Samsung B3310

Style & Handling Summary for Samsung B3310
Despite its full QWERTY keyboard, the Samsung B3310 is a compact little phone, and that straight row of number keys really marks it out as something different.

User Friendliness Summary
Those numeric keys are fairly difficult to use, and the QWERTY keyboard is rather dinky.

Feature Set Summary
The full QWERTY keyboard is the best feature her. It’s joined by shortcuts to Facebook and MySpace, and a two-megapixel camera.

Performance Summary
The EDGE data speeds are slow, and the camera low-spec.

Battery Power Summary
Battery life is average, with 300 minutes’ talktime and 380 hours’ standby.

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung B3310

It’s a bit of a risk for manufacturers to release a phone with a completely different design. On the one hand, people may love its novelty; on the other, it can put off more people than it attracts and end up being just a novelty phone. The Samsung B3310 is certainly different, and a budget social networking device to boot – so how does it do?
Style and handling on the Samsung B3310

The Samsung B3310’s design innovation is that the numeric keypad runs along the left-hand side of the phone in one row. It’s definitely different but there is a reason for it. Slide out the QWERTY keypad and that row of numbers makes up a fourth, numeric row on your keypad. What is a good idea in theory doesn’t always work in practice.

There will be plenty of occasions when you want to make a quick call and not slide out the keypad, and typing in numbers in this format is a slow and unnatural process. And when you are using the QWERTY, the numbers are printed at a 45° angle to make them readable in both landscape and portrait formats – in truth, they’re difficult to read in either.

The keyboard is also somewhat fiddly, especially for fatter-fingered users (this phone is definitely targeted at the youth market). But when you do slide it out, the screen switches quickly and smoothly from portrait to landscape.
Shortcuts on the Samsung B3310

A slim toolbar runs across the bottom of the screen with shortcuts including inbox, compose a new text message, Facebook and MySpace. Access them by scrolling with the D-pad. It seems a bit odd to have MySpace included and not Twitter, but maybe we’re not the best demographic to judge.

Web browsing is not designed for heavy usage. There’s no 3G, making loading websites a slow process, and the two-inch screen is rather small for viewing and requires lots of scrolling.
Camera on the Samsung B3310

The camera is basic at best, with a two-megapixel resolution and no flash. It does have a little mirror on the back, which is apparently good for lining up self-portraits – it’s certainly too small to check your appearance.

The zoom keys, which are also the volume keys, are on the left-hand side within easy access of your thumb. You can alter the settings manually or use the auto settings – the former option worked best for us. For example, indoor snaps were drained on auto setting, but switching to fluorescent manually worked much better.
The verdict on the Samsung B3310

We admire Samsung for trying something different, and the row of numeric keys is a noble effort, if ultimately disappointing. There are bound to be some people who love it, and the price is certainly right, but we can’t see it taking off in the mainstream market.

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Samsung Wave S8500

Style & Handling Summary for Samsung Wave S8500
The look of the Wave is Samsung through and through, from the aluminium casing to the impressive screen. Luckily, TouchWiz has undergone an upgrade, which makes it far less clunky than it once was.

User Friendliness Summary for Samsung Wave S8500
It’s easy to set up all your social networking and email accounts but while Samsung regulars will have no problem picking up the new user interface, newcomers may find the widget-only home screens and non-customisable apps menu frustrating.

Feature Set Summary for Samsung Wave S8500
The Wave has an impressive array of features: the fantastic super-AMOLED display, a 1Ghz processor and a five megapixel camera join forces with the social networking aggregator Social Hub.

Performance Summary for Samsung Wave S8500
Occasional freezing and automatic shutdown of applications mar an otherwise impeccable performance.

Battery Power Summary for Samsung Wave S8500
No smartphone has a very long battery life. The Wave will last about a day, less if you listen to lots of music or watch videos.

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Wave S8500

The Samsung Wave is full of contradictions. As the flagship smartphone for the manufacturer’s bada open-source operating system it has a few teething problems, but nevertheless it’s a powerful, good-looking device with top-notch social networking features.
Style and handling on the Samsung Wave S8500

When it comes to appearance, the Samsung Wave has lots to recommend it. You can’t fail to notice its ‘super-AMOLED’ display: a clean, bright screen that looks amazing. The ‘super’ is put into AMOLED by using fewer layers of glass and bringing the LED lights closer to the surface of the screen, meaning that reflection and glare are reduced significantly, even in direct sunlight.

The 3.3-inch screen – which sits well in the slim, aluminium alloy and plastic device, is made of tempered glass and feels smooth when you swipe it. In fact, it’s Samsung’s best capacitive screen so far: quick, accurate and responsive. Even the keyboard, traditionally a sticking point with Samsung phones, feels superb. Auto-correct works well, although more obscure words will need a little more clicking as you cannot insert a new word without adding it to the dictionary first. Annoyingly, you have to switch over to a symbols screen even to add a full stop, and pressing the space bar doesn’t automatically take you back to the main keyboard.

Multi-touch support makes zooming a smooth, intuitive process. Our favourite little extra is the puzzle-themed unlock screen. Your missed calls and messages display as a jigsaw piece that you move to the hole in the puzzle to unlock the phone and go straight to that call or text.

Thanks to the 1Ghz processor, you can run around eight programs simultaneously without really slowing doesn’t, although running a lot of data-heavy programs can make it lag a bit. And if it gets too much, the phone automatically shuts down widgets running in the background, which is annoying. Usually, though, it gives you the option of ending programs manually, which you do by holding down the central button to see all running apps.

At the top of the device are a microSD card slot, protected by a sliding cover, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the sides sit dedicated buttons for the camera and for locking the phone.
TouchWiz on the Samsung Wave S8500

Despite the shiny newness of the hardware and OS, Samsung’s creaky old TouchWiz interface makes its appearance – fortunately it’s a v3.0 upgrade, which hides the toolbar discreetly so you no longer get accidental instructions. Drag and drop is more fluid and you can add up to ten home screens that you can customise with widgets. You can’t add app shortcuts – it goes into an all programs menu that spreads over several screens, although you can’t change the order of the apps like you can on an iPhone.

Despite the upgrade, TouchWiz still feels restrictive. But there’s a new range of widgets including news from the BBC, FT and The Register, a birthday reminder that feeds from your contacts book and Facebook, and a great little widget called Days, that aggregates information from the Diary, Task and Memo apps into a single view of one day.
Social networking on the Samsung Wave S8500

The Samsung Wave’s big selling point is Social Hub, a social integration app that is the most fully-featured social networking feature anywhere. It lets you add phonebook contacts over the air from Microsoft Exchange, Gmail and Yahoo! as well as adding and syncing contacts from Facebook, Twitter and Windows Live. The phone will then match up contacts with your phone book if they have the same email address – although not from Facebook or Twitter, oddly. And unlike HTC’s Sense phones, the Wave won’t match contacts based on name alone so you have to manually sync those contacts for whom you don’t have email addresses to avoid having the same person in three times.

We like the feature that allows you to text a contact by sliding your finger to the right of the name or call them by sliding left. There’s also the Buddies Now widget, that puts your favourite contacts on the home screen with a picture and their latest status update. From there you can comment on the status or call the contact.

There are bada-specific Twitter and Facebook apps preloaded, which are fully featured, although an annoying glitch in Facebook means event invitations only display as Yes/No/Maybe buttons, giving you no clue as to what the events actually are.

The universal calendar syncs your Facebook and Microsoft Exchange calendars into a handy single view. And when you create an event, you can invite friends from any of your contact books, which is so far a unique feature.

Of course, we expect Push notifications, but what’s really amazing is being able to view your communication history with each contact from their entry in your contacts book. Text, email, Facebook and instant messaging are all listed, as well as status updates and posted albums.

One problem that seems to beset social networking smartphones is simply making a phone call, and the Wave is no different. To make a call you have to hit the phonebook icon, press search to find the person and tap again. Messaging is easier: you can send a message directly from the keypad.
Navigation on the Samsung Wave S8500

Where the Samsung Wave falls down is on navigation. You have to pay for routes and directions from Samsung’s preloaded maps application and can’t even get Google Maps. The Samsung maps are not as detailed as Google or Ovi maps, and look cartoonish. Really it’s only good for use when you’re in a new place and need to find your bearings – you can search for addresses, there are points of interest icons you tap for more details, and you can search using keywords or points of interest. One good feature is the integration with the calendar, meaning you can map any address in an event profile.

Getting a fix on your location is quick and accurate, but the map interface is data heavy and is one of the first apps to freeze when the Wave started to become overwhelmed.

Pinch your fingers together to zoom in the maps and the HTML web browser, which gives you a desktop-like view. Pages loaded in less than five seconds over Wi-Fi, and pictures rendered beautifully, and autofit means all your text fits on the page even when you zoom in. There’s also copy and paste, like you see on the iPhone and HTC Desire, but not as well implemented and takes some time to use smoothly.
Camera on the Samsung Wave S8500

The five-megapixel camera produces vivid, clear pictures with nice warm colours. There are lots of different modes including night and portrait modes, all with explanations and tips on how to use them. Pictures taken in low light conditions have good colour, but are slightly fuzzy once you zoom in. The flash is prone to overexposure, although this is true of most camera phones.

