This mid-range entertainment phone packs in a 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth and access to Sprint's Power Vision services, but does it have what it takes to compete with multimedia heavyweights?
Review summary of the Samsung SPH-M510:
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 The Samsung SPH-M510 is the epitome of a mid-range multimedia phone, meaning it includes most of the features you'll see on a high-end phone, but hiccups a bit in their execution. Listening to music on the phone was pleasant enough, but we won't be ditching our iPods anytime soon. As for video, well, if you're really desperate for entertainment, it might tide you over, but we recommend that you just call a friend and have a good conversation to pass the time instead. It will be a much more enjoyable experience, as the M510 excels in call quality and calling features. The clamshell also has a nice-looking, curvy design, and while it might not turn heads, it will still grab your attention. Release: May 2007. Price: $50.
Pros: Sleek, attractive design. Great calling features and call quality. Solid audio capabilities.
Cons: Uncomfortable keypad that made typing a chore. Disappointing video quality. Sub-par camera and screens.
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58%
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Full Samsung SPH-M510 Review:
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Design
The Samsung SPH-M510 is an attractive clamshell, though it seems a bit reminiscent of other clamshells on Sprint's lineup, namely the SPH-M610 and SPH-M500. The phone is relatively compact, but not wafer-thin at 0.7 inches and certainly cannot compare the M610, which measured in at about half an inch. The M510 is slightly taller and wider than the M500 but still felt pretty light in our hands. We are fans of the M510's glossy paint job, which didn't attract as many fingerprints as we anticipated, and appreciated the magenta hue on our review unit (the phone is also available in a more masculine black).
We were unimpressed with the phones displays. At about an inch diagonal, the external screen seemed tiny, especially having just seen the Motorola RAZR2, which features a 2-inch external screen. Though the internal screen takes more advantage of the handset's available real estate, the display suffers heavily from a screen door effect.
Back on the plus side, the M510 does offer up an appealing UI that's nice and colorful. The phone features several of the standard Samsung wallpapers, as well as a Samsung theme that we have yet to see on a phone. The opening screen reminds us a bit of the T-Mobile myFaves interface, with an option to list the first nine numbers of your speed dial. Like myFaves, you can assign pictures or icons that appear on the main screen, but we found this to be a bit of a tease, as Sprint does not offer the unlimited calling that comes with myFaves.
Our favorite: Glossy, pretty, pink shell that does a decent job of dodging fingerprints.
Our request: A larger external screen and a better quality internal display. We also wouldn't mind if Samsung shaved a couple millimeters off the clamshell's waistline.
Calling - Very good
The M510 serves up solid calls. Though voices sounded a bit tinny, they came in loud and clear. We occasionally encountered bits of static here and there, but it never interfered with the flow of our conversations. Reception was strong in our Lower Manhattan office, but became shifty on our commute home to the Northern Jersey suburbs. The signal often hovered around the two-bar mark, but we never had a dropped call. The M510's wealth of calling features earned lots of points in this category, as the clamshell packs in every feature we could hope for, including a speakerphone, three-way calling, Bluetooth and speaker-independent voice dialing. Conference calls were easy to set up, and the speakerphone was adequate, if a little on the quiet side. When it came time to test the voice recognition, we found ourselves repeating the same commands over and over again, but were successful in the end.
Our favorite: The M510's bevy of calling features; speaker-independent voice dialing is always a plus in our book.
Our request: Nothing major, but a louder speakerphone would be nice
Messaging - Good
When we first saw the M510's large, wide keypad, we couldn't wait to start texting, but our excitement quickly turned to frustration. Keys on the flip phone are extremely flat with no tactile separations between them, meaning we had to constantly stare at the keypad as we tapped out messages. We were also annoyed with the placement of the small "back" key, which is too close to the "down" key and had us exiting programs when we just meant to scroll down. However, once we got the hang of the keypad, messaging on the M510 worked well. The phone's screen could fit a decent 102 characters on outgoing messages and 105 characters on incoming, but it's still short of the standard 160 character SMS. The M510's contact list is nicely integrated into the messaging menu, and it supports while-you-type searching (but there was about a three-second time lag). We were happy to find preloaded e-mail and instant messaging clients for AOL, MSN and Yahoo.
