Specifications of Samsung U800 Soul b

Connecitivty:	GSM 900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE class 10, WCDMA 900/2100, HSDPA 3,6 Mbps
Memory:	1 Gb of user memory, microSD slot
Screen:	TFT 2.0”, 240х320, 262K colors
Connectivity:	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (supports A2DP)
Camera:	3,2 Mp (up to 2048 x 1536), falsh
Battery:	880 mAh
Size:	111 x 46 x 9.9 mm
Guiding price:	€250

As a result, we get a successful portfolio expansion - a model made in the classical candy bar form factor and sporting a quality casing. Nevertheless we would put do doubt its alleged future bestseller status because of the enormously high competition in this niche. Let's have a closer look at the design of the new product and overview its functional peculiarities.

Design and Ergonomics

The handset shares a lot of design solutions with the series' flagship, U900 Soul. The handset sports solid looks and gives the hand a pleasant feel; the quality of materials and assembly is amazingly high. The casing is rather narrow, yet long, here lies an analogy with Nokia 6500 Classic. Samsung U800 is equally becoming to persons of either sex, it's very elegant and strict at the same time. The only possible drawback in this aspect is the front panel which is very prone to fingerprints, but you can do nothing about it. Just like in the case of U900, the Samsung company is positioning the new product as a premium solution, yet having a lower ranking.

The assembly quality is traditionally high. No part feels wobbly even a slightest bit. The handset is mostly made of metal, which consitutes a difference from the senior model which preferred plastic. The battery cover, the face panel, the functional and numerical key panels are all made of metal. Plastic is used for the top and bottom edges, as well as for the side pieces. Comparing U800 to Nokia 6500 classic, which poses direct competition to the device in question, we would like to check out that U800 has considerably more metal, and of a higher quality (it uses thick stainless steel with a coating of transparent lacquer instead of anodized aluminium). The left edge hosts the volume controls and the microSD slot, protected with a plastic flap. On the right edge you will find the camera button and the headset socket. The side position of the headset socket isn't the best solution around, neither it leads to any serious problems.

The arrangement of side elements is pretty remarkable. Samsung U800 is an image phone, though belonging to the mid-end sector. Samsung would never have let themselves fail in any aspect of creating a successful image for a premium product coming from the Ultra Edition series. Some of our homologues have drawn far-fetched conclusions concerning the badly designed interface slot protective gag, which seem to us totally incorrect. The final samples will have the protective flap and the camera button redesigned for better ergonomics..

«The final samples will have the protective flap and the camera button redesigned for better ergonomics.»

The volume control buttons have settings of their own: during an incoming call, they can optionally perform a Mute or a Reject action. In the former case, the ringtone is muted; in the latter case, the call is reject. Unlike Samsung G600, there's no option providing for short reply message sending in case of a rejected call.

The battery bay cover is entirely made from polished metal (like Nokia 6500) which is very prone to scatching upon contact with surface. There's nothing to be done about it. The cover is easily removed by pressing the lock and pulling the cover upwards.

The integrated camera unit is found installed on the upper part of the casing, slightly sticking above the surface. Next to the camera lens resides the LED flash, it's pretty powerful and proves helpful in poorly lit environments. The same kind of camera is used in the ideological predecessor of this model, U100, the photo quality is accordingly the same. Auto-focusing is not supported.
There's only one speaker in this handset, the audio quality is pretty high, though can hardly compete with models equipped with stereo speakers. Динамик в аппарате один, звук достаточно неплохого качества, но уступает моделям, оснащенным стерео динамиками.

The sales package of Samsung U800 contains a set of accessories a bit below the usual expectations: no memory card is included, though the presence of a BT headset is quite likely. The rest of items includes a wire headset, a charger, a software disk, a USB cable and a user manual.

Keypad

The keypad utilized by the device is quite standard, made of metal; the buttons are rather tight, yet there's little actual difference from U900. The keypad backlight is of a bright white color, easily visible from a dstance. There's no luminance sensor like in G600 which would tweak the backlight level automatically.