You can record and play back high-definition video, which delivers surprisingly impressive results, although the framerate decreases in low light. The video player has support for both DivX and Xvid, which makes for crisp, vivid movie watching on that super-AMOLED display.

For downloading apps, Samsung Apps marketplace is preloaded, although as yet there’s not much choice. With the exception of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, which are also preloaded, nearly every big-name app is missing from the App Store, although companies such as EA Mobile are starting to get on board with bada, so this will hopefully change very soon.
The verdict on the Samsung Wave S8500

The Samsung Wave certainly has a lot going for it: your contacts pulled together into one place, different apps working together – and that beautiful, responsive touch-screen. There are flaws – even upgraded, TouchWiz is clunky, and the customisation options could be better, but there are an impressive number of preloaded widgets. All in all it’s a very useable and fun phone. You just need to get to grips with its quirks.

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Samsung Monte

Style & Handling Summary for Samsung Monte
It looks expensive, but pick the Samsung Monte up and it feels insubstantial and flimsy.

User Friendliness Summary for Samsung Monte
We like the updated TouchWiz interface, but the lack of a QWERTY keyboard hampers the experience.

Feature Set Summary for Samsung Monte
The Monte’s features belie its price tag: a three-inch capacitive touch-screen, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA internet connectivity and social networking shortcuts.

Performance Summary for Samsung Monte
The Samsung Monte struggles to support its software, and internet especially can be slow.

Battery Power Summary for Samsung Monte
298 minutes’ talktime is around average.


Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Monte

Touch-screen phones are rolling off of Samsung’s production line in a steady stream at the moment. The latest is the Monte, another phone being marketed by Samsung as an affordable touch-screen phone. Only this one has a lots going on, including a capacitive touch-screen.

Style and handling on the Samsung Monte

The Samsung Monte most closely resembles the Samsung Jet in appearance, with its shiny black finish and silver trim (it’s also available with orange trim if you prefer), although its corners are more tucked away. It’s a sleek-looking handset all in all – it’s only when you pick it up that it betrays its low price point. The lightweight, plasticky feel of the Monte in your hand feels flimsy, and we doubt it could withstand much in the way of knocks and bumps.

The screen measures a comfortable three inches, so we can’t work out why Samsung omitted to include a virtual QWERTY keyboard. Even when you’re using the phone in landscape mode, you have to rely on T9 predictive text, with a keyboard squeezed into the right-hand side. This is particularly difficult when trying to enter a web address, for example, but Samsung have included handy dedicated keys for ‘www’ and ‘.com’ to make the going easier. Still, we would much prefer a QWERTY keyboard.

Capacitive touch-screen on the Samsung Monte

Most lower-priced touch-screen phones come with the cheaper but inferior resistive screen; the Samsung Monte, however, boasts a capacitive screen. This is a far superior option, letting you scroll pages or move icons with a light swipe of your hand. It’s especially good when you swipe between the three customisable home screens; and you can flick around the screens in a continuous line, not have to go backwards once you’ve reached the third screen.

Despite the capacitive screen, though, there’s no multi-touch facility, which is a shame.

Like most Samsung phones, the TouchWiz user interface is installed, although the pull-out sidebar has been replaced by a widget icon on the top left of the home screen. Press the icon to reveal a scrollable menu at the bottom of the screen. It’s not unlike the old system – you still drag and drop your selected icons onto the preferred home screen – but it’s a welcome update to the sidebar system, which we felt had become dated.

Internet on the Samsung Monte

We were delighted to find that the Samsung Monte has both HSDPA and Wi-Fi internet connectivity; in a phone costing less than £100, that’s a good deal. So it was a little disappointing when the web experience was less than impressive. Images weren’t as crisp as we would have expected, and even over a Wi-Fi connection pages struggled to load while we were scrolling. Things got much better when we opted for the mobile-optimised versions of websites, especially image-heavy pages – they loaded much quicker and the end result was sharper. Saying that, though, streamed programmes through BBC iPlayer worked beautifully with no buffering and no lag.

Zooming in and out was problematic too. You don’t have the familiar option of using the volume keys, so have to hold your finger on the screen and slide up to zoom in and down to zoom out again. It’s fine in theory, but if our fingers slipped we found ourselves inadvertently opening hyperlinks.

We’ve come to expect social networking integration on phone these days, and the Monte provides shortcuts to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. You can publish feeds directly to the home screen but if you want to update them you have to do it manually by pressing the green refresh button on the screen.

Instant messaging is also well covered. The superb Palringo application is preloaded, which aggregates Facebook Chat, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger. It works well, but remember that you’ll be typing on a T9 keypad.

Camera on the Samsung Monte

The camera is an average 3.2 megapixels with no flash, so isn’t about to replace your digital camera. The lens also protrudes from the body of the phone slightly, leaving a worrying potential for damage. There are lots of handy settings, though, including a particularly good Sports setting that helps to capture moving objects. The video camera isn’t half bad either, and can be launched easily by pressing the icon in the top left-hand corner.

The onboard A-GPS finds a fix quickly and routes just as rapidly. Google Maps helps you find your way, while Google Latitude lets you display your location to selected contacts as well as seeing theirs.

The verdict on the Samsung Monte

Despite its high-end features like the capacitive screen, Wi-Fi and HSDPA, and A-GPS, you have to keep in mind that the Samsung Monte is a low-cost phone. The features are a great addition to a handset costing under £100, the bodywork feels cheap and the features fail to reach their potential. However, think of it as a budget phone with extras, and you’ll feel much happier.

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Samsung Galaxy S

Style and handling summary for Samsung Galaxy S review
The Galaxy S is certainly a looker, with its vibrant four-inch screen. However, it might be worth investing in a protective case because it’s surprisingly light.

User friendliness summary for Samsung Galaxy S review
It’s easy to find your way around the Galaxy S’s bursting bag of features, thanks to the menu systems, and even setting up email is easy – just type in your address and password.

Feature set summary for Samsung Galaxy S review
With a feature set including a powerful processor, stunning Super AMOLED display, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, A-GPS, a five-megapixel camera and access to the Android Market, the Samsung Galaxy S boasts enough to make any smartphone envious.

Performance summary for Samsung Galaxy S review
The Samsung Galaxy S impressed on all counts, although gaining an A-GPS fix took longer than we had hoped.

Battery power summary for Samsung Galaxy S review
Battery performance was average with 390 minutes of talktime (3G) and 576 hours (3G) of standby time.


Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy S
The full Samsung Galaxy S Review

Running on Android 2.1, and with its giant Super AMOLED display, powerful processor, and excellent multimedia functions, what's not to like about the Samsung Galaxy S ?

When Apple brings out a new iPhone, it's usually a signal for other handset manufacturers to up their game if they want to compete. And for a while now, we've felt that Samsung hasn't quite been stepping up to the plate, introducing good, but not excellent phones. While we weren't completely in love with Samsung's Wave, we can now declare that we are completely enamoured with its latest offering - the Samsung Galaxy S .

Back to basics
First, let's look at the basics. The Samsung Galaxy S is a capacitive touch-screen handset with a massive four-inch screen. Putting it ahead of the pack is Android 2.1 (aka Éclair) - most Google phones run on 1.6. In the recent past, we've not been kind about Samsung's designs as we've found them all much of a muchness. The Jet blends into the Blade, which blends into to the Monte, and so on. However, the Galaxy S is like no other, well actually, don't say this too loudly, but it's rather like an iPhone - an iPhone 3GS we should say, not an iPhone 4.

While Samsung may not thank us for making the comparison, remember that the iPhone is an eye-catching handset. The back of the Samsung Galaxy S feels like tempered glass, with a slight chin at the bottom of the handset. We're assuming this helps to protect the camera lens by lifting it slightly when the phone is placed on a hard surface. The Galaxy S feels light - in fact it's so light that you might want to splash out on a protective case - we'd be worried if the phone got dropped on the floor.

Your experience of this kind of phone depends on the touch-screen, and happily the Galaxy S has one of the most fluid and responsive screens we've ever used. The only front-facing keys on this device are a touch-responsive menu key, a sunken (and very slightly creaky) D-Pad, and a back button. After all, with a touch-screen this effective, who needs a load of hard keys? However, it is a shame there's no dedicated camera key. We'll go into the camera in more detail later, but as phone cameras are invariably used for spontaneous snaps, it seems a bit of a faff to have to go into the Galaxy S's main menu to start up the camera. By the time you've done that, it's likely the moment will have passed.

Super AMOLED display
The vibrant screen is one of the Galaxy X's top features. It's so stunning, you might find yourself unlocking it just to marvel at its sparkling beauty. Icons are crisp and look like you could reach in and take them out of the display. The seven home screens can be customised with a wide choice of wallpapers and ‘live' backgrounds (as well as your own photos). The odd thing is you can't add a different background to each home screen. Okay, so once you start putting different widgets and shortcuts on each page, you'll be able to differentiate between the screens pretty easily, but it does seem a touch strange.

