Samsung INNOV8 Review

Ever since the cell phone was invented there has always been a trend to follow and the competition when someone strikes gold.  At first there was the race for color, then the RAZR came along and manufacturers scrambled to develop the technologies in order to diminish the size and weight of the units. Now often diminutive, phones have transformed into more and more complicated devices, trying to become mobile computers, assistants, cameras and multimedia players.

Now it is 2008, and the ”I want it all and I want it now” trend in the phone industry is more apparent than ever; simply having the best camera- or business phone is not good enough, they have to be both. The phones from the higher class are already attempting to be good not only in one area but to perform well in all possible aspects, becoming “all-in-one” devices.

Samsung’s INNOV8 is a perfect representation of this mindset; their first 8 megapixel phone will not only attempts to conquer the photographic market but is also a smartphone and multimedia powerhouse. The INNOV8, technically the i8510, is the first converged device from Samsung, but the idea it carries reminds us of the G810, which is also a multifunctional phone based on Symbian S60.

Design:

Design-wise, INNOV8 is the typical high-tech model. In contrast to the G810, the INNOV8 ditches the business look and reminds us that it’s a gadget with many options. The similar size reminds the user of rival models from Nokia to a certain extent, but in reality it has nothing in common with their design language. It does fit in a pocket but is definitely not one of the compact models. The small markings, indicating various specifications of the device (16GB, Wi-Fi, GPS, DivX) are noticeable here as well, so your friends gawking at new acquisition will know what it sports without you even telling them.




You can compare the Samsung INNOV8 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The display  is a generous 2.8” with a QVGA resolution of 240x320 pixels, though in high end models QVGA is becoming small. It looks good when viewing pictures and can be used in bright daylight but is not perfect. If the light falls directly on the screen, it transforms into a mirror, but if held  at the right angle the phone can be used just fine.


The large dimensions of the phone allow for many buttons without making them diminutive in size. The navigational keys are very good and are easily pressed with good tactile feedback. The silvery buttons are slightly protruding over the black ones and after some getting used to you’ll be able to operate both types at the same time without pressing the wrong one. We are still wondering why the d-pad and the silvery keys are not backlit, but as we mentioned before, you’ll be able to use them trouble free even in the even in the dark. 

As with the i780 and OMNIA, the INNOV8 also has an optical mouse in the middle of the navigational cluster. It’s definitely more handy having it here compared to the touchscreen devices, but while we have no doubt that there will be people who use it, there will also be users like us that will deactivate it. It’s most useful for navigating in the browser (it can be used as a scroll in other places), but for us the pointer either doesn’t reach as far as we’d have liked it to in one move, or if we increased the sensitivity (there are 10 levels) it’s too fast. Even if it was perfect, navigating with it wouldn’t have been much faster than with the D-pad which is why we prefer the 5-way button. Either way, we are happy that Samsung has given us the option to use this alternative control method or not.

As it typical with a Samsung phone there is a row with shortcuts in the numeric keypad, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The good thing is that you get fast access to two applications of your choice, but the tradeoff is smaller numeric keypad buttons. The keyboard is not bad but due to the small size, the relief of the horizontal lines and the stroke of the buttons, we do not recommend it to the heavy texters.

Similar to a number of other high-end cameraphones, the INNOV8 resembles a point and shoot when closed. On its back there is a clearly noticeable bulge for the lens and the flash. It’s nice that the protective lens cover opens automatically once the software is started, and in contrast to K850 there is no glass, which is easily scratched, making it pointless.

The right side (top one when used as a camera) houses a three-way switch for choosing the mode (picture, video or preview) and the convenient camera shutter.  Samsung made a strange decision  to put the volume rocker on the opposite side, which makes zooming in/out quite hard when holding the phone in a horizontal position. In portrait mode however, it easy to find by touch and is convenient to press. Similar to the Sony Ericsson model, we find an interesting solution for the battery lid; it has the standard position on the back, but in order to open it you don’t move the lid rather the unlocking mechanism below it instead. This element is very well done and we believe that it  is a perfect solution for the back lid play, characteristic for most models of the recent past.

