Samsung Beat Review

Name: Samsung Beat
Brand: Samsung

By PhoneArena Team

Updated: Sep 09, 2008, 7:07 AM

3comments

T-Mobile Samsung

Introduction:

Every handset manufacturer has a tactic for winning over the market. Samsung’s seems to be just flooding it with different variations of the same handset. Still, they manage to make some nice ones. This time, we bring you the Samsung Beat, which is targeted at all of you audio fans.

Design:

Looking at this clamshell handset, it’s very, well unique so to speak. While most of the outside seems very basic, it’s all black with the top and bottom separated by a silver band, the speaker just jumps out at you with its green color. Found within are the controls for the media played. This circular pattern is seen everywhere on the phone, included those controls that were just mentioned.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Samsung Beat	3.5" x 1.8" x 0.7"	90 x 46 x 18	2.7	77
Nokia 5310	4.1" x 1.8" x 0.4"	104 x 44.7 x 9.9	2.5	70
LG VX8350	3.7" x 2.0" x 0.9"	95 x 50 x 22	3.3	93

Just above the speaker is the small 96 x 96 display with the camera lens just above that. Located on its left side, you’ll notice that the volume rocker and Samsung’s proprietary connection for the USB, charger, and headset. Turn it to the other side and you’ll find the microSD slot, which we had trouble inserted the card into at times , camera and media player/hold shortcuts.

On the inside, this same circular pattern continues. The D-pad is circular with the regular controls around it in the same manner. The keypad, just like in the RAZR2 V9, is curve upwards but to a much greater extent and the entire membrane is flat and provides plenty of feedback. Sadly, the separations between keys are so minimal that it’s hard to tell everything apart. The curvature also makes it quite difficult to use, as we found ourselves pressing unwanted buttons. So despite how nice it looks, the keypad is very uncomfortable to use.

The main display has a pretty low resolution, 128 x 160, and while the colors are very realistic, the picture is a little pixilated. On the other hand, brightness was more than adequate. It direct sunlight, it was washed out but in other bright environments, we came across no issues with it.

PhoneArena's Samsung Beat Video Review:

Home Screen

Interface:

Well, it seems that Samsung has skimped out on its interface this time around. While it’s still the same kind you expect, it just seems bland and boring. Until you go over one of the selections, everything is in black and white. Well, at least it’s responsive.

Phonebook:

Samsung seems to have just carried over the phonebook from other handsets. There is a limit of 1000 contacts that can be stored and they’re all listed in alphabetical order displaying the first and last name, number, and where they’re saved.

Organizer

Organizer:

You’ll find all of the standard things to be expected for the organizer, alarm, calendar, tasks, calculator, tip calculator, world time, synchronizer, unit converter, timer and stopwatch. All of these are within their own menu so there’s no searching through the Beat for them.

Messaging:

The standard messaging can be found here. T9 is there to help you text that much faster. There’s the simple text messaging option, picture messaging which is surprising as most phones now have text and picture together, and voice notes. There was no email client found but we figure this is because you have access to one through T-zones, with a charge of course, but at least Samsung and T-Mobile were kind enough to add IM clients, AIM, Yahoo!, ICQ, and Windows Live.

Connectivity:

Samsung made the Beat a quadband phone, which allows you to use is anywhere in the world as long as there is a GSM network within range. An annoyance we found is that everytime we were in an area with no signal, we were constantly asked if we would like to search for networks when the handset was opened.

It’s no surprise to find that HTML websites aren’t supported but with EDGE speeds, you’d be waiting quite a while. WAP pages are very organized but we found that there is a lot of scrolling to be done. Samsung PC Studio is used to connect to the PC.

Camera:

The 1.3 megapixel camera,while average for its class, takes adequate photos. Most are blurry andin bright environments, they tend to come out overexposed. The camerainterface is the same that is found throughout Samsungs lineup.

Multimedia:

We’ve finally come to the main part, the media player.All the sound is playing through the speaker found on the front and toour surprise, it sounds great for its class and size. There was almostno distortion with the sound, even when turned up all the way. With thevolume set to the lowest level it can barely be heard and the highestis very loud so you have plenty of choices. There are plenty of ways toaccess it as well, through the menu, the shortcut button on the side,and by pressing and holding the play/pause button on the frontcontrols.

The headphones did not disappoint as well and soundthrough them was just as good. It seems that Samsung did their homeworkand made sure this would perform well. Sure, the iPod and similar MP3players will sound better but it’s just amazing to see how well itperforms for its size and price.

The interface, like mostthings, has just been taken from other handsets so if you’re familiarwith other Samsungs, you’ll find that it’s the exact same setup. TheD-pad controls the main functions, play/pause, stop, forward, and soon.

The displayhighlights which song you’re listening to and who wrote it. Just belowthis, there is a rating system, equalizer setting, followed by the timeof the song and your progress.

Well, generally the equalizer isuseless and is here too right? Wrong. While it doesn’t make it anamazing experience, the sound did change with each setting. With thatbeing said, there are four to choose from: normal, classical, jazz, androck. Along with this, there is also something called 3D sound whichchanges the sound to appear as if it were more broadened instead ofjust targeted and the person using it.

Software:

The Beat supports Java MIDP 2.0 applications. There are preloaded games found on it but they’re pretty much all trial but you can go out and download some free applications.

Performance:

Since this is a handset, all of this would be worthless if it performed poorly. The interface was very responsive. The only times we found any delay was when a memory card was inserted and when using the media player to change songs found on the card.

Reception disappointed us as the Beat had a hard time finding any inside of buildings. Remarkably, the sound quality was excellent. It’s just surprising that we were able to hear so well considering its signal strength. Voices came through clearly and volume was not an issue at all. The other party was shocked at how well they heard us and some even asked repeatedly if we weren’t using a landline.

For an 800mA battery, it was surprising to see that we got 5 hours and 50 minutes of talk-time out of one charge. Samsung claims that it’s rated for 6 hours so it isn’t far off. The battery even seemed to last well with just light use as it took it about a day and a half to lose just one bar. Its total standby rating is 360 hours.

Conclusion:

The Beat comes out as a really nifty little handset. There’s plenty of talk-time available and if you can get and keep signal, the sound quality, from both calls and the media player, surely will not disappoint you. If you can get past the low quality screen, uncomfortable keypad, and the weak reception then surely enough, this will be a great little handset.