Samsung E900 review

The Samsung E900 is a bit of a biazzre device. It looks odd, has been complianed about left-right-and-centre on forums all over the web and, for this, reason we were obviously a little apprehensive about reviewing it – after all, what if we actually liked it!?

The device itself is aimed solely at the teenage demographic of the market – so adults and the unnaturally mature need not apply. So, does the E900 cut the mustard or is it simply just some fad phone for disaffected teenagers?

We spent a few days with the E900 with the intention of finding out if all this negative press was actually an informed critique or just the ramblings of a bunch of out-of-touch users!

The E900 is a slider phone that is just smaller than the D900 if a little fatter. Around the side of the phone are the on/off button, volume control, MP3 player and camera control along with the Samsung connection port and a Micro SD card slot.

By default, all of the controls are locked with the exception of the on/off button. This is also the keypad unlock button. If, for example, you want to active the MP3 player without opening the slider, you have to press the on/off button when asked to press the unlock button. The problem with this is that it not only activates the MP3 player but it also activates all the controls on the slider, including the very touchy, pressure sensitive ones.

The connection slot deals with the power lead, USB lead and the wired headset. If you want to purchase the TV cable, it will also allow you to connect the phone to your television to view and edit photos and videos. You can also use it to playback music through the television.

At the bottom of the phone is the Micro SD card slot. The issue with this slot is that unless you have long finger nails or small fingers you just cannot get the Micro SD cards to lock in or come out. This should be a clear warning of who the target market is for this phone.

The slider clicks open easily and locks into place. There have been stories of sliders breaking easily and of screen cracking. However, during our testing there was no sign of any weakness with the slider mechanism nor was any damage sustained by the screen despite spending time in coat pockets, trouser pockets or handbags.

Once you open the slider, your problems begin. The first thing you will notice is that some keys are positive and give feedback when pressed while others such as the two soft keys, the call and cancel keys have no feedback at all and are activated just by stroking the finger over them. Presumably, this was to try and give the E900 an iPod feel, especially when being used in MP3 mode. Unfortunately, until you adjust to their behaviour they become increasingly irritating and are probably the most complained about feature of this phone. There is no way to change their sensitivity so its adjust to the phone or replace it.

The menu is the same as in all recent Samsung phones. Clean, just nine main icons and everything grouped below them. Navigating the menu is no real problem but here again you find yourself in trouble with the soft keys. If you don't hold the phone carefully, just when you think you are on the right menu, you end up cancelling or taking the wrong choice. This is not, as many have complained, a problem with the menu system, it's a problem with these overly sensitive keys

The default theme loaded in the phone uses lots of large icons such as the battery when the phone is charging. It also uses one of two fonts when you make a call. The numbers either appear as very large or are displayed across the screen as if they are being handwritten. Large numbers are great for those who often struggle to see what they have dialled while the script is clear and quite cute.

Sending text messages is easy and the text tool works well. There are a range of built in animations that you can add to your messages. You can also add sounds and images of your own as well as links from your address book. If you don't want to use T9 you can turn it off and you need to use the symbols menu to include anything vaguely resembling punctuation.

The music player does a good job and once you select music it will continue to play even when you navigate away from the music player or close the slider. This is another pointer to the preferred age group for this phone. There is a wide support for different encoding standards including MP3, AAC and WMA which should allow anyone to download music from their PC or buy it over the web. Battery life is not good and when you are playing music off of the memory card it gets worse.

The camera is not the worlds greatest at only 2 mega pixels but it does a reasonable job and for those "in the moment photos" is perfectly adequate. The built in mirror to make it easy to take your own photo is a great idea. There is an editing tool that allows you to add effects to your photos.

Games and applications are written in Java and the phone comes with a number of games already installed. They range from the slightly odd (OK, weird) Bobby Carrot to the more sedate Midnight Pool. All are quite playable on the phone although a larger screen would make them easier. The Samsung Fun Club has a number of other games that can be downloaded and there are a lot of sites with games and applications for this phone.

The Web support is good and you can install the right WAP settings by going to the Samsung Mobile website and having them emailed to your phone.

There is good Bluetooth support for headsets and for transferring files between PDAs, computers and the phone. What you can't do is make a voice activated call from the Bluetooth headset.

The phone comes with Samsung PC Studio which can be used either with the USB cable or over Bluetooth. This is the easiest way of synchronising contact, calendar and task information and it works really well. When you want to move photos and videos to the PC the Phone Explorer makes that easy and you can use the Phone Explorer to push music back to the phone.

All in all this is a nice little phone for teenagers. Get past the touch sensitive keys on the slider and problems of inserting Micro SD cards and the phone does everything else well. If you don't want to buy it from an operator, it can be had SIM free for around £128 ex VAT.