish. Both games are good, but I liked the one with fish most.
The sense of the game is that you are a diver and for the limited time you have to make good pictures of different kinds of fishes (no need to go to Egypt). In this game you get the points by the following way – the more fish you get into the frame of your photo camera, the more points you get. The game is quite pleasant and the time you spend going for work glides.

On-line

The data transfer speed between the phone and PC via Bluetooth is 32-38 Kb/second. Besides that, Sony Ericsson Z555i had no problems working with different BT accessories including stereophonic. There are no claims on the connection quality, everything corresponds to the expected level, and there were no connection breaches, the people you are talking to can be heard quite clearly. The battery charge was enough for three days without turning off the phone for the night (as for me – I practice that sometimes), talking for 10-15 minutes a days, long-time searching around menu, about half an hour of listening the music, rare Bluetooth sessions.

Outcome

Sony Ericsson Z555i cannot be called a stylish, glamorous and a kind of attractive device. If it is a Dusted Rose color – you can call this a device for girls, but if it is black it’s not clear who should be the user. A girl will hardly choose something like that – she is willing to choose something more elegant, a man will just pass it through. So, it means the device is something in the middle, which is quite offensive.

GIGA-BYTE Company is actively adjusting to the subtleties of the mobile market. Together with GSmart MW700, about which we have told you recently, the producer presented another novelty – MW998 communicator, which is nothing more than a GSmart t600 modification. As MW700 our today’s model MW998 is not flaring with bright colors and does not have an inbuilt TV module that did not win attention of buyers.

Construction
By its outward appearance the novelty is maximum alike GSmart t600 communicator. This is a rather bright outstanding model different with its unusual control bodies, but still this model looks very stylish (may be even too much strict) so many different categories of potential buyers will like it – youth and sound businessmen.
Instead of dazzlingly white body of t600 this new communicator is black; the front panel together with side insets is made of polished glittering plastic.
And the back panel smoothly turning into the ends of the body is made of mat plastic. This communicator is rather big (110,5 х 55,5 х 18,5 mm) and rather heavy (140 g), but it is comfortable to hold it in your hands.
It looks like the market experience with GSmart t600 showed that the white color is not so popular and it is more plausible to make it black. It is really so, in this case this device looks quite in another way, and Asian notes in design bring some exclusiveness to the device, but not flowery as it was with t600.

The central and the biggest control body of MW998 is 4-position wheel of moving cursor with a central confirmation key. Plus to that there are six small round keys placed in the sides of this wheel, their functions are answer/cancel of conversation, menu activation, start, actions confirmation and shortcut menu for any two programs on the choice of the user. Keys have a great tactile response and are easy to be distinguished by touch due to the different sizes and sufficient space between the keys. We can consider MW998 one of the best communicators in the market as for the navigation comfort. The only thing that may alert the potential buyer in the beginning is its unusual appearance of the main control block, but after a couple of days of using it you will easily get accustomed to that.
As well as t600 all central control black of the novelty has bright blue micro lights. It looks accurate and stylish on the black background of the phone case. It is flaring, but not too much.

Additional spring loaded scroll box is placed in the upper side of the left end. By default it controls the sound volume. Here you can also find a sunk into the phone body key of soft restart.
The right end is occupied by a silver oblong key of inbuilt camera activation and with two plastic covers of the same color with the body fringing. Under these covers there is a microSD slot and a brand accessory jack hidden. It is hard to say what was the reason why the producer could not use a standard 2,5 mm minijack so a user could use any earphones together with this novelty.
In fact, there is a 2,5 mm adapter supplied with MW998, but it’s not clear what a user should do in case of this adapter loss or damage. Plus to that, the opened cover of the body really bothers while using accessories. If you keep your communicator in the pocket, the cover will definitely get hold of something there.

For connection with PC you can use a simple USB cable, the communicator has a mini-USB port in the lower end of the body.
Right here you can also find an opening of the inbuilt loudspeaker for conversations and an eye for the thong.
Metal telescopic stylus is of good quality, but it is too thin and so using it is not very comfortable.
By the way, there is an additional stylus supplied with communicator, so in case you break the first one, you won’t have to run around shops. In a whole, the design and construction of GSmart MW998 gives only positive emotions.

Filling and efficiency
GSmart MW998 is operated by Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro.
The hardware of communicator is well-known to us by other GSmart models: rather high-efficiency processor Marvell PXA270 with CPU clock 520 MHz, 64 Mb RAM and 256 Mb ROM. A user gets only 49,10 Mb and 140,84 Mb correspondingly. A rather wide range of preinstalled software which of course occupies memory, but the part of it can be deleted by the user. In the result the user gets only 19,00 Mb RAM and 117,46 Mb ROM.
The communicator efficiency is traditionally tested by a Spb Benchmark 1.6.

Display
GSmart MW998 has good characteristics: 2,6 inch VGA TFT display with a resolution of 480 х 640 pixels. The range of brightness is wide, though it has only five levels. Color transfer and sharpness simply gladdens the eye. Display is simply ideal judging by these characteristics for viewing pictures or movies. And the viewing angles leave something else to desire, horizontally as well as vertically.

Camera
MW700 has the same inbuilt 2 megapixel CMOS-sensor camera that other GSmart have, and so we can hope for a rather good quality of pictures, different from the pictures taken by the majority of other communicators presented nowadays in the market. The camera is equipped with a LED flash placed near the lens over the battery cover.
A program application interface (responsible for photographing) is familiar to us from the GSmart t600 review.
You can take pictures in JPG format in three variants of the image quality and resolution: 160 х 120, 1600 х 1200, video: 320 х 240 in wmv, mp4 and 3gp formats.
Camera settings are quite enough for photographing in any conditions: balance of white, exposure setting, using different effects. Moreover, you can choose one of the preinstalled scenes to simplify photographing: album, night, portrait and macro photographing.
As it was expected MW998 shows a rather high quality of pictures: there are few noises and even if the lights are insufficient the colors are reproduced without distortions; focusing is almost perfect. Plus to that, a camera is working rather quickly and a viewfinder is moving quite rapidly.

Communication abilities
MW998 has a full range of communication abilities. This novelty supports GSM: 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS Class 12, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, but unfortunately this device does not have an ability to increase the rate of data transfer via EDGE. For comparison, a recently reviewed MW700 supported EDGE, and todays novelty does not support this standard as well as other GSmart models.

This novelty keeps the connections perfectly, signal is stable and it is not lost even in the zones of low receive level. Sound is clear with no distortions and noises. The same concerns the voice received via inbuilt loudspeaker for conversations. If you want to record a conversation or to put some background sound onto your voice, you should use a preinstalled utility Wise Talk. With the help of this utility you can imitate such places like airport, concert hall, highway and etc spoofing your interlocutor. You can also put on the conversation any other sounds which you earlier recorded.

Among additional wireless modules this novelty has Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi (WLAN 802.11b/g); these modules work gets no complaints. Besides that, we should note that there is a brand interface with simple settings and stylish appearance for working with Bluetooth-connections.

Battery capacity is 1300 mAh. According to the MW998 passport data this should provide 4 hours of working in speaking mode and 150 hours in stand by mode.
The battery capacity rate is a wide spread one and that is why in fact the estimated time of working should be about 1,5 days, which was practically proved. If you are an economic user and you are not surfing mobile Internet and you don’t chat and etc, your communicator can stand for about 2 days and you can use a memo book from time to time.
Additional software

GSmart MW998 is supplied with a small set of brand utilities and programs, familiar by other GIGA-BYTE communicators reviews. So we will not stop describing each of them, we will just enlist the set going together with this novelty.
Utilities for the work with a phone are presented with useful programs like a black list and quick automatic dialing a subscriber.
Multi media applications block has an interesting dictaphone brand, a simple an comfortable in use audio mixer and utility for the work with java application.
The most interesting system utilities are Spb Backup for reserve copying data; it has functions of schedule record and Zip archiver.