Screen

The device makes use of a 2.0'' screen (30x40 mm) powered by the TFT technology and having a color palette of 262K colors. The resolution is standard - 250x320 pixes. Up to 12 lines of text fits into the field of view. There's no luminance sensor, so the user must tweak the screen brightness manually (on a six-notch scale).

The screen has a mirror backing, which keeps the screen info visible under strong sunlight; on the other hand, it degrades the colors and makes the screen surface glare. The quality of the screen matrix is quite good, it's actually one of the best pieces in its class, the colors are natural and vivid, the brightness level is almsot perfect - the only bad thing is the overly thick, mercury-like protective glass and the small size of the screen. None of the competitive products (Nokia 6500 classic, SE W890i) has a larger screen size, though - in fact, all of them have the same screen size.

Screen fonts look quite clear-cut and optimized for comfortable viewing. The numeric symbols shown on the screen while typing a number are large and visible from a distance.

Battery

The handset makes use of a Li-Ion battery with a standard capacity of 800 mAh. There's no support for any enhanced battery types for this model. Traditionally enough the firmware charge saving OPUS technology is implemented here, giving the battery a few extra percent of saved charge. It really goes like that; the results are perceptible, though not so considerable to pay attention to the difference.

U900 is able to survive for a bit less than two days of moderately extensive usage (about an hour of talktime, up to two hours of listening to the music and the radio, another hour of application and menu interaction); the result is quite up to the modern standards. Few users are going to be dissatisfied with it. However the majority of modern music devices, especially by SonyEricsson, allow for a much longer battery life during the multimedia cycle.

Samsung U800 Battery

	Samsung U800	Nokia 6500 classic
Regular Duty	2 days	2 days
Multimedia cycle, video (3GP)	3:28	2:55
Multimedia cycle, audio(MP3)	13:44	9:36

A full recharge cycle takes two hours and a half. Continuous music cycle wastes the Samsung U800 battery charge over about 14 hours, that's a good result for a slim product.

Connectivity

Samsung U800 is a three-band device (GSM900 /1800/1900); it supports a full Class 10 EDGE, as well as 3G networks (WCDMA 2100) and HSDPA (the Qualcomm MSM6280 chipset). In other words, as regards communications the gadget quite meets all modern requirements.

The wireless communication is represented by the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR unit. It gives raise to no reprimands, the data transfer rate coming up to 140 Kbps. Unfortunately, like with all 3G models based off the Qualcomm chipset there is no support for a local installation of Java applications, that is the programs can be downloaded only via Bluetooth. The .jar and .jad installation files placed in the phone memory cannot be installed. The Bluetooth options include the activation status (whether it is turned on or off), the list of visible Bluetooth devices, the Bluetooth visibility status of the phone itself, the device name and miscellaneous settings. The Bluetooth service includes a standard set of features. Unlike Samsung G600 and E950, U900 doesn't sport an enhanced A2DP support allowing for two Bluetooth stereo headsets to be used simultaneously with the same phone.

The stereo headset (A2DP) proved to be a reliable accessory, the only minor flaw being a negligible lack of volume. The following list of profiles is supported:

• Dial Up Networking Profile
• File Transfer Profile
• Generic Access Profile
• Service Discovery Application Profile
• Headset Profile
• Handsfree (Car Kit) Profile
• Generic Object Exchange Profile (OBEX)
• Object Push Profile
• File Transfer Profile
• Basic Printing Profile
• Audio Vdieo Remote Control Profile
• Advanced Audio Distribution Profile
• Enhanced Data Rate
• Dual Profile Bluetooth (Voice & Data)
• vNote

The wire connection is achieved through USB 2.0, but the data transfer speed is not the highest. On the other hand the phone sports full and correct support of Modem Connection mode as well as Mass Storage, Media Player and Samsung PC Studio modes. The corresponding menu lets the user to set one of those as a default connection type or ask for choice every time a phone-to-PC connection is established.

Performance

The performance of Samsung U800 is traditionally low. It's practically the same as that of the F330 and G800 predecessors. Besides, the Java performance isn't perfectly implemented; 3D profiles are supported, but there is no hardware acceleration. The handset makes use of a Qualcomm MSM6280 chipset and not an NXP one as many other models from the Suwon R&D center do. This doesn't affect performance, not that it is perceptible in a daily usage.

