Slip-slidin' away: join Anthony Newman as he drools over luscious design of the Samsung SGH-E800, and discover why sliders are the way forward.
As Samsung claims the number two spot in phone manufacturers from Motorola, the proof has finally arrived that the Korean company's strong design ethos is finally paying off. Let's check out one of the fruits of this labour, the slidalicious SGH-E800 consumer handset.
 | The Samsung SGH-E800's sliding mechanism is absolutely excellent
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Exterior
Although it measures a distinctly petite 87 x 45 x 24, and weighs 85 g, the SGH-E800 looks even smaller than it is thanks to the sliding design it adopts. Because the keypad is hidden, the front face is free to be dominated by Samsung's typically excellent screen, which is a clear and bright 16-bit TFT running at 128 x 160 resolution. Sitting underneath this are the navigation keys, including a four-way keypad with WAP button, two soft buttons, a clear key and call / hangup buttons. These offer great feedback and are of a good size, too.
The left side of the unit holds a spacious volume rocker in silver, while on the other side we find a dedicated camera button - which as a nice touch against in-pocket activation requires a long press to launch. Next to this is the headset socket, disguised as a button.
The sliding mechanism is absolutely excellent. It's semi-automatic, with just enough resistance to be satisfying, and the action is aided by a thin rubber strip against which to push. When open, a decent sized keypad is revealed, backlit in white and giving the user good clicky feedback without being too loud. Best of all, the top layer of the phone doesn't get in the way of the buttons, and the phone remains balanced in use.
The integrated VGA camera is protected by the slider when closed, lurking behind the screen. It includes an LED flash and a vanity mirror for self portraits. Incidentally, the slider activates calls, and because the navigation keys are located on the top layer, the phone can be used in the closed position.
Ergonomics
Oh, the E800 does feel lovely to hold. It's like a silky bar of soap. Everyone we showed it to 'oohed' suitably, and the slider mechanism provides hours of fun for both left- and right-handed people. The E800 feels very sturdy, easy to operate and the keys are, as we have said, excellent. In the pocket, the screen is vulnerable, unlike on a clamshell, but on the plus side, the slider mechanism was never activated by accident.
Features
Bizarrely in this day and age, the SGH-E800 only has dual-band 900 / 1800 MHz GSM, backed by Class 10 GPRS for use with the WAP browser or for MMS. An infrared port is included, which can be used with the included sync software, but Bluetooth is sadly missing - our one major gripe with a phone that we've come to love dearly. Power for the phone is supplied by a replaceable 500 mAh Lithium Ion battery.
A VGA camera is included, with 4x digital zoom and a load of effects and options to keep any budding snapper happy. The viewfinder is fast and the output isn't bad, and low-light shooting is helped by the LED flash. Potential buyers should note that only the SGH-D500 and SGH-D410, the SGH-E800's bigger brothers, boast higher resolutions and video recording.
Ringtones are taken care of by a large range of truly excellent 64-tone polyphonics, which share a hefty 22 MB of RAM with phones and MMS. 1.3 MB is available for games, while 200 SMS can be stored. The phonebook is also not dynamic, but can store 1000 names complete with multiple fields, custom ringtones, photo ID and grouping.
Java gaming is supported, with two games included - Snowball Fight and BubbleSmile. Performance is acceptable, although we'd still rather use a console. MMS also makes an appearance, with an easy-to-use composer. A suite of standard utilities and a WAP browser rounds things off.
Performance
Samsung's operating system has always been excellent, with logical menu flow, quick-launch buttons, pretty graphics and a sterling combination of speed and stability. No change here: the SGH-E800 will rapidly become home from home.
In terms of sound quality, the SGH-E800 was good. Samsung claim a variety of new technologies have been introduced here, from automatic volume control and noise cancellation to an echo-cancelling speakerphone mode. The results aren't a revelation, but overall quality proved good with more than sufficient volume, even in speakerphone mode.
Reception also proved good, even in marginal areas, despite the intenna. Battery performance was not so good, as we'd expect from such a small power source. With moderate use, we eked nearly three days of use from the SGH-E800, which is typical Samsung. The manufacturer claims 5 days of standby and 2.5 hours of talktime.
Availability
The Samsung SGH-E800 is at the time of writing available in most European countries, selling for approximately 425 USD.
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