Conclusions
The most interesting is that despite all its advantages, this novelty is not expensive and that is a definite record for the communicator with VGA display. Plus to that – a stylish design, high-efficiency filling, comfortable control and high quality of the photographs taken by inbuilt camera – all this makes GSmart MW998 even more attractive, but this communicator has minuses as well, the lack of GPS navigator considerably decreased the quantity of potential buyers of this device, and having a good size display this device could become a good automobile navigator.

At the edges of the shell many interesting things can be seen, and it is not only a key power top, having fitted to one side of the central 3.5-mm input for headphones. If you have to charge the device or connect it to your PC, you will need to look at the left edgee, where microUSB-socket is fitted with an LED charging indicator, and in the corners was found some place for two polyphonic speakers. In addition, in the center you can find a convenient slider lock, which has no alternatives. On the right side of the shell there is everything you need for casual work with the camera, and not only. This is a big comfortable shutter release button with a soft touch for focusing. In addition, there is a comfortable swing for regulating volume, which is easy and pleasant to use.

And now it is better to look at the back surface. Under the “curtain” you can find a 5-megapixel camera with CMOS-matrix and autofocus optics. In addition, there are two LEDs, which are called flash.
The battery cover has matt surface. It has 1500 mAh Li-Pol battery, and a memory card slot, microSDHC, next to the camera unit.
The battery is the same as in the old Nokia E71. The majority of owners discharge the battery only after 2-3 days of use. A wonderful result for the device with 3.5-inch screen, though the same Apple iPhone is not worse.
Under the battery there is nothing interesting, as in 5800, but the slot for SIM-card is available without removing the battery, as the card is placed in a steel tray and stuffed somewhere inside the cell.

Communications
In general in this flagship there are many tech devices from Nokia, and the first thing I should say that in the device there is Bluetooth 2.0 with support for all necessary and unnecessary profiles. We’ll also note the possibility of comfortable listening to music via wireless Nokia headsets.
In Nokia N97 there is also a Wi-Fi module, the index specified by IEEE 802.11b / g, which characterizes the solid performance with different types of WLAN-access points at up to 2.3 Mbps, as well as the opportunity of working in wireless networks, UPnP.

Music
Taking into account the modest capabilities of watching movies that still need somehow to be converted into the appropriate format with the MP4 extension, the main way to fill the space in the memory of Nokia N97 is music. Here you can add many MP3, AAC, WMA music. It is commendable that the library can seek out the appropriate albums / artists and so on without any slowdown, and the album covers can be changed.
And while enjoying the music these covers occupy half of the screen, leaving only a little space under the battery icon and the network receiving, and you can use the half of the screen for easy and convenient navigation.

With regard to the sound, everything is alright, and such a conclusion can be drawn not only when compared with all sorts of musical devices from different manufacturers, but after comparison with MP3-players. The device plays music in various genres. It copes especially well with electronic and heavy rock; there is Metal and other similar directions, suggesting many nuances in the midrange.
Radio in Nokia N97 can only be compared with brand new 5530. The same 20 memory to store stations in the FM-range 87.5-108 MHz, smooth animation of inscriptions in the background, and the quality of play will not disappoint.

Camera
In Nokia N97, which we will not call a computer, there is an ordinary 5-megapixel camera with two LEDs instead of a normal flash and auto focus optics with a good opportunity to take close-up with 10 cm.
Working with the camera is easy and convenient; because all control rests on the right thumb or on the left index finger if you want to create a large panel of settings and adjustments. There are settings where you can select the resolution of the image. In addition, you can record good videos in 640 x 480, when strained to 30 fps. Video is not so interesting for us, because quality is identical to records from 5800, despite a decent difference in price.

Conclusion
The device is strictly for connoisseurs of all the details of the prorated interface S60 from Nokia, but at the same time seeking the world’s only bunch of QWERTY-keyboard and 32 GB of internal memory. In terms of multimedia and iron power the device lags behind the market for exactly one year, but this Nokia flagship has not lost a huge reservoir of loyal fans of brand, among which may be you, confirming it by buying N97. Others are advised not to rush buying Nokia N97 because it will obtain more attractive design only in December.

