Multimedia With Style - And A Few Gripes Besides (Samsung SGH-E720)

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	Samsung SGH-E720
Date:	26/12/05 (497 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of features

Disadvantages: Poor sound quality

For me, the Samsung E720 was something of a step in mobile phone history. Up until I obtained this handset, I'd always been a stalwart of Nokia and never really believed that I would convert to anything else. But times change and whilst Samsung and Motorola are designing genuinely attractive handsets, Nokia seems to have released one weird and unattractive phone after another. So, sorry Nokia - it's time to move on.

The E720 is currently one of the most popular and easily obtained handsets on the market. Most service providers are giving these handsets away when you set up a new connection and unlike many other handsets, this seems to apply on even the most basic of tariffs. A fairly extensive advertising campaign across the UK has also ensured that the phone is quite familiar with (even if not particularly admired by) the phone-buying public.

Look And Feel

Personally, I suppose the most "instant" appeal for this handset was the size. Overall, the E720 is certainly one of the smallest "clamshell" handsets (that's a "flippy phone" to you or I) on the market. It's only about 3 inches long and 1.5 inches wide when shut and therefore slips neatly into pretty much any pocket or handbag. Unlike the Nokia 8210 of old, this doesn't mean that everything about the phone is microscopic. It's still easily navigated and simple to use but is also comfortable to carry, hold and use. The aesthetics are simple too. An average sized display screen on the outer shell is set amidst a matt, grey plastic surround, bordered further in plain silver. It's unfussy, uncomplicated and modern - although not impressive enough, I suspect for real gadget freaks who would feel the need to have something rather more "cutting edge". It's durable too - I've dropped it several times and it never seems to cause a problem - it doesn't even switch itself off.

The exterior window can display a picture of your choice (downloaded to the phone) or can simply the show the time in digital output or as a traditional clock face. Initially, I quite liked the clock face image, which gave a strange combination of modern and traditional but have favoured the subtler digital output more recently because it keeps things simple. Within this window, you can also easily see icons identifying the battery standby time remaining, the strength of network signal and (when appropriate) the little envelope that tells you a text is waiting.

Making / Receiving Calls

In many ways, I find this handset rather infuriating and whether or not I have fully explored the settings, I'm not entirely sure, but there are some glitches with this phone that drive me mad.

An incoming call is alerted according to your preference by a ring tone, vibration or combination of the two. The exterior window clearly displays who is calling (if recognised) but if you then wish to reject or silence the call, you are unable to do so if the handset is flipped shut. Even at its lowest volume, this means that the handset makes a noise at a time when you might not want it to. Only when the phone is flipped out in full can a call be rejected. This is a major downside for me - I will often reject calls for several hours if I'm engrossed in something but I don't want to turn my phone off completely in case a particular person that I DO want to speak to calls me.

Next up, is the call waiting feature that I have activated on the network. Whilst I'm on a call, if another call comes in it will park itself behind my current call and alert me to the presence of the caller in case I wish to swap calls. For whatever reason, if at this time, I press the volume increase or decrease buttons on the side of the handset, the call automatically swaps to the other caller placing the current caller on hold. This is hugely frustrating, particularly as you won't have told the first caller that this is what you are about to do. On a good day, you suffer nothing more than embarassment but on a bad day, you lose both calls. This happens rather a lot as a result of my next gripe.

The volume of other people that I speak to on this handset seems to vary wildly, regardless of which of the four speaker volume settings I have selected. Sometimes, I simply cannot hear them, even at full volume, but more commonly, I find that people are so loud that the line is distorted and that to speak to them for any length of time is a real nightmare. (I must get myself a Bluetooth headset). Other people often complain that they cannot hear me properly or that there is a strange clicking noise on the line and I've pretty much concluded that it's my handset that is causing the problem.

One more thing. The default display setting is such that if your call lasts longer than a couple of minutes, the screen goes blank and you can no longer see the time or your battery power.

