Samsung D-500, fone with drop dead looks. Review on Samsung SGH-D 500

Samsung D-500, fone with drop dead looks

I had been looking forward to buy this phone, and company price & my pocket curve happened to meet this festive season. I got a good deal for this at 15.5 k with bill and warranty at Chandigarh.

Just name the features and this fone has it all.

• conservative and elegant design

• excellent 262K colors display

• Bluetooth support

• MP3 player

• Good internal memory capacity

• synchronization with MS Outlook

• reasonable price ( now in Oct, 05 )

Samsung is stylish and it prefers impression to functionality. The definition that can be otherwise related to every contemporary Samsung phone is not valid anymore. The SGH-D500 model is a completely new type of Samsung phone D500 is a sliding phone; using the same construction as the older models E800/E820 The sliding is fortunately supported by a special very smooth mechanism. Despite the sliding system, the phone is very solid –

Display & Sound

With resolution of 176 x 220 pixels, display belongs to the best ones and it is active, of course. Models by Samsung always differ from the rivals in the quality of the screen and only for the better The TFT screen behaves well in the sun and the picture is seen. Digital clock is displayed on the screen in the standby mode, it serves as a screen saver. SoundMate accessory is included into the package. The accessory resembles a small pyramid matching the phone in appearance. It may be fixed to the phone with a strip. Has anybody guessed the function of a SoundMate? The function is plain, this is an external loudspeaker. The function of a loudspeaker is already realized in the phone and SoundMate expands its capabilities. Subjectively the sound gets twice louder, there is no need in setting the device in the menu, it's enough to plug it and it will start working. It's simply great that playing MP3 melodies in the loudspeaker mode with SoundMate turns the fone into a small musical center. There is only one disadvantage, the battery discharges much faster. Thus two hours of listening to the mp3 player discharges the battery almost completely.

MP3 player. An integrated mp3 player supporting accidental track reproduction, both sequential and cyclic, is available in the phone. Mp3 files can be downloaded into the phone both directly through Bluetooth and through a synchronization program. Files may be of various names and tags. The beat rate of the files is not that important since the phone accepts all the possible formats.

Dictaphone. You can record up to several hours of voice memos with the number of files being unlimited. The time restrictions for one recording are set by a user and can vary from 30 seconds to one hour in duration. All the files are kept in a separate folder in the memory. The dictaphone would not record the conversation since it turns on only in the stand by mode. Two types of equalizers are offered in the settings with one of them meant for the noisy surroundings. The recorder can function well during the lectures, conferences, and presentations. The phone is a partial substitute for a digital tape recorder

Alarm clock. The phone is equipped with three alarm clocks. One is meant for mornings and can be set for selected weekdays as well as for weekends. For each of the alarm clocks there is a selection of five melodies although mp3 compositions cannot be used here. It is up to a user to indicate in the settings whether the phone would turn on automatically in the time of the event or not.

Organizer. Up to 400 events of four types - meeting, affair, anniversary and others, can be saved in the phone's memory. The day and the time as well as its end are indicated for each file. A signal can be set for the interval during which it has to go off; repetitive events are available for setting

Camera

Samsung D500 stands among the best camera phones. It features resolution 1280 x 1024 pixels, so it is 1, 31 MP. Camera settings possibilities are better than average. Besides the zoom you can manually control also the exposure compensation, use the self-timer, sequence shooting and also it's possible to insert more scenes in one picture (multiple exposure). You can use the integrated white diode to light up a dark close up scene; in the camera settings you can select the ISO sensitivity, center-weighted average exposure metering or turn off sound of a shutter.

Video

The phone records 3GP video and you may choose recording with sound or without it. All the settings are comparable with similar for photos, the same 3 quality levels but the resolutions are different

Drawbacks of the phone

There are not so many of them but they are present, that's not an ideal phone. The first and the main one for some users is the absence of voice dialing and using the Bluetooth headset in a car is rather hard. The fact that a dictaphone doesn't work during a conversation disappoints much and is a major drawback

Impressions

The quality of connection is rather good and no cavils appear. The volume of 64-tones polyphonic call signal is maximum for today’s fones and the phone may be heard in various sound conditions. The power of vibrating alert is higher than average and it is be felt in the majority of situations.