	Samsung F330	Samsung U800	Nokia 6500 classic
Jbenchmark 1.0.1 Score	1141	1329	1754
Text	278	310	405
2D Shapes	271	314	408
3D Shapes	198	243	318
Fill Rate	102	134	199
Animation	292	328	424
Jbenchmark 2.0.1 Score	124	152	304
Image Manipulations	147	179	251
Text	130	172	362
Sprites	119	157	404
3D Transform	112	130	389
User Interface	112	129	181
Jbenchmark 3D HQ	145	187	129
Jbenchmark 3D LQ	163	211	254
Triangles ps	15363	18919	32251
KTexels ps	1492	1771	1314
Jbenchmark HD Gaming Score	98 (3,3 fps)	131 (4,4 fps)	110 (3,7 fps)
Smooth triangles	34096	41491	62390
Textured triangles	21941	27654	50171
Fill rate, KTexels	559	716	1543

The heap size equals to 2,2 Mb, the maximum Jar size - 300 Kb.

Themes

Following the path of U900, this handsets offers full support for user-made interface themes. Originally only G600 could boast of this feature until recently while E950 was restricted to no-editor theme support. As for the rest, those (as well as even the flagship G800 cameraphone) were merely limited to two basic color schemes - black and white (or violet). As we have already mentioned, the quality of themes implementation deserves admiration, the user is even able to create custom themes right from a basic menu, without having to resort to a specific application which is often a must for the same functionality in devices by other brands. Don't you agree, it's the extremely convenient and in much greater demand, since many users don't have the time or skill to install such kind of specific theme design software to their PC, often limiting themselves to the use of existing themes available for download from the web?

So, the handset sports a special Theme Wizard that provides for a vast number of options. To be more precise, there are two wizards: simple and expert. The usual allows you to select a pattern, a color scheme and the theme is ready; as for the enhanced one, it makes almost every user interface parameter customizable. Let's enumerate the basic steps:

• Background (any picture including templates and photos)
• Background color, fill and opacity
• List font color
• Fill color
• Selection color
• Highlighted menu item color
• Pop-up font color
• Pop-up background color
• Icon type and borders

You can also customize the scrollbar color, the color of miscellaneous screen fonts and so on. This freedom of customization is the fruit of long and effortful labor of the software developers; the quality of this work becomes evident at once and concerns not only the user themes but the interface on the whole. Once a created theme is saved, it can be applied.

Samsung U800 has a total of three pre-installed themes, each being interesting. This reminds of some interface elements found in SonyEricsson phones, where flash-themes are utilized, sporting a great variety of animated elements. Unfortunately this feature isn't available for user-created themes; all the icons are displayed only in the traditional way in that case.

All the devices based off the new software platform, including G400, enjoy similar interface and theme wizard.

User Interface

Let's dwell on the basic aspects of the U800 user interface. Following the wake of D900, the company again implements the Living World embedded interface plugin. Once the phone identifies its geographical location, it displays a corresponding desktop wallpaper (Kremlin for Russia and so on, including the Sydney Opera House, the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, the Big Ben of London and the Eiffel Tower of Paris) The wallpaper displays a set of symbolical animations indicating the time, quality of signal and incoming calls or messages - the wallpapers switches between the day and night versions, the sky gets overcast with clouds when the signal level gets low, fireworks can be seen once you get a unread message or miss a call. If you are out of the mobile network area, you see a green lawn among hills. Little of a novelty, yet this feature is strictly exclusive to Samsung products.

The Living World screen (uWorld) is not a default one for the models supporting user interface themes; the screen background is taken from the theme and you may activate it in the settings.

It goes without saying you can pick any picture for wallpaper instead of the Living World screen, almost anything like a photo taken with the camera. The calendar cannot be set to be used as the wallpaper during the standby mode; an option like that is excluded. But on the other hand there is rather an interesting feature, called My Screen, which allows you to create animated wallpaper. The matter is that you choose from one up to nine pictures, photos, the effect to be applied and the shot change rate. During the standby mode the chosen pictures replace each other; one of the following effects is applied:

• Butterfly
• Paper plane
• Cherry blossom
• Bamboo

Besides, several picture change modes are available: rolling-up, replacing, moving aside and others. It looks attractive, slightly reminding of the multimedia menu background implementation in Nokia N95.

