SAMSUNG SGH-D500 REVIEW

My initial thoughts were that it is a fantastic design, building on the previous Samsung in this range it has adopted a distinctive Charcoal skin that sets off the large colour screen really well. The screen is a decent size and makes navigation a straight forward process. The phone can be used in either open or closed mode, although navigation when it is closed does become a little difficult and in all honesty you would rarely find yourself using this function.

When in open mode the numbers can be a little fiddly, especially 1, 2 & 3 as they are right under the hang of the screen, you soon get over this though once you have been using it for some time.

All of the menus are easy to navigate around with major functions (text, call history, calendar and WAP) all being on the main screen. All other options of note are generally only one level away from the menu screen. The navigation device is easy to use, with a basic up, down, left and right control. The OK button, in the middle of the navigation buttons, can be again be a little fiddly but you do get used to this.

The call clarity is excellent, aided in no small part to the call clarity improvement option. This does back out some ambient noise but don't expect miracles, it is only a mild improvement. Texting is as you would expect, the T9 dictionary is fine and if you are accustomed to using one you should get on with this one with very little bother.

The 1.3 megapixel camera is ok, and a definite improvement of the camera in the K700i but don't go throwing away your digital camera just yet, it is still grainy and not really any more use than as a bit of fun of an emergency camera.

Overall this is a decent phone for every day use. There are better phones out there, but if you don't want to go for something a lot larger, or a lot more expensive then this could be a really strong option for you.