Samsung SGH-G800 Preview

Introduction:

As we’ve said in many of our reviews, the multimedia functionality in the phones nowadays takes great role. It is so important that most people first ask about the camera resolution and just then look if the phone will be compatible with their network. In their non-stop efforts to combine a phone with pocket digital camera, the manufacturers have reached a level when they have almost every phone equipped with some type of camera and more than one of the high-class models have camera with high-resolution. This is the case we have here with the Samsung G800: the G600 we presented a month ago is also 5-megapixel device, but the G800 is the premium cameraphone in this category and excels it with dedicated camera look, optical zoom lens, Xenon flash, new interface and more features. The SGH-G800 is the GSM phone that will try to beat Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG in the 5-megapixel cameraphone competition.

As the phone is still not commercially available we are using a prototype unit. The quality of both the hardware and the software might change when final versions appear, and this is the reason why we, unlike some other sites, will do a Preview instead of full Review and will not give any ratings. Once final units appear, we will update you with in-depth review.

Design:

The G800 is definitely not among the smallest phones on the market: even closed it is a solid device almost as big a stand-alone pocket camera and it highly resembles one by its look. With large weight it is also almost as heavy, which combined with the chromed frame makes it feel as a nice high-end phone instead of a plastic toy. For this also helps that the lens-cover and a detail on the battery cover are made of brushed aluminum. Positioning the G800 not only as high-tech cameraphone but also as high-end device, Samsung has made it with untypical for the brand design. Instead of curved forms everything is rectangular with just slightly rounded corners and as the used colors are the classical shining metallic silver and black the G800 looks very classy.


If you’re acquainted with the Samsung’s line of mobile phones, you’ll surely have noticed that it is one of the main players in the “which is the thinnest phone” game, after Motorola started it with the RAZR. The G800 is not one of these devices, positioned under the “Camera” branding instead of the “Style”, which is used for the slim models, the phone doesn’t care for some additional volume in which to pack its hardware.



As this is preview, we won’t comment on the phone’s display quality. It is a 2.4” big QVGA unit with 262 thousand colors. Unfortunately, it lacks sensor for controlling its brightness.

Sliding the front open is very easy thanks to the spring-assisted mechanism, although there isn’t exact place for your finger. By doing this, the numeric keyboard is revealed. It has the same brushed pattern as the back side and is flat, with protruding lines between the separate buttons. Each one feels easily by and the pressing and tactile feedback are excellent for a flat keyboard. As a whole we are very pleased with it.

All twelve keys of the numeric pad, the clear, answer and reject on the upper slider are illuminated in white color. Unlike most others phones, the last two are not in green and red which is made to keep the whole phone color-less. We cannot miss the fact that the 5-way D-pad and the two software keys, which are situated above are not illuminated at all. While this isn’t a problem during the day, when it is dark, you will realize how uncomfortable this is. In such situation you will have to “Find” the buttons by touching and while the soft keys are very easy to feel, it is not so with the directions of the D-pad. Its relief is even smaller than the one of the flat numeric keys, which is illogical and we would have preferred it to be larger. Still, considering there isn’t a whole yard between the illuminated display and the keys, one won’t really get lost when “searching” the buttons but it is still not convenient.

All other keys are on the right side, dedicated to the functions of the camera. These are the volume/zoom rocker and the circular shutter key, with red dot in the middle. The latter is designed to attract attention, once again reminding that this is a cameraphone. The rocker that acts as zoom in/out is in the middle which we first thought was strange, but then realized that it is done in order to press it with the right hand without obstructing the lens on the left.


On the opposite side are the universal Samsung connector and the microSD slot for memory. They are both protected with covers matching the design of the sides. While there is nothing on the bottom, the top houses the openings for the stereo speakers.



While the lens-cover at the back is closed, there are only the labels for the brand and the camera. Slide it opened and below are the Xenon flash and the 3-times zoom-lens, which doesn’t retract (the lenses move inside the phone’s body). The solid lens cover opens easily, once you get used to the fact that your finger must be at its middle. Trying to slide from the upper or lower part will still open it but will require some effort.