Unfortunately, we are not so impressed with the overall quality of the phone. It doesn’t feel cheap but we wouldn’t classify it as a top-shelf model either. The slider moves nicely but like the prototype we used for our review the upper half is slightly jointed to the right when closed. This is not noticeable even on picture but you can feel it with your fingers.  It could be that there is a problem with the mechanism, because when pressed with a finger, the top slider fits into place. Whatever the reason, it’s strange to see something like that in an expensive phone.

Interface:

As mentioned, like the G810 the INNOV8 also runs on Symbian S60.  It runs the latest version (3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2), just like Nokia’s flagship N96. Samsung has added its own graphic themes, so you can change the style of the interface to be similar to the other models of the series. Naturally, this only changes the phone visually and deep within it remains the typical S60 smartphone, which is not a bad thing at all.



Phonebook:

As we’ve covered in other S60 device reviews, we find an excellent phonebook with multiple fields, and now with a large picture on an incoming call. When searching it makes no difference if you input first or last name for the system to look for since the results you get include them both also.

When adding a new contact you are provided with the “basic” fields, but with the “Add Detail” function you have almost no restrictions on the number of fields and you can add a lot of phone numbers. We also like having the option for adding a given field several times, for example we are able to record the numbers of three phones all as mobile.



Organizer:

There are no surprises in the organizer, and as you’d expect from a smartphone it has all the bells and whistles. In the calendar you can add four types of notes (appointments, notes, anniversaries and tasks) and there is a field for time, alarm and others. You still have an unlimited number of alarms, notes, calculator, unit converter as well as a file browser. The built-in dictionary lets you translate from English to Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, and vise versa as well as from Ukrainian to English. The INNOV8 comes in 8 and 16GB variants, both of which are allow for further microSD expansion.

Messaging:

The  INNOV8 once more resembles Nokia’s S60 models very much. In contrast to them however, there are no automatic email settings for the most popular email servers. This reminds us of older phones and not a top 2008 model, but it is an inconvenience not a dealbreaker. Moreover, as we mentioned above, the keyboard is not the most comfortable one for writing longer messages.

Connectivity:

For quite some time the S60 web browser been one of the best. Although a few steps behind the touchscreen leaders in user-friendliness, it is still very pleasant even for frequent use. Pages visualize correctly and are relatively easy to navigate through using either the d-pad or the optical mouse. Shortcuts, such as pressing 8 to activate the Panning mode, make the browser even easier to navigate. As found in newer S60 phones such as the Nokia N95 8GB, flash objects are visualized directly in the browser, though large flash files can choke the browser. Most notably, this means that you’ll be able to watch YouTube videos.

You can access the Internet via Wi-Fi or the cellular  network. INNOV8 is a global quad-band GSM phone, but it only supports the European (900/2100 MHz) 3G bands.

Camera:

As a smartphone everything’s good, but  this is an all-in–one device and its featured application is the camera.  On paper the 8-megapixel camera is as good as it gets, and although we are not fans of the monochrome interface, it offers many options and works well. The face recognition feature is accompanied with smile and blink recognition, so you get pictures with smiling faces and open eyes.



We are somewhat disappointed by the camera startup speed (4 sec). This however, was compensated by the fast focusing in a well-lighted environment (1 to 2 sec) and even in darker ones (3 to 4 sec). Saving the 8-megapixel photos is not a quick task, and the INNOV8 requires about 4 more seconds to do that. The speed is important in terms of quantity, but in the end it is quality that matters most.



Unfortunately, we were unimpressed with the quality as well. We were optimistic about the results we saw with the prototype and it’s strange to see these end results, which  appear to be worse on the final unit. The small details (tree leaves) are of poor quality, typical for a phone. There are strange picture distortions and lines; usually straight lines sometimes come out bent and some objects are disproportionate. This is hardly noticed when shooting people, but is clearly seen on the images of cars and buildings. The quality of the images taken in a darker environment is not satisfactory either, despite the low noise. The colors are flat and bluish when the flash is used. The flash is not strong and is only usable indoors up to 6 feet. Frankly, we expected something better from such a high-class phone and feel slightly disappointed. The images are OK but INNOV8 definitely doesn’t belong in the winners’ circle because there are more and more 8-megapixel phones made available on the market daily.

Videos can be recorded with a VGA (640x480) resolution and they look good. The sound is not the same as from a regular camcorder, but if you are shooting in a quiet room and the speaker is close, it can be used.
 
