This mobile has soul! (Samsung SGH-U900 Soul)

Member Name: cezaweza

Product:	Samsung SGH-U900 Soul
Date:	13/02/09 (147 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks great, seems a good, solid phone

Disadvantages: Can be slow at times

I have decided to review my mobile phone as I haven't really reviewed many electrical products yet. When it comes to mobiles, I must admit that I am extremely shallow. I usually go for the most attractive looking phone available at the time. I am on contract, so my choice is limited to whatever Orange decide to offer me at the time of renewal, although I normally get quite a wide selection to choose from. Six months ago my contract was renewed and I was told I was entitled to a free upgrade, I scoured the list of phones available and my eyes soon fell on this crushed pink coloured phone by Samsung. The Samsung SGH-U900, or 'Soul', is a part keys, part touch screen phone. This was ideal for me, as although I liked the look of all the touchscreen phones I'd seen, I wasn't ready to completely give up my keys just yet! Unlike some touchscreens, you don't need a stylus to control it, you can control using your fingers.

Features

As well as all the normal features most mobile phones provide, the phone also has the following capabilities:

5 million mega pixel camera
4 x digital zoom
Java Games
3G
Email compatibility
Bluetooth
100 MB internal memory
FM Radio
Internet
Music Player
Included in the box it came with were:

8GB Sandisk memory card
Memory card USB holder
Phone to PC USB Wire
Earphone set
Charger
User's Guide

Using the Phone

The Soul is a very stylish phone and is available in two colours, black and pink. The main screen takes up a lot of the space on the front of the phone, and there is also a small square screen underneath which is the touch screen. The touch screen predominantly lights up to allow selection of 'left', 'right', 'up', 'down' and 'ok', however it's choices change depending which part of the phone's memory you are in. There are also four keys at the side of the touchscreen, the dial and hang up buttons, and two selector buttons. The Soul slides out to elongate itself for phone calls and to reveal the number and letter keys. Some of the Soul's features can also be navigated without flipping the phone up which is convenient.

There is a video camera on the front of the phone above the screen to use when making video calls. I've tried making video calls several times only to be told I am 'out of range' so sadly this is not something I've been able to try out as yet, although this is a fault of the network rather than the phone. There is also a 5 million mega pixel flash camera on the back which takes digital photos. I've found the quality of these photos to be exceptional for a mobile camera, as the zoom is pretty good and the flash is powerful too you will be able to take many good photos. There is a button on the left hand side of the Soul which controls the zoom of the camera and the volume of the phone, there is also a port on this side to connect the earphones and charger. On the right side there is a slot for the memory card and another button which takes photos when in camera mode. Everything is very compact on the phone giving more room for the screen.

The battery life I have found to be quite good, there is the usual '3 bars'
logo on the screen at all times to show you how much you have left. I do find that as soon as it hits the last bar, you don't have long before it
starts warning you about having low battery.

Wear and Tear

At the time of writing this review, I have had the Soul for 6 months. I
must admit that I don't look after my mobiles as much as I should do and they normally look pretty battered by the time I have finished with them! The screens are doing well though, there are only really a very small amount of minor scratches. The back of the phone hasn't done so well and there are a lot of deep, long scratches on the back already.


Connecting to the PC

There are two ways to transfer data from your Soul to your PC. The first
way is by taking out your memory card and slot it into the memory card
holder that should have been included with your phone. This then plugs into the computer using a USB port. I prefer using this method as it is quick and easy and I can just click and drag all items I want from one to the other. Using this method, you can only transfer objects such as sound files, photos and videos which suits me as this is all I wish to transfer anyway. The other way is by connecting your phone to the computer using the USB cable. You can then transfer from your phone by using a program called Samsung PC Studio. This program can be downloaded from the Samsung website
(www.samsung.co.uk). You can download all sorts of things from your phone using this method, including text messages, your phonebook, your email address book and your calendar.

Negatives

I've noticed a couple of negatives whilst using the phone. The touchscreen can be quite slow at times and I sometimes find myself having to press it a few times before it responds, and then it will respond to all the times I pressed it in one go causing problems like me sending blank text messages to friends. It is also slow at flicking through photos I've taken or uploaded to the phone, and when flicking through my message inbox it takes quite a while to cycle through. This wasn't a problem I was expecting to happen as I don't store a lot of photos or any other data, my memory is nowhere near full! I had a few problems with the internet too, the main reason I would use the internet on my phone is to access facebook and the phone seems to have problems connecting to facebook.


Conclusion

This is a very nifty phone which looks good and has a lot of great
features. However, a lot of these features will go unused for the average user, for example, the ability to be able to send email from your phone is not something I've ever felt the need to do and I don't personally know many people who would benefit from this! I'm impressed with the design of the phone and find it quite easy to use and think it makes good use of the space. I like the way it slides out as it keeps the keys well protected when the phone is not in use.

Although the phone has a few bad qualities, for example, it can be slow at times, I still think this is a great phone and I am glad I chose it.

The price of this phone if you wanted to buy it on pay as you go is just
under £200 at the moment, although mobiles devalue all the time of course.

Summary: A great phone

Processing/Quality:
Reliability:
Ease of use:
Sound quality:
Variety of features: