Samsung's SGH-S100 is the sibling of the popular SGH-T100, but with a more serious twist to it. Oliver Thylmann has gotten acquainted with it, and is left with mixed feelings.
As the two first in a range of new phones from Samsung with a new design, the SGH-T100 and SGH-S100 has received quite a bit of attention from the media - including infoSync - as they've spearheaded Samsung's fresh and new approach to the European market. First, we reviewed the SGH-T100, and now I'm taking a closer look at the business-oriented model of the two; the SGH-S100.
 | The Samsung SGH-S100 has a good feature set, but might not be what business users are looking for
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The Samsung SGH-S100 comes in a package similar to the SGH-T100, which includes the phone itself, a travel adapter, one thin and one standard battery, a hand strap, a handsfree set, a data cable and a CD-ROM with software. Sadly, it doesn't come in the same jewelry type of case as the SGH-T100, but seeing as how the SGH-S100's enhanced capabilities make it more of a business phone than a consumer phone like the SGH-T100, people who'd want to buy it wouldn't care much about this anyway. So, let's put appearances aside, and instead take a look at whether it's practical or not.
In relation to the SGH-T100, the SGH-S100 is a tri-band (GSM 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) GPRS capable phone with a brilliant 16-bit color screen with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels, and an IR port. The phone weighs only 94 g with the slim battery attached, and measures 89 x 46 x 23 mm. Unfortunately, it also has a relatively big antenna, while standby and call times come out as advertised, topping at 180 hours of standby with the standard battery. Obviously, the screen draws quite a bit of power and the more you use it, the shorter your standby time will get.
The phone includes a WAP 1.2 capable browser, T9 predictive text input, EMS, vibration, a calendar, todo list, memo function and calculator. As is the case with the SGH-T100, ringtones will delight your ears in 16-voice polyphony. To top it all off, users will be able to download and install J2ME applications - 300 KB worth of them to be exact.
As mentioned previously, the package includes a CD with software called EasyGPRS which, after being installed on your Windows desktop or laptop, gives you access to the phone for use as a GPRS modem, to upload new ring tones or images, as well as to synchronize the phone book or read, prepare and send SMS messages. The application is nicely done and easy to use, adding quite a bit of easily accessible functionality to the phone when used together with a computer.
For people who don't use Outlook or Lotus Notes to manage their contacts, the application might be all they need. For a business user, however, or anyone that wants to carry all their contacts and have them in sync for that matter, the outlook isn't all that bright. The phone does not have an address book, but just a phone book with room for 3 numbers and an e-mail address per entry, and it does not sync with anything else except for this particular Samsung application. This means that people who want to sync with Outlook or Lotus Notes are out of luck. EasyGPRS claims to be able to import addresses from the Windows address book, but this crashed the application when we tried - and nevertheless, it would be a very clumsy solution even if it worked.
This puts a real damper on the business side of the phone, since synchronization with a desktop or laptop is very important if you carry arround a lot of contacts - and don't even think about syncronizing the calendar or todo list. In case you do not need to synchronize to a major PIM application, this is of course a mute point. On the bright side, a nice feature in the S100 is that you can set up 10 caller groups, with their own ring tones as well as images, which will be played or shown when any person assigned to a specified group calls.
Another thing to ponder is whether you really need a screen that has more colors than can be displayed at the same time. 4,096 colors is plenty, and 65,536 might feel like overdoing it (as much as I love the graphical niceness). The screen is brilliant though, with great resolution, fresh colors and the option to choose a wallpaper as well as what background to use in the animated menu structure. This structure is very easy to follow, whilst keys are well placed and have very good tactile feedback. Shortcuts can be assigned to most keys, providing quick access to applications - once you learn what key goes where. The top part of the keypad is also well spaced, which makes the phone very usable even for people with big thumbs. To top it off, GPRS works flawlessly and the color screen obviously makes reading WAP sites a very pleasant experience.
Conclusion
The SGH-S100 tries to be a business phone, but it's not. It does not have a full address book, nor does it synchronize with standard PIM applications - two things that are, in my book, a must for a business type phone. At a price point of 600 EUR, it's not a cheap phone, but if you don't care about lack of synchronization, yo do get a very good feature set in a small form factor. Likely, it will end up being a matter of taste - and as they say, you can't argue about taste.
- What's positive: Brilliant color screen, polyphonic ringtones, numerous accessories
- What's negative: Limited address book, no PIM synchronization, expensive
| Features | 7/10 |
| Exterior | 7/10 |
| Ergonomics | 7/10 |
| Performance | 7/10 |
| Value: | 6/10 |
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iSW Score:
6.8/10 |
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