Of course, because it's an Android device, Galaxy S owners can get themselves an ever-increasing number of apps from the Android Market. That's lucky, because Samsung's own app store has a pretty poor number on offer. However, it's early days yet, so we'll give Samsung time to improve their offering. However, with the Android Market to browse through, we can't see buyers knocking on the door of Samsung's store. We also really like the way you can assign specific folders to your home screens - in the same way as you would on a Mac or PC. Set up a folder of contacts for your footie team, for instance, or for work contacts. It's easy to add a folder, widget or shortcut; just hold your finger down on the home screen until a menu option pops up.

Finger-friendly
The touch-screen makes it simple to swipe between screens, and it also boasts one of the most finger-friendly virtual QWERTY keyboards we've used. Turn the handset into landscape mode and you'll get a more sizeable keyboard, but even in portrait mode it was easy to bash out texts and emails with few errors. A nice touch is the ‘@" and ‘.com' keys that are automatically added to the keyboard when you're typing in an email address field, and a ‘www' when typing in a URL. Samsung has come up with a new way to type, with its ‘Swype'.

We have to admit that we were sceptical at first, but no more. This is how it works; drag your finger from one letter to another. Lift your finger off the keyboard and your word is spelled out before your eyes. Adding punctuation is a bit tedious, so is likely to be overlooked, but it's an innovative idea and works really well. The only minor problem is that on occasions your finger blocks the next letter you want to slide to.

We found setting up emails a doddle - just enter an email address and password. It's possible to set how often mail is sent to your handset (anywhere between once an hour and every five minutes). You can also choose to manually ‘pull' messages when you need them. The Samsung Galaxy S supports multiple accounts, and the pre-embedded ThinkFree Write app means you can read Word documents attached to emails. At the top of the screen, the notifications bar is where you will be alerted to any emails or messages, as on other Android phones. There's an added twist on the Galaxy S, as Samsung has added one-button access to switch on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as a Silent and Vibration mode.

Web browsing
Browsing the internet is speedy on the Galaxy S, whether it's on Wi-Fi or via HSDPA - thanks mainly to the ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor. Of course, such a fantastic screen enhances any internet experience, and being able to open multiple pages and search for specific words are added bonuses. And because the Galaxy S is an Android 2.1 phone, you can enjoy the same pinch and pull multi-touch facility that iPhone users benefit from. It works really well, allowing you to zoom in and out of a web page with ease. An additional treat is that you can click on the microphone next to the web address bar and use voice activation to start a Google search. We'd like to see people's faces when you shout "football' at your phone on the bus, but it does work well. It's just a shame that Android 2.1 is still not able to play Flash video -but the 2.2 upgrade should sort that out when it happens.
Multimedia capabilities

While the Galaxy S is lacking Flash video, in its favour it does have a dedicated YouTube app - and we loved it. Videos were streamed immediately, and on the high quality setting the clarity is amazing. In fact, we're not sure why you'd ever use the normal quality option. The Galaxy S proves itself a multimedia giant, supporting all major video formats and including a 3.5mm headset jack, so you can plug in your earphones if you want (mind you, the included set is pretty decent). The device is also DLNA compatible, so you can remotely play movies and music, and slideshow any pictures you have saved on your phone on a big screen, as long as it is DLNA certified.

Video recording is also made to impress, shooting HD 720p@30fps - that's DVD quality to the layman. Impressive shots were also taken by the five-megapixel camera, which offers a host of features to help you make the most of your images. The touch focus is a particular favourite - want a particular area of the photo to be sharper? Just touch it! Face and smile detection worked well too. The missing flash is a bit of a shame, but it has to be said that Android phones are not generally known for their cameras, and the Galaxy S is no exception.

What we found most disappointing was the sat nav offering. While the Galaxy S has assisted-GPS, it took a long time to get a fix - pretty surprising considering the ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor. However, once it achieved its fix, it was consistent and the massive screen and the wide choice of navigation apps from the Android Market make it a contender when it comes to replacing a dedicated sat nav device.

The verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S makes it into our phones of the year list - it's one of the most powerful smartphones we've seen, and the screen is stunning. Its design is not its strongest point, but it's good-looking enough, and the web browsing experience more than makes up for it - especially with the added bonus of multi-touch thanks to Android 2.1. But what we were most impressed with were the multimedia capabilities of the Galaxy S.

Videos look exceptional on the large Super AMOLED screen - whether you've shot them yourself, side-loaded onto your phone, or streamed via YouTube. Being able to watch them on a compatible computer or TV via DLNA is a bonus. Let us sum this up - if you want an all-singing, all-dancing handset that doesn't have any kind of fruit in its name, choosing the Samsung Galaxy S is a no-brainer.

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Samsung Galaxy Europa

Style and handling summary for Samsung Galaxy Europa review
Smooth, slim and alluring, the Galaxy Europa boasts the kind of style some more expensive phones can only dream about

User friendliness summary for Samsung Galaxy Europa review
Android is pretty simple to use, and Samsung's skin serves to complement it without making any huge differences. It's a shame about the small screen though.

Feature set summary for Samsung Galaxy Europa review
The Europa has a pretty decent set of features, although multi-touch capability is missing and the camera is worse than mediocre.

Performance summary for Samsung Galaxy Europa review
You'll find faster processors on similar phones, and it shows occasionally in the Europa's slightly sluggish performance

Battery power summary for Samsung Galaxy Europa review
Battery life is better than many Androids - you should get a full day's use, and take the phone into the next day, on one charge

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy Europa

If you were a fan of the curvy design of the Samsung Corby, the latest budget Android device may be right up your street. If you're not familiar with it, the Corby - although with a far more glamorous façade here - is a slender candybar phone with barely a straight edge in sight. It was a nice enough phone, but the Galaxy Europa surpasses it - it's smooth and strokable, like a comforting worrystone.

First impressions

The Galaxy Europa looks businesslike and smart, thanks to its dark chrome frame and the black edge around the 2.8in touchscreen. It features the latest version of the Android operating system - 2.1. While the screen is colourful and light, it is just an LED and lacks the stunning images of the AMOLED screens on Samsung's handsets. There's the usual four buttons - search, back, menu and home. Remember where they are, because they are not backlit, so if you're using your phone in a low-light situation you'll have to find them by touch! There are another two buttons to start and end phone calls, and finally there's a direction pad - a square with round corners - and a confirmation button in its centre. That's a lot of buttons for a touchscreen device!

Android OS

Samsung has not done much in the way of dressing up the basic Android system - but then this is a pretty new version of the software. You'll find seven home screens with a bundle of shortcuts on the first one. When you scroll between the homescreen, you'll find that three of the icons continue to stay in view - Phone, Apps List and Contacts. That's because despite all these physical buttons, none of them leads you to the dialler - you'll need to tap the phone icon for that. Mind you. It's not so bad as at least every home screen has a dialler.

Bonuses courtesy of Samsung include an apps list that can scroll sideways (like the Samsung Galaxy S) as well as some very useful shortcuts lurking behind the window shade that switch Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off and turn on both vibrate and silent profiles. Social media fans will like the Social Hub, which mixes your Google info with MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and so on, so you can gather all your contacts' details.

Many budget phones cut costs by opting for the cheaper resistive touchscreen or deciding not to include Wi-Fi, but Samsung has managed to include Wi-Fi and provide a capacitive display, so how has it saved money? Well, you don't get the benefit of multitouch, so if you're a fan of pinching and zooming, you might feel the Galaxy Europa is lacking, However, we found the double-tap facility worked just fine - and as the phone fits text to the size of the screen, it still looks good.

Make it snappy

You can take photos with the handset if you want, but the camera is evidently where Samsung cut some of its costs - it offers just 2 megapixels and has no flash.

It's also lacking in the processor department. Smartphones so often have 1GHz processors, but the Europa's 600MHz chip might seem a tad sluggish. In practice, it rarely appears slow in use, but it's not as lightning quick as some of the top-of-the-range devices.

The verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Europa is an excellent handset for its price. If you're looking for a budget Android device, the HTC Wildfire is still superior, but the Europa comes a very respectable second. It's got all the other features you would expect of it, including a 3.5mm headphone jack. And of course, it's got those good looks...

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Samsung Solid Extreme

Style and handling summary for Samsung Solid Extreme review
Phones that are designed to be rugged often end up looking cheap, but Samsung has managed to make this one look almost classy.

User friendliness summary for Samsung Solid Extreme review
The rubber buttons are simple to use, and the menus are easy to access.

Feature set summary for Samsung Solid Extreme review
While it lacks GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G, it does have an added microphone for noise cancellation. It even has a torch, and the handset is dust-, water- and shock-resistant.

Performance summary for Samsung Solid Extreme review
There's nothing complicated about this handset and it does a good job at being tough.

Battery power summary for Samsung Solid Extreme review
Because there are no advanced, energy-draining facilities, the Solid has a long battery life - unless you keep that torch on.

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Solid Extreme
Were you just born clumsy? Have you got through more mobile phones than hot dinners, cracked the screen on an iPhone or dropped it on a too-hard surface? Then you might like to think about getting a ruggedised phone

Yes, this is the kind of phone that can handle a fall to the floor, or being dropped into a cup of extra-strength tea. The Solid Extreme is a classic ruggedised phone - it has a rubberised case to protect it from your clumsiness, as well as bright red edges that make it easy to find. It also has some unexpected and rather unusual features and a small (1.77in), low-res screen that is kept safely behind a protective plastic lens.

First impressions
Unlike your average mobile, the Solid Extreme has a large loop at the top, so that it can be attached to a lanyard, as well as a lock on the back to keep its insides safe from water and damp. For added security, the back can only be opened using a coin. Samsung claims the phone is waterproof in depths up to one metre for half an hour - so if you drop it in a puddle it should be fine. We put it to the test by sitting it in a bowl of water, where it happily stayed, with its screen still on, and no signs of bubbles to suggest that any water was getting in.

We decided that trying to find some scaffolding to drop the phone from (which would have been a realistic real-world test) was rather troublesome, so instead we dropped the Solid Extreme out of a first floor window onto some tarmac. We were rather nervous doing it, but the handset survived - it had a few scuff marks, which we rubbed off, and only had a small graze on its rubberized edge and a small scratch on the plastic display to show for its adventures. You could hardly notice them and the phone still worked perfectly.

Functions
So what little surprises did it have in store for us? These unusual features are always a given on ruggedised phones and the Solid Extreme is no exception. Sadly, it doesn't have the compass that we used to find on Nokia's tough phones but it does have a handy torch. The LED is positioned on the top of the device, and it's turned on by a long press on the dedicated button on the side. It will remain on until you turn it off - remember this as it can drain the battery power.

In the age of multimedia phones, the small screen with its 120 x 160 pixels, looks somewhat unimpressive. But it's not a multimedia phone - it doesn't even have 3G. No, that's not the purpose of the Solid Extreme. However, the display is colour and shows the time using big numbers, which is useful. Both headphones and charger fit into the same proprietary socket, although there is Bluetooth, so you could connect a set of wireless headphones if you want to listen to some tunes (though not while operating heavy machinery, we hope).

If you want to listen to music, it does have expandable memory, along with an FM radio. But don't be expecting the latest operating system. There is a voice recorder, a stopwatch, games and a pretty basic image editor - as well as a 1.3megapixel camera. One handy feature is the noise cancellation faculty, which can be useful in a noisy environment such as a building site.

We didn't like the fact that the central button on the navigation pad defaults to launching the browser, nor the fact that it's not easy to alter this setup. Just remember to lock the keypad when the phone is in your pocket or bag, or you could find yourself on the receiving end of a load of data connection charges by mistake.

CHECK OUT THE SAMSUNG SOLID PHONE DEALS HERE

The verdict
This is not the sort of flashy phone that you'll be showing off to your friends down the pub. But, if you need a phone that will stand up to a tough work environment (or just a very clumsy owner) the Samsung Solid Extreme does a good, efficient job - in fact we rather like it.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab

Style and handling summary for Samsung Galaxy Tab review
Small yet comfortingly solid, the Galaxy Tab is eminently portable, and its Android 2.2 OS can be customised to enable any shortcuts you'd like.

User friendliness summary for Samsung Galaxy Tab review
A mostly smooth user experience is thwarted by some awkward features and it's not as easy as it should be to set up social network and email accounts

Feature set summary for Samsung Galaxy Tab review
An amazing set of features includes high-speed internet, high-quality DivX support, video calls and a full HTML browser

Performance summary for Samsung Galaxy Tab review
The device offers a speedy, smooth experience, although the screen didn't always reorient itself as quickly as it should when it was turned, and scrolling was intermittently jerky when we were online

Battery power summary for Samsung Galaxy Tab review
We were rewarded with more than seven hours use with 3G, Wi-Fi and light video playback

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy Tab

As we lead up to Christmas, Android tablets are here, there and everywhere, but the most heralded arrival is that of the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Its five months since the market welcomed the arrival of the Apple iPad, and now here comes the Galaxy Tab, boasting a far greater set of features and the Android 2.2 operating system. Samsung is well-known for its top-notch hardware, and the Galaxy Tab is no exception - but how does it fare when it comes to software, one of Samsung's weaknesses?

Looking good

This full touch handset has a total of four touch-sensitive buttons - one each for home, menu, back and the always handy search - all set in a shiny black bezel. Turn the device over to gaze on the white plastic back, which has been shaped ergonomically so that its edges are slimmer. It's easy to hold the Galaxy Tab in one hand, while you use the other to craft messages or navigate. This one design touch puts the Tab streets ahead of the iPad, and makes it simple to use when you're out and about.

On the front of the tablet, you'll find a 1.3-meapixel camera, designed for making video calls, along with a 3-megapixel version on the back for taking snaps. The sides are where you'll find the SIM slot, power button, volume rocker and microSD slot, and audiophiles will be glad to know there's a 3.5mm audio jack on the top.

The display -an LCD TFT version - is not resistant to greasy fingerprints, although we have seen worse. The gorilla glass makes it more resistant to knocks, and the whole tablet feels well made and solid. The screen is 7in (compare that with the iPad's 9.7in display), but then the whole device is about half the size of an iPad (it's comparable in dimensions to a paperback book). Storage-wise, you're looking at a 16GB or 32GB version, with expandable memory taking it up another 32GB, so it beats the top-tier iPad.

The 1GHz processor with 512MB of RAM allows the smooth running of multiple programs, although we did encounter the occasional lag.

Back to basics

The Samsung Galaxy Tab has the latest version of Android - Froyo (2.2) - which gets it off to a good start. Samsung has decided to include its TouchWiz interface, which has a subtle skin that ups the number of customisable screens from three to five, as well as a number of widgets.

We were impressed with the responsive capacitive touch-screen, and the accuracy of the keyboard - but we did find it a little sluggish at times when we swiped between homescreens. The display is also a touch slow when it comes to reorienting itself from portrait to landscape when you turn the device around.

Connections include HSDPA internet and Wi-Fi - and the OS also allows the Galaxy Tab to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot, so you can connect other devices through it. Text messages and voice calls are made over the 2G network. If you want to make phone calls though, be aware that you will need to buy a proper headset, as there is no mic on the Galaxy Tab. This means it will not replace your main phone, although we found its SMS feature a very handy addition to an internet/media device.

Unlike some of its competitors, the Galaxy Tab does allow you to make video calls - choose to make them over 2G, or over 3G with a VOIP app such as Skype. If you're video calling over 2G, the recipient of your call with need a phone that supports them - apart from that, it's a simple process.
As you'd expect nowadays, the Galaxy Tab's contacts book offers social networking facilities, syncing to MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. It's not as easy as it could be to set up accounts, though. You have to go into the Settings application, then select Accounts before you start. If you're a bit of a tinkerer with your gadgets, this won't bother you, but it would have been nice to have been presented with a setup menu on loading the device for the first time - like that seen on HTC's Android phones.

However, get that done and you'll be rewarded with an aggregated list, where you can see friends' profile pictures, along with social network updates and a stream of feeds from the Updates and Feeds widgets, which are preloaded.

The Galaxy Tab also offers a number of handy contact shortcuts, which can be placed on your homescreen. Direct Call and Direct Message can be set up for your favourite contacts, and new entries can be automatically updated thanks to live folders such as Facebook Phone Numbers.

Get the message

One of the unusual features of Android devices is that they don't offer a universal inbox - all mail can be streamed together, except Gmail, which sits alone. The Galaxy Tab is no exception - you'll find Gmail appears as it does on your desktop, except it is in landscape mode, while your other mail accounts will show in a two-column interface, which has been optimised for the tablet; your inbox displays on the left, and the selected email on the right. It works far better on the widescreen, and you'll find that even your texts are shown in the same way. We're hoping the feature will be added to Gmail by Google sooner rather than later.

Apart from this, the email features work well - you'll see instant alerts for webmail and Microsoft exchange mail. The notifications appear right at the top of the display, and you can drag this down to go to any new events or to see all alerts.

We're also big fans of Swype. This very nifty new virtual keyboard allows you to write just by dragging your finger from letter to letter. The Tab is one of only a few devices to feature Swype. We were amazed by the accuracy of its predictive setting, and we were speedily typing away after a few goes. And it works even better because the device is just a little bit too wide to type as you would on a Smartphone with two thumbs.

Sound and vision

The screen has a resolution of 1024 x 600, so does not offer the totally clear resolution of the Super AMOLED display of its smartphone stablemate the Galaxy S. There's a bit of a blur on text and icons (but it is still clearer than the screen on the iPad), but as always with Samsung displays, brightness and colour is top-notch. The Galaxy Tab can support all kinds of video formats - MPEG4, DivX ad H.264 among them - and it means you are able to watch most video, whether they are ripped from a DVD or downloaded. The most important format is DivX, as it is more and more being used for compress high-quality video on the net, so that should mean that video-wise, the Tab has been futureproofed for some time.

It is possible to drag and drop music and films onto the tablet from your PC, but it's a shame the process isn't that simple. To sync media files and back up your contacts, you'll need to download Samsung Kies onto your computer.

