We import the Samsung P520 Armani, styled by Giorgio Armani. Is it all style, or does it have substance as well?
Review summary of the Samsung Giorgio Armani Phone:
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 There are two types of people who will spend almost $600 on a phone. There are those who want an Apple iPhone, a piece of hardware that works like a desktop PC and is styled like a flying car from the future. Then, there are those who want their phone to say Giorgio Armani, just like their clothes and their furniture. The Samsung P520 Armani phone isn't an utter failure, but it definitely stresses form over function. The polished interface and sleek design sits atop hardware that can't keep up and the feature set belies some design flaws that make the most advanced functions difficult to use. For the style conscious, this phone might seem like a fleeting accessory, but for the technorati, the high price doesn't make this the best of the best. Release: December 2007. Price: $580.
Pros: Very stylish design. Calls sounded good. Synchronizes with Outlook contacts and calendar. Did we mention it's Armani?
Cons: Classic case of style over function. Screen is not responsive enough. Doesn't work on U.S. 3G networks. Low-quality camera.
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Full Samsung Giorgio Armani Phone Review:
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The Samsung P520 Armani phone is not available from the major American carriers. We got our review unit from Dynamism, a company that makes a habit of importing phones that are generating buzz in technology circles. Though our import phone didn't have the correct radio bands to access AT&T's high-speed network, we were able to use the phone for basic calling, messaging and light data using our AT&T SIM.
Design - Very good
The Samsung P520 Armani phone is a very classy little phone. While the iPhone has more of a geek chic feel to it, like an upscale Star Trek Tricorder, the Armani phone is fashion accessory all the way. The brushed metallic brown exterior is matched by the deep bronze colors that permeate the phone's user interface. The menus match the media player, the contact list and the dial pad, like a well-coordinated outfit. Of course, none of it functioned properly, but it looks great.
This seems to be the trend in fashion phones, as the pattern continues from the LG Prada. Both the Prada phone and the Samsung P520 Armani phone are small, thin touchscreen phones with serious responsiveness issues. Both have stylized interface designs that responded poorly to touch input, and both were more difficult to use because of this problem. Considering these problems, both phones would appear to be overpriced, until you consider that a single article of clothing from either fashion brand costs more than the $500 - $600 you'd pay for the phone.
Calling - Good
Call quality on the Samsung P520 Armani phone was actually pretty good. We were happy with how voices sounded, and we never encountered static issues on AT&T's network in lower Manhattan. Unfortunately, the Giorgio Armani phone lacks most of the calling features we like. For the address book, we used Samsung's PC Studio to synchronize with our Outlook contacts, and this process went off without a hitch. However, the Samsung Armani phone's address book is light on fields, and we'd like the ability to add more, like home and work address fields, and customize them a bit.
Conference calling was a chore thanks to the unlabeled icons on screen and the required menu drilling. The phone's touchscreen is not very responsive, so the more menu drilling required the more difficult it was to accomplish a task. Scrolling through options lists was even worse, so digging through our long contact list or finding the right calling options got tedious quickly. On a positive note, Bluetooth paired with our handsfree devices just fine, and the speakerphone was loud enough, though we prefer an obnoxiously loud speaker.
Messaging - Mediocre
It isn't just typing on the onscreen number pad that makes messaging such a mediocre experience. The Samsung P520 Armani simply lacks messaging options. There is no instant messaging client, and the e-mail client was difficult to set up, mostly because of all the typing required to enter our e-mail server addresses. Sending an MMS message to a recipient from our contact list was the easiest way to go, because it avoided typing almost completely, but otherwise the situation was pretty grim.
Multimedia
We didn't have much luck with the included Samsung Media Manager: it crashed during every attempt to synchronize music and photos with the Samsung Armani phone. We wouldn't lay all the blame on the software, as we've used the same suite before with other devices. It isn't an easy or intuitive piece of software, but it gets the job done. Windows media player also had no problem synchronizing with the phone in MTP mode, but our album covers didn't seem to make it (or perhaps there is no album cover view?).
The media player is as sluggish and unresponsive as the rest of the phone. You can scrub through a track by dragging the moving "croix," but this isn't responsive, and it doesn't control the song's volume as well, though it feels like it should. Movies played with no problems, and the media player was functional, but not very inspired. Scrolling through lists on this phone was even worse than typing, so browsing our music was a chore, but it sounded fine once it started playing. If only Samsung and Armani had included a pair of headphones to fit the proprietary port, we would have been all set.
Camera - Mediocre
We didn't expect much of the extra features on this fashion-oriented phone, but we were especially disappointed with the camera. We think the potential buyers for the Samsung P520 Armani phone will definitely want to use it for light picture taking, and so ideally it would have had a good lens with a decent sensor and an easy interface. We'd like an interface that takes better advantage of the touchscreen. Most of all, though, we'd like to see great-looking pictures, but the pics we got from the Samsung P520 Armani were as disappointing as any average, budget Samsung phone. This would have been the place to splurge a bit, but instead the phone falls flat.
Price and availability
The Samsung P520 Armani phone is available now from Dynamism.com for $580 unlocked.
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