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

For the more geeky people, here is a summarized specifications of the Samsung SGH-i550.

Network
- HSDPA (3.6Mbps download and 384kbps upload)
- Quad-band (900, 1800, 1900, 2100 MHz)
- EDGE
- GPRS Class 10

Operating System
- Symbian Series 60

Dimnesion
- 115 x 53 x 13.8 mm
- 109 g

Battery
- Lithium Ion at 1200 mAh
- Standby time up to 450 hours
- Talk time up to 8 hours

Memory
- 150MB internal memory
- Expandable up to 4GB Micro SD

Connectivity
- Bluetooth technology Version 2.0 with EDR, A2DP and AVRCP
- USB 2.0 high speed
- WiFi enabled

Display
- 2.6″ screen
- 262144 color TFT (240 * 320)

Camera
- 3.2 mega pixel
- 9x digital zoom
- Auto Focus
- Flash LED

Video
- Recording time up to 3 hours
- Playback time up to 4.5 hours
- MPEG4, H.263 and Real One format.

Music
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC, WMA format supportable
- Background music play

Features
- Organizer
- Quick Office
- Adobe Reader

- Java MIDP 2.0
- EMS / MMS support
- SyncML DS 1.1.2
- OMA DRM v2.0
- FM Radio
- e-Mail (POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, SSL and TLS)
- Instant Messaging
- PC STudio v7.1
- Offline mode
- Hands-free speaker phone
- Voice Memo
- Voice Mail
- Call Logs (10 missed calls, 10 received calls and 20 dialed numbers)
- Speed dial
- Themes

And that is the official specification released by Samsung Mobile.

Looking at the specifications, I would say they are pretty standard and what one would expect from a high end mobile phone these days. With a price tag of RM1499, if the phone doesn’t have these much of features, then it doesn’t fit the price tag. In my opinion, the ones that make them stand out would be the WiFi, 3.2 mega pixel camera, 2.6″ TFT LCD display and last but not least, Symbian Series 60 as its operating system.

Symbian Series 60 is currently the operating system used in most high end (which also spells expensive) mobile phone. The pioneer would be Nokia’s N-series, the earliest series of mobile phones to adopt and implement S60 as their operating system. Although the open source software is owned by all the mobile phone manufacturer, it is Nokia that is holding the biggest stake in the company.

The advantage of using S60 as the operating system is that end users are able to install as many third party applications as they want, making their mobile phone as fun, as efficient, and as powerful as the end users want it to be. Being an open source program, developers around the world are constantly creating SIS applications for Symbian phones with different objectives, functions and purposes.

However, nothing is perfect, so is the S60 operating system. Coming from an end user who used N70 that runs on S60 for the past two years, I can safely say that after a long period of usage and with many applications installed, the system will be slowed down at a significant speed. It is somewhat similar to a normal computer trying to run Windows XP with insufficient memory. In Layman’s term, lag.

Yet, it has been two years and there were many newer versions and patches that have been released to fix this aging problem, I can only hope that the problem is partially solved as I believed there’s no solution to this problem. Why? It’s like saying Microsoft Windows will never have blue screen of death, which you and I know that its impossible.

I always have doubt with Samsung’s mobile phones because of its really lousy operating system. When I found out that Samsung Mobile has finally decided to jump onto the wagon to use S60 as its operating system, I was nothing but pleased and glad. Not only S60 is a powerful operating system, the user friendliness that Nokia’s phone is famous for can also be found on Samsung’s phone now. It pushes Samsung’s phone to be right on par with Nokia’s N-series and it boils down who has the better specifications.

Yes, with the S60, its going to open up many possibilities for the upcoming models and even perhaps, change the future of Samsung mobile. That pretty much summarized the specification of the Samsung SGH-i550 as I shall leave the rest for another post.

The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off
The Outlook

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It was only after two days later when I finally got to sit down and have a closer look at the phone. No thanks to the Sunday’s assignment at A Famosa Golf Resort and assignment due on the following Monday.

This is Samsung SGH-i550.

Samsumg Mobile has targeted the phone for design seekers, efficiency seekers, fun seekers and also price seekers. I only agree with three out of the four, as the recommended retail price of the phone is currently at RM1,599. With such hefty price tag, that’s definitely not a phone for a budget user, if you ask me.

The phone, albeit is for both male and female city dwellers, it is the males who might be interested with the phone due to the its shape and colour. Unlike the usual designs of most Samsung phone, the SGH-i550 doesn’t have the sexy curves or shinny silver coating. Instead, it is generally black in colour with brown on the sides and keypads. It is simple yet has a sophisticated look and at the same time, oozing out charisma and class of its own.

At 53mm wide, 13.8mm thick and 115mm long, the phone is reasonably sized and would fit most palms without much problem. Most importantly, it doesn’t weigh a tonne. In fact, it might be even lighter than my current phone as it is only 109g. Looking at the size of the phone, it is quite impressive that they managed to pack in a 2.6″ TFT display for maximum viewing pleasure.

At the back is the 3.0 mega pixel camera with auto focus feature. There’s a little shinny plate to see your reflection for your own cam-whoring convenience. It has a built in flash, definitely not a Xenon flash, but I assume it should be powerful enough (than a conventional LED light) to light up dim lit areas for picture takings. I shall explore the camera feature at a later time.

On the left side, you have the micro SD slot, which is expandable up to 4GB. For your information, it also has 150MB internal memory. You also have the volume bottom, sligthly above the micro SD slot. The camera shortcut key and the charger / USB port are both on the right hand side of the phone. For those who demands better sound quality for their earphones, you have a 3.5mm jack on the top of the phone, next to the power button as well. That’s definitely a bonus!

A 3G video call mini camera resides on the front panel, right next to the speaker. The keypad, thin rectangular shaped, is very responsive and doesn’t require much force to press. The shape makes text messaging a breeze as you punch away the alphanumeric quickly.

Right in the middle of the keypad / phone is a track ball, emitting a really cool looking blue light, as if its the heart of the phone (like IronMan’s). When it’s charging, it’s red in colour.

Instead of the ever problematic joy stick and the flat surfaced joy pad, Samsumg Mobile has decided to put in track ball for easier navigation and scrolling. Rather than pressing or pushing, all you have to do is glide your fingers across the track ball and your cursor would move accordingly. Like our computer’s mouse, you can set the sensitivity of the track ball.

Outlook wise, I would say its pretty safe. Nothing too funky, nothing too old school, nothing too drastic, nothing too boring, it has struck a balance between all the elements to appeal potential users from all range. Moreover, the fact that I dislike the idea of flipping, twisting, rotating, shaking or whatever-ing the phone just to reach the key pad and other functions, this phone has stood out in terms of design. It looks plain and simple, but for a guy, it is definitely appealing.

The Samsung SGH-i550 series :
The Kick Off

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