Hi guys/gals,

Currently own a HTC Touch 2. Just got the latest Samsung Phone - 8G version. I played it for about 1 hour then bought it there and then. This is highly unusual of me - I usually will research a lot before I buy a phone. It took me 6 months of research before I bought my HTC Touch 2. I am mainly a business-music-photography user. Anyhow - here are some first impressions of the things I usually use:

1. GUI - Also known as the Samsung OS. There is 3 types of GUI / "OS" that you can use. One is like an iMac with widgets. The 2 others are variety of iphone meets vista type of interface. I must say the one with the iMAC (yes Imac not Iphone) widgets is very nice to use.

2. Windows 6.1 - Basically, No.1 above buried Windows pretty deep - so all my functions can be done with minimal fuss. So no issues.

3. Special things I liked - the headphone unit. It is connected right up to the microphone using the long thin pin charges. However - after that - it has the standard headphone jack. It means you can swap any headphones for music. So now I can use my Shure headphones - perfect! The mouse is also a very nice addition. You can disable it and it can act as a 4 way pointer. The best thing is you don't have to press it to go top-bottom-left-right. Just gently swipe your finger. Very good feature as sometimes we tend to press ENTER when we want to top-bottom-left-right instead. Another thing - who does not like a 18 month warranty? HTC only gave 1 year. However I've not tried Samsung customer service before - hopefully will be OK. HTC customer service is good - when you send in the phone to repair, if they say they will call you on next Wednesday - they will call you. Plus the parts that are repaired have 3 months warranty on them. This will prevent the company from swapping in refurbished parts into the phone. Hopefully Samsung's service will be good also.

4. Camera - The smile & face recognition works pretty well. Pictures are crisp. The layout of the menus are pretty simple and easy to access. The shutter speed & capture is much better than my HTC Touch - not lagging from time of pressing until capture. The camera can also do a half press focus before full press capture. This feature is very good. Of course there is the flash on the cam - but I did not get a chance to use it yet. After zooming into a taken shot - that's where I see the 5 megapixels win. Very clear and crisp pictures.

5. Processor speed - frankly I have not really heard of the processor before - maybe I am just ignorant. HTC has an Intel processor. You can see the difference when closing or opening applications. Running multiple applications will have a bit of a lag also. However - the lag is still acceptable. I don't find myself waiting frustrated for programs to close or open.

6. On screen buttons & menus - most of the on screen buttons and menus are big and easy to navigate without using the stylus. The Stylus itself comes as an accesory that you can hang next to the phone. I don't think I need it - but who knows? There a number of functions that can be done by swiping our fingers accross the screen. Some access menus - while others shortcut. I like it - the more options the better

7. Form factor & weight - both are pretty good in my book. Slim and light enough. Screen is a good size. Wide and long enough.

8. Connection - there is every conection available except infrared - well who needs it anyway? Quad Band, Bluetooh, Wifi, GPS, 3G, HSPDA, USB. I did see a Beam application though - could this be that Infrared is also included? Perhaps it's just a standard windows menu. A big plus point is TV out connection - you can show your pictures straight into TV without issues. Have not used it yet.

9. Things I did not really like:

The charger & headphones port is together (same as HTC). This means sometimes when I have long teleconferences - I can't charge and use headphones at the same time. I prefer not using bluetooth headsets - they emit radiation too Another thing is you need to open a flap to access the port. Feels a bit flimsy. I can see pretty much after a while the flap will koyak lah.

The change between landscape and potrait mode - via accelorator meter is slightly slow. Probably a 1.5-2 second lag. For my use - I would disable it - simply done through the menus. The accelorator meter seems a bit sensitive also - it keeps switching between modes when I am using the phone. *** Update - the accelorator sensitivity can be changed - a big plus point!***

The are some instances where the screen is not too responsive on the little [X] buttons for closing windows applications. Scrolling is a bit of an effort also. Perhaps I guess I am not used to fully using my hand only.

I would have liked the Stylus to be stored into the phone unit itself.

*TIP* - the text might look not as sharp - but disable the "cleartype" function in Windows and you'll see much better text. Somehow the cleartype fuction of smoothening out the edges seems to give the opposite desired effect. Perhaps I just don't know how to use it? The cleartype is by default "ON".


OK the most important question - the screen resolution - any problem? Frankly I can't notice a difference with My HTC Touch 2. I guess if I stare at both the screens long enough - I might see some difference. But who of us have so much time to stare at the screen and look for the missing pixels? Once again - I don't notice the difference.

This is my initial feel - as a business-music-photography user. I don't use push email - cause I don't want to be contacted by my office all the time This is as far of a review I can do - anyhow I think the review is really long. Some others may find it different cause you needs may differ. However - I think they really pack a LOT of stuff into it. My verdict? Well my last phone took 6 months researsh - this one - only 1 hour. You figure? Just go and try it out - I guess we can't really tell unless we have tried it ourselves. For me - so far I am happy with the phone. Price?