Nokia N97 Unlocked Phone, Touchscreen, 3G, 5 MP Camera, A-GPS, 32 GB, MicroSD Slot, and Integrated Ovi Applications–U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)

Last spring, Acer has signed an agreement to purchase one of the leading players in the market of smartphones and communicators based on Windows Mobile.
The result of beneficial cooperation was the first line of communicators under the Acer brand name, which doesn’t have any common features with known Glofiish E-Ten devices. Today we’ll describe one of the representatives of the new line – Acer F900 communicator.

Construction and design

The first thing that comes to mind when looking at the novelty, is iPhone! The device is actually very similar to the famous “apple phone”: the same shell (118 x 64 mm), very large display, smooth glossy front panel, the rounded corners and edges, mirror framing around the perimeter and even metallic lid of the battery compartment! But … this is Acer.
Although the thickness of the shell (13 mm) and abundance buttons on the sides, connectors and interfaces are not peculiar to the device from Apple. However, judging by the quality of manufacture, materials and design in general, Acer F900, without a doubt, is one of the best communicators on the market.

Thanks to smoother edges, the novelty lies in the hand like a glove. The only shortcoming is that the glossy front panel covers with fingerprints.

Under the display four touch buttons which are illuminated with bright blue LEDs are located. These buttons are responsible for the reception and the abolition of the call, the opening of the standard menu “Start” and closing the current window. It’s nice that the manufacturer has taken care of those who are not fond of touch control, as any click is accompanied by vibration. But the lack of a joystick or even touch navigation button adds a bold minus to the developers.

On the right side in the upper part there is a button, swing to adjust the sound with an extra button in the center of confirmation. This group of buttons performs the role of the buttons and vertical scrolling of the document. Below there is a button activating the camera. Here the manufacturer placed a tight-fitting plastic plug – a slot for microSD memory cards.

You should pay special attention to the telescopic stylus and its place which is located in the bottom of the shell. Perhaps this is the best stylus from all we’ve seen recently. It has three sliding knees, one of which is made thick enough so that the fingers do not feel any discomfort.

Acer F900 looks really expensive, and even elitist. Unlike most competitors, who seem to be such only from a distance, the novelty does not lose its attractiveness even being in the hand. You feel that you hold the thing!

Filling and productivity

The filling of Acer F900 is far from the title of leader. The device has a Samsung S3C 6410 processor with frequency of 533 MHz. If the design of the novelty is a merit Acer, the platform is entirely borrowed from communicator E-Ten of the last generation.

Memory on-board is standard: 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM, from which the owner can use 16, and 42 MB respectively. All the rest is occupied by the operating system, preinstalled programs and, most importantly – a new graphical interface. It runs the operating system Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro.

Overall system performance we evaluated by using the Spb Benchmark 1.6, and for comparison we took communicators Toshiba Portege G810 (CPU Qualcomm MSM7200 400 MHz, RAM 128 MB RAM and 256 MB of ROM, a display QVGA, OS Windows Mobile 6.1) and Gigabyte GSmart MW720 (processor Marvell PXA270 520 MHz, RAM 128 MB RAM and 256 MB ROM Display VGA, OS Windows Mobile 6.1).

The novelty can be classified as a medium communicator, capable of performing almost any task. To find out how to handle the device with video playback, we tested it with the benchmark CorePlayer, which in its turn runs three videos, differing from each other qualitative characteristics: 320 x 240/550 kbps, 640 x 480/784 Kbit / s; 640 x 480/1320 Kbps.

While testing, the video lost with a score of 105%. The results can be called medium and say that Acer F900 is well suited for viewing movies on the road.

Display

The display can be proud to belong to Acer F900. Judge yourself: the diagonal of 3.8 inches and resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. Now add to this a substantial margin of brightness, high clarity, excellent color reproduction and viewing angles. Do you need something else for comfortable viewing of movies or photos? Correct – G-sensor automatically deploys the image on the display while turning the device. By the way, G-sensor has a number of options, among which there is a function of binding any programs and utilities.

