The earlier trend involved releasing third party brand modifications of existing models (e.g. Motorola and D&G) but the tendency that emerged over the recent months is more oriented towards issuing fully codesigned products. A group of designers from a prominent fashion house is responsible for the exterior design and the manufacturer company develop interface, decide on the general features and put the model into prodution. Perhaps the most famed codesigned products of recent months are the KE850 model developed by LG & PRADA and the P520 handset by Samsung & Giorgio Armani. The former one entered the market much earlier and was largely considered as a rival to iPhone. The latter follows a very similar concept, but there were much fewer comparisons to the Apple's product aired in the media in regard of this one. Both cases are good exmples of psychological market warfare misleading people.

Take it or leave it, but there will be much speculation and comparisons concerning the two, so we decided to add a dime to the bucket as well. However, we approach the matter in a way a little bit different from our usual manner of reviewing products due to a totally different target audience that this product is aimed at. We'll only render a short summary of hardware and software features of P520 and give a quick comparison to KE850, but the most part of the article will be devoted to the fashion accent of the device and its design in general. Let's see hot the designers from the famed fashion house contributed to the products' image.

People also tend to compare these two devices not to iPhone only, but also to HTC Touch (Elf), which is totally wrong as well. Indeed, the two claimed "competitors" also have a strong accent on design, but that's probably the only thing that the four have in common. Both iPhone and Touch support third-party software, which is especially true in regard of the latter - a huge WM software library is available. That expands the functionality to a very considerable extent and place the devices under the 'smart devices' category while P520 and KE850 are strictly limited to Java only.

Another important point is the positioning: Touch and iPhone are typical mass-market offerings targeted at a vast audience, while P520 and KE850 bear a socialite touch and cater towards the admirers of Giorgio Armani and Prada respectively. The most impact is delivered on the female part of the audience - the sound of a well-renowned title for that part of potential buyers is much more important than the hype about the groundbreaking techy features of Apple's brainchild.

Model	Samsung P520	LG KE850
Communications	GSM 900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE	GSM 900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE
Storage	60 Mb of user memory microSD memory expansion slot, a 2Gb card bundled	8 Mb of user memory microSD slot, a 256 Mb card bundled
Display	2.6”, 240х320, 262K	3.0”, 240х400, 16M
Communications	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP supported	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP supported
Camera	3.2 Mpix (up to 2560x1920), no auto-focus	2.0 Mpix (up to 1600x1200), with auto-focus
Battery	800 mAh capacity up to 180 minutes of talk time up to 220 hours of standby	800 mAh capacity up to 180 minutes of talk time up to 300 hours of standby
Dimensions	87.5 x 54.5 x 10.5 mm	98.8 x 54 x 12 mm
Weight	85 g	85 g
Guiding price	680 euro	400 euro

As you see, there's a major difference in functionality between the two - involving the screen, dimensions, camera specifications and so on. But the difference in price is quite corresponding, the Samsung model is nearly a time and a half as expensive, it's a product from a higher-ranking class than the product by LG. Moreover, P520 is only about to enter the market while KE850 have been selling for a number of months already. The newness multiplied by the Christmas present-buying fever is another factor standing for the high price. The high status of the product is backed by a rich bundling.

«There's no use comparing P520 Giorgio Armani and LG KE850 PRADA to Apple iPhone - the positioning and target audience are totally different. »

The Giorgio Armany model ships with a rather traditional set of accessories (the phone itself, a battery, a charger, a data cable, a wire headset and a software disk) plus a few bonus features like the WEP410 Bluetooth headset, a trademark Giorgio Armani case, a vial of screen cleaning fluid, a 2 Gb memory card (a record for a fashion phone!), a brand bag (still undecided if this one will bear the Giorgio Armani trademark but most likely so), a bag for the BT-headset (also undecided about the brand). As you see, the sales package is really very rich, the KE850 model can't boast anything of that kind - neither a memory card nor a BT headset are bundled, a lot of other stuff is missing as well. That's a very important point about fashion phones because those are generally expected to come with a set of accessories under the same brand.

