Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 Review

Introduction:

There is no doubt that the Linux-based, open-source Android operating system is flourishing right now, thanks to some pretty good devices like the Motorola DROID and Google Nexus One (and their advertising). However, this is not the case with every other Linux-based OS out there. The young LiMo R2 platform for example, currently found only on the high-end Samsung H1 and the mainstream Samsung M1 is still what someone would call a “no-name”.

In this review we will be examining the LiMo-powered Samsung H1, which is strictly designed for the Vodafone 360 services. It can be purchased either through Vodafone, or unlocked at some stores. We are using an unlocked unit, which means that we aren’t able to check out the Vodafone services, but we can closely examine the LiMo R2 OS and see if it has the potential to become a full-featured mobile platform.

Design:

As with many other hi-tech cell phones with large touch-sensitive screens, the first time that you open the box with the Samsung H1, you get surprised by how huge, sophisticated and interesting it looks. With design language reminiscent of the Ultra series, the Samsung H1 is by no means ugly. It’s actually quite bearable, but unfortunately lacks any sense of the fashionable appearance that was a distinctive mark of the Ultra series.



You can compare the Samsung H1 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The device is quite heavy, feels solid and as a whole creates the impression that it’s destined for great things. Whether this is the case, we’ll tell you later. Samsung has created a nicely rounded back side, which makes the H1 comfortable to hold. This is important, as it is quite large, which is of course mainly due to the big touchscreen.

AMOLED. 3.5 inches. Capacitive touch technology. All of these are characteristics of the Samsung H1’s display. While it undeniably bears the advantages of the AMOLED technology like real blacks and nicely saturated colors, this display somehow failed to deliver the eye candy we have seen with other AMOLED handsets like the Samsung Wave S8500 and Google Nexus One. It’s like the image quality is a step behind what we’ve seen so far, but this doesn’t mean it’s bad. While the panel has a metal frame to give it that classy look, the screen cover (which is quite firm) itself lacks oleophobic coating, thus attracting a lot fingerprints. To the point where you can even play tic-tac-toe on it.



Another proof of the Samsung H1’s well-made construction is the quality of the keys. There are quite a few physical keys on the body and all of them are extremely pleasant to use. As a top of the range smartphone, the H1 is also home to standard 3.5mm and microUSB port, with the latter being protected by a sliding lid – a solution we much prefer to standard flaps.




And here’s the part where we should say our overall opinion about the design of the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1. As much as we like to see high-quality builds, we also enjoy offbeat design solutions that manage to stand out from the crowd. Although very well built, the Samsung H1 is not such a device. Regardless, its appearance is bearable and will probably appeal to users with passion for conservative designs. The same goes for the white version, as it doesn’t seem to put some additional emphasis on style.

Not that the appearance isn’t important, but as every smartphone user knows, quality software can make up for a lacking design. Let’s see if this is the case with the LiMo R2 platform running on the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1.

Interface:

The Samsung H1 is designed to work with the Vodafone 360 service pack, which is integrated with the LiMo R2 OS here. If you’re wondering why you can’t think of some LiMo R2 devices, we guess it’s because the Samsung H1 and M1 are the first smartphones to use it. So without further ado, we present you the Linux-based LiMo R2 operating system…

LiMo (comes from Linux Mobile) has a rather clean interface. Your starting point here, or the home screen, if you will, is the Apps screen, which bears great resemblance to the home screen in iPhone OS. You have these multiple icons in different colors that lead to all of your apps and you scroll horizontally to get to the remaining ones. The designers of this concept have obviously been influenced by the iPhone’s icon layout, which is fine for us. After all, there’s nothing bad in learning from the best in software. Programmers however seem to have not learned their lesson, since in contrast to what you experience on the iPhone, should you try to scroll here you will encounter some quite unpleasant lag. You are able to rearrange the icons to your liking, but what we found ourselves fonder of was the ability to “expand” certain icons. For example, you can expand the AccuWeather icon. By doing so, the icon kind of comes to life, taking more space and showing live information – in this case, the current weather in your city. On the Samsung H1, this feature is also available for some other apps like Vodafone McLaren Mercedes and ESPN Soccernet. It’s a neat concept that definitely deserves to be developed further.




