Been using this phone, and the one thing about is the trackball needs getting used to. I bet a lot of people who just try it at the shop for a few minutes won't like it very much. It takes a little getting used to, but setting a personally comfortable speed in the settings page would help greatly. I find using it to be quite intuitive now and find that I like it a lot.

BTW, my earlier comment about the WiFi antenna, guess I was wrong about it. I think Samsung did a good job on it as I can catch fairly strong signals even when I am quite far away from my home router. I do find watching movies not to be as good as I expected, or maybe I haven't figured out what bitrate to use as yet. Mobiola or emtube doesn't run very well, that's for sure.

Well, I went to test the phone out at the shop last week. I have seen on youtube about people complaining that the trackball is not sensitive. After I tested it, it really is not sensitive, it took me two thumb motion to go to the next icon on the main menu. I then asked the salesman, is there a way to set the sensitivity? He said "This one sure sensitive one!". So I went to look up the options and finally found it. It was default to 5. I put it all the way up to 10, and BAM, its very usable now, i can even go down two icons with one thumb motion! Those salesman sucks.



What do you mean? It lags when you view video?

How's the camera and GPS?

So, do you recommend me to proceed of buying this phone??

Since there are so few people using the phone.. I am now feel a bit scared and start looking for N82.

But I really need a black phone and N82 black is still in disguise..

So, what about the GPS feature of this phone? Is it good?

What else you don't like about the phone??



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But is it true that we cannot scroll forward by just moving the trackball endlessly??

Meaning that we had to roll the trackball several times rather than moving it quickly (as the d-pad/joystick)?



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one important question..

To all Samsung i550 owners here.. Can you all please help me to verify whether this RandomRingtone software works on i550..

http://www.smartphoneware.com/randomringto...s60-product.php

Actually that's among the main reason why I want to buy this phone.. I want to make my ringtone random all the time.

So, if that software does not work.. Then no point for me of buying it..

Thank you for your help.



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Do you all here hate Samsung phones???



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I feel so sad...



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Is it true that this phone restarts frequently??



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Yes, you need to adjust the speed of the trackball to your preference. Then it works rather well. I was reading Steve Litchfield just now who was complaining a lot about this phone. I had to laugh at some of his "negatives". One was that the SAMSUNG COULDN'T RUN NOKIA written softwares... I only have few words of advise for him... Steve, get your head out of Nokia's ass for a change and smell the world for a bit. This is a Samsung. Why in heaven's name should Nokia proprietary software be expected to run on Samsung devices?? The other was his comment about the trackball, same as what I've seen people who just try it for a few minutes at a shop would say. I.E. it is not easy to use. Another big to Steve there.

As for the camera, it is pretty bad. GPS I've never tried. I don't have the time nor the eyesight to be squinting at phone screen sized maps, unlike you young folks. I prefer my GPS to be normal sized screens like the regular dedicated GPS devices out there. Sorry about that.

Yes, about youtube, somehow neither emtube nor mobitubia works very well. I guess these software are optimized for Nokias, not Samsung as yet. Remember, even Nokias used to have problems in the beginning, so I'd expect Samsung would too, at least in the beginning.

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Added on March 28, 2008, 8:54 pm


Well the N82 would set you back slightly more than this Samsung would, but if you have the money, why not? The N82 has a better camera with Xenon flash, speedy processor, and latest firmware by Nokia. For me, I have no hesitation to buy the Samsung i550, even though many people sniff their noses at it here on even on MyPDACafe. I speak from my experience of owning almost all Nokia S60 phones that have been out thus far, and my conclusion about this phone is it is a lot better than some Nokias at the same price, performance as well as features-wise.

As per my earlier answer about the GPS, I don't have the eyesight anymore to be squinting at phone sized screens trying to read road names etc etc, so I hope you don't mind if I don't have an answer about this subject for you.

There is one thing I don't like about it so far and that is that Samsung has its own sync software which is incompatible with Nokia PC Suite, i.e. they can't co-exist on the same PC at the same time. So if like me, and you're heavily invested into Nokias, you'll have to look at workarounds to sync both the Samsung and your existing Nokias with the Outlook on your PC.

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Added on March 28, 2008, 9:01 pm


Yes you can move the trackball faster and further than just one line at a time, if that's what you're asking. First, need to adjust the sensitivity in the preference page, here you can adjust the responsiveness for VERTICAL as well as HORIZONTAL movements independently of each other, then when actually using the trackball, you need to caress it in the direction where you want to go and hold the caress slightly longer than a quick flick. Once you own it, you'll know what I mean. Don't stress yourself out about the trackball if you're not intending to get it.