In addition, the device has a built-in light sensor that can automatically adjust the backlight level. It is noteworthy that the utility which is responsible for the control of this sensor has many flexible settings.

Camera

The device is equipped with 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash. The camera belongs to the medium class. Its interface is designed for a Spartan, but this is the whole of its zest. Well, a set of settings is standard: the quality of shooting, white balance, brightness, exposure, etc.

But the camera has very bad focus at close distances. Another concern when using the camera – the lens is too close to the corner of the shell. As a result, the finger of your left hand always gets in the frame.

Communications

In addition to networks GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), it also supports third-generation networks, such as HSDPA / HSUPA (850/1900/2100 MHz). From wireless modules on board there are Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g, which work has been tested with HP iPAQ Pocket PCs 4700. The result raises no objections.

FM-radio has not only a good selective sensitivity, but also a stylish proprietary interface.

GPS-navigation

F900 among all Acer phones is equipped with a built-in GPS-module SiRFstar III, perhaps the best available on the market today. From the navigation software on board there is only one small utility that displays the main parameters – coordinates, altitude, speed, etc.

The Navigator was tested both in the city, among the sky-high buildings, and in the park area, among the trees. Everything was alright.

Conclusions

Acer F900 leaves an ambivalent impression. On the one hand, chic design, high quality, a great display, the availability of various hardware details (G-sensor, light sensor) and a giant set of useful proprietary software put the device in one row with the latest top models of the leading manufacturers of communicators. And the price for the novelty is not cheap. But the modest hardware stuffing spoils all these. Memory is not enough even to install all necessary programs, and processing power is not enough for comfortable video viewing. If shortly device should cost less, then such a purchase can already be called beneficial.

A year ago Samsung released an 8-MP serious mobile phone called Pixon. Now let’s welcome a young successor – Samsung Pixon 12, which is equipped with 12-MP camera and a smart display. Of course, the novelty is interesting and worth studying, and even, worth its price.

Design
As with its predecessor Samsung M8800 Pixon, Pixon 12 does not have a pocket size to comfortably fit in any pocket. However, if you have large pockets, then problems will not arise. The phone is also thick, which is caused by the camera module and decorative projection at the lower end.
These features make the phone a compact digital camera. The back cover is made from metal, but … it is “afraid” of keys, and other warlike items. When negligent handling scratches appear fairly quickly, and appearance is lost with the same speed. Under the cover you can find battery and a slot for SIM card.
Of course we do not forget to mention voluminous pedestal of the camera, with xenon (pulse) LED lights flash and autofocus. Everything like a digital camera.

At the upper end of the connector there is a microUSB, for accurate plug. Unlike Samsung Jet, which is placed on the same platform, there is no 3.5-mm audio input, and therefore you need to connect them through the headphone adapter. To be honest, this is inconvenient, and the “experience” of Sony Ericsson music phones without audio jack proves this.
The right end is given to the phone’s control. On / off switch, the focus / shutter, zoom button are located on the right end. On the left there is a microSD memory card slot and key lock. Everything is quite convenient.
Under the display there are three mechanical buttons – two “receiver” buttons and menu / return to a back operation.

Display
The screen is exactly the same as in Samsung Jet. This means that the AMOLED-display is one of the best – high contrast, bright colors, large viewing angles, high definition of images, and resistance to direct sunlight. The brightness adjusts automatically, or manually. The display is designed both for finger and stylus control.

The set has no stylus, but nothing forbids us to take a pen or a pencil from the table and control through it. I must say that both ways of working with 12 Pixon are convenient. With regard to the control by fingers, the latest Samsung such problems do not occur.

Menu and control

Here are the same preset widgets like at Samsung Jet ( by the way quite a lot), plus you can download and install.
You can also change the icons on the main menu – almost unnecessary, but a funny feature. Scrolling lists, menu, etc. works fine and without glitches.