During the standby mode an analogue clock can be set to be shown, big enough and all the data is clearly seen from the distance. Up to two clocks corresponding to two different timezones can be shown on the screen simultaneously, the clock indicating the time of your city of residence being of a larger size.

The status line shows all the main indicators of the currently running processes and active modules - Bluetooth, music player, current profile, web connection, battery charge, local network status and so on, once you open a menu all the icons go a line lower, and stay visible all the same.

In the standby mode, the info shown on the screen (carrier name, currently playing track, event information) can be visually represented in a number of ways depending on the currently selected settings in the corresponding menu – it's possible to customize font color, style (for example, with a shadow) and alignment - bottom, top or center.

The font style in the dialing mode is also customizable as well as size, color and numerical symbol style, the former two parameters being active only for the standard font presentation. However the preset figure types are more attractive - as one of the available variants the symbols traced with a fountain pen on notebook pages are offered, the corresponding animation being present. Besides the font customization, you can also set the background color for the call number window; almost everything here can be adjusted to your own liking, since Samsung phones have long been known for their strong positions in the field of user customization features, which is evidently a customer attracting factor.

Audio Profiles

The support for sound profiles is a pleasant feature of Samsung U900. There are six profiles available, but the user cannot add custom ones though the preinstalled list of six profiles is more than enough for the phone to be handy, the existing profiles can be customized. The profile creation mode is quite simple, but that doesn't mean a lack of options. There are three main groups of settings - Call settings, SMS settings and Misc sounds settings.

The Call settings include the signal type (a lot of variants here - ringtone only, vibration only, ringone and vibration, vibration followed by the ringtone and vice versa, ringtone fade-in with or without vibration and so on), the ringtone itself is also set here as well as the volume of sound and the number of times the melody is replayed.

The SMS settings are much simpler, only three types of signal can be chosen: vibro, sound, or vibro + sound. An .mp3 file can be used as the incoming message signal as well as in a new G600 firmware update. Miscellaneous sound settings include the keypad button sound, the power on/off sound and some minor service sounds.

Switching between profiles is only possible via the main menu, there's no separate button for switching profiles. The Mute mode is toggled by holding the # key; the activated profile icon is displayed in the status line.

Main Menu

The main menu can be either set to show as the traditional icons tab or as a list with each icon hosting a pop-up menu listing its sublevel functions (this option can be turned off if you get annoyed with the crowding pop-up windows).

The navigation features the recently introduced 'user action memory' function found in the newer Samsung models - the phone keeps track of user actions and opens every menu at the menu item that was last activated. Fast menu navigation is possible through numerical keys; the icons and the process of changing the screens are animated. But as compared to G600, the effects aren't customizable - upon activating a menu or a submenu item the previous screen just slides sideways, giving way to the new information on the analogy of Nokia 5610 XpressMusic.

The main menu consists of twelve items, besides there is an item variation from phone to phone, by arrangement as well as their presence.

• Call log
• Phonebook
• Multimedia
• Browser
• Messages
• My files
• Calendar
• Camera
• Entertainment
• Applications
• Alarms
• Settings

Among the few drawbacks of menu implementation is the lack of possibility to swap the menu item positions and the order of submenu items, there is no way to create new groups and icons either, there are no complaints in the rest.

Call service

The phonebook is called by pressing the right soft-button or via the main menu. The list contains phone numbers from the phone memory as well as from the SIM-card (a customizable item – it can be set to show only the phone memory or the SIM-card numbers). Every contact is given a small picture if the one is fixed or a preset icon. Filtering by the initial name letters is possible (up to 50 symbols). If several phone numbers are associated with a single contact, only the main one is displayed in the contact headline (mobile phone number by default).