The other important screen is the one dedicated to your contacts. In addition to just your contacts, here you can see friends from Facebook, Google Talk, MSN Messenger. You have to be connected to Vodafone 360 for this to work though, otherwise you’ll just see your phone contacts. However, once you arrive at this screen, you be presented with a 3D interface that shows your contacts as floating tiles. (with their profile respective picture, if there is one). Here you can move sideways, as well as forwards and backwards. It looks good, but lags and we found it too confusing to use. Fortunately, one can just press the contacts key again and will find themselves in a traditional list view with the alphabet on the right for fast searching.



As stated in the beginning of this part, the interface is very clean, and using it is fairly easy. The learning curve isn’t steep at all; you just need a few minutes with the phone to get the hang of it. The bad thing is the lag that is present here and there.

Camera and Multimedia:

The Samsung H1 relies on a 5MP AF camera, which offers HD video recording. Its interface is nothing to write home about, as everything is pretty simple. Taking a picture is very fast, although saving it isn’t, so taking multiple shots quickly won’t be that easy.



The image quality is very, very good. We are pleased with both outdoor and indoor shots, as they have natural colors and plenty of detail. It’s good to see that indoor photos aren’t full of noise and the flash does its job perfectly, managing to produce enough light even in pitch black areas.

While the images are more than satisfying, the recorded HD video is terrible. It looks blurry and is quite choppy. Lowering the resolution didn’t make it much smoother.

Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 sample video at 1280x720 pixels resolution.




The music player isn’t pretty, but has handy controls for basic functions like repeat, shuffle and rate. Unfortunately, the sound isn’t good enough. Both the loudspeaker and the included earphones are poor, as they do not have enough power and are overly sharp.



Aside from the rather disappointing music experience, it’s good that you are able to watch videos with HD resolution on the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 phone. This, however, is possible only with MPEG-4 coded files. The Samsung H1 is unable to play H.264 and encountered great difficulties when trying to play DivX and Xvid, making them impossible to watch.



Internet:

You can use both 3G and Wi-Fi to connect to the internet with the Samsung H1. The browser is pretty decent – it loads most of the page in no time and lets your view it while still loading the rest. Scrolling is very smooth and you can zoom by double tapping. You can adjust a precise level of zoom using a bar on the right, which also works pretty neat.

A feature of it we happen to like quite much is when you try to select a link in zoomed out position. When there are other links very close to it, what happens is that the phone enlarges all the links in that area so that you can take your pick more easily.

Performance:

Although the Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 is a rather sophisticated piece of mobile technology, it fails to deliver quality sound while on a call. On our side the sound was very loud, but unclear. We find it difficult to make out what our caller says. On their end, the quality is again poor, but voices tend to be quieter and ambient sounds tend to be louder. Quite unpleasant.

The battery however, put up a surprisingly good performance. The manufacturer rates it 7.06 hours of talk time and 19 days of standby. We used the phone mainly for surfing the web via Wi-Fi and using the camera. Of course, we also played with the menus quite a bit during the tests we had to conduct and after two days of moderate use, the 1500mAh battery was at 1/3.

Conclusion:

This being the debut of the LiMo R2 OS, it makes us think that its creators still have a lot of work ahead of them. The platform is nice as a whole; it has a unique simplistic style, which can hardly be mistaken with any other. It’s also very easy to use, but needs some fine tuning to become free from issues. For example, devs have to get rid of the lag that is present in some menus (most importantly, in the main Apps menu), and the 3D contacts screen is too confusing to use. This is one thing. Another one (which many would find much more important) is the situation with available apps for the platform. As you would imagine, since there are only two phones (and both are for Vodafone only) that are using the platform, the app support is nowhere near what the iPhone and Android have to offer (there are around 50 available apps for the Samsung H1). If we compare LiMo R2 to other operating systems that have already been established on the market, we think it has the needed features to compete, but it needs support from developers. For this to happen, LiMo needs to be adopted by other carriers too, not only Vodafone, so that it reaches more users, thus providing a bigger market for app developers.

The Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 itself is a good device, although far from perfect. For instance its video recording capabilities are disappointing, and call quality rather poor. However, it does have the skills to let you communicate, take good photos, enjoy multimedia and surf the web in a contemporary way. So, in case you find the H1’s rather boring design actually cool (and you want to take advantage of the Vodafone 360 services), we believe it is a solid choice. That is, if you don’t find yourself really into the currently leading mobile operating systems.

Vodafone 360 Samsung H1 Video Review: