Hands on Review of the Samsung F700
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after wearing out my nokia e90,
trying my best to find some redeeming value in my 3 iphones
and going through 3 china-made iphone/e90 lookalikes
- the samsung f700 looks so small and cute
and feels so perfect on the palm of my hand
- happy at last
first and foremost, the f700 is a well crafted phone
that looks good, feels good and works good.
if samsung would follow lg's lead in working with prada
the elegant, minimalist look and feel of the f700
with a brand name like burberry (my favorite) or any other
even timex, esprit or swatch
would simply jack up the profits by a few notches!
the device is not too wide, fat or big; just right
very few distractions; dont look too busy or complicated
on the front, there is a camera hole for the video calls
and a button on the bottom to activate the phone
the rest of the area is covered by a very large screen
- very nice
hard buttons are only on the top and right side
giving it a very clean look
on top, 1 hard button and 2 slots
in front is the on/off button
and behind this are 2 slots for usb/charger/ear phones
with a cover over each
and a thoughtful finger-nail slide for easy opening
on the right 3 thingy
- there is the camera button
which can be configured to reject/silence incoming calls
- a rocker which is used for volume, enlarging/reducing fonts,
moving items up/down etc; most useful
- and a hold button - very useful when keeping f700 in the pocket
this is the homepage
i've decided to use the licking cat gif as my wallpaper
because
unlike most phones
this distracting pic will appear at the background
all over the place
in memos, sms, menus etc
f700 has cleverly regulate it just to the home page
giving each menu and memo its own clean look
topmost on the screen is the usual signal strength, 3g mode
on the right - indications of micro-sd card, profile and battery
status
below it are the icons for the 4 main feactures of the f700
speaker - profile menu
tiles - main menu of all 16 sub menus on one page - really nice
phone key pad - for a quick call
call log
each of these menus will have their sub-menus
all very ititutively placed
on the screen is my m1 telcos
which i have been using for over a year
with a data plan
the translucent calendar can be turned off at will
or by flicking it left or right, changed it to display the time
or if you have sharp eyes,
tap on the date/day at the bottom of the screen to turn it off
totally
this is the main menu - aw, so elegant; i really like it
the cross-styled menu allows you to move your finger around
eg on the mp3 player screen, up/down adjusts volume
left/right moves from song to song
hey, no need to shake the device!
i mentioned in earlier posts
that the touch screen is not as good
as either the iphone or the lg,
but now i have to take all these back
- it's just a matter to getting used to it
and understanding that some menus need a double tap,
a flick or just a drag
eg the translucent calendar/time on the home page
touching/tapping it does nothing
but tapping it twice, brings on the world clock (more later)
flipping it left or right changes it to time or calendar
(by the way you can configure single time or dual time
- very useful when overseas)
actually, like htc would say,
touch is good
(especially apt since my church is now going through
a study on the 5 love languages)
people who review this phone
and negatively adds as a con
that it does not have a sensor to adjust screen
from portrait to landscape and vice versa
imho is speaking through their noses
- what for?
slide out the keyboard; it's landscape!
besides even iphone/itouch senors dont work that well
kind of frustrating when we have to keep turning your device
then when it finally responded
it titled right back because you didnt stop shaking that thingy
first row:
- call log - with access to ringer, messages and contacts
- contacts - with access to phone book, groups and speed dials
(while there is no caller picture as far as i know
but you can get around this by creating groups eg home, office
and tag it with a photo of your family or staff)
- music player; very stylish - almost arty farty
you get an ipod-type menu with artists, genres etc
but what i want is creative zen's play by the folder option
(this is not available in the f700
but again you can go around this by creating playlist names for your folders
and add the files from each folder into each of these lists
- thankfully, there is multiple mark/unmark)
second row:
- wap - all the bells and whistles going at warp speed
seeing is believing
my colleague's jaw dropped when we checked
his latest update to our church site
i kid you not - faster than my desktop
(with the slide out keyboard, f700 is an internet junkie's heaven)
- messages - supports sms, mms, ems (what's that?) im, email,
voice mail, push mail, broadcast messages...