You can also access films by heading to the Samsung Movies portal. Don't expect anything on the scale of the iTunes store - there are 1,000 films and 100 Tab-optimised movies. A shortcut is preloaded, but rather frustratingly it leads to the Movies website, and its Flash-driven interface is very hard to navigate on the tablet.
If you're after music, the Music Hub offers eight million tracks to preview before buying. The interface is not particularly user-friendly, but it works all the same. The separate music player had us a bit baffled. The Music Hub has its own player, which can play tracks from your library although not one after another - as well as play the previews. But when you want to listen to tracks without having to select each one separately, you need to load up the Music Player, Why the two facilities aren't combined, we're not sure.

The Galaxy Tab is a DLA device, and can both wirelessly accept and stream media to fellow DLNA devices - that includes Windows 7 computers, HDTVs and PS3s. You can share files over Wi-Fi with another Wi-Fi device using the AllShare app.
Eread a good book

As it's similar in size to a paperback, the Galaxy tab is rather good for ereading. It has a preloaded Readers Hub, which encompasses Kobo, a database of two million books, as well as a number of portals that allow you to subscribe to international newspapers and magazine that you can read on the Galaxy Tab. This feature is unique to this device at the moment.

The Readers Hub also acts as an ereader for reading all that digital reading matter, so we're not sure why there is yet another ereader - eBook. This is what you need to use to read books that are not from the Readers Hub - from the Kindle store, for instance. Once you're aware this is what's on offer, it's fine, but it's not as simple or as intuitive as HTC's Android phones or the iPad.
For apps, you can head to the Android Market, although won't find a lot of apps that are optimised for tablets. The apps do generally work (you'll find apps for Twitter, Facebook and so on) but we found the camera apps disappointing, as they're designed to be shown on a smaller display.
Internet and sat-nav

There is a full HTML browser on the Galaxy Tab, and this loads up websites speedily - but we did come up against some lagging when we were scrolling, particularly on mobile-optimised pages. The display supports multi-touch, so you can pinch to zoom as much as you like. Rather conveniently, the Galaxy Tab can save you time and data fees - it will choose to load up less data-intensive mobile sites when you're using a 3G connection, and opt for the full versions with images when you're using Wi-Fi.

The Swype facility also works when you're typing in the browser's text field, which makes the browsing experience very smooth and user friendly.

The Tab offers a great sat-nav experience - it has Google Maps, A-GPS and a Google navigation beta for drivers. The satellite fix worked fine, and the free Google Navigation mapping facility offers a top-down view of the route ahead, as well as voice directions. If you're on foot, you'll find the same full features Google Maps provides on other Android 2.2 devices.
The verdict

The Galaxy Tab has just about every feature you could imagine on a device - sometimes you pay for this in a drop in performance quality. It's not the most perfect tablet but it has plenty to offer anyone who likes to get in at the start of something, and who doesn't mind spending a bit of time tinkering with their new gadget to get the most out of it.

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Samsung Omnia 7

Style and handling summary for Samsung Omnia 7 review
A metal rear casing, combined with some nifty styling make this a very appealing phone, and it has an amazing screen

User friendliness summary for Samsung Omnia 7 review
We were pretty impressed with the Omnia 7's performance, aside from an oddly placed power button

Feature set summary for Samsung Omnia 7 review
Windows Phone 7 devices have a pretty standard set of features - Samsung has also included a decent camera and a couple of bonus apps

Performance summary for Samsung Omnia 7 review
Thanks to its 1GHz processor (which you'll find on all WP7 handsets) the Omnia 7 proves a responsive and fast device

Battery power summary for Samsung Omnia 7 review
Surprisingly, considering that super-vivid screen, the battery will take you through one day and into a second.

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Omnia 7
The good news for anyone who is thinking of embarking on the new operating system that is Windows Phone 7, but isn't sure which handset to pick, is that Microsoft has ensured they each have a strict set range of features, which should make choosing all the easier.

CHECK OUT THE GREAT DEALS ON THE SAMSUNG OMNIA 7 HERE.

Looking good
Here's how to decide between them. If you're after a high-res snapper, then go for the HTC Mozart; for a huge display, opt for the HD7. And if you want a device that oozes style, your choice has to be the Samsung Omnia 7. It feels well made and that metal rear casing is a joy to touch. At the bottom of the display you'll find the Search and Back icons are touch sensitive, while the Windows Start button is a pressable round button - it's reminiscent of the iPhone's home button and is in the same place.

As it doesn't stand out from the device it would be hard to press it by mistake. This means that, unlike other Windows Phone 7 devices, it is possible to use the Start button to start up the screen from standby. On the other handsets, you have to press the power button on the top of the device. It's not a big issue, but if you're an iPhone user, you will have been used to pressing on that home button to get started.

And you won't find the power button on the top of the handset - that's where a sliding door hides the micro USB connector. No, it's on the right-hand side, about three-quarters up the device. Samsung is fond of putting its power buttons in this position, though we're not sure why.

Super AMOLED display
The display is large at four inches and is a big plus point of the device. Samsung has really hit the target with its AMOLED displays, and with the vivid nature of Windows Phone 7 - and on our handset the bright colours of the Orange network - this is a really eye-catching feature. One of the appeals of Windows Phone 7 is its looks and styling, and a vivid display like the Omnia 7's really shows it off in all its glory - it looks better on this device than on any other Windows Phone 7 phone.

Those Microsoft conditions, by the way, are not minimum specs - phone makers have been instructed not to surpass a lot of the specs - so you'll find the same number of pixels on this phone's display as on the larger screen of the HTC HD7.

The operating system has two themes - light and dark. The dark theme becomes all the more dramatic on an AMOLED screen that offers more contrast and deeper blacks than an ordinary LCD. The display uses less energy if it's on the dark settings - a salient point when it comes to battery life. As we've seen on other phones, you pay for a large display with shorter battery life, and yet the Omnia 7's battery will take you through into a second day, which is a bonus.

Picture this
Cameras vary between Windows Phone 7 devices - the HTC Mozart boasts a camera with an eight-megapixel sensor for instance. The Omnia 7 doesn't reach such heights - its camera has a very acceptable five megapixels, which offers good results. You won't be disappointed with its HD video recording either.

While HTC has put its own identity on Windows Phone 7 with its two-tile hub, Samsung hasn't tried too hard. Yes, there are a couple of special apps (Now, a weather and news app, and Photo Sharing), neither of which are too much to write home about. However, the Windows Marketplace is expanding daily, so this might not be too much of a concern.

The verdict
The quality of the hardware and the fantastic screen are what really sets the Omnia 7 apart. Windows Phone 7 is proving to be a popular platform, and combined with the top-notch hardware from Samsung, the Omnia 7 offers a very appealing, good-looking and powerful device, all wrapped up in a smart metal shell.

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Samsung Monte Slider

Style and handling summary for Samsung Monte Slider review
The Monte Slider looks good - it's shiny, and well built too

User friendliness summary for Samsung Monte Slider review
While basic functions are fine, the more advanced ones would have benefited from user-friendly menus

Feature set summary for Samsung Monte Slider review
There are more features than you need really, with internet browsing and Facebook, and quite a few the Slider cannot handle

Performance summary for Samsung Monte Slider review
If you want to call or text it does the job well, but it can't cope with much more than that

Battery power summary for Samsung Monte Slider review
Nothing to write home about, but if you're only calling and texting it should do the job

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Monte Slider

Samsung has always done well producing phones at a competitive price, and it was one of the first to bring out a slide phone. Which bodes well for the Monte Slider doesn't it?

Looking good

Well, it certainly looks that way at first glance. It's aimed at those on a budget, has a good build quality and is compact enough to slip into a pocket or small bag. Its glossy coating may look a tad cheap, and its slide function is not as smooth as that on other Samsung handsets, but then it wins out on low price.

The Monte Slider is light as well as petite, yet it boasts a large keyboard with user-friendly keys. On the front of the device you'll find the usual set of Samsung keys - that is Send, End and direction pad, along with two keys that change their function depending on what you're doing. There's a pleasant simplicity to the rest of the device - you'll find no showy effects or extra buttons. The only slightly odd thing is the large writing on the back, which tells you about the camera resolution - and as it's only 1.3 megapixels you wouldn't think they'd want to shout about it. Mind you, the camera's image quality is not as bad as you might think, although unsurprisingly there's no flash, which rather limits you in any poor light situation.

Back to basics

The camera aside though, the Monte Slider doesn't seem to know what it's meant to be. As a basic phone is performs well - you'll find texting a breeze and the quality of voice calls good. But the display has a lower resolution than that found on most phones these days, which does make it appear a bit cheap. But it's not really a problem. Despite the resolution, the home screen works okay and also has some program shortcuts, which include Music Player, Internet, Google, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and so on (tweet fans note that Twitter is not included).

There's not much to say about the basic music player, and because the phone has little in the way of onboard memory if you play more than a tune or two you'll run out of space, so music fans will need to buy a microSD card. And forget about using your own headphones - the supplied pair fit in the Samsung charging socket (you don't even get a microUSB socket).

Offline

However, what's really galling is the lack of 3G or Wi-Fi, which means trying to make a connection is insufferably slow. Unless you have never experienced the joys of a smartphone, you'll despair at the slow speed.

