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Samsung Galaxy Note. First Look
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Review of GSM/UMTS-handset Samsung S7350 UltraLive images of Samsung S7350 Ultra
Table of Contents:
Sales package:PositioningIn our review on the Samsung S8300 UltraTouch there were several references to its counterpart. So here it is. Some might ask how is that possible, since the Samsung S7350, while housed in the same design, sports less impressive specs, lower resolution camera, conventional display, that is not as bright among all other things, all in all it’s supposed to be an inferior device on all fronts, rather than a counterpart to the stellar S8300. While it’s true, the S7350 was designed with a different audience in mind – those, who don’t feel they are quite ready to experience touch-sensitive technologies and find themselves right at home when they get a pair of mechanical buttons. In a word, the S7350 targets the mass-market, hence all the differences and some downgrades. Samsung S7350 vs Samsung S8300 UltraTouch:      On top of that, the S7350 is going to take the place the Samsung D900/D900i, which is a replacement that has long been called-for by the owners of these two phones. Apparently, they phones are still generating some sales even these days, which is all another proof of how widely popular they are. Samsung S7350 vs Samsung D900i:      Adequate price tag, standard feature pack and absence of maxed out specs such as megapixel count or display size take the center stage here, along with ergonomics and ease of use – that’s exactly what the S7350’s audience will be looking for. Over the last years Samsung have fostered a whole army of people bent on sliders and some of them are still loyal to this brand. That’s why I’m most positive that the S7350 Ultra isn’t a niche product – on the contrary, it’s a mainstream offering that will enjoy a longer-than-normal lifecycle, that’s why its platform includes a tad more features than today’s ordinary consumer might need. For example, it seems pretty unlikely that many of its owners will start using GPS on a regular basis – they might give it a try, but that will be it for them. However, it’s essential to familiarize them with new technologies, so as to allow upcoming models to capitalize on consumers’ hunger for particular features they encountered in their previous phones. So the bottom line is this: the S8300 UltraTouch caters for the needs of tech-savvy consumers, whereas the S7350 Ultra targets people with less sophisticated tastes. On top of that, both phones will suit men and women equally well; the age bracket they are aimed at is pretty wide too (25-40 y.o.) I’m going to stop right here, and the last thing I’d like to note that the S7350 is Samsung’s “heavy artillery” that trumps every other offering out there in this segment, as it doesn’t have any significant downfalls on any front, unlike its competition. Back to the table of contents >>> Design, Size, ControlsAs far as its physical design goes, the S7350 is almost an exact copy of the S8300, with only a couple of differences, such as a set of mechanical navigation buttons and lack of the HOLD button (since it’s of no use here). The phone measures up at 110x51.5x12.7 mm and tips our scales at 108 grams, so the S7350 isn’t chunky at all, being slim, tall and quite good-looking, plus it readily slips into just about any pocket or purse. There won’t be many colors to choose from at start, though, as it will come only in silvery black and milky white (which is somewhat similar to the U900 Soul’s color scheme). Video, S7350's design, size, user interface (wmv, 72,6 mb) >>>  Samsung S7350 vs Samsung U900 Soul:   Both the keypad and underside are color-keyed to the phone’s color scheme too. While the phone features a spring-loaded slide mechanism, it doesn't work as smoothly as you’d expect from a Samsung-branded device. The only easy way to zip the S7350 open is to place your finger right on the display and push it up, and apparently it won’t the phone’s screen cleaner, but the S7350 manages to disguise most smudge and grease that ends up on its front fascia pretty well. Framing the display is a thin metal strip, and that’s the only detail made of metal you’ll see here – the rest of the phone’s casing is made of plastic, which is a real disappointment, when you think of how many metallic accents there were in previous phones. The S7350 employs wear-resistant matte plastic, the same type that the D900 and U600 used, meaning that after some quality-time with it you’ll see a scuff a too on it, formed by smaller scratches. While they won’t be all that striking, they certainly take some points away from the phone in this department. I’d really like to believe that provided you’re careful with it, the S7350 won’t lose its pristine conditions for at least half a year.   