The distributor is having discount now - RM 2599 at Courts Mammoth (next to IKEA) for the 8 gig version. Extra Rm200 for 16GB version. Limited to first 10 customers everyday I think. Stocks are depleting fast. Comes with Original Case (worth 99) , Screen Protector, photo frame. Is it worth it? I don't know - I wasn't too bothered to look around anymore - cause I only looked at the phone only - not the other freebies. I thought it was. I am going to sell my case anyway - cause I don't need it. So those who want the Omnia Leather(?) case - email me at index7index@yahoo.com. I'll let it go at RM80. Save 19 bucks - brand new - can go and see movie for 2 people

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Added on August 9, 2008, 4:50 pmOh yes - please don't compare this to iphone. Firstly iphone is not legally available here - you can always buy underwater sets or straight from overseas. But if the iphone malfunctions or you drop it and it is spoilt - you're on your own. I wonder how many shops will be able to fix it? 4 options:

1. Probably none - as Apple will not have spare parts for it here.

2. There may be some clone spare parts - but I guess then why did we buy an original phone to have cloned spare parts in it?

3. Make a nice trip overseas to fix it - but can they fix it there and then? Else you will have an extended 1-2 week holiday overseas. Unless you come back and make another trip over. Nearest one is Singapore I believe.

4. Post it back and ask them to post it back to you. It might just come back with a different damage or worse still - lost.

Anyhow - I am sure the iphone is a good unit - but not having a local warranty has so much risks involved that I would rather not buy it. Don't think it will come anytime soon - as most mobile operators in the world are balking at Apple's terms & conditions to carry the iPhone as part of their package.

This post has been edited by index7: Aug 9 2008, 04:50 PM

Played around with it for 2 more hours. This is a superb phone - my most noticable gripe with it is that the screen is not as responsive as it should be at times - when scrolling. Seems like the phone can't differenciate between opening programs and scrolling between programs. So sometimes programs open when you don't want it. However there are enough shortcut keys and combos to bury this type of issues under their GUI. A bit of a small issue - so test this out before you decide.

Oh yes - the battery is killer - in total, I've been playing with it for at least 3 hours - and the battery still seems like it's at 99%. I was watching slide shows, testing apps, listening music, taking photos with Flash. I must say I am pretty impressed. It has a talk time of 4-6 hours and I think a standby time of almost 16 - 20 days. It is indeed very battery saving!

ROM & RAM wise is both 128MB each.

Glad to help -if you all have question - I am willing to test out my phone and see how it responds.

Um - sorry a bit of a newbie with the phone. How do I key in the codes? On the phone pad? Is there anywhere I need to go first?

Edit: No worries - got it alreay.

This post has been edited by index7: Aug 11 2008, 10:48 PM

Yeah - I noticed this too with my phone. However I don't know how GSM Arena review got so nice shots? In fact they say the phone's camera is really nice na dpossibly best out there for Pocket PC. I wonder what's wrong? Right now I am trying in multiple modes to get the best picture qualities. Will report back later.

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OK - after some testing I found out the issue or rather the solution. When you using the camera's preview tool and zoom in - you will see a lot of pixelization and blurry lines. However when you use the Photo slides it's a different story altogether. The lines are clear and no pixelization even on deeper zooms - so the picts are nice. Perhaps the camera preview tool is not made for zooming in shots. One thing though - the colours tend to be a bit faded - I guess must be the lense and software of the camera. However it's still nice enough

This post has been edited by index7: Aug 11 2008, 11:03 PM

Yes I agree. The dullness of colour is evident in all the phones. I am satisfied with the camera on this phone.

I'll try to add the picts - but currently my home PC kaput and I only have my office laptop. It is a "lockdown" machine so it's highly sensitive to files being transferred into it. Give me a few days - and hopefully I can post some shots.

A few things to note about the messaging function.

1. It has conversation based messaging function - means you can see the history of the sms with this phone. However I find the way it's done is not nice - the GUI formatting.
2. I still hit the wrong input from time to time. My hands are not that big - I would imagine those who have bigger hands might find it to be more problematic.
3. The position of the Backspace Button is not good. It's located at the bottom right instead of top right.
4. In landscape mode - the space bar is at the bottom right hand conner too. Not good.

Our version 3 has most of the items - except the Chinese software I think. We have all the stuff like BizCard Reader, New Icons & today pages, etc. So an upgrade may not be needed. Anyhow - I don't think it will void any warranty as it's a software upgrade and you're not fiddling with the hardware. However if you are using Windows Vista, be careful - a lot of people having problems upgrading their phones.

OK - some quirky stuff that has been happening.

1. This morning after charging the phone for the night - my alarm rang (thank god!) - but I could not get the screen to wake up. Had to remove battery and put it back again.
2. Screen hang yesterday - on/off resolved.

Not really biggies - but something we should notice. Since the charging problem is a known issue.

Yes there's interest free installment for almost all credit cards. The purchasing price is currently the best in Courts.... but I think it's no longer on offer and the price is back to normal.