The FlipShot appears to be half-phone, half-digital camera. Did this swiveling flip stand up to our point-and-shoot?
Review summary of the Samsung Flipshot:
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 The FlipShot is a very cool toy. From the way it is designed and the way it looks, it would appear that the FlipShot is attempting to replace your digital camera, allowing you to carry one device for all your photo-taking. Unfortunately, Samsung's lens just doesn't cut it, and the image quality isn't up to par with a point-and-shoot. The phone features were average, and while there are plenty of good things about V Cast (good selection), there were plenty of bad as well (no download queue, low bit rates). The FlipShot turns out to be a fancy jack-of-all-trades, master of none. Release: November 2007. Price: $170.
Pros: Fun, practical flip LCD feature, decent autofocus
Cons: No headphones included, poor image quality
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Full Samsung Flipshot Review:
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Design - Excellent
Samsung's FlipShot (SCH-U900), the update to the decidedly less attractive SCH-A990, attempts to “flip” the script on the cameraphone model, with the body looking more like a camera than a phone, especially with the LCD flipped over. It is impressive how slim the phone’s profile is, considering the swiveling LCD, 3-megapixel camera and stereo speakers they crammed inside. We like the one-piece keypad, which separates buttons by raised ridges. The 2.25-inch, 260,000-color main display was bright and clear, and the three music control buttons on the side of the secondary LCD are touch sensitive, which is nice. But the buttons don’t always light up, and it is easy to forget they are there and accidentally start playing a song. That said, the FlipShot is an attractive phone, the flip LCD is a functional and practical design, and the design is a marked improvement over the A990.
Calling - Very good
Calls on the FlipShot’s speaker are loud and clear, but we did have to repeat ourselves multiple times, leading us to believe the microphone was subpar. Most calling options like conference calling required some menu digging. The 500-name phone book allows for while-you-type searching, and each contact has room for five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses plus notes. Callers can be assigned groups, photos for call ID and personalized ringtones, but only seven 72-chord polyphonic tones are offered. The lack of MP3 ringtones was disappointing, and when we tried to use voice dial, our phone shut down and restarted. Three times.
Messaging - Good
The FlipShot does messaging as well as can be expected on a numeric keypad, displaying a full 160-characters on incoming messages, but only about 150 outgoing. The IM app requires purchase, and comes loaded with Yahoo, MSN and AIM clients. Typing out IMs on the numeric keypad is quite tedious, although the response time was decent over the EV-DO network.
Camera - Good
The camera, which dominates the back side of the phone, packs a 3-megapixel sensor, along with a decent (if slow) auto-focus, spot metering, adjustable ISO settings, a bright flash, self-timer and brightness control. Much like a standard point-and-shoot digital camera, the camera offers scene modes like portrait, landscape, macro, and night.
Video recording had fewer options, and videos taken for multimedia messages are limited to 30 seconds. Regular videos (to be sideloaded to your computer) can go up to 10 minutes. Photos, which can also be sideloaded to a computer or sent via MMS, can also be uploaded to an online album provided by Verizon, or printed with Verizon's PictBridge
Samples:
Shot taken on Landscape setting
While we liked the way the camera captured the lights inside the storefront, the edges of all objects in the frame are fuzzy along the skyline. The available light is less than desirable, but the frame is certainly large enough...the camera could have 6 megapixels and it wouldn't make a difference.
Shot taken on Auto setting
We liked the way the FlipShot rendered the various shades of red on the church bell tower, with some wet bricks and some dry, and maintained an acceptable level of detail all the way up to the top. The lack of glare from too much direct light allows us to see a reflection in the mirror and the reinforced glass of the window.
Shot taken on Portrait setting
The FlipShot's camera suffered the same fate as most cameraphones when indoors. With enclosed spaces and bright lights, the lens has trouble allowing in the correct amount of light, resulting in bright spots like the streaks on the Atlantic City banner. The level of detail on the in-focus faces is mediocre, and with the subject on the far right moving even slightly, her face is blurred.
Shot taken on Auto setting
On this outdoor shot, we got plenty of available light, but because the brightness of the sign differed so much from the rest of the shot, the writing is washed out and illegible. The lens is the culprit here; under the right conditions the good shots can be had. But the automatic and preset settings simply don't do enough to manage the capabilities of the camera that might be possible with manual settings.
Multimedia – Good
Streaming video on cell phones just isn’t where we’d like it to be just yet, and the FlipShot is no different. With the amount of pixelation in the videos, we couldn’t read text and quick movements were not handled well. The audio quality didn’t compare to the V Cast music service, which we found to be serviceable if not terribly convenient. The bitrate on the songs was quite low, so users won’t see much benefit from a quality pair of headphones, but the music sounded decent from the built-in stereo speakers (even if decidedly devoid of much bass reflex). The volume from the stereo speakers is impressive, although we did experience some muffling when pushing the volume to the last two bars.
Verizon Wireless still hasn’t figured out how to do the MP3-player/phone thing, but for sporadic use we supposed the FlipShot will suffice. It certainly won’t replace your iPod, however. We like how songs downloaded to our phone could also be downloaded to our computer, but at $1.99 per song, it would seem criminal not to offer two copies, and the previously mentioned low bitrates, while ideal for a phone with limited memory, don’t cut the mustard on a standard stereo. Stereo Bluetooth (an improvement from the A990) worked as advertised, even if finding the options on the menu was a little difficult. We never once dropped a signal while listening, but were disappointed that not all Bluetooth profiles were enabled.
We’re not huge fans of Verizon’s proprietary web browser, which seems to bottleneck the internet rather than open it up to its users. Web pages like newyorktimes.com have tailored WAP versions, which is just as well, since the FlipShot doesn’t handle image-heavy sites like our homepage very well. The “Go to URL” option is still buried in a submenu.
Odds and ends
One welcome addition that is uncommon for Samsung phones is support for Verizon's VZ Navigator GPS service. We found the SCH-U900's business-card scanner to be spotty at best. With a steady hand, most of the text could be read, but it was generally blurry, and very small text was frequently illegible.
Verizon is infamous for including the bare minimum with their phones, and the Flipshot is no different, coming with only a charger and a wrist strap. The $200 price point makes the phone attractive, but without some of the essentials to use the advanced features, like a memory card for pics or headphones for music, we’re not so sure it’s a great value.
Price and availability
The Samsung Flipshot is available now from Verizon Wireless for $170 with a two-year contract.
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