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Review: I got this Samsung E700 mobile phone as a free upgrade on my contract from a Nokia 3510i, so I can't really complain. The question is, would I pay £180 for it? The simple answer is no. At the end of the day, like most people, I want a phone for two reasons: to make phone calls, and to send and receive text messages. If it does that, fine. More recently I have been using other features such as the Organiser, Alarm, Calculator and GPRS for cinema listings, train times, etc. and would stuggle with a phone now that only had the two aforementioned functions, but the addition of Java games, polyphonic ringtones and of course the camera are wasted on me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a keen photographer and have a Canon Powershot A80 for taking photos, but the camera on the phone is merely a distraction for me. For a phone, the VGA pictures it takes (I've viewed them full screen on my PC) are impressive, but compared to proper digital cameras they are grainy, lacklustre and small. It wouldn't be so bad if you could use the photos as a display for incoming calls, but that doesn't seem to be an option. Instead you can select tiny MS Paint-style pictures to represent your contacts. It just seems stupid that the other option wasn't included. As for games, that's what consoles were invented for: a tiny mobile screen can't do any game justice. The speaker volume is very impressive and is easy to adjust with the button on the left-hand side of the phone whilst you're making calls, and the polyphonic ringtones are the best I've so far heard on a phone, but I have discovered yet another flaw: If you group your contacts (assign them little pictures by group and everything), you're not able to select one of your own imported ringtones to apply to that group - instead you have to use one of the presets. The phone itself is light, with strong build quality and the colour screen is by far the best of any mobile I've used - the TFT display looks almost PC quality. The only problem with it (or shall I say a problem with TFT in general) is that it's quite difficult to see in strong sunlight. The battery has yet to run out on me, but having said that, I do charge it every night when I get in. It's also a very attractive looking phone, but then what Samsung isn't? One thing I was happy about was that they included a small wrist strap that you can attatch to the phone. If you're like me and always dropping your phone, then this is a welcome feature indeed. Also, because it is a clam-shell phone and therefore quite small when closed, it's easy to get hold of it you have deep pockets. Overall it is a nice phone - certainly the best I've had - but there are a lot of handy and user-friendly features I miss from the Nokia that Samsung clearly haven't considered. One final note, if you're hoping to get a data cable for transfering files to and from a PC, good luck. They're not readily available in this country or anywhere else in the world it seems; the only place I could find one was on eBay, from a trader called DSN Entertainment, so give that a try. |
mobile phones