So here is the Monte Slider's identity crisis; is it a compact, very able and well-priced basic handset or does it want to target the social networking user? Because there are lots of handsets that have done well from featuring some social elements - INQ has been particularly successful in this area. But those devices have also benefited from good data transfer speeds. On the Monte Slider we found that even trying to log in proved a chore and we were timed out several times before we could connect to a site successfully. And trying to navigate was beyond a joke - just try scrolling at a snail's pace down a narrow page when you're trying to catch up on Facebook.

Those are the bad points, but when it comes to doing basic tasks, the device does a great job. It has Bluetooth, which you won't find on many devices in this budget range - and an FM radio (although you're stuck with the supplied headphones to listen to it).

The verdict

All in all, the Monte Slider is a decent basic handset that seems to have pretensions above its station. It's great that it includes Bluetooth and an FM radio, but some of the more sophisticated features are just a step too far for a phone of this kind. The camera is far from flashy, but does a decent enough job, and the music player is okay - even if you do need a microSD card to make use of it. With no 3G, Wi-Fi - or even a headphone jack - it's not going to appeal to a lot of users, but that low price probably will.

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Samsung Wave 723

Style and handling summary for Samsung Wave 723 review
Mediocre build quality and a low-res screen make for a disappointing experience

User friendliness summary for Samsung Wave 723 review
While it is simple to use Bada, it fails to be as intuitive as any of the Nokia phones or a lot of the better smartphones

Feature set summary for Samsung Wave 723 review
While the phone has a decent set of features, the app store is disappointingly stocked

Performance summary for Samsung Wave 723 review
The best thing about the handset is its responsive touch-screen

Battery power summary for Samsung Wave 723 review
A fully charged battery will see you through a couple of days, unlike many of the costlier smartphones

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Wave 723
The Wave 723 is the most recent of Samsung’s handsets to run Bada, the company’s own operating system. First to do so was the Samsung Wave, which boasted a fantastic AMOLED display and a stylish, quality chassis. This latest incarnation is built on a budget and it is very apparent.

Looking good

First impressions of the Wave 723 are that it is a less flashy, and cheaper-looking version of the original Wave. The metal back panel does offer a touch of class, but the rest of the frame is made from dark grey plastic. We found the three buttons on the front of the handset a bit too clicky for our liking. You’ll find the side buttons for camera, power and volume where Samsung usually places them, though we found it rather concerning that the power switch is also placed on the side. However, the top is already full with the 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro USB slot that features a sliding cover.

Once you push the oddly-situated power button and the display turns on, it’s very obvious it isn’t an AMOLED screen. The 3.2in screen has a low resolution at 400x240 pixels. Unless your existing phone is small with a basic display, you’ll be unimpressed with the quality, as the latest handsets all boast high-resolution screens. Text does not display well, which really affects the user experience when you’re surfing the net on text-heavy sites. There’s limited video playback on the handset, not that the display is very good for viewing video anyway.

Ease of use

Despite its low-rent resolution, the touch-screen is actually of the more pricey capacitive type, so you do have the facility for multi-touch, and can pinch and zoom to your heart’s content. And happily, the display is speedy and responsive.

Because the Wave 723 features the same background pictures as the more expensive handsets from Samsung, the difference in screen quality is very apparent. Nor do the blocky shortcut icons look as smart as they do on the majority of smartphones. Having said that, the first Android icons didn’t look great either, so there’s hope that in time Samsung will manage to get these looking better.

However, this is Bada, not Android. It’s a system that is designed to make smartphones user friendly and accessible. It has widgets that can be placed on a number of home screens and it does offer some versatility. If, for instance, you fill up your home screens, you can add an extra widget, and the system will automatically set up a new home screen – you can have up to seven screens.

Samsung even has its own apps store, although there’s little on it at the moment. However, we did notice a free version of Tetris among the apps on offer. And as the handset is lacking a digital compass, many of the apps that impress on Android and iPhone handsets just wouldn’t work on the Wave 723.
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Snapping and surfing

The Wave 723 does benefit from a decent snapper, which offers five megapixels and a flash. We found pictures were sharp and there was very little shutter lag. As expected, photos in low-light situations were not as good, but still not bad. You can also shoot video using the phone, but don’t expect the HD quality you find on many handsets nowadays. Mind you, as onboard memory is a poor 90MB, you’d need to splash out on a memory card if you wanted to save any more than a few seconds of movie anyway.

Data transfers are quick (up to 3.6Mbps), as the Wave 723 has HSDPA and the latest incarnation of Wi-Fi. It also offers a stereo FM radio, Bluetooth and GPS – you could even record the radio if you wanted to.

The verdict

The Wave 723 has plenty to appeal, not least its low price, decent camera and excellent connectivity. However, the display is a letdown and the Bada operating system offers neither the choice of apps nor the intuitiveness that can be found on even the lower-end smartphones.

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Samsung Galaxy Apollo

Style and handling summary for Samsung Galaxy Apollo review
From the front the Galaxy 15801 appears to be light, robust and good looking, so it’s a shame the back is constructed from cheap black plastic

User friendliness summary for Samsung Galaxy Apollo review
The home screen is customisable, and the touch screen works well, so it’s easy to set up the handset as you’d like it

Feature set summary for Samsung Galaxy Apollo review
We weren’t impressed by the flash-less snapper, but Android 2.1 wins on offering multi-touch, a good browser and access to a huge number of games and apps

Performance summary for Samsung Galaxy Apollo review
While the handset is quick enough in use, it disappoints when it comes to GPS, and image quality from the snapper. Plus the CPU isn’t powerful enough to allow smooth running of all the apps.

Battery power summary for Samsung Galaxy Apollo review
Battery life is better than a lot of top-end Android phones and the iPhone, as you’ll get more than a day out of full battery charge

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy Apollo
If you’re looking for an Android phone but don’t want to pay out for the top-end handsets sporting Google’s operating system, then a Samsung Android handset could be for you. But has the Korean phone manufacturer managed to pull off the budget Android phone without making it cheap and tacky?

Looking good?

First off, let’s look at the build quality – which has an upside and a downside. On the front is a 3.2in display set amid a mirrored surround, which appears smooth and well-built. However, turn the phone over and you’ll find a cheap black plastic panel, which appears cheap, far from solid and which will probably end up scratched and dented after you’ve used the phone for a week.

Under the bonnet though, the specs impressed us – there’s 4GB of in-built memory and the hot-swappable microSd slot allows you to add up to 32GB more. It’s also good to see a 3.5mm headphone slot and A-GPS.

There is a capacitive display, although it failed to prove as responsive as on some more expensive handsets, and certainly doesn’t measure up to the iPhone. For instance, we experienced a short delay when trying to swipe between home screens. The display also fails to be as sharp as other Android handsets – it’s clear that Samsung has cut costs by keeping the resolution at 240x400.

However, it does benefit from haptic feedback, so typing emails and texts is pretty straightforward.
Back to basics

You’ll also find the TouchWiz 3.0 interface on top of the Android 2.1 Éclair operating system.
On the main homepage as a default there is a clock (you touch on this to set up an alarm) as well as shortcuts that take you to the email, internet browser, and a games page as well as the App shop and music store that are Orange’s own. Under these you’ll find icons for messaging, phone, contacts and the app menu. These four remain at the base of the display whatever page you happen to be on.
You move to the other up to six home screens by flicking your finger from left to right. Each home screen can be customised, adding your own favourite widgets and shortcuts. We’re particularly keen on the settings widget, which allows you to speedily toggle between sounds on/off/Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as the camera widget, which enables you to flick between pictures and share the via MMS and email.
One of the benefits of the Android OS is the opportunity to access the Android Market, which offers a choice of thousands of games, handy bits of software and so on. We were able to play Angry Birds, although we found it a tad jerky.
Snapper and internet

The Galaxy’s 3.2 megapixel snapper is pretty basic – you’ll find it has no LED flash, although it does have auto-focus – and our indoor images were pretty soft and grainy. However, even in decent light outside we found washed-out colours and the lack of contrast were somewhat disappointing.

Internet browsing was a more satisfying experience – but thanks to the screen’s low resolution and small size there was a lot of zooming in necessary (luckily, pinch-to-zoom works pretty well). The Android 2.1 operating system does not support Flash when you’re surfing the net.
We had high hopes for the Layer Reality Browser, which is a free augmented reality app that superimposes ‘layers’ on a live feed, using the GPS and camera. It is supposed to enable you to play a game of virtual reality Pacman or navigate to the nearest underground station just by walking about. It’s a great idea, but because the Galaxy’s GPS is so slow to get a fix it’s actually pretty useless.

We were happier with the battery performance. We had the phone on for a couple of days, running both 3G and Wi-Fi without needing to charge it.
The verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo does offer a lot of the benefits of Android, but bear in mind that some of its features, such as GPS, snapper and display, are not what you’d get on a high-end smartphone. However, if you’re after the benefits of Android (and its apps) but don’t want to spend a fortune, this could be a decent compromise.

