Thin is in: Samsung’s new, flyweight candybar phone is a mere 9.8 mm thick. Can its dazzling looks make up for some so-so features? Ben Patterson reviews the SGH-T509.
Review summary of the Samsung SGH-T509:
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 While it doesn't compete with the SLVR in the music department (or even the photo department, for that matter), you can't argue with the wafer-thin T509's stellar look and feel. Throw in an impressive display, EDGE and Bluetooth support, and you've got a one tantalizing handset. We're hooked. Release: May 2006.
Pros: Super-slim; just 2.7 ounces; EDGE and Bluetooth support; Great-looking display
Cons: Poor snapshot quality; No media player; No memory-expansion slot
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Full Samsung SGH-T509 Review:
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OK, we’ll just come out and say it: we’re smitten with the T509. Here’s a phone that’s actually a bit weak on features: a so-so VGA camera, no media player, and no memory expansion. Compared to the music-centric but slightly thicker Motorola SLVR, the T509’s specs look a bit shaky. But this gorgeous wisp of a phone (the thinnest available in the U.S.) was irresistible. We found every excuse we could to take it out in public, just so we could watch friends and passersby drool. And its Bluetooth and EDGE support are nothing to sniff at.
Here’s looking at you, kid
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: the slim, silver and tough-to-put-down T509 is the iPod nano of phones. Measuring 4.6 by 1.8 by 0.4 inches and weighing a mere 2.7 ounces, the slight T509 is a few millimeters thinner and narrower than the SLVR, if a bit taller. The flyweight phone is a pleasure to hold (and, yes, admire), and it fits comfortably in a jeans pocket – so comfortably, in fact, we often forgot it was there. If you’re heading to a cocktail party and you want a phone that fits in a tiny purse, won’t bulge out of a pocket, and looks smashing sitting on a tabletop, this is it.
The phone’s nearly two-inch, 65,000-color TFT LCD looks superb, and with a dense resolution of 176 by 220, there was no discernable screen-door effect. Images looked vivid and detailed, and the lively, animated menus practically jumped off the screen. The LCD was a bit tough to see in direct sunlight, but that’s to be expected.
The T509’s raised silver keypad was relatively easy to peck with our fingertips; the numeric keys are a bit smaller than we’d like, but we soon got the hang of it. A volume rocker sits on the left side of the phone, while a dedicated camera control sits on the right spine, just beneath a proprietary headset jack (if you want to use your favorite 2.5mm headset with the T509, you’re out of luck).
Murky snapshots
While we couldn’t get enough of the T509’s looks, its mediocre VGA camera was something of a disappointment. The camera itself comes with a decent set of features, including resolutions ranging from 640 x 480 to 176 x 132, a multishot mode (six, nine, or 15 shots), 4X digital zoom, a variety of color effects (including monoschrome, sepia, emboss, and sketch), 30 picture frames, a three-, five-, or 10-second self timer, spot focus and tweakable brightness and ISO settings. The still camera also double as a camcorder, shooting 176 x 144 or 128 x 96-pixel clips (capped in length at just eight to 12 seconds). Despite all the features, however, our snapshots looked murky almost to the point of abstraction, while our video snippets looked predictably jerky and muddy.
The T509 gets back on the right foot with its impressive connectivity options. The handset’s Bluetooth support extends to wireless headsets, dial-up networking, contact syncing and file transfers; we had no trouble pairing the phone up with our Plantronics headset and our PowerBook for contact and image transfers. Meanwhile, the T509’s EDGE capabilities (compared to the GPRS-only SLVR L7) made for speedy surfing on the WAP 2.0 browser.
Text-tastic
Messaging features on the T509 are better than expected. While you won’t find POP or IMAP support, the phone’s slick instant messaging client supports AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN (any one of which will run in the background, if not all at once), and you also get the usual SMS and MMS messaging features. Chatters, meanwhile, can take advantage of the 1250-contact address book (1000 in memory, 250 on the SIM card), five-way conference calling, and the T509’s speakerphone.
The phone comes with the standard built-in tools, such as a calendar, a calculator, voice memos, an alarm, world time, a unit converter, and a stopwatch, along with four games: Forgotten Warrier, Freekick, Arch Angel, and a demo of Midnight Pool. Customization options are good: in addition to changing wallpapers and color themes, you can add images to – and specify ringtones for – your contacts. Unfortunately, while you can transfer MP3s to your phone via Bluetooth, you can’t use them as ringtones (although you can play them from the My Sounds folder).
We got nearly three hours of talk time out of the T509, a bit shy of the 3.5 hours promised by Samsung, while the phone is rated for about seven days of standby time. Call quality was decent; our callers said they could hear us loud and clear, although we noticed a few drop-outs while chatting with our pals. We were impressed by the loud (if occassionally tinny) speakerphone, however.
Price and availability
The Samsung SGH-T509 will start selling for TBA to $200 ((T-Mobile)) in May 2006.
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