I was standing at the newsstand waiting for a friend to pick me up when I chanced upon the word BlogMobbers. Not hesitating a single bit, I grabbed the copy and flipped through the magazine, looking out for the write up about the event that 15 bloggers and I took part in.
There, I was!
Allow me to hao lian 好恋, can or not?
After one month, all 16 bloggers (except Jolene) gathered at Izzi K.L. again for the closing ceremony of the Samsung - Mobile World phone program. How time flies when you are having good times with the “free” phone. Everyone was early and punctual, but the event was late itself. It started with the obligatory speeches by the editor of Mobile World, Kash and also the representative from Samsung Mobile, Sam with the prize giving followed after.
As expected, I didn’t win, but I received a consolation prize for my our hard works. A Samsung Bluetooth Headset WEP200. Honestly, I don’t talk much on the phone and the headset isn’t that useful to me. I do have an idea who to give it to though.
Lydia Teh and phone lover Ng Jun Yan both walked away with the phones for the best posts. Jun Yan wrote freaking 29 posts in a span of 30 days to deserve himself the free phone. Vincent Chow bagged the phone as the site with most traffic (up to 2000 visitors per day), beating Muzaffar Shah. I was surprised, really. Ellie Chee won the phone under the category of most people the phone was shown to, with a figure of 190 people.
Long story cut short, we were then treated to a buffet and it was then, the bloggers cam-whoring session started. Credits go to the respective camera owners.
Of course, there are more pictures and details, which you can hop over to David Cheong’s, John Ling and Ellie Chee’s.
That aside, while I always see my own name in the papers, this is probably my first time seeing my own name in the latest issue (May) of Mobile World magazine as a blogger.
Again, I extend my sincere gratitude and thanks to the people in front and behind this Samsung Mobile - Mobile World phone program for giving me the opportunity and exposure. To the bloggers who participated, it is my pleasure to get to know you all and hopefully, we shall meet again.
Last but not least, one for the album.
The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60
The 3.0 Mega Pixel Camera
The Summary
Today is the last day before I return the Samsung SGH-i550 to Samsung Mobile and BlogMob tomorrow. While I didn’t write my reviews as many as Phone Lover Ng Jun Yan or as many pictures as possible like Jolene Lai,
I have at pretty much cover the basics / selected features of the phone, mainly the GPS, 3.0 mega pixel camera, Symbian Series 60 operating system and design. I didn’t want to blog about every single feature as I still have my stuffs to be posted and the users are able to explore the phone on its own.
I like,
1) Trackball. (No joy sticks / joy pads)
2) GPS.
3) Wifi.
4) Symbian Series 60.
5) Appealing design. (To me, at least)
6) 3.0 mega pixel camera.
7) Rotate-able screen when internet surfing.
8) 2.6″ TFT LCD display.
I dislike,
1) Trackball. (Take ages to move across the screen in GPS)
2) No option to switch off wifi. (Wifi is always on)
3) Slow GPS. (Very slow in pin pointing the exact / current location)
4) Relatively slow auto focusing speed.
5) Absence of Xenon flash.
6) Battery life could be better.
That pretty much sum up my experience with the Samsung SGH-i550. Generally, I am quite satisfied with the phone, considering I was juggling between my Sony Ericsson P1i and the Samsung SGH-i550. For those who are seeking for something different (Read : Other brands.) and wants to power of Symbian Series 60 and GPS, this is the phone you should look out for. For the price, you sure get a lot of features and power punched into this hand held device. In fact, I have already found someone to buy the phone.
I would like to say a million thanks to BlogMob and Samsung Mobile for giving me the first and probably the last chance to review a phone for a period of time at no strings attached. Thanks guys!
The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60
The 3.0 Mega Pixel Camera
The Summary
The Samsung SGH-i550 is equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) as well, which is starting to be a very popular feature among the higher end mobile phones. Of course, it is a phone based GPS and not a true GPS system / device, hence, the reliability is somewhat questionable. While that may not be true, I have yet to see one that is able to function as good as a GPS device.
NAVFone is pre-installed inside the phone. I don’t know how many GPS software out there and since I never use any before, I can’t make comparison. For that, I shall comment on the software based on what are the features that I would want when I get a GPS device.
The interface is pretty simple, but getting it to work is a little tricky. The map basically showed the main roads and some smaller roads, but definitely not a complete map. For the historical city, most of the major roads are labeled and displayed as it is. In fact, the map of Malacca itself is pretty complete itself. Well, am not going to do a whole print screen of the map.
Upon entering the keyword in the search box, you will have a list of results (including roads, buildings, landmarks, points and etc.) that are nearby, at or within the searched location.
For this post, it would be easier to demonstrate on the function of GPS and how to use it. For starters, I have selected my house, which isn’t not too far away from the red box and then set it as my starting point.
In this software, I can’t seem to pin point my location even though I have a “Where am I?” option. Upon clicking the “Where am I?” option, it would prompt me to connect GPS and / or enable GSM, which neither able to pin point my location except staying idle. Is it working, that function? would take up to 10 minutes to locate your location.
Dataran Pahlawan, a landmark that one would never miss in Malacca, would be our destination. Dataran Pahlawan is currently Malacca’s biggest mall, built right on the field where our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman first proclaimed independence during 1957. Yes, the first place was in Malacca, not KL’s Dataran Merdeka. Today, its a shopping mall.
Starting point, set! Destination, set! Play the route and the software will guide you to your destination on its own. However, if you are connected to the GPS, you won’t have the “play route” option. Instead of constantly referring to the screen, there’s a voice that would “speak” to you, telling you when to turn, where to turn, which lane to keep to and etc.. You can switch the voice off, if you want some quiet moments in the car.
You can toggle the screen with three different views.
If you don’t like the NAVFone software, you can also use Google Maps. Yes, pre-installed as well. I am pretty sure everyone is familiar with Google Maps and how powerful it can be. It requires an internet connection to function, so, if you are on the move, GPRS / EDGE / 3G is your only option. Because of that, be prepared to pay for your hefty usage of data transfer.
Weirdly, I can’t seem to get the phone to detect any GPS satellite and hence, not able to use the GPS function to its fullest.
Well, while the phone is equipped with GPS function, it takes a really long time to pin point your location. I mean really long and you definitely need to be in open space / outdoors for the phone to track down the GPS satellite. While I welcome the GPS feature in phones, I do hope it could detect my location in, say, less than a minute?
The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60
The 3.0 Mega Pixel Camera
A mobile phone with integrated camera is sort of a must thing nowadays and as expected, the Samsung SGH-i550 is equipped with a 3.0 mega pixel camera, auto focusing feature and embedded flash. The camera is definitely up for standard photo taking for every Tom, Dick and Harry out there.
To activate the camera, press the camera shortcut key on the right hand side of the phone for a second or so. It will take another two seconds before the camera is ready to take pictures. Two seconds start up time for a normal digital camera is considered to be extremely slow, but for a camera phone, it is still acceptable.
Before I start to elaborate on what you see on the screen, one should know that the image quality can be set to basic, normal or high, with various resolution options, ranging from 320 x 240 to 1152 x 864 to 2048 x 1536. What caught me by surprise is the light metering option, with the standard matrix, spot and center weighted. Enlighten me, since when light metering is part of a camera phone’s option?
The screen displays camera / video camera, phone / memory card, exit / options, auto focus feature on / off, flash on / off, white balance mode, single / burst mode and scene mode.
Instead of going through and deep into option list every time you want to change a setting, there are shortcut keys conveniently placed and can be activated by pressing the relevant alphanumeric keys. Switching from camera mode to video camera mode and vice versa is as simple as gliding your finger across the track ball. “1″ to activate burst mode, “2″ to activate flash, “3″ is to switch between phone or memory card, “4″ for white balance, “5″ to toggle the auto focus feature, “6″ is for white balance, “*” for help, “0″ for settings and “#” for light metering.
Assuming each flip is 1x zoom, there are 9x zoom for this little gadget. 9x zoom, impressive. However, I am not sure whether is it optical zoom or digital zoom. Although both do the same thing, picture quality differs from each other by a rather huge margin. The first picture is at 0x zoom, followed by a 4x zoom and then a full 9x zoom. There’s one thing that bugs me, the very fake laser sound produced each time I zoom in and zoom out. Its the kind of sound you would imagine when a robot moves, in ascending and descending tone. It is not cool, at all, to me, that is.
It is a camera phone and the auto focus feature is definitely not going to be at god liked speed. True enough, there’s a shutter lag of two seconds or more to achieve fully focused before snapping the picture. You just need to press and let go the camera button and the camera will start to focus and snap the picture.
To view the various example of the pictures taken under different white balance, click on the link. Automatic, flash enabled, sunny, cloudy, incandescent and fluorescent. I sure hope I linked the correct pictures to the correct white balance settings as I forgot to label them before I load the pictures into my computer.
The phone also has video taking capability. I have shot two sample videos from two scenes from two different movies. The first one is the confrontation of Jedi Master Yoda and Darth Sidious from Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith and the second one is a battle of Gundam Exia and GN Flag from Mobile Suit Gundam 00.
At its native resolution, the sharpness is at an acceptable range, but once being maximized or boosted, you will be seeing a pixel-ated movies and chunky characters. Sound quality is mediocre, as noises are captured along due to the unfiltered microphone. If there are too much sounds being played at one go, its really noisy and I doubt one can make out what’s being played. That aside, the phone does record conversations very clearly though.
Inside the Samsung SGH-i550, there is a video editing software that came pre-installed which allows you to create a video out of still pictures or edit a video right on the spot. Handy feature but whether is it that useful, its still too early to say.
You can insert transition effect between still pictures movies and cut / remove certain scenes from a recorded movie. Another neat feature in the video editing application is the live dubbing, which means you can add in your own voice at a later / during the editing process.
Well, that’s about the phone and video camera of the phone. There’s no point in going through every single detail as its up to the user to find out, right?
My take on the camera is that, it is decent enough for a petty and simple picture, but definitely not for pictures with lots of moving actions, require fast auto focusing or that you deem precious and really want to keep it for a long time. It is still a camera phone after all. However, for still objects, it should be able to the job without major flaw.
I am using a Canon EOS 40D and there’s no reason for me to use the camera for my shots. The only time I will use it will be the time when I want to send a picture through MMS, making it the least used feature of all my past, current and even future phone.
Now, smile one for the camera, please?
Do take note that some of the photos taken by Sony Ericsson P1i as my Canon EOS 40D couldn’t do macro.
The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook
The Specifications & Symbian Series 60
P/S : Interested in a surveillance camera for your company? Surveillance cameras, pan tilt and zoom cameras, and a surveillance camera system are all good examples of surveillance devices that can help improve security.