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Samsung Wave II

Style and handling summary for Samsung Wave II review
A wonderfully vibrant LCD screen sits in an anodised chassis that boasts rounded edges

User friendliness summary for Samsung Wave II review
Though many will not be familiar with it, Samsung has made its OS Bada easy to master, with a nod to the popular Android OS

Feature set summary for Samsung Wave II review
A five-megapixel snapper, Wi-Fi, a 3.7-inch capacitive display and a nifty facility that allows you to save individual screen shots are on offer

Performance summary for Samsung Wave II review
The Samsung Wave II has a good raft of features and they all work well, but we were a bit disappointed by web browsing, especially the limited content that can be displayed at one time

Battery power summary for Samsung Wave II review
A full charge gives you 500 hours on standby and a talktime of 360 minutes

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Wave II
The full Samsung Wave II Review
While phone manufacturer Samsung may be busily producing phones running Google's Android OS, it certainly hasn't forgotten about its own system, Bada. There are not many phones running Bada; the first to do so was, unsurprisingly, the Samsung Wave. This second generation of the Wave has many of our favourite features from the original Wave and has added a larger, brighter screen and a slightly improved operating system.

First impressions
At first glance, the Wave II looks very much like the original. It has a cold metal back plate and the same anodised chassis. The only obvious differences are the screen, which is 0.4 inches bigger and the home key at the bottom of the display, which looks like it's been squashed. Looks-wise it's hardly big on innovation, but it's still good looking. Fire up the screen and it looks even better - the Wave II has a Super Clear LCD capacitive touch-screen, which looks bright and colourful, even though it's not quite up there with the Samsung Galaxy S's Super AMOLED screen. A near-3D appearance comes courtesy of the preloaded wallpapers.

To get the screen up and running, you have to swipe across the whole display in one direction. Do this, and a frosted window slides across to show off the screen in all its colourful glory. Mind you, it's a bit strange that first you have to push the lock key, which sits on the right side of the handset. Sure, it makes it simple to lock the phone, but it's irritating if you just want to see if you've missed any texts or calls, or want to see what time it is. On most phones, you just press any key to do this.

Widgets
You can choose to have several home screens - the default is three, but you can bring up a widgets bar by clicking on the widgets icon found in the top-left hand of the screen. Then it's simply a matter of dragging and dropping the feeds or shortcuts you want onto the home screen. Mind you, the widgets are so large that it's only possible to add one to a screen, and then the Wave II adds a new home screen automatically.

This makes the whole process disorganised and rather cluttered with no proper system for organising feeds and apps. There are some handy preloaded widgets on the Wave II, including a Financial Times news feed, Yahoo and Google search engines, BBC news feed, and Yell.com, which is useful for locating nearby restaurants, businesses and so on.

As you'll find on many phones these days, the Wave II has a social networking feed (called, unsurprisingly ‘feeds and updates'). This aggregates all your Twitter and Facebook news - and both network apps are already preloaded on the phone. When it comes to apps, the Samsung Apps Store is disappointing, with little on offer - especially when it comes to free apps - and this could be a real issue for hardcore smartphone users.

Web browsing
The Wave II might be rather short on the apps front, but it has a great set of features, with the likes of a five-megapixel snapper (which boasts high-def video recording), Wi-Fi, HSDPA and a 1GHz processor. It's a shame that they don't quite live up to their initial promise. Our main bugbear is the web browsing.

Yes, it's speedy, with either Wi-Fi, 3G or HSDPA - and simple to set up thanks to an Android-esque pulldown bar at the top of the display. But each time you touch the screen, when you're trying to zoom in with pinch and pull (which didn't work all the time) or scroll, the web address bar pops up at the top of the display. While we appreciate that the screen is not tiny, along with all the virtual keys for exit, multiple pages and favourites, it still limits the amount of content available to view.

It's not all bad on the net though. We like for instance that double tapping on the display scrolls down the page paragraph-by-paragraph, rather than zooming in. Also, hold a finger on a web page and it will highlight the word you're on (or you can change it to highlight a phrase or sentence). Then you can choose between doing a Google search on that word, translating it or copying and pasting it into an email or text.

But perhaps our favourite touch is what happens when you hold down the home screen button and lock key together - the Wave II takes a snap of whatever you're viewing. It works wherever you are on the phone (so you can take a copy of the home screen for instance) but where it is most useful is for business cards and web pages - especially as you can forward screenshots on using email or MMS. Not only that but you can even print, edit or make a movie from a number of screenshots, and add your own soundtrack.

Snapper happy
We were also impressed with the five-megapixel snapper - it started up quickly and although we found colours a little washed out we didn't think this would matter to the type of user attracted to the Wave II. The LED flash can be used for low-light situations and for high-definition video. Once you've finished your short film, you can put it on Photobucket, YouTube and Hyves in a couple of clicks. Another interesting addition (although not new - we saw it on the original LG Viewty) is the fact that it is possible to record in slow motion.

The Wave II does have A-GPS, but you'll not find any preloaded navigation apps on the handset. You'll not even get Google Maps, which suggests to us that the search giant only cooperates with Samsung when it's using its Android OS. Mind you, you'll be able to download a few apps from the Samsung App Store - the Route 66 offering appears to be Samsung's preferred option. Mind you, it's a tad irritating not to have one loaded, although of course it does encourage users to head to the Samsung App Store.

The verdict
At the end of the day, we'd say that the shortage of apps in the Samsung App Store would be the main deterrent for anyone thinking of buying the Samsung Wave II, and which might push them towards an Android handset. The Samsung Wave II is a very capable device, apart from those web browsing issues, but at the end of the day it's a kind of lite smartphone, and most users will prefer a more familiar OS to Bada. Maybe Samsung should consider concentrating solely on Android?

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Samsung Galaxy Ace

Style and handling summary for Galaxy ace review
It sits comfortably in the hand, and appears a decent, stylish device. The build quality isn't up there with some of its competitors, and the display proves simply average

User friendliness summary for Galaxy ace review
The hard home button is handy, and the TouchWiz overlay is simple enough to not hinder Android's easy interface

Feature set summary for Galaxy ace review
A decent snapper, Wi-Fi and good GPS, however it's a shame there is no HD video recording

Performance summary for Galaxy ace review
The Ace can be speedy and effective, but if you have too many programs running at once the phone does slow down, which is unfortunate

Battery power summary for Galaxy ace review
Battery life is decent - even better than the iPhone 4 - it's probably best to charge every day, but you will get through two days if needs be.

Style and handling summary for Galaxy ace review
It sits comfortably in the hand, and appears a decent, stylish device. The build quality isn't up there with some of its competitors, and the display proves simply average

User friendliness summary for Galaxy ace review
The hard home button is handy, and the TouchWiz overlay is simple enough to not hinder Android's easy interface

Feature set summary for Galaxy ace review
A decent snapper, Wi-Fi and good GPS, however it's a shame there is no HD video recording

Performance summary for Galaxy ace review
The Ace can be speedy and effective, but if you have too many programs running at once the phone does slow down, which is unfortunate

Battery power summary for Galaxy ace review
Battery life is decent - even better than the iPhone 4 - it's probably best to charge every day, but you will get through two days if needs be

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Samsung Galaxy S II

Style and handling summary for Galaxy S II review
A hugely good-looking handset with sharp edges, a correlated reverse and a beautifully vibrant 4.3-inch screen

User friendliness summary for Galaxy S II review
The user experience has been made easier thanks to the tweaks made to Samsung's TouchWiz UI. Android users will be quite at home when using the handset

Feature set summary for Galaxy S II review
A dual-core processor, eight-megapixel snapper, Wi-Fi, A-GPS and a raft of ‘hubs’ for downloading media content

Performance summary for Galaxy S II review
A super-speedy phone that does a top-notch job all round. A real smartphone however you look at it.

Battery power summary for Galaxy S II review
Even using all the features on offer from the Samsung Galaxy II, we managed to get a full day out of a battery charge. With average use you should be able to get away with charging every other day.

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Galaxy S II

Unlike fine wines, mobile handsets don’t tend to get better with age – it’s amazing how quickly a phone that was leading edge can quickly become a bit of a has-been. While this may not have been the case with the original Samsung Galaxy S, we were nonetheless quite pleased to hear that a sequel was announced at the Mobile World Congress in February. Well, we've been very patient and waited three months to get our paws on the phone that Samsung has dubbed the best-ever smartphone.

First impressions

Looks-wise, we always said the first Galaxy S was pretty similar to the iPhone 3GS, which while hardly a bad thing, meant that it was not exactly pioneering. Sure, any touch-display candybar handset is going to look similar – especially if it’s in silver and black – but we’re happy to announce that the Galaxy S II breaks the mould when it comes to design. With its 4.3in display it’s far bigger than its older brother – and that display is a Super AMOLED Plus. When it comes to colours and pixels, it’s pretty similar to the original Galaxy S, but thanks to the dual-core chip and high contrast ratio, it is superior in terms of both sharpness of definition between colours and vibrancy. We can’t say that it’s in the same league as the Retina Display on the iPhone 4, which is a class-beater at the moment, but it’s not far behind.

