Samsung SGH-X820 Ultra Edition 6.9

Media playback is not lacking, with support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC as well as WMA files. The quality of playback is top-notch, even when using the handsfree speaker, which also quite loud, by the way. Unfortunately, there is no FM radio tuner, which will not appeal to most audiences in this phone’s price bracket. A headset can be connected to listen to music, but there’s no direct way of using your own pair of headphones with it. If you want, you can use the TV-out RCA cables along with an RCA to stereo-jack converter and finally put your own headphones or even connect it to any other stereo system!

The phone offers 80 MB of internal memory, but sadly no memory card slot to expand it. Still, 80 MB is decent enough capacity for most average users. You can store around 80-85 photos at full quality or a little over 20 CD-quality MP3 tracks of 3-minutes each.

The phone will go on for upto four days without recharging, but not with heavy use of the camera and/or media player. Even after using the camera to shoot a good amount of pictures, the battery life is still very, very good, like most new Samsungs. It does take a little while to give it a full recharge, though.

The phone runs on tri-band GSM/GRPS/EDGE networks (900/1800/1900) and offers Bluetooth as well as USB connectivity. No, there is no Bluetooth stereo headset support! Also available is Java MIDP application support.

Head to head with the SLVR L7, the Ultra Edition 6.9 misses out on an expandable memory slot, but wins with its superior slimness and light weight, 80mb built-in memory, a great quality 2-megapixel camera, excellent sound quality and great battery life. All this warrants the Rs 14,500 price tag, but if you can make do with a slightly thicker phone with a memory card slot, the L7 is an excellent buy at around Rs 8,000.