It had been a bad day handling issues that involved a loss of nearly RM 12,000 worth of product, I was tired, very dispirited. But I was also looking forward to the night event, and getting off at 5:30 pm sharp (unlike my usual 8:00 pm) was really worth it all. Attending the launch of Samsung SGH-F500 had been a perfect remedy to the whole mind-exhausting week. Such a magnificent piece of work and I was among the first handful in Malaysia who got to play with it!
Started off unofficially with a “buka puasa” buffet, we were later invited into the big hall #12 of GSC Midvalley to witness the launching of this phone by Samsung Malaysia’s Director of Sales & Marketing, Handphone Marketing, Mr. Alex Wong. Attended by only a handful of the media friends, it was a great opportunity for me to take all the chance I could get into trying the phone out (yeah right.. spending about half an hour selfishly - with one of the model and tried out EVERY SINGLE features I could think of… hey, I’m doing a review here, ok…). Targeting more into the video watchers markets, the phone which is almost the same in design with F300 had been enhanced in such a way that you’d say good-bye to your portable DVD player. Here comes an almost all-in-one player.
This round of review I’m not going to list out the features here because basically you can just google it out or read it here. This review will be more up-close and personal.
First Impression: Wow! Very slim (10.7 mm). Nice design with dual TFT displays (one for phone & another for viewing the video, photos, documents, etc. The side on the second external display has a very cool design with sweeping touch on the navi buttons - a similar technology used in LG Chocolate (although for LG Choc it is not developed into the stage of sweeping touch for navigation - more on this later). But what’s that contraption on the phone? Its casing? After further questioning the model I found out that it is an external battery! Surprise, surprise…
The Video Side:
- Screen & watching video: Amazing wide screen. Super sharp pixels, very suitable to view movies. Speaker sounds (mono, came out from the same phone’s speaker) at maximum level is superb for a phone (they were playing Resident Evil’s preview - lotsa sound effects). Although on the practical side, you’ll only be able to view English movies due to the mono speaker (I’ve checked out thoroughly, there are no options for selecting language in a dual language movie) plus the screen would still be small to view subtitles.
- Memory: You’ll be able to play up to 4 hours of movie using the 2GB microSD card, store your documents (for viewing only), pictures & musics.
- Browsing: Using the sweeping touch navi is cool, but a little confusing at first. But after about 10 mins (average people might be used to it after a day. Ngehehhe… I adapt very fast to technology) I manage to go through it in breeze. Indeed a very cool tech where you can just scroll your way through the various menus & submenus. No time lag at all in between changes, very accurate. If you want to enter/open any subfolder, you’d have to press the “enter” button (in the middle) - this is the only button on the vid side that doesn’t have the touch tech.
The Phone Side:
A much smaller screen compared to the vid side. Somehow when viewing it I felt a little bit cramped. This side is not as fully developed as the vid side & I’m not sure why. It’s just like a standard phone with standard features. Nothing special to it plus there are too many buttons apart from the numeral keypad. I think they should minimize it to just 16 or 20 buttons & make the screen bigger. Interface of the phone is almost identical to motorola (which I really hate) so I did not look further into this & turned to venture on other exciting hidden items that might impress me.
Accessories:
FYI, the external battery cum casing comes in a package with the phone, but not the bluetooth headphones. The stereo bluetooth headphone used that day was Samsung SBH170 and it has all the basic controls needed at the set itself - but Malaysians are not that lucky as this model is not sold on our shore. The ext battery acts as an emergency battery that’ll give you another 3 hours of talktime. Charging of the handphone unit will require you to plug in the phone to the external battery. When attaching the phone from the ext battery, 2 battery indicators will pop-up at the screen. One thing still puzzles me until today though (maybe any Samsung techy can clear this puzzle), I heard that the phone has a built-in battery, meaning you cannot take it out (inserting simcard & microSD are all done at the side of the phone or at the swiveled angle). Then what would happen if the battery needs a replacement? Throw the phone away???