To fit in the screen, Samsung has made the Galaxy S II quite a lengthy beast, although it remains one of the slimmest handsets currently available – at just 8.49mm thick. There are far sharper edges on this phone, and along with its correlated back this results in a pretty darn good-looking handset. One thing we must say about the back cover is that it seems less than sturdy when you’re taking it off to take out the battery – which unfortunately you have to do if you want to hot swap memory cards – and can be pretty tough to clip back in too. There’s also a slight ‘chin’ on the base of the phone – but it doesn't detract from its good looks.
TouchWiz 4.0

We found the touch-display enormously responsive, offering a really smooth user experience. While the phone runs on the latest Android operating system – Gingerbread 2.3 – Samsung has given it its own personality by adding the TouchWiz 4.0 skin. It has not always been well received by phone buyers, but happily this is an updated version, which works better. The icons have a touch of the 3D about them and you’ll find the Live Panels appear on any of the seven home screens – there’s also a real-time weather widget, rather like that which appears on the Android handsets produced by HTC. The graphics can’t compete with those on the handsets produced by the Taiwanese manufacturer (they’re not animated for a start), but the ability to add 10 different cities is a nice addition.

It’s also possible to add a number of shortcuts and widgets to the home screens by dragging and dropping from the main menu – or you can hold your finger on the display to make the menu option pop up. A virtual panel or grid system means that you can’t just drag the icon exactly where you want it, but it doesn’t have any major implications for your operating experience. What is strange is that two of the four ‘set’ icons that stay at the base of each home screen also do the same thing. The Phone and Contacts icons both take you to your contacts, groups, favourites and logs. It just seems odd that this space isn’t used for something more useful – the camera for instance. To see all of the home screens as thumbnails, pinch and pull on any home screen – it’s speedier than scrolling through each one individually.

When it comes to messaging, you can use the SWYPE method or the more traditional QWERTY keyboard. The SWYPE method can make typing a quick experience, but as on other Samsung handsets, the full stop key and space bar are so close that it can make it a tad tricky. If you haven’t encountered SWYPE before, it works by sliding a finger from key to key and lifting your finger off when you finish a word. It may sound a bit odd but it actually works really well. If you’re texting, you can hold the handset horizontally and the display will auto-rotate, showing your messages on the left of the screen and the last message with your chosen contact and your own text entry box on the right.

Gesture control

Another new feature on the Galaxy S II is gesture control. This uses the handset’s accelerometers – hold two fingers on the display while you’re browsing, then bring the phone towards you to zoom in, and tilt it away to zoom out. And when you’re dragging and dropping widgets, select the home screen and panel you want by moving the handset from side to side. By the way, we found browsing hugely speedy, even when we had a number of web pages open. This is thanks partly to the speed of Wi-Fi and HSDPA connections, but mostly thanks to the dual-core 1.2GHz chip. We were able to stream videos from YouTube almost instantly, and there was hardly any buffering necessary. Gaming was a smooth experience, offering incredibly crisp graphics. Uploading contents to sites such as Facebook, You Tube and Flickr was massively quick thanks to the HSDPA connection speeds of up to 5.76Mbps.

Hubs

It’s possible to download games from the Games Hub. There’s not much to choose from at present, but we expect that will soon grow – and you can try before you buy any of the games currently on offer. There are also hubs for Music, Social and Reader. We were particularly keen on the Reader Hub, which appears as a virtual bookcase, offering access to any number of newspapers, magazines, and books from around the globe. Choose to subscribe to your favourites and they will be instantly downloaded once the next edition is released. You’ll need to do a bit of zooming when you’re reading, especially if you’re browsing newspapers, but it’s a great way to catch up with the latest news on a boring commute.

Samsung has tried to compete with iTunes with its Music Hub, but it doesn’t manage to match it in terms of either usability or content, although tracks are offered at a reasonable price. It is possible to search for artists or titles or have a browse through recommended or genre sections. It is also possible to make your own playlists or albums from the music you buy. The Social Hub meanwhile, will integrate emails, text messages, social network feeds and Instant Messaging information into one feed. You can choose how often it is updated, but bear in mind data charges when you make that decision.

Eight-megapixel snapper

Apart from a notable few, such as Sony Ericsson's recently launched Xperia Arc, the snappers on Android phones have always been something of an afterthought, never living up to the other features on the phone. There is no dedicated shutter key, which we find annoying, but we were pretty impressed with the shutter speed, along with its eight megapixels, auto-focus and face and smile detection. We’re glad to see LED flash included, as it was a notable omission on the original Galaxy, which made it impossible to take night-time shots. One downside is that the handset is so long that when we held it horizontally to take a snap, we found our finger kept covering up the lens, and while the pictures weren’t as colourful when we put them on Facebook, video came out far better. Overall, we think the snapper is worthy of praise, and while it doesn’t beat the camera on the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, it’s certainly ahead of the rest of the Android pack in terms of camera cred.

Another outstanding feature it its sat nav. The A-GPS fix was one of the speediest we’ve seen so far –when we tried to fool it by using it indoors it still managed to find our exact location. Along with Google Maps, you also get the use of Google Maps Navigation. Our review handset only featured a beta version, but we were still able to enjoy clear, full voice instructions for driving and walking – you have the option of layering a traffic or satellite view over a 3D map.

The verdict

We can’t speak highly enough about the Samsung Galaxy S II. If we had to describe it in just one word, we’d choose ‘brilliant’. While we have pointed out a couple of shortcomings, there is nothing that would dissuade us from buying this phone for ourselves. Samsung has shown it is really making headway in the world of smartphones and has made a huge amount of progress with the Samsung Galaxy S II.

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Samsung Solid Immerse

Style and handling summary for Samsung Solid Immerse review
It may not be the most stylish of phones but it is designed to be sturdy, reliable and able to withstand dust, knocks and splashes.

User friendliness summary for Samsung Solid Immerse review
It has large keys that are simple to use, although the navigation pad proved rather more fiddly in use.

Feature set summary for Samsung Solid Immerse review
The Solid Immerse is no smartphone but it boasts several features designed for outdoors use, such as torch, compass and GPS

Performance summary for Samsung Solid Immerse review
Surfing the web is not speedy, but the rest of its features are good enough

Battery power summary for Samsung Solid Immerse review
You'll get a good day or two out of a full battery charge - useful if you're out hiking or rock climbing

Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Solid Immerse
What do you want from a phone? A stylish, feature-packed smartphone or a tough, sturdy phone that will not collapse at the first sign of rough treatment? This latest in a line of ruggedised handsets from Samsung is certainly no catwalk model, but it is tough and solid. And like other tough phones, it doesn't boast a load of high-end features.

We have only seen one tough phone that boasts a lot of clever features and that's the top-class Motorola Defy, which offers Android cleverness along with good strength. While the Solid Immerse is certainly tougher, it can't match the Defy's smartphone credentials. Despite this, though, it is more sophisticated than some of its other tough rivals.

Back to basics
Samsung's range of Solid handset has been aimed at those who are rather clumsy or who do tough outdoors jobs - builders for instance. This handset has been aimed at the outdoorsy type - who want a device that won't fall apart if it's dropped while you're hiking or rock climbing, for instance. And with its GPS on board, it's clear it's these people that Samsung is targeting with the Solid Immerse. It might not be a full sat-nav replacement, but at least you'll know if you're heading in the right direction.

In the menu you'll find an Apps icon, which takes you to all kinds of options for those in the great outdoors - think compass, stopwatch, pedometer - and an FM radio for some musical entertainment.

The keypad buttons are large and domed, so they're easy to use even if you're wearing gloves. They may not be stylish but they are eminently practical. The navigation pad doesn't measure up quite so well - it sits lower in the frame than we'd have hoped, so you may find you hit the wrong button when you're navigating sideways. It's a pity, because you need to use the pad to access the shortcuts carousel that sits at the top of the screen to head into the messaging, music playback, camera and so on. It's still usable, but doesn't make for such a speedy experience as we might have hoped.

The screen is low-resolution, and sits quite far from the front of the phone - but it has to sit away from the les to stay safe. The lens is also scratchproof, which means that it's not as clear as on other phones - but if it's important to you that your screen isn't scratched when it sits in a pocket with a bunch of keys, this is a pretty big consideration.

Waterproofing
As the phone's name suggests, waterproofing is a big selling point of the Solid Immerse. It will still work if it's under a meter of water and can survive in the drink for up to 30 minutes. To change the battery, you'll need to use a penny to turn the clasp, which makes it feel very secure. It survived the water torture well in our tests - we turned on the loudspeaker and could even hear our caller's voice when the device was sitting at the bottom of a sink of water. On the top of the device is a large hook for attaching to a lanyard, so you shouldn't be in too much danger of dropping it anyway.

Onboard are also Twitter and Facebook apps - just log on to receive your updates. It's not the integrated app you'll find on many devices, but it's a speedy way to keep in contact with friends.

The snapper is pretty basic - no flash and two megapixels - but it's good enough for the odd snap. You'll find no 3.5mm headphone jack - you'll have to use the microUSB connector, which is covered. Plus, there is no Wi-Fi, but would you get a connection anyway if you were hiking in the wilds?

The verdict
The Samsung Solid immerse is hardly the kind of phone you'd be showing off on a night out, but it might prove handy for finding your way home, thanks to its GPS and handy torch facility.

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