Samsung SGH-G810 Preview

Introduction:

Samsung SGH-G810 is the wonderful successor to the 5-megapixel cameraphone G800. The new entry was officially presented at the Mobile World Congress 2008, in February. Besides changes in the design, there have been functionality modifications, so the new phone can be an all-in-one device. It disposes of built-in WiFi and GPS and it runs on a Symbian S60 v.9.2 3rd edition OS with Feature pack 1. All these characteristics are similar to the ones of the Nokia N95 8G, hence both are in direct competition.

Currently, all versions (globally) of the phone are prototypes and that’s why we are previewing it instead of giving you an in depth review. For our full detailed testing, we always use only final versions of the product, to make sure the results are impartial.

Design:

The G810’s design is quite different from its predecessor’s and resembles the one of Nokia N95, in a Samsung way that is. G810 is a slider, made out of metal (aluminum) and plastic, with the first prevailing. Similar to G800, the whole phone is in the typical grey color.



Most of the front is taken up by the 2.6” TFT display, with resolution of 240x320 pixels and 262k color. It has grown up a little bit, in contrast to the previous model, but is still smaller than the one of N95 8GB. Over the screen we have the speaker and the video calling camera, and below it are positioned the shortcut buttons, the D-pad, the Menu and the Multimedia keys.

Untypical for an S60 phone, the “Menu” button is not labeled with specific sign but just with a dash; it is positioned below the left soft key and symmetrically on the other side is another shortcut. As these together with the D-pad are the only on the front, when the phone is closed, we were really confused they are Send/End buttons, which is what most users would expect.

Opening the phone we see the Send/End and Cancel buttons appearing and the numeric keypad is under those. Via these buttons, you can navigate through the menus and it is most convenient to do that when they are in grid view. Then, every digit corresponds to one of the icons on the screen.

The power button is located on the left side of the new Samsung model and is accompanied by the 3,5 mm jack and the microUSB slot, used to charge the phone or to connect it to a PC. There are some features on the right also; here we see the volume slider, the camera shortcut, and the between them is the microSD card slot.


The upper and the lower part of the G810 are made of “ribbed” plastic and you won’t find anything there, but the microphone opening. In contrast to the front, on the back, hidden behind a sliding lid is the 5MP camera with 3x optical zoom and Xenon flash. The lid is attached to the sides of the phone and a spring mechanism is not present.



Interface:

Samsung SGH-G810 runs on Symbian S60 3rd edition OS with Feature pack 1. On this same one, runs the N95 8GB as well, but the newer Finnish model (N96) will use the newer generation interface, with Feature pack 2. Similarly to the expected Nokia models, the Samsung comes with a preloaded Google search application, which is in the bottom part of the display, but it is accessible via the D-pad.

Another interesting thing is that when you press the button, located below the right soft key, appears a shortcut menu, giving fast access to the Music player, the RealPlayer and the Radio. This clearly is the manufacturer’s statement that G810 is not only a cameraphone.

The camera interface is coming directly from the G800 (with just minor changes) and the user experience is the same. The options menu is a horizontal list with small monochrome icons at the top of the viewfinder, which is not really what we are fans of. Once again, you have the face detection, digital stabilization, WDR and other options. An innovation is the ability to use up to 800 ISO (400 in G800), but this value is too high for a phone and is pointless.

Expect our full review when final, commercial samples are released.