with templates for sms and mms; it is really nice
- file manager
(file manager, plugging into a pc's usb turning the device to a hard disk
and QWERTY keyboard
are the 3 things i must have on a mobile phone
and f700 has it all)
one reason why i dislike ipods and iphones so much
is that apple designed their devices for people
who never ever want to configure their devices
so never even put in a file manager
unlike creative zen
(i cant ever see myself imprisioned in such a situation)
very nice - allows me to drag and drop, copy, backup
hey, i even put an htm bible in the f700!
third row:
- calendar - i like it that they allow me to configure start of the week
(i like my week to begin on sunday, not monday)
- camera, after the viewty; this is a let down
wonder why they announced a 5mp camera, then come out with a 3.2mp
still, it is not too shabby,
good to use when you dont have a camera around
but methinks i wont be using it as much as i did when i got the viewty
- google - i'm supposed to have google maps
lol - i couldnt even install it
hmm... i may have to update my firmware once the f700 is launched here
but let me tell you that gmail works in a flash
just as google search
(almost makes me want to make my gmail account as my main email account)
last row
- appications - comes with all the applications you need
memo, task, world clock, calculator, coverter, timer, stopwatch
for games, i only got a simple slider game on this phone
cant install any stuff, even from gameloft's site
even though it is supposed to be java 2 point something
but with my experiences with iphone
touch screens arent that great for games anyhow
(if i sounded like sour grapes, i'm gripping)
- clock with alarms and all that good stuff
final row
this appears in all the other sub-menus
- tick (this turns to more options if needed)
- back to previous menu
- x: back to home page
truly, an angel of a phone
if you look carefully at the home screen in earlier posts
you will notice a non-intrusive pulsating square in the middle
this is the shortcut icon
that calls up the above non-configurable (as far as i know) screen
also in true thematic cross-shaped style (elegant, eh?)
there is the music player, wap, message and call options
touching the centre will bring you to the main menu
not any earth moving feature
but i thought i'll just mention it
thought i should show you what a sub-menu looks like
this is the ringer or call menu
nice big touchable numbers
with configurable fonts as well
which i think is rather unnecessary
top row are the voice call, video call, contacts and correction icons
and bottom row are the standard ok/more options, back and homepage icons
it should be noted that depending on the usage
the virtual pad will change to fit the need
eg inputting a name; then alphanumeric pad
email address; symbols
it should be noted that there is T9 also
and chinese language is supported on my phone
the more i think about it
the more i suspect that the original firmware has been damaged
when this made-for-europe model
has been forced to accept chinese language
thus killing google maps, further jar installations etc
(hmm... if i'm right on this point
then i should try my hand in locating mas selamat)
saving the best for the last
actually lots more i can say
but already too much as it is
aha, the slide-out key board
it is the nicest thing about this phone
my model was a european model
so not exactly QWERTY but AZERTY with euro$ symbols and all that
when english is selected as the language
typing AZERTY produces QWERTY
some people may be picky about this
but i'm sure if it is ever going to be released in singapore
it will be QWERTY pure and simple
i prefer a slide out to the nokia e90 flip open method
as it is quick and easy to use
and i find myself sliding out the key board
even to add the name of a contact
whereas i would never ever flip open the e90
unless i have a long sms to write
also the backlit lights are very bright and clear
and the keys well spaced
using the keyboard for surfing is really a joy
especially if you can use them to navigate
since finger-touching is not as precise
summary or my 2 cents'
the good
nice form factor
slide-out keyboard
turns into hard drive when plugged to a computer
file manager
fast wap
htm capablity allows me to put htm bible and games on phone
pdf reader has search capablity
the bad
no wifi
camera could be better
- no panaromic, slo-mo
so far, cant install anything files
- office apps can only read, not modify
video dont play full screen
(as far as i could tell)
the ugly - my wish list
if only the f700 is an s60 e3 phone!