Samsung i8510 INNOV8

Media
Audio
Although the INNOV8 has the standard S60 music player, it's definitely one of the better ones. The volume is loud and clear even in noisy environments. The earphones are the same set I used with the Omnia, so I didn’t find them comfy. The microphone adapter with the volume option and 3.5mm earphone comes in handy, or you can simply opt to use your own earphones and the handset’s microphone. The EQ presets are Samsung customized, with 3D options that include Dynamic, Surround and Wide. On the whole the player was superb.

The FM radio works well, with decent reception in commutes. It has an option for recording OTA. What I didn’t like was that it had no auto tune and save feature. Skipping from one station to another is easy, but you’d have to manually save each station and store the name if you know it. Visual radio would have been helpful here.

Samsung’s Digital Frame application is also preloaded, but the absence of a stand of any kind renders it useless to an extent. But if you can find a way to prop it up you can view images in a slideshow, with audio playing in the background and a clock displayed onscreen. It will also display icons for missed calls and messages etc.

Video
One of the most important things I take into account when it comes to multimedia handsets is the video player. Being a vidiot I’m partial to handsets that have large displays, as they make watching videos easier. The INNOV8 delivers quite well, considering it has a 2.8 inch display. Now the thing is that the handset comes with DivX and XviD video format support, but unlike the Omnia’s copy-paste method, you will have to convert files with the bundled DivX converter in order to watch them.

The converter takes a while to analyze and convert each video, which poses a bit of a problem – once again you might wonder why you’re paying so much. True, there may be legitimate reasons why the company hasn’t provided all the available codecs; we understand the technological constraints and the diverse nature of DivX files. But for this kind of money shouldn’t things be a lot simpler? The audio levels in videos are unfortunately nowhere as loud as normal music files. If you can’t find a way to convert your files and increase the audio bit rate, it’s not going to be easy to hear.

The video editor application included is plenty of fun to play around with and offers users a chance to create videos from images and even a storyboard option for editing and splicing videos and images.

There are a couple of preinstalled games like Asphalt 4 and FIFA 08 that will help you while away those boring times. The games look really good, with 3D effects, and are quite entertaining.