This is an unlocked GSM phone which can operate in the US on AT&T (without 3G) and T-Mobile (without 3G).
Introduction:
Some of you may ask 'Isn’t that the folding Soul?', actually no, despite the fact that the company’s German website has it listed as G400 Soulf. Samsung assured us, that the model’s official name is only G400.
Like the representatives of the Soul line this one also relies on the combination of an attractive design and multimedia functionality. In addition, as a member of the G-class, which is the manufacturer’s cameraphone line, G400 is equipped with a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus. The more interesting thing here is that we have a touch sensitive external display, which allows you to use the phone while it is closed.
Included in the box you will find: Samsung SGH-G400, Charger, Handsfree, User’s manual
Design:
The phone has a beautiful, stylish appearance, which catches the eye. Almost the entire body is made of polished metal, creating a classy feel when in your hands. Unfortunately, its size is not compact and G400 doesn’t fit well in a female hand or in a pocket. Another drawback is that it is hard to open singlehandedly because of the lack of any convenient places to put your fingers in. At least it is very comfortable during a talk.
You can compare the Samsung G400 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
Both displays are identical (2.22”, 240x320 pixels and 262k colors), but as we’ve previously mentioned, the external one is a full touch one. It is only activated by solids with a constant electric flow (e.g. finger) and even if it’s unlocked, you will not press it accidentally if you carry it in your pocket for example. Both screens reproduce colors well in a dim light but are unusable in direct sunlight. In addition, the internal display looks small in contrast to the huge body.
The keyboard buttons are large and very convenient to work, because they are easy to press and clearly felt. The same goes for the side buttons.
G400’sinterface is almost identical with the one of Soulb. You can placevarious animations, pictures or clocks on the homescreen, whose designdepends on theme selected. In addition, you have the option to make aslideshow from your pictures with various animated effects, which thencan be used as a background.
G400 also has the option to createyour own theme, but you can also personalize the external display bychanging the picture and the color of the icons, which reminds us of Soul’s Magic Touch pad. Besides the one youhave chosen for a background, you are able to see the multimedia menuas well. It offers fast access to the music player, the FM radio, thecamera and gallery. The main idea of the interface is to facilitate theuse of the multimedia functions when the phone is closed.
Thephonebook can store up to 1000 contacts and you can add multiplenumbers for each of them, and also e-mail, picture, melodies, date of birth and additional info. When inputting digits, the phoneautomatically looks for matches in the contacts’ numbers, which is avery convenient function. In addition, this can be done with theirnames as well (if you dial 6 – MNO, 3 – DEF, 6 – MNO you will get Neo),but is done manually.
The calendar can be viewed by month, week,or day. When inputting an event you can choose between Appointment,Anniversary, Holiday, Important and Private) and you’ll also be able toindicate the place, start/end time, set an alarm anddaily/weekly/monthly repetition. All these options will let you planand view your schedule fast and easy.
There can be a total of 11alarms and an auto power-on option if the phone has been off. The restof the organizing functions, like for example, Tasks, World clock,Calculator, Timer etc. are located in the Applications menu.
G400is a tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900) with single-band support of HSDPA 7.2Mbps. This means that you will be able to fully take advantage of itscapacities only in Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, there’s noinformation on a U.S. version.
The power of 3G can be felt viathe Access NetFront 3.4 HTML browser. There are two viewing modes –Desktop, which visualizes pages as on a computer and Smart-fit toeliminate the horizontal scrolling. The second method is imperativewhen you’re reading something, because otherwise, the text doesn’tshrink to fit the screen. The good news is that after loading a page inone of the modes you can switch to the other one in seconds and withouthaving to reload the content. You also have an options to zoom in atdifferent rate and Page pilot (both accessible from the options menu),which zooms out so you can move to another area quickly. Sometimes,when you try to load heavy pages, the browser returns an error,notifying you that there’s not enough memory to visualize the contentrequested.
Samsung SGH-G400 Video Review:
Samsung SGH-G400 360 Degrees View:
Camera:
The 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash is on the back when the phone is closed, and when it’s opened it is under the display and directed toward you. Therefore, if you are not trying to fix your hair or make a self-portrait, you’ll control it from the external display. The monochrome icons are not very beautiful but here (in contrast to F480), they relate to the overall interface. Selecting a given option is fast and done with few touches on the display. Taking pictures is quick as well; in a well-lighted environment, it focuses for a second only and for three if the light source is not that bright. In addition, saving the image takes another four seconds. Besides the various settings (for size, quality), you have options for adjusting the ISO sensitivity, macro, different modes, self-portrait, face recognition, and making a picture when a smile is detected.
The pictures made in daylight, including the macros have a high detail level, but not as good as the best in this aspect - KC550 and G600. The colors are real, but overexposure is often present in the areas with lighter objects. In a room with a weaker light source, the detail level is lower but the colors remain well reproduced with the flash doing a decent job.
Unfortunately, you will be disappointed from the videos made with the camera. As in Soul, the maximum resolution here is 320 x 240 pixels as well, and their quality is low with only 15 fps. In contrast, most of the rest 5-megapixel cameraphones offer video recording in a four times higher resolution (640x480 pixels) and the results are better.
The music player is user-friendly and lets you sort tracks by a few different criteria, use various preset equalizers and three types of visualizations. The option for a background play is nice and lets you control the player from the homescreen. In addition, there’s an FM radio.
The sound from the loudspeaker has a good quality but is weak. Since our unit didn’t come with headphones, we used the ones from the OMNIA package. They produce a loud and very clear sound, which was a nice surprise. Comparing OMNIA and G400, the second one performed better in this aspect.
You are able to watch H263, QVGA videos, which offer a good image, but the better H264 will be choppy if viewed in a full-screen mode. Unfortunately, the videos cannot be watched on the external display.
Performance:
Samsung G400 runs steadily, but there is an annoying lag, because of the transition when opening the menus. Like in Soulb, this effect cannot be switched off either.
During a talk, the sound you’ll hear is loud but with low quality. The voices are sharp, monotonous and sometimes a strong background noise can be noticed, which makes everything hard to understand. Your collocutor will hear your voice loud and with better quality. Everything is clear and only at times slightly sharp. As a whole however, we are disappointed from G400 in this aspect, because this is one of the key features of any phone.
Conclusion:
G400 mainly relies on the stylish design and the good multimedia functions. We were very happy with the 5-megapixel camera and with the music sound quality. Unfortunately, it has a large size, it’s hard to open single-handedly and the sound quality during a talk is lower than we would have liked it to be. If you are ready to live with those drawbacks and are looking for a stylish cell phone, Samsung G400 is just for you. An alternative option is Soul, which is better looking, more convenient to use and compact, but with weaker multimedia capabilities.
Pros
Stylish design
High-speed 3G
Good camera and music sound quality
Full-touch external display
Cons
Low sound quality during a talk
It’s large
Both displays are useless in direct sunlight
There’s lag in the menus
Low resolution videos with bad quality and cannot be viewed on the external screen
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