A name, a surname and two phone numbers (a mobile phone number and a home number) can be associated with a newly created or edited account as well as an e-mail address, a short note, an individual ringtone and a call picture. Any picture, photo or preset icon can be used for that. The call picture is large, practically taking the whole screen. Similarly to G800, it's possible to add necessary items. One can set up to 35 items in all, 10 being initially preset. The list of items to be added contains the following ones:

• Mobile number (personal, work)
• Home number (personal, work)
• Fax
• Other
• Videocall number
• E-mail
• WEB page address
• Group (a contact can belong to several groups)
• Message signal (individual)
• Nickname
• Birthday date
• Company
• Position
• Address (personal, work)

When giving a contact more than one phone number, the user can specify which number is to be used as the default one for making calls and sending messages. It is just an advance towards any smartphone's book of contacts, the account items cannot be renamed and moved here, a quantity limit is present.

When setting the birthday date, the phone automatically offers to mark the event in the calendar, give the event a name and set the alarm clock to warn you in advance of the upcoming birthday.

The phonebook memory can store up to 1000 contacts, each containing all the associated phone numbers. The user groups are supported; three groups are preset – family, friends, and work. All of the three groups being customizable, i.e. you can rename them or create your own ones. A unique ringtone and picture (or icon) can be associated with each group. A group can contain up to 20 contacts. All the contacts as well as the namecard can be sent via SMS, MMS, E-mail or Bluetooth to another person. The quick dial list can contain up to 8 numbers, everything is standard here. The list shows only the person's name and surname which might be a bit inconvenient if that person has several numbers and only a picture if it is associated with the contact.

Other miscellaneous options include the possibility to choose the storage location for the newly saved contacts - the SIM card or the phone memory (or set it to be asked for each time the user saves a contact), sorting all the contacts by name (Display as), but there is no template choice (Name+Surname or vice versa) here.

The call log keeps track of all the recent received, dialed and missed calls. Up to 30 records of each call type are stored. The call log can be either displayed as a common list with each call type having an indication icon or three separate lists for each call type. Switching between the lists is done by pressing the navigation button left and right, this aspect sharing the same approach as we saw in Nokia and SonyEricsson phones. The number of times that the specified number has been dialed is shown in brackets next to it. The stats tab contains info about the cost and number of incoming and outgoing calls as well as the length and cost of the most recent call.

Samsung U900 has a blacklist which supports adding undesirable contacts both one by one or even by a whole group. The latter function is a unique Samsung feature (in the sense of a manufacturer-preset function); its usefulness can't be underestimated. It was very nice of Samsung to include this function as a standard function embedded into the firmware.

Messaging System

The handset traditionally employs a combined messaging system - the phone automatically defines the message type depending on its content. The phone memory can store up to 500 SMS messages + the SIM card memory. Up to 20 recipients can be defined for every outgoing message; up to 12 messages can be glued together in a single one. Sound, vibration and backlighting signals are available for warning the user of an incoming message. EMS is supported. The MMS memory is limited to 300 messages the multimedia content of which must not exceed the free user memory. The messaging interface supports a separate blacklist. The text message settings are minimal; they include only the text reply, the delivery notice and saving the copies of outgoing messages. Older messages cannot be automatically purged; there is also no feature to set the text style. No SOS message option is available.

There's a separate recent contacts list for text messages. Once you are about to send a text message, the phone displays this list of recently contacted people so you can instantly choose one of them as the recipient of the current message. The other option is to use the phonebook to select the recipient. A message can be dispatched either to a single person or to a whole contacts group. The number of recipients is indicated near the icon to the left from the contact name in the contact line.

Upon starting a new message the user is free to set the font size (large, medium and small), colour and style (bold, italic). The same settings can be applied exclusively to a selected piece of text within a message. Possible attachment types include an image, a video clip, a calendar note (up to four task types plus a phone card) and a sound. Once a multimedia attachment is detected, the text message is automatically converted into an MMS. The photo and video attachments can be quickly selected from the gallery or instantly taken right with the camera without having to quit the image editor.