Housed on the left-hand side is the volume rocker along with the microphone pinhole. On the right there is the microUSB socket, where you can plug in data cables, chargers and headsets (by the way there is no 3.5 mm audio jack on the S7350). Another thing of note about it is that all Nokia’s accessories fit this phone like a glove. On top of that, also on the right is the display lock button, although it would have been much better off with a slider key for these purposes. Lastly, there is the dedicated camera button, and I don’t think you want to hear more about it.  The phone’s 5 MP camera, LED flash and self-portrait mirror are mounted on the rear side of the top half, so when it’s closed you won’t see them. Sitting above the display is the forward-facing camera for videoconferencing along with the ambient light sensor.  A few words about the S7350’s build quality – it’s pretty good, although not stellar; we’d rate it the same as other Samsung’s sliders made of plastic. In other words, if you like how their other phones are built, you’ll definitely fancy the S8300 Touch as well, and if not – you probably won’t.  Back to the table of contents >>> DisplayThe phone's widescreen display measures 2.6 inches from corner to corner and is capable of 240x400 pixel resolution (34x56 mm, TFT, 16 million colors). The first thing we came across when we pitted it against the Samsung S8300 was not its diminished diagonal, which isn't all that important after all, but the S7350's less vibrant colors. And that's exactly what separates AMOLED and TFT, even though the S7350's screen is pretty good by today's standards.  The S7350 is Samsung's first phone that enjoys adaptive display backlight that reacts not only to the readings of the ambient light sensor, but also the type of content shown on the screen at every given moment - this way, it sets higher brightness when you're browsing the web, and decreases it when you're playing a game in the street. The same technology is used in the Nokia 6700 as well. The display accommodates up to 14 text and 3 service lines, but you can cram as many as 24 lines into it when reading a message, depending on the font size you have picked. The volume rocker now lets you scroll through pages back and forth and doesn’t change font size anymore (like in the M8800). What really matters is that unlike most other offerings, the S7350 sports huge-ish font sizes, which are very readable from almost any distance. The S7350's display gets washed out under direct sunlight, which hurts it legibility, but it still fares better than the M8800 Pixon. The phone also houses a motion sensor that allows the display to re-align the image whenever you turn it. Back to the table of contents >>> KeypadThe S7350's navigation cluster is a snap to use, largely thanks to its sizable buttons. The four-way navigation pad sticks out of the casing a little, and therefore is easy to locate by touch. The numeric keypad employs a single-slab design, where every row of keys is separated from the other two with slim stripes. While it's not the most ergonomically sound keypad we've used to date, we don't have any major niggles with it either (although it appeared to us that the buttons could've had slightly deeper travel).     Back to the table of contents >>> BatteryThe handset utilizes a 880 mAh Li-Ion battery, rated for 350 hours of standby and 4.5 hours of talk time. In Moscow the S7350's battery time averaged around 2 days (a bit over one hour of calls, a couple of messages a day, very little email and up to three hours of radio). Those who are into mail and web, will be able to squeeze around a day of life time from the S7350. But in general, this handset can stay up and running for 1-2 days hands down. Unfortunately, there is no extra battery cover for this handset. It takes the phone around 2 hours to charge up.   Back to the table of contents >>> ConnectivityBluetooth. The model supports various profiles, such as Headset, Handsfree, Serial Port, Dial Up Networking, File Transfer, Object Push, Basic Printing, A2DP. EDR-enabled Bluetooth 2.1 is onboard. Wireless headsets are handled by the S7350 with ease. USB-connection. In the menu you may select one of three modes: Media, Mass Storage, Samsung PC Studio. When connected to a PC via USB, the S7350 automatically recharges itself. While in the USB Mass Storage mode, the S7350 shows up on the desktop without requiring you to install any additional drivers, so right after plugging in it's ready to work. Data connection speeds top out 1200 Kb/s. You won't be able to use the S7350's Bluetooth connectivity along with USB - it will require you to disable Bluetooth regardless of its status (connected and transferring data or not), which is very awkward.
