First saw and used the Samsung SGH-G800 the eve before it was announced while having dinner with some Samsung representatives in Seoul. Right off the bat, the G800 looked like a real contender in the cameraphone market. It just looks and feels like a camera should. With its auto-focus, image stabilization, and Xenon flash, the 5 megapixel G800 sounds like a winner. The question is, does it measure up in the real world?
Physical Aspects
There is no denying that in attempting to make the G800 as good a camera as it is a phone, Samsung had to make some sacrifices. For starters, the G800 is a fairly large device, at 103mm x 52mm x 23mm (4.1" x 2.0" x .9") in size, and weighs a pretty hefty 146g (5.2oz). Sure, that is less than the combined weight and size of having a separate phone and camera, but it is still somewhat bulky.
Part of the G800 that ads significantly to its bulk is its generous use of metal, which also is largely responsible for just how rock solid the device is. The G800's slider mechanism is solidly sprung and is quite confidence inspiring. The rear active lens cover on the back adds a lot of thickness to the device, but it makes the G800 seem far more "real" as far as being a camera goes.
The G800's 2.4" QVGA display is clear and bright, sitting behind a smoked glossy front cover. The d-pad and softkeys that sit below it are very easy to use, and the slide out keypad, though flat and RAZR like, is very usable.
Like many compact cameras, the SGH-G800 has a metal loop for attaching a wrist strap or similar device. Above that, on the left side of the phone, are the covers for the microSD card slot and the power/headset/USB port (headset and cable included). The volume control and the camera shutter button are on the opposite edge of the device.
While thinner and lighter will almost always be better, I am still pretty pleased with the G800's physical design. Considering that its 5 megapixel camera sports a 3x optical zoom, the G800 is still pretty compact. It is also very solidly built, which is always good for a take-along camera.
Core Functions
The Samsung G800 has particularly clear sounding audio, which is great, but the device seems to be lacking a bit when it comes to reception, at least on its 1900MHz GSM band. The G800 supports the 900/1800/1900MHz GSM/EDGE bands and also works on UMTS and HSDPA compatible 3G networks on the 2100MHz band. Samsung claims that the G800's battery should be good for 3.5 hours of talk time or so, and about 9 days of standby time. We were not able to test that properly ourselves, though.
While it lacks any support for over the air synchronization beyond the infrequently used SyncML system, the SGH-G800 can be synchronized easily with a desktop PC's copy of Microsoft Outlook by using the included sync software. The contacts search system is limited to searching on just the last name, but the amount of data stored in each record is admirable.
The G800 includes 5 regular ring profiles and an offline mode for airplanes. The silent mode can easily be activated by long-pressing the '#' keypad key. Separate ring, message, and keypad tones can be set for each profile. Speed dialing is also supported on the G800, and speed dial entries can be activated by long-pressing the number's associated keypad key. There appears to be no voice dialing support in the G800 at all, which is a bit of a let down.
While the G800 does not support instant messaging, SMS, MMS, and email are covered. The email application supports both POP and IMAP based email accounts, and has a number of settings for retrieving only a certain number of messages and retrieving only the subject or header of a message to save time and data. Speaking of data, we were unable to give the G800 a fair shake when it comes to data since we did not have access to any 2100MHz HSDPA data networks. We were able to use the device with Bluetooth headsets and with a laptop over a USB 2.0 connection, though.
Multimedia / Applications
For a 5 megapixel cameraphone such as the Samsung G800, one thing is key for it to be a success: it has to take good quality photos. Sadly, the G800 falls short of the mark. The camera is easy to activate, has a nice user interface and a good feature set that includes not only image stabilization, but also face detection. The problem is that it has a tough time focusing in less than bright lighting conditions, and has an even harder time taking a non-blurry photo on anything but the highest of its ISO settings. In lower light levels, the automatic ISO mode just doesn't seem intelligent enough to get out of its own way - assuming the camera can manage to obtain focus, which it often can't, in spite of the red focus-assist lamps.