The following e-mail protocols are supported:

POP3	+
IMAP4	+
SMTP	+
SSL	+ (3.0)
TLS	+ (1.0)
OTA E-Mail Settings Configuration	+
Push E-mail	EMN OMA 1.0

The maximum size of an outgoing message can't exceed 300 Kb. The maximum number of e-mail accounts is five. There are the interesting functions of auto e-mail checking at user-defined intervals, sending the reading notices and the e-mail downloading mode - headers only or whole messages. The mail download limit is 500 Kb; an automatic delete is also present here. Deleted messages can be kept saved at the mail server if the user wishes so. All types of attachments readable by the phone itself or by the Document Viewer are supported. The viewer starts right here and when the file viewing is completed the application shuts, leaving the editor running. E-mail settings include a blocking option similar to the one used for messages and for the contacts book. The difference is that the user is allowed to blacklist specified e-mail addresses as well as header phrases to block spam.

The multimedia messaging system (OMA 1.2) limits the maximum size of a multimedia message to the usual 300 Kb. Up to 20 recipients can be specified per message; maximum text length is limited to 1000 symbols. The MMS setup includes the priority, the expiry date and the delivery time (from one hour up to one week and the time fixed by the user). An MMS message limit makes from 30 up to 300 Kb. The auto resize mode to the given limit can be switched on. According to the settings, the message type can be set either freely depending on the size of the created message or strictly limited - should the image exceed the limit, it's automatically modified to fit. When inserting an object, its actual size is specified, and an already composed MMS message can be previewed prior to sending.

Besides the listed options the MMS messages can have their font size (large, medium and small), colour and style (bold, italic, etc) adjusted in the same manner as SMS messages, the same goes to background color and message viewing mode, the latter option is set to Fullscreen by default. The automatic deletion function is absent for the MMS messages. SMIL is supported - the maximum number of pages and objects inside a message equals to 15 and 35 respectively.

PIM

The Personal Information Manager includes a standard set of applications like calendar, alarm clocks and quick notes. Up to six alarm clocks can be set, the first one named Wake Up alarm. Each of the alarm clocks can be flexibly tuned, schedule is fully supported (the days of the week are chosen); the alarm signal can be replayed at a user-defined interval. The alarm turns on even if the phone is turned off. Each alarm clock can be given a unique title and adjusted to play a unique song, including .mp3 files or turning on the radio. Much like the sound profiles, the alarm clocks support a variety of signal types - ringtone only, vibration and ringtone, vibration followed by a ringtone, fade-in ringtone with or without vibration and so one. Once an alarm clock is adjusted and activated, a short info on that alarm's settings is instantly shown on the screen, everything being more than evident.

The calendar has a few viewing options: by month, by week or by day. The schedule can include up to 240 records (on the whole as well as for one day). Preliminary notices and recurring event signals are supported. Sorting events by type is well-implemented (meetings, anniversaries, tasks). A day that hosts a specified event is indicated by a colored corner, the color corresponding to the event type shown in the status line (meetings, anniversaries, tasks and so on).

The default view mode is set in the options, as well as the starting day of the week (Monday or Sunday). Memory manager is in its place, indicating the number of used and free event slots in the calendar memory. Expired events are deleted manually or purged automatically after a period of time.

All the necessary event parameters are specified right away on adding a new event - date, beginning and end time, the alarm activation time in case an alarm signal is associated with an event and the interval at which an alarm signal is replayed. The total amount of events, as noted above, equals to 240, that's 100 are reserved for meetings, 50 for anniversaries and holidays each and 20 for personal and important events each.

As we have already mentioned in the phone book description, the Birthday line associated with every contact is automatically added to the calendar as an Anniversary-type event, the user is asked to set a reminder, specify the day and the time when the alarm must be activated. So you won't miss your grandmother's birthday, and the preliminary warning will remind you to buy a present beforehand. This calendar option is really handy.

Multimedia, mp3 player, radio

Samsung aren't positioning the U800 model as a musical solution; however the gadget traditionally makes use of a dedicated sound amplifier based on the patented technology by Bang&Olufsen, providing for an excellent sound quality, high volume, reduced power consumption in playback mode. The sound chip was dubbed ICEpower Mobile; it is employed practically in all the Samsung models of the high and medium price segments, which makes them rank among the leaders of sound quality. The models lacking ICEpower Mobile and released