Samsung SGH-D780 Review

Introduction:

Nowadays, cell phones have become an integral part of our lives. Some people have to carry two phones because they are using the services of more than one provider. Samsung offers an interesting solution for that group in the face of D780. It is a tri-band GSM with basic functions, as its creators claim, works with two SIM cards simultaneously and is the second such phone of the manufacturer after the slider D880. In contrast to it however, here, the name DuoS has not been used.

Design:

D780 will not impress you with design or appearance but with comfort of use. It is made out of plastic, which doesn’t create the feeling for a cheap toy when in your hand. Due to its big size and weight it is not convenient to carry in a pocket.



You can compare Samsung SGH-D780 with many other phone using our Size Visualization Tool.

The TFT display is 2.1 inches with a resolution of 240x320 pixels and 262k color support. The picture is bright with well-saturated colors but nothing can be seen in direct sunlight. On top of that, the glass covering the screen is a fingerprint magnet.

Using almost all of the buttons on the front will be trouble-free, because they are easy to press with a clearly felt drive. Only the “down” on the 5-way D-pad could be hard to use for some since it is close to the edge.

On the right side, we have the camera key and the charger slot with the microSD one on the left. Here we also see the volume rocker, the SIM card control button and the strap hole. All these buttons are easy to use as well.

Interface:

As always, the interface is similar to the one seen in many other models of the manufacturer.

The only interesting thing on the homescreen is the presence of two indicators of the signal strength (one for each card). Here you can put the calendar or two clocks of different time zones. The main menu is viewed in a 3x4 grid, and the transition to another menu is visualized as either Slide or Door.

There are four preset color schemes, but there is not an option to create one directly in the phone. Interestingly, in G600, the Espresso theme was changing the type of visualization, and here it remains as in the other ones.

Phonebook:

The phonebook can store up to 1000 contacts and for each you can add up to 10 numbers, a few e-mails, date of birth (not automatically added in the calendar) and more additional information. Looking through the list of contacts you will only be able to see two at a time, because there is a field added, indexing which SIM card should be used when dialing a number (the selection is done via the button on the left side of the phone). Searching is only done by first name and if you have a lot of contacts, you’ll definitely have trouble getting to the one you need.


The dialing screen can be personalized according to few criteria: font size and color, and background color. Upon inputting digits, an automatic search is activated that looks for matches in the numbers entered and they appear on the screen. In addition, you have the option to manually search through the names (for example, if you have a contact NЕО, type 6-3-6 and choose that option, it will appear as a result).

Dual SIM:

Pressing the button on the left side leads towards the SIM card controlling menu. You can select the primary and the secondary one or to stop any of them. You are probably wondering what’s the difference between the two. The primary card uses all three GSM bands and you can use the SMS service with it, meanwhile, this is not possible with the secondary one and it only works on two frequencies. These abilities are controlled by the selection in the main menu and not by the slot in which you have put a card in.

If for example, you are having a conversation using SIM 1 and there is an incoming call on SIM 2, accepting the call will automatically place the first one on hold. You are able to switch between the two cards just by pressing the button on the left side.


Organizer:

The main menu houses the Calendar, which can be viewed by month, week or a day. This allows you to easily plan ahead with options to select the type of event (appointment, holiday or task). Each one of them has a start and end time, location, reminding alarms and a repetition option day/week/month.

The rest of the organizing functions, which we know from the other models of the manufacturer, are located in the Applications submenu.

Connectivity:

Samsung D780 is atri-band GSM (900/1800/1900) and this makes it fully usable only on theterritory of Europe and Asia. It doesn’t support 3G or even EDGE, andyou will have to be satisfied by the GPRS Internet connection. The browser is WAP 2.0 and cannot open correctly even the classical Google page. More complicated pages make it absolutely useless.


Forlocal connectivity, you have the built-in Bluetooth 2.0 or USB cable.The phone supports A2DP as well, which allows it to transmit stereomusic wirelessly.


Camera:

The camera on the back of the phone is 2-megapixel and has only a small mirror. The interface is similar to the rest of the models of the manufacturer and it’s easy to use. The interesting thing here is that we have ISO sensitivity settings, which is usually seen in higher-class cameraphones. The overall picture quality is average for the resolution. When taking a picture indoors (even in a well-lighted room), the images are quite blurry, and in a darker environment they are almost unusable.





The video camera can record clips in CIF (352 x 288) resolution with 30 fps. They are of good quality and considering the low class of the phone, we were impressed.

Samsung SGH-D780 sample video at 352x288 pixels resolution

Multimedia:

The music player has a simplified and easy to use interface. It offers options for song repeat, shuffle, 3D sound and equalizer, but it lacks any sorting options. Luckily, there is an option for background music listening which enables you to use the rest of the phone features at the same time. In addition, there is a FM radio. We were nicely surprised by the loud and clear sound, coming out of the loudspeaker, while we were listening to music from the radio and the player.




The video player has a full screen option, not shown on the menu, which is activated by pressing #. The bad news is that H263 videos in QVGA resolution (the same of the display) do not play.

Performance:

Samsung D780 runs fast without any lag when navigating through the menus or starting applications. We had no problems whatsoever with the phone and are very happy with its performance in this aspect.

Unfortunately the sound quality during a talk is disappointing. Your collocutor will hear a loud, but very sharp and monotonous voice. At your end of the line however, the situation is really bad. The sound is quite unreal and sharp, and on top of that, it’s hard to understand and often, the collocutor will have to repeat his words. Even after activating the Voice clarity option, there was no change in the quality, and only in the volume level. At least the Whisper mode function made us happy. When activated, even if you are whispering, your voice will be heard loud. Nevertheless, we are disappointed with the performance of D780, because we expected more.

According to the official data, the battery should provide only 3 hours of talks and 250 in standby mode. After the tests we ran however, it came out that you can actually talk without stopping for almost 5 hours, which is much better than 3.

Conclusion:

The dual SIM card support and the user-friendly buttons make Samsung D780 a very attractive solution, and even unique to a certain extend. If that’s what you’re looking for in a phone, besides this model, D880 DuoS and the shady Chinese phones, currently, there are no other such devices. Unfortunately, even if you go with the brand product, you will be left disappointed, because of the low sound quality during a talk. If you can live with it so you can have a user-friendly, dual SIM card phone, then D780 is just for you.