Samsung F400 review

Samsung is world reknowned for its design – you only need look at it's back catalogue of devices to realise this. However, it has made a few slip-ups along the way, such as the ill-fated F300 music phone, which was an absolute shocker of a device. Fortunately, it looks like Samsung has got is arse in gear with the F400, which sets out to make up for lost ground and become a serious contender in the fight to become the best music-phone on the market.

Taking some design elements from the Nokia N95, the Samsung F400 is a slider device and also features a rather impressive speaker that'll make a serious racket when you need it to – just please don't be one of those people who does this on the bus though. We, like everybody else, hate people that do that – and so should you.

Considering it's a middle class music blower, the F400 rocks up with some impressive features: rapid HSDPA download speeds, a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and, a microSD card slot for storage, stereo Bluetooth and an integrated 3.5mm headphone socket. Not bad.

Unfortunately, accommodating these features and that large speaker has given the F400 a rather chubby torso, although it still remains lightweight and just about pocket-friendly. The slider action is particularly springy but sturdy and you're greeted with a reassuring clunk when sliding open.

The front is dominated by a typically Samsung bright and vibrant 2.2-inch QVGA-quality display and a mechanical spinning wheel/five-way joypad. This jog disc is clearly designed to whiz speedily through your music library but we actually ignored this technique in favour of the navigation pad. Elsewhere, the main keypad is also very spacious offering superfluous dedicated keys for video calling and switching between apps.

To get the music player firing, Samsung has fitted the phone with an array of audio tech-trickery. Firstly, it's got B&O's ICEpower technology to drive proceedings while its proprietary DNSe (Digital Natural Sound engine) and Smart Bass moves on loan from its dedicated music players. Throw in a 10-mode equaliser to adapt the audio and the F400 is a pretty flexible sonic beast.

You can activate the music player via a dedicated side key or by popping up the speaker. This second option also gives access to the FM radio and movie player although you can still control the player from the homescreen with a handy playlist window letting you flick through your tracks without having to hit the main music menu trail.

Naturally, the music player sounds better when you plug in your quality headphones via the 3.5mm socket, rather than the substandard bundled cans, but we were impressed with its performance nevertheless. Generous dollops of low-end provided the grunt while the mid-range frequencies were very dynamic. Similarly, the sliding speaker pumped out a loud sound with only really bass-heavy tracks prone to distortion. Admittedly, the sound is still pretty anaemic but in terms of built-in phone speakers it proved one of the best.

A hot-swappable side microSD card slot handles storage duties with a 1GB card bundled for starters. If the F400 is to become your primary portable music player then you'll need to invest in an 8GB card, which, if you don't clog it up with other multimedia gubbins, will store around 2,000 average MP3 tracks.

The 3.2-megapixel camera possesses a decent set of photo mods. The autofocus might not be the sharpest and the LED flash a bit hit and miss but you can tinker with white balance, exposure metering, brightness and effects if the mood takes you. It shoots in a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 and pictures display vibrant colours, if a little slack on detail. Video recording isn't the best either, shooting in QVGA resolution at 15fps. It's just about YouTube friendly, although expect a flurry of judder and digital drag.

With 3.6Mbps-flavoured HSDPA onboard, accessing and using the internet can be quite speedy if you hit a strong signal. The web browser lets you view pages in desktop mode or Smart-fit that reformats full fat pages to fit the small screen. We recommend you activate the latter for a smoother web experience.

In terms of music performance, the F400 easily matches, and in some departments, surpasses its music phone rivals like the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic, MOTOROKR E8 and the Sony Ericsson W890i. Samsung has shown if it curbs the whimsy design and concentrates on performance and features it can turn out well equipped mid-range music mobiles like the F400.