We finally get a hands-on look at Samsung's Ultra Smart flagship phone, the F700. With a touch screen, sliding keypad and a unique interface, does it belong at the head of the class?
The Samsung Ultra Smart SGH-F700 was announced at the beginning of this year, close enough to the iPhone announcement that we were a little suspicious at first. Was this a reactionary announcement, or a real product that had been through a full development cycle. At Samsung's design headquarters in Korea, on an all-expense paid trip, the design team behind the phone assured us that the device is the logical culmination of growing trends: large screens, touch interfaces and QWERTY keypads being just a few of these.
The phone is certainly feature-rich, with a large, 3.2-inch screen, which is only a quarter-inch or so smaller than the iPhone's screen. On that wide, 432 by 240 pixel display, you can watch h.264 video, or take pictures with the 3-megapixel camera. HSDPA networking means that video calling should be an option on Vodafone's network, thanks also to the front-facing camera.
Having played with the phone a bit, we can say that in many good ways, it breaks out of the cell phone mold in the same way that the iPhone did. The touch interface is the deliciously stylish "cross" interface that we also played with on the Armani phone. Basically, the menu is a three by four grid with a band of color each across a row and a column. Where these intersect is where you just tapped your finger, your selection, though the phone's touch screen wasn't quite perfect. The color scheme and the detail on the phone's icons are superb, but, having spent serious time with a graphically powerful touch screen phone, we're a bit disappointed that this flagship didn't take the touch paradigm to its extreme.
We would have liked an interface that followed our finger, and that animated a bit more at our touch. We would have liked some snappier scrolling, and perhaps snappier response all around. Samsung has a winner in the interface design, but we'd like to see them use it as a starting point, and not the final draft.
The phone is much thinner than other QWERTY sliders we've used. It isn't as thin as the iPhone, but it also isn't as thick as one of HTC's QWERTY sliders, like the Mogul on Sprint. Samsung's designers referred to this phone as the "Q-Bowl." Q stood for QWERTY, and the bowl comes from the idea of touching the surface of a bowl of water with your fingertips. It's a nice visual image, and we especially like the tranquil audio effects that accompany actions and gave feedback to our input. Very classy, and clearly very high quality.
Still, something is missing. The phone lacks a "wow" factor, and stands now as a compelling alternative to the iPhone, when it should stand on its own.
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