PhoneArena's Video preview of the Samsung SGH-G800:

Interface:

As other Samsung phones in the past few years, the G800 runs on a variant of the manufacturer’s operating system. Although it is personalized and as a whole is different than the one of all other models, it resembles that of the Ultra II series.

The home screen has three variants for wallpaper: standard image, “Living world” and “My screen”. “Living world” is the name of a feature we’ve seen before, one that detects the cellular network you are in and visualizes matching image (animation) of the location. “My screen” is something we wish we had seen when we saw the “Random image” option for wallpaper of the G600. The “My screen” will create a slideshow out of up to 9 images with a few options for duration and transition type.


The main menu is either a grid of 3x4 icons with large banner at the top or a list. Its look cannot be personalized due to the lack of both themes and color schemes. The sub-menus are visualized as list and as in other models, option to display even the next step (when you select a field with sub-option) is available. Typical for a modern Samsung, the menu has “memory” and will select the last used option by default.



As in the G600, F500 and a few other recent models, real phone profiles come with the G800. In addition to the Normal and Silent, it has one for Driving, Meeting, Outdoor and Offline which will turn the phone functions off. Each of them personalizes the phone sounds for incoming call, messages and the phone operation and features fields for Call alert type, Tone and volume for each of the three.

As this is a Preview, we will not discuss all of the phone’s features. The Phonebook, Organizer and Messaging menus are similar to other recent Samsung models from the higher class.

Connectivity:

Samsung SGH-G800 is a tri-band (900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM phone with 2100 MHz UMTS/HSDPA 3.6mbps support, which in our opinion is ridiculous. Featuring only the European/Asian band it won’t be 3G usable in America, while packing only one of the two GSM American bands means it will work, but not in all areas. We think that Samsung should look at the competition and take Sony Ericsson K850 as example: with its quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS/HSDPA receiver, it is usable all around the world.

Internet:

As other modern models, the G800 is equipped with full HTML internet browser that renders the pages as on a computer, if you’ve chosen “Desktop view”. Complicated page like YouTube opened without any problem but as the resolution of the display is the standard 240x320, lots of scrolling is required in both directions.

Camera:

Samsung advertises the G800 as high-end cameraphone not only because of its hardware, but also because of its enhanced camera interface with lots of options. The easiest way to start it is by opening the lens cover and then the landscape viewfinder will occupy the whole 2.4 inch display. By default the interface is almost empty and on the right are the icons for the two soft keys and the four directions of the D-pad. The latter acts as shortcuts to often used options:

• 

  Camera interface
  Up- Viewfinder mode
• No icons
• Icons
• Guidelines
  

• Right – Flash
• Off
• Automatic
• On
• Red-eye reduction
  

• Down – Self-Timer
• 3 sec
• 5 sec
• 10 sec
  

• Left – Macro
• Off
• On
  

The left (bottom) soft key is shortcut to the gallery and the right (top) one opens the options list. In a long horizontal list there are lots of fields with different options including Scenes, Resolution, White Balance, Effects and other. We aren’t impressed by the interface look: its icons are small and as are monochrome, it will be hard to get the idea of each. We think that the interface of Sony Ericsson K850 looks way more advanced, with better icons and even color images.

The rather unique option here is “Face Detection” which when turned on should detect the human faces in the viewfinder. Once you focus on one, the focus will lock to it and even when the person moves, they will stay in focus. If they get out of the viewing area, the system will try to focus on somebody else.

The last field here is link to the Settings menu. Here in addition to the standard options like quality (compression) for the images, the ISO level (Auto/50/100/200/400), digital anti-shake system (on/off) and digital zoom (on/off) there are a few other settings. The phone supports Wide dynamic range which can be turend on or off. It isn’t anything special and actually increases the brightness in the dark areas of the images – this can be done with better results with many programs, once the photos are on a computer. Additionally there are a few level settings for the Contrast, Saturation and Sharpness of the photos.




As always, we will not comment on the image quality as our test unit is not final!



Media player:

As we’ve mentioned above, similar to other Samsungs, the software of the G800 uses modules we’ve seen in other models of the manufacturer. The Media Player is not an exception, and is like the one of the U700. A few filters can be applied and during the playback the interface displays album art cover and information on the track.