PRADA, Giorgio Armani and others

It's hardly of any use to argue over LG and Samsung's world policies - the latter is a significantly bigger market player, selling times as much copies annually. As of today, Samsung is the world's second biggest cell phone vendor after Nokia and coming next to Motorola who were seriously pushed back in the beginning of the year. Samsung is probably the most rapidly developing and active company on the telecom market, so the brand loyalty of Samsung fans is growing at impressive speeds. Just in a few years the Koreans managed to overhaul the image of Samsung as seen by the average consumer. Gradually yet stadily this company is manifesting itself as one of the top league cell phone manufacturers. LG still has a lot of obstacles on the same way, this brand has rather weak positions in the continental Europe (you might remember how the Great Britain's bestseller KG800 Chocolate failed to achieve any satisfactory sales levels on the continent)

As for the fashion designer brands Giorgio Armani and Prada, these two have a roughly same weight in the world of fashion - in terms of quality and prices alike, let alone the same country of origin. Both the heads of the houses themselves are the lead designers of their companies - Miuccia Prada and Giorgio Armani, which were the people whose personal efforts lead their houses to the present-day success. Both began their businesses in the beginning of the seventies. Prada have been developing their Sports and Kids brands, both of which are very expensive. Giorgio Armani stick to a slightly different business model - the business is split into Giorgio Armani, the expensive boutique focusing on designer pieces of clothing and Emporio Armani, a middle-class clothes store network (but clearly not a mass-market one!)

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Giorgio Armani shares part of Dolce & Gabbana marketing strategies - the latter also have a subbrand titled D&G standing for less expensive clothes (yet more expensive as compared to Emporio Armani). If we consider the senior ages of Mrs. Prada and Mr. Armani and the gap between the clothing and phone design, it's easy to conclude that the both didn't do anything about the two discussed phones in person, but rather handed the task over to a dedicated team of designers. That's quite interesting because the team staff of both houses always played only a secondary part in their advancement while the personal efforts of the house founders were the actual leading factor in development. It's also important to know that none of Samsung designers took part into developing the desing of P520 though the statement may look dubious because of a large number of similiarities between P520, P720 and P300/310 - the similar concept is quite eye-catching.

«The Samsung brands holds much more ground on the telecom market than LG, and the fashion houses engaged by the two manufacturers are allegedly of the same market weight though none can say for sure. »

Giorgio Armani can't boast any cult products, all the pieces are roughly equal in their market importance; at the same time Hermes mainly concentrate on shawls and headscarves, Louis Vuitton specify in handbags and PRADA are known experts of footwear. As for the P520 and KE850 phones, none of the houses pay much attention to the elaborate design or any specific elements in exterior appearance - it's the trademark that makes most of their contribution and not the actual designer efforts at all. It is quite ironic that once you dub a phone PRADA or Armani, it enters the world of high fashion and the struggle, most likely, is to take place between the Armani and Prada trademarks while Samsung and LG are likely to stand aside.

We're also looking forward to the release of a Gucci phone. This brand is very valuable for fashion connoisseurs, we'd recommend the leading phone producers to pay a bit more attention to such possibilites - anyway, sooner or later we'll end up with a Gucci labeled phone hitting the shelf, and that one will be going to enjoy a lot of popularity. We interviewed a few editors of Russia's most influential fashion magazines and composed a popularity chart of the mass-market divisions of those brands:

• Hermes
• Gucci
• Louis Vuitton
• Chanel
• PRADA
• Dolce & Gabbana
• Giorgio Armani
• Roberto Cavalli

It's easy to see that the majority of popular brands are of European heritage, the Americans (like Marc Jacobs) are significantly less valued by the women. The popularity of Hermes might seem a bit surprising. Indeed, the brand isn't much spoken about, but the list was compiled based off the points of view of fashion experts and has little to do with the mass conscience opting to D&G no matter where and when. As for Hermes, this brand is world-renowned for their headscarves and shawls, and you'd have to stand in a five-year queue if you were to buy a Birkin bag by that house.

«The telecom industry has befriended Dolce & Gabbana, PRADA, Giorgio Armani... Now Gucci, anyone? For instance, one draped with lamb skin, shipping with a pony skin bag to match. »

As of today, the thirteen factories run by Armaini comprise about 4600 workers. The production ranges from clothing and miscellaneous accessories like glasses and watches to jewelry, furniture, perfumes and cosmetics. The follwing trademarks were introduced by the company: Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezion, Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans, Armani Exchange, Armani Junior, Armani Casa. The retail network embraces 37 countries and counts as many as 59 Giorgio Armani boutiques, 11 Armani Collezioni stores, 122 Emporio Armani stores, 71 Armani Exhange stores, 13 Armani Jeans stores, 6 Armani Junior stores, 1 Giorgio Armani Accessori store and 17 Armani Casa Stores. The company was founded on July 24, 1975 in Milan by Sergio Galeotti and Giorgio Armani. The latter is still occupies the chair of company president and executive manager, being the only shareholder as well. The phone business was just a minor expansion of the company's profile as seen against the background of the recently signed treaty between Armani and EMAAR Properties PJSC groups about building a network of five-star hotels and spas under the Armani trademark.