Once you have learned the ins and outs of the G800's shortcomings, the photos the phone takes can be very nice indeed. But for that to happen, you need either a lot of light, or you have to be within the short range of the camera's otherwise solid flash. The 3x optical zoom, while slow, is very handy to have available, and the lens performs well at the wide angle, though telephoto shots tend to look low in contrast. But even on its best day, the G800 can't compete with the least expensive of dedicated digital cameras. The G800 can boast that there are no dedicated cameras with built-in ShoZu support, though, which makes uploading images from the phone a snap. The camera also take pretty nice QVGA resolution video. So you win some, you lose some, it seems.
Somewhat surprisingly, what the G800 does manage quite well is music playback. The built-in music player does a fine job of organizing music both automatically and by letting the user create playlists on the fly. It is capable of playing in the background, and its controls are nicely integrated into the standby screen, which makes it convenient to use. Samsung is not known for the music capabilities of its feature phones, but the G800 does a nice job of it and even works with stereo Bluetooth headphones. The included wired headset must be used in order to take advantage of the G800's FM radio, though.
The Samsung SGH-G800 has a decent assortment of built-in applications. The calendar and tasks sync with a PC using the same tool as the contacts, and there is a wide assortment of other organization type apps like a calculator and converter, as well as alarms, timers, and a world clock. My favorite application on the device is the image editor, which seems quite capable. I was able to take an over exposed flash photo, resize it, fix the exposure, warm up the colors a bit, and then add text - all quite easily. Other apps on the G800 include an RSS feed reader, a memo pad, and access to Google direct from the main menu.
The G800 has about 155MB of free storage memory available built-in, which is reasonable for most phones, but a bit light for a 5 megapixel cameraphone. With that said, you can always install a microSD card for additional headroom.
User Interface
Samsung's feature phone user interface has been evolving for years. While it is not the best on the market, it is reasonably consistent and user friendly. It has its issues, though, such as using what I consider too large of a font in many of the menus, which forces it to scroll left to right for long settings names and such. Users can change up the font size, color, and style used for dialing phone numbers, though, which is considerate.
While there is no support for different themes on the G800, the user does have options when it comes to how the menus work. For starters, the main menu can be viewed as a grid of icons or as a list. On top of that, Samsung's pop-up sub-menus can be enabled, which lets experience users more quickly get to desired settings in fewer clicks, but does clutter up the display.
The d-pad shortcuts from the standby screen can all be user adjusted on the G800, as can the wallpaper that is used. The G800 supports Samsung's "Living" animated wallpaper that dynamically adjusts the scene in the image to reflect current conditions, such as adding clouds to the sky when reception is poor.
In short, the user interface on the G800 is far from perfect, but it is acceptable. Samsung really would have been wise to have included additional themes on the device, though, as the constant scrolling and odd main menu animations are two of the most obvious, and easily fixed, issues with the system.
Conclusion
I had quite high hopes for the SGH-G800 when I first saw it in Seoul. The device truly looks the part of a modern digital camera. It feels like a camera, has a real flash, real zoom, and even face detection auto-focus. It just seems to be lacking when it comes to exposure intelligence and auto-focus sensitivity, which results in it taking a lot of blurry photos.
As far as regular phone functionality goes, we can't say for certain if it will perform well enough for the typical European users or not, but we can say with some certainty that due to its frequency band support and average, at best, 1900MHz reception, it will probably only be of interest to T-Mobile users in the USA with very strong signal strength in their area.
In the end, I come away from the G800 underwhelmed. The device looks good on paper, but just can't live up to expectations. There are too many other devices that can take good pictures much more reliably, and because that is the focus of this particular phone, I feel I have to give it a "Not Recommended" rating.
You'll find a few more screen shots, as well as some full resolution photos shot with the Samsung G800's 5 megapixel camera on the following pages.
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