Updated 11 Feb, 2012, 4:06 pm IST

REVIEWS / SMARTPHONES / SAMSUNG

Samsung SGH D900i

06 Oct, 2007, 11:00 am IST | Shayne Rana | Smartphones

Design concepts for mobile phones are getting wilder and wilder. Although the essential or base design could be one of three – candybar, slider or flip – each one seems to have a unique look and feel. And Samsung’s Metal series happens to be a blend of cool looks and bold designs.

Form Factor
Part of Samsung’s Metal Series, the SGH D900i appears to be a sleek slider phone. The gray and chrome surface around the 2.12 inch TFT display helps to give it a chic look. The slide-out keypad is large and easy to use, even for those with outsize fingers. The 5-way nav pad is ergonomic, with the Internet shortcut in the dead center.

On one side of the phone are the Volume/Zoom keys and microSD card slot. The dedicated camera 'shortcut' key and the proprietary earphones/charging/TV out port are located on the other side. The reason for the quotes is because the camera key doesn’t seem to work as a shutter release but just to activate the application. Nothing more. How odd is that?

Features and Performance
I was never a fan of the OS that Samsung has been using. But I have to say the newer phones do make it look good. The crisp 240 x 320 pixel display really shows the colors and details very well. The slider was smooth for a long time but started to get a bit sticky later on. Not enough to make me dislike it though.

What I found to be really odd is when I wanted to increase the speaker volume, the image goes up to 7 bars and even though there are at least 4 more bars it wont go any further – it asks to switch to loudspeaker mode.

One other thing was when I tried to disable the keypad tones. The option in the settings didn’t seem to get highlighted at all even though it is there. After trying everything including throwing the book at it, I found out that all you need to do is just decrease the volume using the volume keys. So why bother showing the option at all?

Would you buy it?

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