Design and Ergonomics

Both KE850 and P520 share a lot of common design traits: both are strict-looking candy bars with touchscreens and a minimal set of control elements. The Samsung's brainchild is significantly smaller, it follows the trend established by the line of Samsung card phones and comes with a leather case. It bears the Samsung trademark, and the 'sacred' Armani sign if found only on the face panel of the phone, which leads to a bit of incongruity. To out opinion, the P520 isn't too fashionable - it's a bit too plain for an Armani piece, the user interface is way better looking (which will be discussed right below).

The body features some elements made of metal (the aluminium framing of the face panel and the whole back panel) - KE850 is entirely made of plastic. However a quick consultation with a few girls revealed that this point is totally unimportant to their opinion. On the other hand, they found the case to look very attractive, but a bit too on the male side. The accessory is made of artificial leather with some metal pieces and the side parts made of plastic. Another advantage of the product is the incredibly slim build (9.9 mm thick) which is 20% thinner than KE850. The handset is also shorter than KE850 but half a millimeter wider. As claimed by the polls, such a balance is more to the girls' liking. Also it's pleasant to see that P520 weighs less than KE850 despite the usage of metal parts.

P520 is very comfortable to feel in the hand, small dimensions prove very useful for a female owner. But we shouldn't forget that there's no place to miracles in real life, and the compactness comes at the price of a smaller screen. The diagonal is only 2.6'' - an average value for a WM PDA phone, but those are by most part controlled with a stylus while P520 is meant to be operated with a finger. All the control elements have bigger size, so after an average learning curve it's possible to get used to it. However it doesn't keep you from making typos now and then, composing long SMS messages can really get annoying. This nuisance is partly compensated by an easier way of menu navigation - you can browse through menus and gallery images by moving your finger in the required direction. The same principle is utilized in Touch PDA phones by HTC (a good example would be the Dual model sporting the same screen diagonal), but P520 is focused on keeping a more solid style. Some of the more important aspects of the user interface will be discussed below.

P520 has a minimum of control elements, the face panel has only two buttons - Respond and Deny. The upper part has no elements at all, and the bottom hosts the microphone and the tight catch of the battery cover which ensures that the device won't switch off due to the battery falling out by accident. The cover itself is rather exposed to scratching which is a sad thing, though the case helps hiding the scratches. The camera is located at the top of the back panel, no lens guard is provided for. There's no auto-focusing feature and the shoot button is a simple single-position one, it's found on the right edge of the body. The block button is found nearby, such an element is typical to Samsung touchscreen phones (beginning from E900 Phantom). The interface slot is placed a bit above, it's combined with the headset slot. The left edge of the casing is remarkable for the memory expansion slot with full support for hot swapping. The rocker button in control of the sound volume is found just nearby. It also serves for list browsing.

The ergonomic aspect of P520 in addition to the overall compact size and mobility is remarkable for a number of other features which we can't avoid mentioning. We have already mentioned the unique finger scrolling feature utilized for lists and menus which is done just by passing your finger across the screen surface in the desired direction - we deem this to be a considerable advantage in regard of ergonomics. Finally we come to mention the useful interface additions making a nice difference from the traditional interface - the 'quick' menu, the date/calendar sliding panel, the control status line and so on. All these features make P520 easier to handle than KE850, though a number of flaws still persist.

Both devices are designed to be finger-operated and are powered by the touchscreen technology. The smaller size of screen in the case of P520 also means a decreased accuracy, so it's harder to target various screen elements. For instance, the virtual keypad looks exactly like a usual hardware keypad (slightly scaled down) which effectively stands for lots of typos, especially when you're in the process of getting used to the newly purchased device. It takes about a week or two to get used to the awkward keypad, but the typos seem to never go away.

Hardware platform

The hardware part is more than decent for a fashion phone. No doubt the big touchscreen is the main course. As mentioned above, the size of the screen corresponds to the average size of a WM display (2.6'', QVGA, 65K) but is designed to be interacted with a finger instead of a stylus. P520 is the first Samsung phone supplied with a touchscreen and working. The screen produces deeply positive impressions, the picture is bright and vivid, the view angles are irreproachable. Exposed to direct sunlight, P520 does its best at preserving the screen information legible, you won't have any trouble using the phone under the glaring sun. The dynamic wallpaper feature is sure to leave the female audience touched - every time you exit a menu and return to the main screen, you'll see a new wallpaper, which is largely owed to the software platform.

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Finding a 3.2 Mpix camera in such a compact device was a real surprise. The implementation of 3.2 Mpix camera modules becomes a good tradition with the majority of mid-end Samsung phones - we'd recall the recent DuoS D8800 which isn't a pure camera phone either. The extremely slim body doesn't allow for auto-focusing, though. The flashlight is traditionally present, and the variety of camera options places P520 on a level with the more casual Samsung devices. A shortcut line allows for some of the most important camera functions to be accessed with a single stroke, as well as grants access to a number of complementary menus optimized for finger control.

The maximum photo resolution is 2048x2536, video - 352x288 (15 fps). The maximum zoom ratio is 4x, the zoom is digital. The video shooting quality is good yet not brilliant - quite typical of other products by the company like DuoS D880. You wouldn't expect P520 to call miracles on this front, but the level of quality is more than sufficient for a fashion phone. The potential competitor KE850 sports an auto-focus module with brand optics, but the camera resolution is limited to 2 Mpix only. The bundled 2 Gb card is another weighty addition that favors the imaging aspect of the product. You can store large amounts of media files on your phone right after opening the box, simple as that. If you bought a KE850, you'd have to spend time and money looking for a memory card instead. We took a set of pictures at maximum quality in varying environments to illustrate the quality of P520 camera module as accurately as possible:

P520 offers significantly more storage than KE850 - 60 Mb of user memory and a 2 Gb memory expansion card in the sales package. The competitor's results are rather humble - 8/256. The full support for memory card hot swapping is another serious advantage. The telecom features package is rather convincing, though 3G support is missing. The device is designed to operate in GSM 900/1800/1900 networks, the EDGE standard is fully supported, both Giorgio Armani and PRADA handsets have same specifications in this aspect. The Bluetooth support is fully present. There's no FM tuner. The Flight Mode doesn't allow the removal of SIM card.

The performance isn't an important matter for fashion phones like P520 and KE850, but let's make a stop here anyway. Java 3D profiles enjoy a full support, though you can't send midlets over BT or the USB cable without calling a medicine man from a third party, so inexperienced users (practically everybody who's not keen on mobile modding, programming and such like tricks) won't be able to copy Java applications from the PC to the phone. The Java performance is average, a comparison with KE850 is quite explaining:

	Samsung P520	LG KE850
Jbenchmark 1.0.1 Score	1757	1354
Text	589	304
2D Shapes	394	315
3D Shapes	218	243
Fill Rate	97	225
Animation	459	297
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	91	1786
Image Manipulations	70	148
Text	101	228
Sprites	99	181
3D Transform	101	236
User Interface	88	123
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	76	Not supported
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	85	-
Triangles ps	9275	-
KTexels ps	951	-
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	50 (1,7 fps)	-
Smooth triangles	19029	-
Textured triangles	13001	-
Fill rate, KTexels	308	-

P520 proved to have a fairly long battery life, the battery sports an average capacity of 880 mAh. Let's have a comparison with KE850, it turns an epic failure in this regard:

Model	Samsung P520	LG KE850
Moderate duty cycle	2 days	1 day
Multimedia cycle, video (3GP)	4:14	2:08
Multimedia cycle, audio (MP3)	10:02	5:13

Software platform, interface

P520 is based off the Agere platform, the closest analog being E950. However a few differences may be noted, for example the updated PIM (up to 1000 notes, not 100 like before). In a nutshell: up to 1000 contacts in the phonebook, contact groups and blaclisting supported; up to 1000 SMS messages in the phone memory + SIM card memory; each MMS is limited to 295 Kb of size; the task list can contain up to 1000 records; support for viewing Office files (.doc, .txt and so on - Picsel File Viewer v3606). That's not an overly important for a fashion phones, so we now pass to the design of user interface.

