I was a Sony Ericsson user for ages now so a switch to Samsung did not come lightly. This one is in my possession for about a month now.

I wanted a touch screen phone for a long time now and the only thing stopping me from having it was the price of touch screens. I decided to buy this one since the price seemed fair and I do have pleasant experience with Samsung product (televisions, LCD monitors...) so I know it is a quality manufacturer. I have heard some negative comments about Samsung mobiles but I decided to ignore them since I too was always a smart mouth claiming there is no such quality in phones than in Sony Ericssons without ever trying other phones :)

So the phone comes in a fancy cardboard box and in it you find of course the phone, the battery, charging cable, USB cable, headphones, manual and CD with drivers (can't comment on the CD since I connected the phone to the computer which had Windows 7 on it and it was auto detected so CD was not needed). I was a bit disappointed that memory card is not included (since there was in every phone I had until now) but OK, not a big expense to add - the phone supports microSD cards, I should mention while at memory that the phone itself has 50MB of storage space which is not bad for a start.

* * * Visual impression: * * *

Housing is made of plastic but it does not have that cheep look to it, from a far I would not even say it is plastic. It is sleek and simply beautiful. Oh I bought a black one, but have also seen a white on which looks even fancier. It has a big screen and no keyboard (dooh). Bottom line a very aesthetic phone.

* * * * * *

So after phone assembly and a few painful hours of first charge period my new phone finally got turned on.

* * * * * *

I must admit first few minutes of touch-screening were a horror, if you still use a phone with keys and are switching to touchscreen be warned, you will probably face the same problems as a 90 year old grandma does when she tries to understand the internet. I was more than confused, but gladly this confusion is over quickly.

So I got used on touching th phone and I can say that the screen is really responsive. You have 3 desktops (which I absolutely love) and you aces them by touching and dragging the screen (left or right). Now why would you need desktops??? Ah here comes the beauty of it - at the left side of the screen you have a toolbar (main part is 'hidden' and you click on th thumbnail to open it) which contains all sorts of tools (alarm, calendar, calculator, note pads, quickdial, games... you can download additional ones) and you can click and drag these tools to your desktop for a quick aces. Cool ha? For example I on my middle (main) screen which I want to be tidy I have the date displayed and alarm clock on my left screen I have quick dial, SMS and games and on my left I have 2 notes. You can rearrange these tools as your heart desires - there is only one downside to it - when you change your list of tools or add another tool to the tool list tools that you have arranged on your desktops will disappear and you will have to set them again.

* * * * * *

I don't want to go much into detail with phone specifications since you can find them on official site or elsewhere so I will just point out things that I feel should be mentioned.

* * * Texting and web browsing: * * *

I was always wondering how this will go with touch screens and now I know. :) You have two options, if you hold your phone in vertical position you are given the normal numeric display and you type the text just as you would with your regular keypad phone.
On the other hand if you hold your phone horizontally you are given a QWERTY keyboard (a keyboard with full alphabet in an order like on your computer keyboard) which makes writing text faster but it is also easier to make mistakes (or accidentally click send button) - but probably only until you get a hang on it . My observation is also that considering the size of *keys* on qwerty keyboard people with big fingers will probably have difficulties using it (writing with the tip of the nail can fix this but you have to get used to it) .

* * * Camera: * * *

It has a 3.2Mp which is good enough but I must say that I am really disappointed with the fact that this phone does not have flash. So no picture taking in the dark, well at least quality picture taking.

* * * Help manual on the phone: * * *

What to say, it is helpful, it covers functions that basic users need with pictures.

* * * Battery: * * *

I am satisfied with the battery, first charge lasted for a little less than two days but you have to keep in mind that I was using the phone for the whole day checking it's features so considering this this is really long for an active use.
With a normal use the battery lasted from 5 to 7 days.

* * * Conclusion: * * *

I am really satisfied with this phone, it is cheap and if offers more than it should for the price but this is somewhat typical for Samsung products (Thank YOU Samsung). Upon buying it I also checked with the salesman what is his experience with this phone, how many unsatisfied costumers are returning it or having trouble with the phone and he told me that the percentage of returned phones is smaller compared to other phones which sure is good to know. I have not yet had any troubles with the phone and can only praise it, if this changes so will the review.