Review Samsung T400

Samsung T400, live pics

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Samsung was succeeded greatly launching Samsung T100, it was the first phone with the colour screen and polyphony on the European market. Even today this model is very popular in spite of many rival products which have the same features. The substitution of T100 - model T400 was prepared as long ago as at the end of summer. It wasn't produced at that time because it could have been a competitor to T100. Now the situation is changing and we'll be able to see T400 already before the beginning of the next year. The phone is based on the same platform, but 40-tones polyphony and the display, which can show up to 65000 colours, were added.

Design is made in squared way, antenna became flat. The phone dimensions are quite expectable (100x50x20 mm) and the weight is about 86g. You can find an external display on the front cover of the phone, which has a dark-blue backlighting. The resolution of it is of 96x64 pixels, what allows to show up to 3 text lines and one line of icons.

A double volume key is placed on the left-hand side of the phone; upper a portable handsfree connector, covered by a rubber cap, is positioned. An interface connector is placed on the bottom side of the phone.

When you open the handset (you can easily do it by one hand) you'll see a display (TFT, up to 65000 colours). The colour and the quality of the picture is excellent, the phone stands out by its screen. The display has a resolution of 128x160 pixels, what allows to show up to 6 text lines, one line with title and tips to the soft keys. The information is clearly visible in all lighting conditions, even in the sunny weather. The backlighting has several kinds of modes, but the picture is highly visible even without it, it's really a great forward step.

The keypad is made of plastic, the keys are deeply spaced in the phone but they are rather comfortable. A 4 directional navigation key with a key, which provides access to Wap-browser, inside, is placed under the screen. Pressing of the navigation key to the left calls a menu "Messages" in the standby mode and to the right - sound settings of the phone.

At last some words about the battery. It's not known yet whether the second battery is included in the standard kit, frankly speaking it isn't necessary. The phone has a lithium-ion battery of 900 mAh capacity and provides a sufficient autonomy. The phone works 3 days in case of 10-15 minutes of talking and about 15 minutes of using other applications. According to the manufacturer the phone can provide up to 160 hours of standby time and up to 4.5 hours of talk time. The time of full re-charging is about 2 hours.

Menu

In the beginning of the article we said that engineers used T100 as a base of T400. That is really so, the vast majority if features are similar to T100. When you open a main menu you can see a title of the menu item on the upper part of the screen and a small nice animated picture near it. Shortcut number navigation can be used here. You can choose either a traditional or a cute menu in the settings of the phone. As you understand animated icons are mote amusing in the latter case.

Phonebook. On the one hand, the phonebook is very simple, only one number is associated to one name, but on the other hand, the interface of this phonebook is very attractive. Up to 500 names can be stored in the phone memory, the memory of SIM-card is also available. You can select a personal ringing tone and set a voice tag (up to 18). The phone repeats the tag three times before it records the tag. The identical tags can't be said.

Call records. Here you can store traditional call lists, each of them consists of 10 phone numbers. Here you can view the duration of dialed and received calls. When you press the send key you can see a joint list of calls with the indication if their types (received and sent). If you have number stored in phonebook then in this list shows name, but you couldn't see the number (only from phonebook).

Messages. This item gives an access to the settings connected with SMS messages. These messages can be kept only in SIM-card memory. When it is full, you'll see an icon of blinking envelope. To receive a new message you should delete some of the old messages.

SGH-T400 supports Nokia Smart Messaging (not EMS), what allows to send pictures and melodies to all new phones produced by Samsung and almost any phone from Nokia. 10 pre-default original pictures (in black-and-white) are set here. Also you can make up to 5 templates (they are empty by default). Furthermore you can set special options to receive broadcast messages.

Voice Functions. Here you can view, edit or delete voice tags and command tags (up to 19). Menu items, which can be voice dialed, are included in one list. The phone has a dictaphone which can save 3 records (35 seconds each), but it works only in standby mode.

Tones. Here all settings connected with the melodies are collected. For example, you can select one of the 37 polyphonic ringing tones, one of 4 tones and the singing of birds. You can download up to 3 melodies from the Internet or create two melodies in the music composer. Here the type of incoming alert is set (vibrating call, ringing tone, vibrating call + ringing tone). When mixed mode is setup, first, the vibrating call works 3 times and after that you can hear a ringing tone. You can choose one of 5 tones for SMS message which are different from the ringing tones.

Settings. We are not going to tell about all settings in the phone, only about the most interesting. Firstly, you can activate a voice dial or a voice access to the menu while opening the phone. Secondly, you can set one of the 5 animated screen savers. What is more interesting and very convenient, the calendar with all notes can be used as a screensaver. Finally, there is one empty slot for the image which the user can download himself.

Organizer. Here you can set different types of events and reminders. The organizer has a monthly view, the day with events are underlined. Only one event with a description can be displayed on the screen, short list is not available. There is a separate item - Calendar, which shows the current day and the month. In my opinion the main sense of this feature is not to show days with events to other people.

You can also use a to-do list, select a priority (low or high), sort all notes and mark those which are done. Everything is very convenient.

The alarm clock, which works even when the phone is switched off, can ring once, daily or weekly. One of 4 tones can be chosen for the alarm-clock.

The world time function is simply realized, on the contrary, the calculator is really handy.

Games. There are 3 games (Bowling, CityRacer, HoneyBust) in the phone. The aim of the first game is clear, see the title. You stand as a car racer in the second game, the third game is a kind of Arachnoids, it's very interesting but the racket is rather slow and it is irritating.

WWW Services. A usual wap-browser in version 1.2.1, which offers standard possibilities is kept here.

A standard kit also contains a cable to the PC and a software. So you can download new melodies and any of the pictures for the work table.

Impressions

The quality connection of this phone is typical to all phones from Samsung, there are no changes. Samsung T400 is a dual band phone with a good sound in loudspeaker. The vibrating alert is average, the volume of 40-tones polyphonic ringing tones is perfect. All the sounds are pure, it is the first phone on the market, which has flawless picture and rings. Here you can listen to some of the ringing tones (mp3, 600 Kb).

The features of the phone are rather simple, you can't add several phone numbers to one name, a dictaphone works only in standby mode, IR-port is absent, GPRS is also not available. It is namely a fashion type of phone and it is really so. If you have this phone you are always in the center of attention when the phone begins to ring. It is expected that the selling of this model would begin in November and the price would be about 500-550$, then it would slightly decrease but not much. We think that T400 would have the same success as T100 and quickly it would become a very popular model.