As mentioned above, the dynamic wallpapers are supported, but the model lacks themes. So there's no way to customize the looks to match your liking, which is quite disappointing. However the basic design looks quite nice and the animation of elements imbues the model with a kind of charm. The interface sports more serious looks than KE850, which was all about pet business like a butterfly or a fish that you could call by pressing on the screen with your finger. P520 does without flash, though a certain bit of dynamics is present. Unfortunatrly, that brings on some lagging - though the elements turn smoothly, that goes a bit too slow. If you have to start typing an SMS as quickly as possible or instantly look up a photo in the gallery, this might be very annoying. Let's hope the issue will be fixed or at least optimized in the firmware before the sales begins.

Though the interface might be nice looking thanks to the features described above, the small size of the elements (which owes to the small size of the screen itself) awkwardly combined with a mostly touch-based input doesn't contribute much to the aspect of ergonomics. While getting used to the newly bought phone, it's hard to get along without mistypes. That's not an issue specific to P520, but a common plague of all the analogs. This very combination of a small screen and touch input is just awkward and sometimes that can be really annoying. But something in the back of the neck hints us that the girls will put up with it anyways - just because of the magnificient moving icons and the trademark nameplate below the screen. In other words, the loud titles come into play, the ergonomics humbly moves into the background.

The main screen is divided into three active areas; the bottom one is the biggest, occupying nearly a half of the screen. It hosts the screen clock and the calendar. By moving your finger left or right, you slide the required element into the visible area on the screen while the other moves out of the field of view, and vice versa - a very amusing advantage of the dynamic touch interface. The center of the screen is occupied the flickering square of the quick menu which sports some nice visual effects. The contents comprise the player, the call log, the message log and the contact book. It's a bit uncomfortable that quitting any of these applications doesn't get you back in the quick menu but rather redirects to the main menu, which in a way lacks logics. Just above the status line you see the third active area, which is used for entering the main menu and activating the dialing applet.

The interface of KE850 is based on the Flash technology, so the menus are pure eye candy. The main screen allows moving the clock around the place, and activating it brings up the alarm clock menu. Some interactive animation elements are included - for instance, the fish / butterfly pet will follow your fingertip. A lot of other small features like that are found with PRADA, they contribute to the friendly image but aren't too distracting. Up to 1000 contacts can be stored in the contact book, the messaging system supports a storage sufficient for 300 saved messages and the calendar can store up to 100 calendar records and 50 reminders. That's quite sufficient for most users. The things are worse about the file system: following the ill tradition, the LG file manager only recognizes the default folders. All the audio files should be stored strictly in the Sounds folder to be recognized by the player, etc. That's quite annoying. As for the interface, it has great looks and lets you can open any Office file for instant viewing in the same window (.doc, .xls, .pdf, .txt, .ppt)

Marketing Perspectives

The market segment devoted to the branded products is rather scarce in models, and some real help is required from the original phone manufacturer companies to make this area of the market thriving. In the case of PRADA we can see that the fashion house does little or nothing to help the advancement of the product, which results in minimum sales. As for Giorgio Armani, the large investments of Samsung help the house to push the model forward. However the role of the house is still rather passive in this case as well. Until both the manufacturer and the fashion designer parties come to a consent on a mutually supported marketing strategy, even the loudest titles of the fashion world will be sold rather poorly given the body of a cell phone. The release dates aren't a major factor - the P520 being just a few months late is very unlikely to influence the competition between the two to any noticeable degree. We hope to see a Gucci phone entering the market soon, and as of now the choice lies between Giorgio Armani and PPRADA - two competitors worthy of each other, and the customer's personal preference is the key factor here.

SMAPE's opinion

Samsung P520 Giorgio Armani – is another try at issuing a fashion branded cell phone which has some very interesting sides in terms of software and hardware implementation alike. The concept shares some common traits with the card phones by the same producer, and the general design loosely follows the PRADA handset by LG. This model is obviously recommended to all true Armani fans and those claiming to be. If you aren't one, we advise to think twice before making final decisions.

+ Branded by the famous fashion house
+ Stylish design and interface
+ Rich bundling
+ Metal used for the casing
+ Fair hardware and software stuff inside
- Vague mention of Armani brand
- High price
- Questionable ergonomics

Author: Dmitriy Ryabinin, dm@smape.com

www.smape.com

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