Our favorite: Instant messaging apps are present and accounted for.
Our request: Plain and simple - a better keypad.
Camera - Good
The M510 includes a standard 1.3-megapixel camera/camcorder that takes grainy, washed-out snapshots, like we've seen on dozens of other handsets. This didn't change when we shot video with the phone. The camera's interface is clear and simple and we appreciated that the M510 used its entire screen as the view finder. Unfortunately, the camera doesn't include many features outside of digital zoom and white balance adjustment. The clamshell does offer many ways to transfer and send images including MMS, PictBridge and Bluetooth.
Our favorite: Plenty of transfer methods to choose from.
Our request: Better image quality.
Video - Mediocre
Video was by far the most disappointing feature on the M510. Sprint TV clips and movie trailers were very blocky and grainy, and hiccupped several times in every video we viewed. Videos took a while to load and often froze, so we had to stop and try again. While we were pleased that the M510 displayed video in both landscape and portrait modes, the phone's sub-par screen didn't help matters. We were also surprised at the lack of playback controls for video. You could move back and forth between channels and stop. That's it, there are no rewind, fast forward or even pause functions. We were also disappointed that the Sprint Movie Store access that we liked on the M610 was not included on the M510. Though the M510 supports stereo Bluetooth, it didn't work with video clips.
Our favorite: Slim pickings in this category, although we have to appreciate the portrait and landscape display capabilities.
Our request: Where do we begin? Better video quality would be a start, and some playback controls would be nice.
Audio - Good
The M510 fared much better in terms of music. We liked the speedy over-the-air downloads from Sprint's Music Store, and found a decent selection of tracks once we dug through our fair share of menus. Transferring tracks from our computer to the phones was a breeze with a microSD card. The M510 also offers up streaming music from Sirus satellite radio and other sources. These came through clearly using our Samsung stereo headset and our Motorola HT820 stereo Bluetooth headset. However, we first tried pairing the M510 with our Plantronics Pulsar 260 headset but encountered some compatibility issues. Better than the video options, the M510 includes a number of audio playback options, including shuffle and repeat, but we would have liked to see an equalizer. One thing we weren't too fond of was that our tunes were trapped behind the Sprint Music Store, meaning we'd have to enter the store to find our purchased music and playlists. We also thought that the audio interface was a bit on the bland side; just a sea of black and white lists and links, without any color or personality.
Our favorite: Good sound quality and speedy over-the-air downloads.
Our request: A prettier interface that isn't hidden behind the Sprint Music store
Multimedia - Good
Multimedia proved to be a mixed bag on the M510. The phones Web browser seemed a bit slow, even though the clamshell supports Sprint's EV-DO network. As expected, the handset could open The New York Times homepage, sans pictures. On the other hand, the M510 did open our graphically rich, infoSync World homepage, but changed the format to a list that was clear to read, but required a great deal of scrolling.
The Samsung M510 also features GPS powered by Telenav, but our signal wasn't particularly strong and wasn't able to point out our location when we were sitting inside our office. However, when we activated the Weather Channel app, the phones GPS was able to track us down and we were able to receive our local weather forecasts.
Unlike many other carriers that are extremely stingy with the accessories, Sprint throws in a 64MB microSD card and a 2.5mm headset adapter for the phones proprietary connector. However, the carrier failed to throw in a headset, so if you don't have a stereo Bluetooth headset, you'll be forced to listen to your songs through the phones small speaker.
Our favorite: A capable Web browser and bundled accessories.
Our request: A bundled stereo headset.
Price and availability
The Samsung SPH-M510 is available immediately from Sprint and retails for $50 with a two-year service contract.
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