These things are a real shame because the good points of the handset are fairly strong too. The keys are a good size, even if you have big fingers, which means that dialling up is quick and simple. The size and dimension of the handset is pretty good too - it's very comfortable to use when making a call. The speaker and microphone are logically located such that you can rest the device on your shoulder if you have no hands free without making that horrible rasping noise down the other end of the line. The weight of the handset means that you can make quite lengthy calls, without starting to feel as though you are holding a brick.

Nonetheless, it's the negative things that stand out most in my mind. Isn't that always the way?

Sending / Receiving Text Messages

It's a similar situation for the text messaging capabilities. I'll start with the good bits first.

Your inbox is laid out in a very logical fashion, with a list of messages showing the sender and the first line of the message in a long list. This makes it quick and easy to find and open a particular message if you so need to and your sent messages are displayed in exactly the same way. When you first receive a message, a text box pops up in the window showing you the name of the message sender, their number and the time of the message. Once again, the keys are a good size for sending messages and I don't find myself making loads of mistakes and having to start again.

But it's not all rosy. The default settings for text messages cannot be permanently adjusted which means that you have to switch from capitals to lower case or numeric input according to each message that you send - and during each message to send a mixture of inputs. If you wanted to send "I am in a really FUNNY mood - it's as easy as 1 2 3" you would need to switch the input method three times to account for each of the input types. This is not good - I'm used to the simplistic world of a Nokia handset. And I've yet to find the apostrophe anywhere in any of the various inputs allowed by each button. Accessing the phone book also takes too many clicks (according to the method of selection). I'm used to being able to send to a contact with only 1 or 2 clicks at most.

None of these gripes are show stoppers - I'm not an avid text sender anywhere and usually keep my messages short and sweet but these things do still manage to bug the hell out of me.

Menu Navigation

The menu is simple and intuitive to navigate. From the main screen, you use four cursor buttons and an OK button to navigate your way around. You soon learn what each of the nine menu icons refers to, but a brief description at the top of the screen helps this along. I certainly wouldn't propose to run down the full menu structure here, but in all cases, I do find it much easier to find things than on some of the more recent Nokia phones. Everything "feels" as though it is in the right place - and that's got to be a good thing. My only gripe / moan is that when changing some of the settings you seem to need to select a menu option, then change it, then confirm it, then exit it. It feels long-winded - or is it just me?

The MP3 Player

In keeping with the rest of things, the MP3 player on this phone is very simple to use and a has two major selling points when compared to other phones on the market.

For starters, the control buttons for the MPs music player are on the outside of the phone, which means that you can control it without opening the phone. Secondly, the memory seems to be significantly higher than some of the competition and although built into a mobile phone handset, is genuinely usable every day in this capacity. The keys on the outside are easily located and simple to use - play and stop on one button and then two direction buttons to move forward or backwards through your playlist. It's simple stuff! You also get a cool graphic equalizer display on the outside.

The Camera

The 1152 x 864 megapixel camera is pretty good - I've yet to take what I would call a really oustanding photo but for general usage its not bad at all. You can zoom in and out, adjust the lighting and use the flash (as required) and on picture messages at least, the photos look great.

Other Features and Applications

Like most modern phones, the E720 can be customised. You can download the latest (shudder) ring tones, wallpapers and screensavers and you can have a polyphonic ring tone, real music or downloaded sounds according to your choice. There are also four games tucked away (bizarrely) in a menu option called Java world though I have to say that like most mobile phone games, they drive me up the wall. There's a calendar, a voice rcorder (for about 60 seconds anyway) and of course the handset is WAP and Bluetooth compatible. Bluetooth is easily set up but its not something I use. I quite like the idea of the headset but otherwise it strikes me as a bit of a security risk.

Reasons To Recommend

Lots of features - MP3, camera all built in
Great size - very portable
Attractive, sleek design
Free on most networks
Easily customised / personalised
Fairly simple to use

Reasons To Reject

Sound quality is poor
Text default settings are a pain the ass
Everyone's got one

My Verdict

I'm generally satisfied with the phone - it pretty much serves its purpose. Unfortunately, it isn't REALLY good. There are too many bugs and glitches that, as time goes on, infuriate me.

Summary: Popular, easy to use phone but not one that I kept for long

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