Samsung E700 Mobile Phone Review

I have had a few camera phones already, but none of them had a reasonably
good integrated camera that delivers fair picture quality. Until now only
snap-on cameras for Sony Ericsson and Siemens phones provided VGA-quality, but I
always forgot to take the cameras with me, and in any case quick snap shots were
almost impossible, as you always have to attach the camera module to the phone.
Thanks to Samsung, this is no longer
necessary.

This review is about the new and very cool looking Samsung E700 that is a great
phone with a pretty good camera. It is amazing, what Samsung managed to squeeze
into this small phone that weighs only 83 grams. This phone has just been
released in Europe. In the US the E715 is available. The main differences are:
grey-scale external OLED display, Java 2.0 (better compatibility), flash light
and it is a bit heavier (around 93 g) – so they added some and took away some,
but in the end it is almost the same phone.

But lets start with the moment I received the package. As usual when it comes to
Samsung the box looks very attractive. However I was a little bit disappointed
to see that Samsung does not provide the software on CD and a spare battery
anymore. So you have to download the software from
The Samsung Mobile site and buy an
extra battery yourself, if you want one. But the reason for this is the lower
price of the E700 (compared to its successor the V200/205), so I will not
complain too much!

Right away I fell in love with this baby because it looks so elegant and feels
so lightweight without being too small. As with all Samsung phones you have to
press the red button (turn-on, end-call) for at least two seconds. You need to
type in your pin (depending on your SIM card) and a little welcome text appears
that you can change yourself. Plus you hear all sorts of sounds, which leads me
to the quality of the ring tones.

This phone sounds incredible. All tones sound very realistic, music as well as
voices. They are clear and rather loud. You can change the settings in the menu
or use the buttons on the left side of the handset to set the volume. There are
a few sounds preloaded but you will not find a classical ring tone but for
example jungle sounds instead. You can download other ringbones from Samsung or
other websites. I prefer more classical ring tones, so I consider this a bit of
a disadvantage. You cannot change the sounds used for the alarm.

As soon as you take a closer look at the screen (128×160 pixels) you see how
bright and crisp the pictures are. You can set animated and still pictures as
background images. There are a few very nice ones preloaded (calendar, swimming
tropical fishes, ice bear), but you can also download new ones or use pictures
taken with the phone’s own camera.

OK - I guess you are all mostly interested in the camera features so lets talk
about the camera for a moment. There are several ways to access the camera. You
can go into the menu pressing the left soft key and scroll to camera section.
You cannot access the camera clicking on a camera icon, as the menu structure
does not provide any icons. While some may think that this is a pity I don’t
think so. The menu is very attractive and you have to scroll anyway, though you
can also access all menu sections by typing in the appropriate number to (8 for
the camera). The camera has a special button dedicated to it (below the i, which
is the button for web browsing but not an OK button).

You can also access the camera when the phone is closed. On the right side you
find a camera button. Press this for 2 seconds and the camera is ready to shoot
pictures. In this mode the external display serves as a viewfinder. Though the
picture on the external display is not that crisp you can well see what you
shoot. This way it is really easy to make self-portraits. Press the camera
button again and the picture is stored automatically in the phones memory. The
phone has 9 MB of memory for pictures and ring tones (picture size varies
between 40-90 kb). Plus 600 KB for Java programs and it can store 200 text
messages. That is more than most other phones offer and enough for many shooting
sessions.

When you make pictures with the phone closed you cannot change any settings. In
regular camera mode the phone offers a lot of extra functions that make shooting
pictures a lot of fun. You can set the picture size (from 128×120 for MMS to
640×480 for prints or PC transfer). There are four different picture qualities
to choose from (economy to super fine). So far I have just used VGA with super
fine quality. The colors are not very vivid, but the pictures are of large size
and otherwise good quality. At least you can recognize what you wanted to shoot.
Another thing that makes the camera of the E700 superior to other mobile phone
cameras is the excellent night mode. The camera has no flash but brightens up
the pictures. This makes the colors look even more unnatural but enables you to
take decent pictures in almost all lightning conditions, even at a party. Here
are some sample pictures (click thumbnails for full-size) so I suggest you judge for yourself.

Outdoor no zoom

Outdoor full zoom

Indoors normal

Indoors normal

Indoors night mode

Self portrait

One thing worth mentioning is that you cannot turn off the camera sound. You can
however change it and, which I just found out, turn the volume of the sound down
by using the volume keys on the left side of the handset. What else can you do
with the camera? You can shoot up to 15 pictures in a row (multi shot) and set
frames, turn around the pictures, set a timer and yes, you can transfer them to
your PC (just PC, pity for us Mac users). You need to download the Easy Studio
software from Samsung and set the connection to infrared. There is a special
icon for the file manager, which lets you up and download pictures and ring
tones to and from the handsets. You can also Import your address book and sync
it with Outlook (well, not really sync, it is more a transfer of data). To
really sync your data with Outlook you need to download another program from
The Samsung Mobile site. All in all the program works fine. If you do not have an
infrared port you need to buy a data cable, available for sure on eBay.

