First 60 minutes with Samsung SGH-I320 smartphone

So, I am back with another article after a while. Moreover, I have not spent the past two months enjoying myself under the hot sun of the Caribbean but have been busy spending lots of money on new servers, switches and other components, and thinking how to set them up and configure in the optimum way for my online realm to work flawlessly, so it was not a waste of time, I believe. The result is that the goals for this server have drawn yet closer.

I hereby apologise to all those whose e-mails and text messages I have left unanswered or reacted to with a huge delay. I just couldn't make it. Thanks for your patience...

Please note: This is not a regular review. I have not subjected the device to regular tests in an effort to discover its strengths and weaknesses. Instead, I am presenting my - mostly positive - impressions from the first encounter. So, this is not an objective report but rather a subjective description of a completely new device, full of uncritical admiration and enthusiasm about its great features. If you don't like this type of article, please wait for a full-fledged review.

But seriously. I have been able to borrow the Samsung SGH-I320 for a few hours from Sunnysoft, a Czech mobile solutions company, and I am hereby offering you my findings. The device is a smart mobile phone with Windows Mobile 5 as the operating system. Its integrated miniature QWERTY keyboard targets it at users who prefer textual communication (SMS, chat, email). There are a few features that will grab your attention at first sight. First of all, it is a landscape-oriented display, which is very rare in smartphones, especially those with WM5 (although we can see one e.g. in Motorola Q). Another strong feature is the miniature keyboard, which is discussed in more detail below. And third, the size: while the dimensions of the front panel are nothing special, the thickness of a mere 11.5 millimetre looks smart and adds to a comfortable grip.

Let's move from overall impressions to systematic examination. As I have noted above, the look is rather unusual. Considered the size of the device, the display looks relatively small, occupying the upper 30 percent or so of the front panel. The keyboard in the lower part is of approximately the same size. In between are the main controls with directional keys, system keys, software keys for Windows Mobile 5, and two buttons to make and break a call. The rear is dominated by two speakers and a camera lens, complemented with a large slider door of the battery compartment. Underneath are also two slots: one for a SIM card and one for a microSD card. Despite the device's extreme flatness, the sides carry some controls and other elements, too: a few buttons, an infrared port, and two connectors. The device being a Samsung, I was not surprised to find that its combined data and power connector is not a standard miniUSB, but a proprietary one, incompatible with other models. Similarly, the headphones connector is not a standard stereo jack but Samsung' proprietary.

The Samsung SGH-I320 is quite a powerful device. Its Intel PXA27x processor provides abundance of computing power. You can store your data and applications in nearly 120 MB of (very fast) FlashROM memory. The device handled a test run of several applications as well as a short journey with TomTom navigation perfectly. It performed equally well playing a 320x240 pixel video clip. I dare conclude that performance should not be a concern at all. The 2.2-inch TFT display with a resolution of 320x240 pixels and support for 65 thousand colours is beautifully sharp and clear. Nevertheless, you won't be shocked if you have seen other WM5 smartphones. As usual in smartphones, the display is not touch-sensitive. It offers five backlight levels for different light conditions.

Besides many other features, smartphones are expected to handle phone calls and text messages. The Samsung SGH-I320 integrates a tri-band phone module (900/1800/1900 MHz) and a GPRS Class 10 (2 timeslots for upload, 4 for download) module with EDGE; none of the faster data transmission technologies is implemented. I have made a couple of phone calls and my only objection is softness of the speaker. I tried to transmit data as well. Even though an icon on the display indicated only that data transmission was active and not whether EDGE or GPRS was employed, the download speed suggested that EDGE was present. Other communication channels include infrared, Bluetooth and USB cable. None of those is anything exceptional. The only noteworthy feature is an option to switch the USB connection to the Mass Storage mode when the memory card becomes accessible even from computers that do not have ActiveSync installed. Handy.

The integrated QWERTY keyboard is one of the most interesting features of the Samsung SGH-I320. It comprises 37 keys with each key having two functions. The keys are not flat but slightly sloping towards the centre. The keys carry different print on each side, as you can see in the photos. To make it more complicated, there are 10 white rectangles denoting numeric keys e.g. for dialling, where each two neighbouring keys represent the same number: it makes no difference if you press 1/E or @/R, both will display number 1. The keyboard has white backlight that you will appreciate in darkness. As far as I can judge from sending several text messages and chatting on the ICQ for a short while, appreciation of the keyboard by the users will be highly individual. The size of the keys is on the verge of usability and much will depend on how sensitive fingertips you have. You can either type with your thumbs but it is also possible and comfortable to control the device with one hand. I recorded more typing errors in comparison e.g. with iPAQ hw6900 but it was within the tolerable.

Samsung designers did not spare us an integrated 1.3-MPix digital camera. Surprisingly, it is not as bad as some other pseudo-cameras sported by Windows Mobile devices. The maximum resolution is 1280x1024 pixels. As you can see below, you will recognise what is on a photo even without an explanatory caption, with the exception of tiny details where the implemented autofocus fails to deliver. The camera lacks a feature commonly found in most other integrated cameras: a miniature mirror. The manufacturer probably came to a conclusion that taking photos of oneself is not cool any longer:) I was surprised by the camera's speed - both of taking a photo and saving it. It takes no more than 2 seconds to make a snap at the highest resolution and save it. The camera has various features that we find in other devices, too (video, white balance, miscellaneous effects) but let's leave that for a big review.

I wonder how long the device will last on battery. The device is powered by a tiny 880-mAh accumulator, which appears rather weak. Unfortunately, I did not have time to test it, so we shall see. The Samsung website states 3.3 hours talk time or 140 hours standby, which would be fairly acceptable.

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The device comes with an interesting suite of applications. Besides the operating system and default applications of Windows Mobile 5 with the AKU2 package, the Samsung offers also some worthy bonus applications. One of them is Picsel Viewer, which is a useful viewer of MS Office documents (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), PDF documents and several image file formats. Other handy apps include a WAP browser, currency converter, stopwatch, task manager and a handful of single-purpose utilities.

We are nearly done. Summing up my several-hour experience with the Samsung SGH-I320, my impressions are clearly positive. It holds perfectly, looks great and performs very well. The only unknown remains the price tag, which should become a known as soon as the device hits the shelves some time at the end of September. I should stress that for various reasons, the SGH-I320 is not a device for everyone. Nevertheless, I was quite impressed, besides other things because I had used a similar type of device (iPAQ hw6915) for several months. From my point of view, the greatest weakness of the Samsung is the fact that it is a Smartphone and not a Pocket PC. Anyhow, it meets my personal requirements for a WM5 smartphone most closely. It would be unfair to draw any strong conclusions after a short encounter, so let's leave it for a more extensive review.

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