As in previous models, there are 4 icons displayed on the screen: quick access to menu, directory, SMS-service, virtual keyboard. The menu is the same as in Samsung Jet. But we have a convenient main menu presented by 3 x 4 grids. If you go deeper, then there are lists of features with small icons.
Pixon supports multitasking, and a list of (more icons or grid), running applications can be put on display, in 1.5 seconds, holding the central button. Optionally, you can close any applications.
As symbols rather large, you can use your phone even in a tottery bus.

Camera

In Pixon 12 there is a camera ever observed in the phones. The matter is not the megapixels (12), and the great functionality, but … technological advances.

The interface of the camera is oriented horizontally. It is very comfortable, due to large symbols on the screen – everything is perfectly calculated for fingers.
Now let’s talk about the possibilities. It has thirteen scenes of shooting, six shooting modes. One of the modes is a “beautiful face”, which name speaks for itself. There is a micro-Photoshop in the phone. This function slightly clears the pores on your face, highlight of the outbreak, etc. Frankly, it is a useful joke, especially if you often do portraits.
Another innovation – a function smart auto, or “autophoto”. About this you can read in the review of Samsung WB550, and here we simply note that the phone successfully and quickly switches between shooting scenes depending on what you shoot. In addition, it is supported by auto focus on a moving object.
There is also a function of detection of blinking, which may be helpful, as well as the image stabilizer.
But zoom in Pixon is not optical and 4 times digital, as that is not firmly in the context of the 12-MP camera.
So, the camera has many settings for the most creative fans of mobile graphics.

Music

The interface of the player is very similar to Samsung Jet, but with a little repaint. There is a choice of three types of visualization, 10 preset equalizers. You can access the list of songs; click the desired one, thus launching the play.
Sound of the player (i.e., music) is not bad. With good headphones the sound is loud, bass and tops are visible. Overall, it’s not bad, but we can compare it with Nokia N96.
Conclusion
This phone can be perfect for techno funs or mobile photo enthusiasts, or fans of big screens, or … touch phones as a whole. Although it’s not a smartphone, but a good camera has no competitors.

Buy Samsung M8800 Pixon Unlocked Phone–International Version with No U.S. Warranty (Black) from Amazon

Touch phones literally are flooding the market of mobile phones, even if we consider only products of Samsung. Thus, following the models of S5230 and S5600 an interesting device appeared – Samsung S8000 Jet. The model is very reactive. It is a smartphone with a branded phone firmware, designed to satisfy almost any user.
Many fans of Samsung brand have grown accustomed to touch screen phones with large display and three buttons beneath it. Someone likes such phones, somebody appreciates their unique design.
When the model has not been brought to the market yet, it was called Cubic in honor of interesting three-dimensional cube on the display. However, the official name of the new item is Jet, because Samsung S8000 is installed inside the 800-MHz processor.

Appearance

This phone is similar to Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. That is quite normal for the size and appearance of the touch screen phone. Let’s look at the back cover and see that it is glossy, respectively – slippery. Yes, it is made of decorative strips (looks nice), but the fingerprints quickly bring all the beauty away. The cover can be easily removed, as there is a projection.
The front panel bears only three buttons, camera for videocalls and sensor approximation.

Screen

Excellent display is one of the main features of this model. Here is an AMOLED-display with a resolution of 480 x 800 and the palette of 16 million colors. The display is one of the best on the market: large viewing angles, vivid, saturated colors, high definition. In a sunny day the information is read well, images and pictures can be seen without problems.
In response to a touch the device slightly vibrates, and, of course, the strength of vibration can be adjusted by a 5-point scale.
The screen is interesting because it reacts as a stylus. A light touch is enough to manage the screen; you do not need to push it. It is also comfortable to type the text with a pen
Regarding to the number dialing, you can see that the virtual keyboard is very huge; you can dial the number on the fly.

