Samsung's best of black and white (Samsung SGH-Q200)

Member Name: rclens

Product:	Samsung SGH-Q200
Date:	16/10/04 (259 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slim, Superb Features

Disadvantages: Black & White Screen

The difficulty with phones, as most people know, is that one manufacturer’s phones are completely different from another’s. Granted there are similarities, but often Nokia phone users complain when they change their manufacturer. I have therefore given myself enough time to get used to the new phone so as to review it better but still highlight the differences that can take some time to overcome or are simply frustrating. Here goes:

What the phone comes with:

Samsung have included a data cable for GPRS (something to do with transferring data to and from your PC) with a software CD to enable you to do this. I have no need for this so cannot say how well it works. The earpiece provided looks smart and stylish and goes well with the phone, providing good sound quality and a one-touch button for answering calls. The charger is a click-in system which means that the adapter will not fall out of the phone very easily, it involves pressing on the two buttons to remove it: excellent.

Specification:

Dimensions are 85x47x20 and weight is 90g.

The Q200 looks cute and very similar to the A300 that most people will have seen advertised on TV. It is the model down from the new T100, but does not have the colour screen. Therefore it is classified as an out-dated model and can be found fairly cheaply, especially on the Internet. The dual-screen system is superb as it allows you to choose whom to answer your calls to and shows a small envelope icon each time you receive a message. To answer calls you can use ‘active-flip’, where the call is answered at the moment you open the phone; any-key answer, or one-key answer. Each time you receive a message the service light (the small light on the side of the phone) will show up bright blue, indicating that the message has not yet been read.

The battery-life is claimed to last up to 7 days on stand-by although with moderate use you can expect it to last 4-5 days, which is a marked improvement on most phones. Talktime tends to be 5-6 hours but, yet again, the claim is that it can be around 7 hours. I don’t think I have ever seen a phone last as long as the manufacturer claims anyway.

The screen is high-resolution LCD (128x128 pixel) and has good space for text messages ad viewing WAP content. The outside screen is a sexy aqua blue and the inside is green.

The phone is fairly small but large enough not to lose. The keys are not that small either, so can be used by people with big hands, but look perfectly set into a phone that is both practical and could be used as a fashion accessory the number of people who say to me ‘wow, what a cool phone’.

Features:
Texting is fairly simple but as I am not used to the Text Input Mode (predictive texting) it has taken a bit of time to get accustomed to. Many of the characters (exclamation marks etc) can be found under the capital letters or the lower-case letters but not in both, which means having to learn exactly where they are which can take some time. Once all this is figured out, writing and sending the message is simple. You can also choose whether the message is saved to your outbox each time you send it. Reading messages is just as simple and involves a few clicks. On scrolling down, the bottom half of the message is shown, so you have to read the first half first before it jumps on.

There is not much point in talking about the phoning. The quality is clear, but usually depends on networks anyway, and dialling is as straightforward as most phones.

If you fancy changing the language of the phone, there are a number of languages to choose from including Russian and Japanese, if they tickle your fancy.

The phone has its own melody composer but comes with 18 tones anyway. You can compose 2 of your own melodies, which does not seem to be a great deal but as you only use one at once, who cares! The composer is easy to use but I never see the point in it, so I cannot expand on this area. The other advantages with this phone have to be the choice of alerts for messages, connect tones and call-receive, which can all have their separate tones or clicks. Or vibrate if you so wish.

There are 7 games on this phone. This does sound like a fair number but to be honest they aren’t that great. There is Mole (hit the mole on the head), Sniper (fire at a moving target), Casino (fruit machine), Roulette (as the name suggests), Blackjack (as before), a poor version of Snake and a genuine version of Othello. I have seen better games on other phones (my old one has Tetris) and the Nokia snake is so much better than this poor imitation.

The WAP browser is smart and works a treat. Loading of pages is fast and content on T-Mobile is excellent. You can store 8 bookmarks on the phone and there is a caching facility where the last page you visited will load without needing to be connected to the service or you can save a few pages to the cache manually too.

Now onto the phonebook, which is simplicity in itself. The scrolling phonebook is intelligent and can easily be accessed through a number of shortcut keys that the phone uses not only for menus but also for quick access to user-defined features on the phone. For example, you can press right for calculator or left to send a text message. The phone can hold up to 100 names, to complement the 99 the SIM card holds. Numbers can easily be copied over from card to phone and vice-versa.

The menu system is the best that I have encountered. You can navigate it using the keypad, the navigational arrows at the top of the phone of the volume bar on the side of the phone. This bar comes in handy when needing to alter the volume of an incoming call or the optional key tones that are programmed. All menu options have icons, making it even easier to know where you are and what you are clicking on.

Other features include calculator, reminders for the calendar, alarm and to-do list.

Overall:

The phone is one of the sexiest around and, at the price it cost me, a useful piece of kit for organising your life (no I am not dependent on it). Understandably people will want the higher-priced colour screen version but this phone will do the trick until the T100 comes down in price next year.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I may have missed out on please let me know and I will endeavour to answer them and update my opinion.

Summary: