Samsung SGH-N500

If you get a sense of déjà vu when you see the Samsung SGH-N500, there's good reason to. This phone is almost a twin to Samsung's two previous handsets, the "Blue-on" SGH-R220 and polyphonic SGH-N620.

Peas In A Pod
The 95g SGH-N500 retains the pleasant elongated dimensions and two-tone color scheme, the hard-plastic silver buttons, as well as the unmistakable brilliant blue backlight of Samsung's previous models. The screen size is also the same five-line display, which is comfortable enough on the eyes.

What's different is the pokey antenna, which has been hidden away and nicknamed the "intenna" by the company. Less obvious changes include the "up" and "down" keys that have been replaced by a two-directional rocker, which looks better but doesn't offer much improvement in the way of usability.

In terms of software interface, the phone employs a scroll-based menu similar to Nokia's, so navigation is generally simple and intuitive and we didn't have to refer to the manual for help.

Unspectacular Features
The SGH-N500 offers a feature set that would be considered ordinary by today's standards. These include a ringtone composer, calendar, scheduler and calculator. The phone does come with 11 games, but only one or two are worth spending any time on.

The SGH-N500's more notable functions are a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) browser and five customizable service light colors. Using the latter, users can assign a certain service light color to a friend, so as to identify who's calling without having to look at the screen.

A third major feature, voice dial, proved to be buggy in our tests. Even in an enclosed environment, the SGH-N500 could not register my voice. Strangely though, using a handsfree seemed to solve the problem. This may have been an issue with our test unit, as we did not encounter this bug in previous Samsungs.

The SGH-N500 adopts Nokia's popular messaging standards, Smart Messaging and Picture Messaging. This allows the phone to download ringtones via Smart Messaging or exchange pictures with Nokia users. Additionally, the SGH-N500 features a responsive T9 predictive text input, but frequent texters will find it a setback that the N500 doesn't allow new words to be added to its onboard dictionary. As with all Samsung phones, the SGH-N500 doesn't support Chinese text input.

The phone comes with 30 preset ringtones and five customizable ones, with enough onboard memory for 200 phonebook entries to be stored in the phone.

Average Reception, Mediocre Battery Life
The SGH-N500 had no major reception and voice quality issues where the network signal was strong. However, the phone failed to obtain a signal in areas of poor network coverage. Voice clarity was just as good while using the handsfree kit.

Samsung expects the SGH-N500 to last up to 3.5 hours of talktime and 120 hours on standby. On normal usage, the SGH-N500 lasted us just two days, certainly something the Korean maker will have to work on next. These days, consumers would expect at least three days of cell life. A complete charge of the 340mAh Lithium-ion battery took just 2 hours.

Conclusion
At S$298 (with a two-year plan), the phone is neither cheap nor expensive for an entry-level model. For those undecided about the SGH-N500, its compatibility with Nokia picture messages and sleek looks stand it in good stead with frequent SMSers, basic users and the younger set. Samsung has also generously included a handsfree kit, a nice touch considering that such accessories are rarely included with low- to mid-range handsets. But if you're looking for more advanced features like polyphony and color-screens, you might want to consider Samsung SGH-T100. Watch out for our upcoming review.

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