Menu

In fact, Samsung S8000 Jet has two disadvantages – the so-called standard and cube presented on the screen in 3D and calling with a single button. Each facet is responsible for a multimedia application or media. And as you add content to the phone (pictures, videos, music, album covers), it automatically appears on the facets. Accordingly, when clicking on an album cover the song title will appear, one more click – will launch the player.
Cube spins funny, smooth, graphics are not hindered. Under the cube there are six icons for launching applications.
By the way, the standard menu is already familiar from the previous models S5230 and S5600. Here it, of course, is redesigned, but the general features are common. As usual, the main screen can be “occupied” with widgets. You can also download more widgets from Samsung’s official web-site.
You can scroll the desktop, as in model S5230, at each of the screens may be their own widgets. This is convenient. The side bar widget is hidden in the tray after 10 seconds of inactivity. It is also convenient. At the bottom of the screen constantly displays a bar for calling the virtual keyboard, a directory, the service of SMS-messages, and the menu. Again – nice.
Arrangement of the menu is of high-quality, icons are well traced, and their color palette is chosen with the taste. As we already know the information is well readable in any light.
It’s already traditional for Samsung devices; the profiles are made by a human that is beautiful and convincing.
For creative work the simple image editor is perfect. You can choose the color, the thickness of the line, the tool, choose a background color.
Phone can access the network through GPRS or using Wi-Fi.

Keyboard and Directory

Virtual keyboard, as we know – comes with one click on the button. When you hold the phone vertically, you can see a normal telephone mode when you hold the phone in the horizontal position, it automatically overturns and becomes a QWERTY-layout. There is a button “space”, on which, along with the typical signs, is written – “space”.
In the phone book is shown a list of contacts – names on the left, icons on the right (to send SMS or call a friend), as well as a slider to scroll the list.
One contact has a lot of contact fields, and each subscriber can have his/her own type of vibration, and the date of his/her birth. You can select the memory (phone or SIM-card), in which will be recorded the information.
And someone will like the function “Photocontacts”, where you just need to click on an image and make the call.

Music

The phone has a 3.5-mm standard input, and hence to the S8000 is easy to connect your headphones.
The volume is high; you can listen to music on a noisy street or in subways. Ten preset equalizers are good, but it is very inconvenient you cannot create your settings. By one click you can turn on / off mode 5.1 Surround.
There is a standard distribution of content, when you enter the folder “albums”, the device displays the album covers.
If you are in the playback mode, turn the phone, it will start showing the album cover.
Radio is quite normal for Samsung touch phones. You can record the MP3-files, and start the function of guessing music. Like a music player, radio works in the background mode.
The maximum time of recording of the Dictaphone is one hour, the minimum – one minute. The recording quality is satisfactory.
There are 10 pieces of alarm, with the possibility to adjust the response and selecting the type of alert. Do not forget to activate the mode “Auto power”, disabling the phone at night. Otherwise, the alarm will not work.
The navigation is represented by Google Maps and Java Navifon, which after three months working, requires money. To pay or not, it is the private matter of each user.

Camera

The camera with a resolution of 5 MP and autofocus with a couple of LEDs and a flash – is not uncommon.
The interface of the applications is horizontal, all the icons are large, it’s easy to work with them, and to work with the camera is also convenient.
Thirteen scenes of shooting are enough for most users, but for fans of technological innovations there is a feature definition of the face, coupled with the recognition of a smile and wink.

Without turning the camera off, you can get in a photo album, with one-click, and there you can zoom the picture which is very simple – with a touch on the screen, followed by retention. The function is very funny, and works well. Of course, you can enter the gallery from the main menu. Here you can find sorting pictures by date, by color (we have met such function in S8300), by file name.
You can evaluate the quality of images yourself. Please note that we had a non-profit model, the camera in it can be a little worse than in the releasing device.

Conclusions

Samsung S8000 Jet left a pleasant impression. We have been testing a non-profit model, but it was smart in terms of work. In fact, it’s easy to work with a touch screen, but only after a 3-4-day of practice.
In addition, the price is expensive, of course, and those who want to buy a device with a touch screen can choose something less expensive, for example, Nokia 5800, without penetrating into the fact that these are different products.