Ivan74

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Good Attempt by Samsung

May 8, 2008

Rating: 5 out of 10 (Average)
Pros: Wifi, Trackball, Decent screen size, easy to use interface(Symbian)
Cons: Terrible Battery life, Wifi, 3.2MP Camera with poor flash for taking pic in the dark, conventional design, Cannot sync with MACBOOK.
Opinion:
To begin, i550W comes in an conventionally designed box. Not appealing to me as compared to the presentation used by Nokia, SE and best of all, Iphone. Please make your package more attractive!!!

i550w comes with many standard accessories like headphone, 1GB MicroSD, Charger, 1 Batt only (those who r using will know why i add in the word only), instruction booklet, CD for GPS and PC Suites. So nothing special on these stuff.

I had a hard time getting the GPS to work. I tried activating it but it didn't work. Really do not know what i did and the GPS finally work. It's a Miracle. Searching for a location is quick for me. 1st time using a GPS to help me find my way in Singapore so there's no way for me to compare with other phone models or GPS unit.

On paper, this phone has everything. I like the fact it has WIFI. I thought it'll be a breeze to use it like on Nokia N82 or Iphone but i thought wrongly. I tried to connect with my connection at home but i just can't. Or at least i have no idea if i was connected or not until i tried loading a page on the browser. If only there's an icon showing that i'm connected or a function that allow me to get connected straight from the page that shows all possible connections.

The trackball is a rather unique design. I personally love it compared to a 5 directional button. However, it does need some getting used to. To my experience, it cannot be set to the highest level of sensitivity. I set sensitivity of horizontal movement to 8 and vertical to 6. It does serve me well after that.

And perhaps, its this trackball that zapped up most of the power on this phone. My fully charged battery can only last me the most 2 days. How i wish Samsung could include an additional battery free of charge.

Symbian is definitely a wonderful interface than the usual Samsung interface.

The camera take clear pictures in the day but at nightspots, it did not work well at all. The pictures taken were not clear or sharp at all.

This phone is a good buy if not for the battery life. Many may not like the design of this phone and that includes me. If only it is as classy and slim as the Ultra editions...... Perhaps adding a touch screen feature with qwerty keyboard may enhance the usage worthiness of this phone.