You cannot send pictures via the infrared port though you can send addresses as
business cards to your Palm. That works fine and is a big step forward for
Samsung as they neglected this function for a long time. The E700 does not have
Bluetooth either. While a few Gadgeteers will certainly complain one needs to
understand that Samsung makes so-called fashion phones and not business phones.
Compare the E700 with the new Sony Ericsson Z600. The Z600 is a connectivity
wonder, but it is also bulky and lacks other features like external color
screen, VGA camera resolution etc. I agree that Bluetooth headsets are nice, so
if you do not want to use the headset provided by Samsung you can still buy a BT
headsets with an adapter.

Talking about size, this is another where the E700 truly shines. The handset
weighs just 83 grams. Most other flip phones with integrated camera weigh 20-30
percent more. The phone has a very solid feel. When you squeeze it tight you can
hear no cracks at all. Though it is small enough to fit in almost any pocket, it
also fits perfectly in your hand. All buttons are large enough and easy to
press, even with large fingers like mine. The keyboard is lit in blue, which
makes it look cool in the dark. When you close the phone the external display
shows basic information like time, battery status, connection strength etc. also
in color for a limited time (you can change the settings). If closed the
external screen can show the time, an animation or stay blank. Even if you
choose time or animation, the screen will be black most of the time. I guess
this is to save energy.

What else is there to mention. The phone has no picture caller ID. When you
assign an address to a group (e.g. friends) an icon appears on the external
display when this contact calls you. So you can see if it is a friend or family
member calls, plus the name is displayed if the phone recognizes the number, but
no pretty picture - even if taken with the camera - is displayed. There are a
few games preinstalled. They are all fun but I am not a big gamer. You can
download more though not all java games are compatible. I still cannot get a
mail client to run on the phone, although it did on my S300. This is probably
the major disadvantage of the phone. You have to send pictures as multi media
messages, which is rather expensive. This is a pity but I guess the result of
pressure from mobile phone providers like T-Mobile.

Of course there is a calculator, a decent organizers, you can write memos and
set alarms as a reminder or to wake you up. The phone has also a timer and a
stopwatch but no voice recording or voice-dialing. It comes with a fully
featured text messaging system. You can add a picture and ring tones to a MMS
(multi media message). You can also send EMS (enhanced message system), adding
one of the preinstalled icons. Plus you can write messages with up to 1.920
letters, which will be split into up to 12 messages.

All in all I think the feature list is long enough to set this phone apart from
most other phones, but in the end you have to decide what is most important to
you. If you want a beautiful phone that will make people turn their heads, get
the E700. If you look for a fairly good camera that you can carry with you all
the time, this is the phone to buy. If you need a lot of business features check
out a Siemens or Sony Ericsson phone. The phones battery lasts around 3-5 days
when you use the phones functions for about 30 minutes a day, plus shoot some
pictures, transfer them to the PC and make a few calls. This is better than most
other flip phones, especially considering the two color screens.

 

Price: Varies depending on carrier and plans

Pros: 

Internal antenna but good sound and above average reception
quality
Clear and crisp internal display with more than 65.000 colors
Small external OLED-display with 256 colors
External display can be used as viewfinder
Good VGA camera with lots of features
Wap 2.0 (to view color pages and establish secure Internet connection)
Java
MMS-ready
Amazing sound (40-polyphony ring tones)
Lightweight and small
Nicely laid-out keypad
Can send and receive addresses as vcf-cards
Decent battery life

Cons: 
No mail client
No picture caller ID
No classic ring tones preinstalled
Java not compatible with many programs
No triband
No Bluetooth
Menu structure not accessible through menu icons
Can transfer picture to PC via infrared only with Samsung software (Outlook
compatible)
Need to download software from site (64 MB), no spare battery included

This may sound like a lot of cons but let me assure you that this is the almost
perfect gadget phone. You can make good pictures almost anywhere, the displays
and polyphonic ring tones are among the best you can find, the menu structure is
easy to understand and well though through. Plus the phone is a lot smaller and
lighter than all other flip phones with camera. Oh and did I say that it just
looks awesome!? As soon as the US version is available I recommend that you try
it for yourself.

Tagged as: Cellular, Mobile Phone, Phone

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