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Added on March 28, 2008, 9:08 pm

If this is really that important for you, then forget about the i550.

And while you're at it, you can forget about these other phones too - 6120C, N95, N958GB, N82, N81, and all other similar ones coming out in the future - as the randomringtone software only runs on S60 V2 phones. The i550 and the other Nokia phones listed above all run S60 V3, which is not backward compatible with this software. Sorry about that.

This post has been edited by tony_chew: Mar 28 2008, 09:23 PM

Thanks a lot tony for your lenghty review.. I really appreciate.

As for the random ringtone software, there's an alternative to it.. thanks to wuahaha.

Tomorrow I'm gonna buy the phone.

So, would you mind telling me where did you bought yours? How much? What are the sales package inside the box?

Thanks.



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Sorry I've forgot to ask.

Why did you say the camera is bad???

May I have your contact number please..



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Sorry I overlooked this post..

So mahal meh in Penang??



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a few more questions..

1. can the trackball be set to shortcut for up/down/right/left navigation during the standby mode? for example, during the standby if i move it to the right, it will open calendar. move down will go to contact list. something like that

2. If I've set a task.. will it permanently displayed on the screen even if the event is already past?

That's all for now.

Thank you.



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samsung phones design never attract me...why....

same as u bro....js since MWC 2008, i quite attracted to samsung F480 and g400 soul..more on F480 but too bad it doesnt hv wifi...aside from these two models....emm not attracted to other samsung

1. Yes, the trackball is the equivalent of the D-Pad. You have to use it to select the items on your phone, whether it's in the Standby screen or anywhere else. Am I misunderstanding your question?

2. Since this is an S60 FP1 phone, all uncompleted tasks will still be shown on your Standby screen, just as they do on Nokias.

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Added on March 29, 2008, 2:52 pmContrary to my two esteemed bros from Penang, I think most Sammys have style in abundance and very fashionable looking. For example, putting my N82 side by side to the i550, I can safely say the Sammy is better looking at all angles than the N82.


It's all a matter of taste, very personal obviously. Long ago, I remember seeing some people who said they liked the look of the U1000. <coughing>

What bothers me more about them is what's inside, as sometimes Sammys don't work as well or have as many features as phones from manufacturers like Nokia or others.

Back to the i550, it fulfills a lot of my needs at the moment, does what I want it to do, and does it without fuss. It's not the PERFECT phone, obviously but then it's not as bad as what a lot of people who don't own one think.

This post has been edited by tony_chew: Mar 29 2008, 02:55 PM

Thanks tony for your reply and also your PM..

Finally I've managed to own this phone at last...

All the things you have said are true!!!

As you said, the trackball is a bit weird to play with at first. But after you change the sensitivity (make it faster).. it is such a nice one.. Anyway.. As I've read somewhere on the net.. One major drawback of the trackball is that you cannot make a long scroll.. No matter how fast you've changed the sensitivity.. you still need to scroll the item one by one..

One major disappointment of this phone for me.. is it's display resolution!!! It is a mediocre. For the same picture, on my k800i it is displayed so crisp and clear. But when it comes to the i550.. the picture became damn pale.. In a conclusion, i550w display lacks of clarity, sharpness, contrast and saturation. I have to make a highly saturated wallpaper for a better display on this phone.

Can anyone explain why could this happen since both k800i and i550w are using the same TFT 256K display??



Regarding the camera, as tony said.. it's another little disappointment. Tony was right, for outdoor and in a fully lit condition.. the result was perfect! But for indoor and dim light shot.. it quite sucks..

Another stupid thing is that when you have an incoming call.. The loudspeaker option will only activated after you have press the answer button. But that's not the end of it.. After you select the loudspeaker option.. then it will ask you for confirmation whether you really want to route the output through the speaker??!!! How stupid!!!!

this means it is the same as my k800i where I have to press the button three times just to turn on the loudspeaker!!!

tony.. do you have any solution for this please??

It is really cumbersome to press the button 3 times while i am driving..



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This post has been edited by aimy: Mar 31 2008, 09:42 AM

Is there such thing as firmware update for this Samsung i550w?

If so, how I'm gonna do that?

Thank you.



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my colleague just got this phone last week, played with it a bit. My biggest dissapointment with it is that it doesn't seems to come with A-GPS as advertised. There's no "Assisted GPS" under the positioning methods. So the GPS locking is slow for a cold start. I have emailed the samsung malaysia support but they just reply crap.

anyone having problem with the battery life?
and
do we need to pay for using gps?