Samsung SGH-D500 - Sim Free Mobile Phone

The Samsung is so incredibly intuitive and easy to use, you won't even need to look at the instruction manual. It locks itself when you slide it shut, and all the features are easy to find and self-explanatory. The camera features might be a bit confusing at first but a little experimentation goes a long way. The camera itself is definitely the best on any phone, and can produce photos up to a resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels, the size of most computer screens (obviously you need a computer to view them on to see the full detail!) There's also a flash, night-mode and many other effects, and you can record videos.

Everything else you'd expect on a mobile phone is all present and correct, and you feel that Samsung have really gone to town on the tiniest of details - for example, while text messaging you ca easily switch between predictive text and normal and it's also very easy to insert special characters and do smileys, and you can insert several special characters at a time which you can't do on most other phones. This attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the phone - when you're in a menu, you can scroll left and right to other menus instead of backing up and going up and down. All the other features of the phone are pretty much standard but great nonetheless - MP3's (which you can use as ringtones, text alerts and alarms), Java games and apps, WAP, a calendar, Bluetooth, infrared, etc.

So are there any downsides? The battery life is a little short for my liking but considering the phone has it's own flash and is pretty loud too, I guess that's to be expected. I'd recommend that you take care of the battery though (make sure you charge it for a long time when you first get it, and let the battery discharge fully until it runs out before you charge it again.) The only other thing I can think of is the video quality, which isn't great and doesn't sound great either. Ok it's only a mobile, but even so I think the quality of videos could be better.

But overall, this is a fantastic phone to own!

My initial thoughts were that it is a fantastic design, building on the previous Samsung in this range it has adopted a distinctive Charcoal skin that sets off the large colour screen really well. The screen is a decent size and makes navigation a straight forward process. The phone can be used in either open or closed mode, although navigation when it is closed does become a little difficult and in all honesty you would rarely find yourself using this function.

When in open mode the numbers can be a little fiddly, especially 1, 2 & 3 as they are right under the hang of the screen, you soon get over this though once you have been using it for some time.

All of the menus are easy to navigate around with major functions (text, call history, calendar and WAP) all being on the main screen. All other options of note are generally only one level away from the menu screen. The navigation device is easy to use, with a basic up, down, left and right control. The OK button, in the middle of the navigation buttons, can be again be a little fiddly but you do get used to this.

The call clarity is excellent, aided in no small part to the call clarity improvement option. This does back out some ambient noise but don't expect miracles, it is only a mild improvement. Texting is as you would expect, the T9 dictionary is fine and if you are accustomed to using one you should get on with this one with very little bother.

The 1.3 megapixel camera is ok, and a definite improvement of the camera in the K700i but don't go throwing away your digital camera just yet, it is still grainy and not really any more use than as a bit of fun of an emergency camera.

Overall this is a decent phone for every day use. There are better phones out there, but if you don't want to go for something a lot larger, or a lot more expensive then this could be a really strong option for you.

The phone is small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket and is reassuringly weighty without being too heavy. The slide function is beautifully designed and the phone opens and closes with a satisfying 'clunk'.

The display is bright and sharp, some paleness in very bright sunlight but no so bad as to make it unreadable, otherwise perfect. Customisable wallpaper (which also lets you use animated GIFs) and a well designed menu system including numerical menu shortcuts make interacting with the phone easy and fun.

All the basics (address book, SMS, MMS, calendar, alarm clock) are well designed and easy to use, there is a also a calculator and a convertor for imperial-metric units and for currency.

The Mp3 player works well, however with the 80+ MB user memory there isn't room for a lot of music, especially if you want to keep memory for pictures, video etc.

The camera on this model is one of the best around, offering 1.3 megapixels on the highest resolution setting. There are some fun shooting modes: sepia, negative, emboss, etc and an LED flash which works well, albeit only within a 1-2m distance. The video camera is also of a decent quality for a mobile phone, and there's room for up to 60 min recording. A dedicated button on the side of the phone allows instant access to the camera function.

In terms of design, this is a very stylish phone- the buttons are well spaced and easy to use. One thing that I feel could have been improved is the cover for the power socket. Unlike the headset socket which is protected by a sliding cover, this is protected only by a plastic plug, which is not attached to the phone. I lost this soon after getting the phone.

Battery life is good- charges from empty to full in under 30min (4 hours recommended for the first charge), and my battery lasts me about 48h- allowing for 30min or so talking per day, and probably an hour or so using text, calendar, camera functions. This is with Bluetooth on all the time- i expect battery life would improve with it off.

All in all - a quality piece of technology with good looks and great usability