Samsung INNOV8 sample video at 640x480 resolution
* Note that due to codecs support, you may not be able to play the file.

You can also take a look at our 8-megapixel comparison to see how the device is performing against the competition.


Multimedia:

Samsung has chosen to use the standard S60 music player without any modifications. It’s not bad but is definitely not the best one available. It offers a decent set of sorting options, 17 different equalizers and a pleasant interface. As we’ve seen before from S60 devices, we had trouble with the album art.  We have yet to figure out why S60 chokes on these files, as the album art loads on other music players and phones just fine.



The headphones from the package are neither comfortable nor high quality, but they’ll do. Thankfully you’ll be able to replace them with better ones since the phone is equipped with a 3.5 mm jack. Quality headphones produce good results, and we doubt that anyone will be disappointed in the sound quality. On top of these features, you have an FM radio at your disposal, with the ability to store up to 50 stations.  To use the radio you’ll need the included headphones because they act as an antenna.  A small inconvenience is the jack’s location; it is on the left side as opposed to top or bottom, which makes the headphone jack stick out.

Samsung is proud of the DivX support, but we were disappointed that XviD files cannot be played. This is strange and limits the selection of watchable videos.  None of the files we played gave us trouble, but apparently the phone doesn’t support versions of the codec earlier than 5. The image quality in well-compressed DivX or MP4/H.264 files is very good, but in others we saw strange artifacts. The 2.8” display is a good size for watching videos but bigger is always better. We managed to play a file with a resolution of 640x480, but we’ll contact Samsung in order to find out what the maximum resolution is (not announced officially).

Software:

The manufacturer has equipped the phone with a decent software package, including various applications and games. When we say games, we don’t mean anything boring that you’ll never play, but rather the hottest titles like Asphalt 3 and FIFA08. We’ve seen those two in many S60 Nokia models as well, but Samsung has loaded full versions rather than just the demos Nokia includes. Congratulations to Samsung for taking not nickel and diming their customers.


The included applications add functionality to the INNOV8, and being an S60 device you can always download others.  You get Shozu, which is a convenient way to upload photos online to sites like Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Blogger and others. GyPSii is a program for a social network based on your geographical location. CNN will allow you to see the optimized World news, and Yahoo! Go will provide you with a “virtual work screen”, including applications for email, pictures, news and others. RoadSync adds support for Microsoft Exchange push email. To get in touch with your friends you can use Fring, which is an excellent all-in-one Instant Messenger supporting all known services, including Skype  which can be used for voice chat as well.  The INNOV8 is equipped with the good navigation program Route 66. Unfortunately there are no included maps, but users can download a free 14-day trial of the maps before buying them. GPS+ is an application that improves lock times by downloading satellite data.  On a cold start it took under a minute to locate us; hot starts required less than 5 seconds.

Performance:

As we often say, it doesn’t matter what crazy features a phone offers if it cannot perform as a phone first and foremost. The INNOV8 performed ok, but it could have been better.  On both ends of the line the sound is strong enough, but the voices are sharp and sometimes you might not be able to understand what the caller is saying, and at times we had an echo of our own voice.

The INNOV8 offers many options and is a stable and quick smartphone, but we have encountered faster phones running the same OS. Samsung claims that the battery will hold up to 8 hours of talks or 13 days in standby mode, which are excellent results, especially for a smartphone.

Conclusion:

In the end, after putting the INNOV8 through the paces, the big question remaining is still “Is it worth it?”. Overall the INNOV8 is a good phone but it’s not unique. The only complaint we have about the design is the problem with the misaligned slider, but overall the phone looks good and feels good. Symbian S60 is one of the best operating systems on the market. Although on paper the camera can be considered as high-quality, we were disappointed with its performance and it did not compare favorably with the best in its class. We have issues with the musical capabilities of the phone, but we would have been happy to see the ability to play XviD videos. Videos looked good on the 2.8” screen, although we would have preferred a higher resolution. We find ourselves running into a common theme with high end devices such as the N96, iPhone 3G, OMNIA and now the INNOV8; they are all very fine devices, but are taking small evolutionary steps rather than ground-breaking revolutionary ones.  We cannot stay the device lives up to its name, but it is a good device nonetheless.