Jun 09, 2009 10:10 AM
9202 Views
I was one of the people smitten by the iPhone but didn't have the wallet capacity to support it. So I started exploring an entry level version of touch phones recently. The choice is not much - LG Cookie and the new Samsung star. After visiting the store and personally demo-ing the phones I decided to go with Star right away(Also I have already made up my mind to peg my budget at 10K). And I prepared myself to accept the fact that you get what you pay for - meaning can't expect an iPhone for 10K, but the best "feel alike" is what I was hoping for.
I am not a mobile review expert or a techno guy, just a very ordinary mobile phone user. So I am just going to start jotting down my layman feelings. Hope my ramblings will help in making a decision if you are planning to buy a S5233 Star.
Touch interface is something you need to get an hang on. But once you get used to, it is indeed great. Patience pays. What I found is that you should'nt be afraid to apply little pressure on the screen to really use touch. Don't expect a iPhone type feather touch response!
The widget bar is interesting. Very touch sensitive. Several widgets are available from basic calculator, timer to more advanced some web based widgets. You can just tap on the widget to open right from the widget bar or drag and place it on the main screen. The irritating part for me is how to drag and drop it back on the widget bar once done with a widget. This is a definitely a drawback if this problem is not unique to me only.
Camera is 3.2 MP, takes decent pictures. No flash is provided. So take pictures in broad day light only. Indoor photos or low light photos are just okay. This is definitely not a phone for taking pictures. Use a digital camera instead.
The user manual is well. useless. You learn more by exploring than referring to the manual. The PC studio software on the other hand is great. Very user friendly, lot of thought seems to have gone into designing it. I really like the option to use your phone(memory card) as mass storage drive. Like a pen drive. You can just drag and dump anything you want onto the memory card, if you are looking for a temporary storage.
The call clarity(speaker, headphones or normal) is quite good. Very satisfied in this department.
The phone book is nice, quite touch sensitive. During my exploration I found that you can indeed use the volume up/down buttons on the side to scroll, if touching the screen to scroll gets boring/irritating. There are two options given to explore through the phone book by first letter - either you type in using touch key board or just drag the scrolling bar on the right(or left - depending on whether you are a righty or a lefty). The first letter gets highlighted in the centre and you can go from there. Very neat!
The coolest part is hand writing recognition tool. While composing a memo or SMS you can opt to use writing screen where in you can use your finger tips or the stylus to handwrite characters. Recognition is excellent with your fingertip alone. I love it. You can turn the phone horizontal and qwerty keyboard appears. Easy to use given 3 inch screen.
A stylus is provided separately. First I was little annoyed but later I found that using stylus is really optional. Finger touch is sufficient to perform all operations on the phone including qwerty keyboard. It is redundant really, so providing it separately makes lot of sense. Leave it at home in the box!
I really love the music player. The sound quality with preset equalisers is amazing. With the headset on, I really love the surround and dynamic options, which are not available when you play it on speaker. There is no separate speaker, the speaker on the top during calls, is also speaker for playing music or any other sounds or speaker phone while you talk. I am okay with it, some people might like a separate speaker.
The headset earbuds come without sponges, don't know the reason. I have noticed discomfort after wearing them for a while, planning to get some sponges to fit them.
Accelorometer(I think that's what's it is called!) works really well while playing movies or browsing photos. Just shift the phone from horizontal to vertical and see the thing change. Really cool!
One of the neat things while browsing photos is the tilt function. You can tilt the phone to your right or left and the pictures start flowing. The more you tilt the faster they flow. Touch zoom like in iPhone is not present. Need to use the zoom tool.
One unique feature, probably everyone appreciates, is the smart unlock feature. From the home screen in locked state you can handwrite a pre-defined character to unlock the phone, speed dial someone(18 numbers) or open an application. It works amazingly well.
The choice of games is very poor for a touch phone. The tumbling dice are interesting to see the motion effect but other games are bad. Few good games are demo only(like Millionaire 3) need to purchased. Disappointing in this department!
I haven't tried downloading any java based applications or games either offline or from the phone. I am yet to try the web browser, so unable to comment.
Other interesting features are fake call(great to get out of boring meetings), emergency call back(in real emergencies), photo call(use photos to call/SMS) etc etc.
Overall, a good touch phone for 10K barring few irritants(e.g. need to keep pressing volume keys to silence a call), mostly minor in my opinion. Don't expect an iPhone, if you want an iPhone you should get an iPhone. Period.