There is also EDGE class 10 connectivity for GSM networks. Back to the table of contents >>> Memory, Memory cardsThe phone ships with 100 Mb of onboard memory - this storage space, give or take, is available to the user right out of the box (carrier-based versions will have around 75 Mb available). The memory card is displayed as a separate section, but you can also view both memory card and internal storage at the same time. The S7350 also comes with a file manager, enabling you to copy files to/from the memory card. In our test the handset had no problems handling a 32 Gb microSD memory card. We didn't like how long it took the S7350 to copy files from the bundled storage onto a memory card - actually, it managed to move a 50 Mb file in 7 minutes or so, which is pretty slow by today's standards. Back to the table of contents >>> PerformanceThe S7350's performance will hardly blow you away - it's pretty much in one boat with other latest and greatest offerings from Samsung, although it has got some distinctive touches to it. That is, it can multitask with Java applications, meaning that apart from closing an app you can minimize it and call it back to the top later on. On the down side, however, there is no task manager to be found, so you'll have to dig through the phone's menu to bring minimized applications up (you'll see a distinctive icon next to all currently running applications). Using the phone's Connectivity settings you can set up a background Internet connection to run for Java applications, allowing you to keep an IM client and some other apps in the background (we managed to have 8 apps running at a time). The S7350 also supports 3D JSR, including all JBenchmark tests. As far as Samsung is concerned it's a huge leap forward considering how hobbled the Java machine on their previous offerings was. Also, from now on you can install new applications not only over the air but from the phone's internal storage and memory cards as well. Java apps can't exceed 1Mb in size. Back to the table of contents >>> CameraWhile the Samsung S7350 isn't an imaging-savvy phone, it does come equipped with a pretty decent camera, whose interface has been completely revamped in order to work with its non-touchsensitive controls. The S7350 camera’s specs are as follows:
The S7350 enjoys a landscape camera interface and allows the user to tweak all settings on the fly by choosing the required option in the horizontal bar at the top of the screen. All in all, the camera's interface appears to be very similar to that employed in Sony Ericsson's CyberShot series.  The phone also comes equipped with a GPS receiver that, however, keeps a low profile in all menus except for the camera app, where it enables geo-tagging. We’ll talk more about Face Link mode when we get to the S7350’s Photo Browser. The last thing we need to note before going straight to the camera’s settings is that the handset comes bundled with an image stabilizer (when using it you won’t be able to adjust ISO level). Resolutions:
 Shooting modes:
 Scenes:
 White balance:
 Effects:
 Also the S7350 features macro mode onboard.        Using the settings menu you can select a special mode for shooting text fragments, although you probably will never have to turn it on, since even in the Auto mode the S7350 does a great job adjusting all options and settings for crystal clear shots. Panorama mode The S7350's panorama mode is quite remarkable not only because of its image resolution, but also the way you take panorama shots with it. Basically, all you need to do is snap the first image in the sequence and then start moving the camera left or right - the S7350 will trigger the shutter automatically for the second and third images, and then it will stitch all images together. While it's pretty convenient to have the software do all the work for you, you won't be able to enjoy the quality just as much due to the abovementioned resolution limit.  Video The S7350 can capture video in several resolutions, although it's capped at 720x480 pixels, 30 FPS (and QVGA at 120 FPS). When recording video you can zoom in and out or apply one of the preinstalled effects. Overall, the quality of the phone's video clips was pretty good, however our major niggle with the S7350's video recording department is that it sucks the battery dry in around 35 minutes. Video sample (mp4, 14,6 mb) >>> Back to the table of contents >>> GPSIt takes the S7350's GPS around 4 minutes to start up, but since it supports A-GPS, the cold start time gets reduced to around a minute or so. One of our major gripes with this phone, though, was that it lasted only 2 hours and 15 minutes in this mode; so you won't be able to take it with you for a long walk, unless you have a spare battery stuffed in your pocket. On the other hand, the S7350 is quite useful for in-car navigation, all thanks to its loud and clear voice guide. The phone doesn't come preinstalled with any navigation app.
 Back to the table of contents >>> ImpressionsWe were content with the S7350’s reception quality, although it wasn’t much different from other phones in this class. The ring tones volume was pretty average, and we even missed some calls when the phone was stuffed in a bag. The vibro alert was nothing to shout about either. The fact that there are two microphones housed on the S7350 makes your voice quality quite decent even when making a call on a busy street Among all other things, the phone offers fast contact search, Fake Call and some other welcome features. The Samsung S7350 has already hit the production line and is expected to start shipping in a few weeks. Retailing for around 300-320 Euro it'll offer pretty good value for this money, including: adequate camera, bundled GPS and widescreen display. While most of its users won't be heavy on its GPS department or other advanced features, the S7350 has everything an ordinary consumer might ever need. It doesn't have any direct rivals; and while it's not without shortcomings of its own, such as a scratch-prone casing, poor battery time in some modes and a somewhat stiff sliding mechanism, there are many more good things going for it. So there are all reasons to believe that the Samsung S7350 is here to stay, and apart from that, all owners of the Samsung D900 have finally received a phone to look forward to. Related links:
Back to the table of contents >>> Eldar Murtazin ([email protected]) Published — 18 February 2009 Have something to add?! Write us... [email protected]
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