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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