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By Damian Koh
Apr 11, 2008

The SGH-i550W is not Samsung's first Symbian S60 phone. In fact, there have been a number of models, such as the SGH-i520 in 2006 and the SGH-D730/SGH-D720 in 2005, but these were mainly for the European markets. Two years on, the Korean chaebol is once again bringing the S60 platform to some of its handsets. Two recent ones are the SGH-i450 and the SGH-i550W which we are reviewing.

For most people in the know, Nokia has been using S60 in its Nseries multimedia phones. With Samsung now joining the fray, things will likely become more interesting in the near future as this gives S60 loyalists another mobile phone brand to choose from.

Design

Samsung is great at coming up with head-turning handset designs, but the i550W happens not to be one of those. Instead, it takes a very conservative approach with a black casing with gray strip running round the sides, traces of metallic silver for a sophisticated look, a textured back casing that doesn't attract smudges, and the right size for a robust grip in hand.

The 2.5-inch QVGA screen takes up almost half the phone's front, so it's inevitable that something else has to give. Our concerns were initially with the longish and thin alphanumeric keys which remind us of the ones on the Nokia N82 and Sony Ericsson W880i. Fortunately, our worries were unfounded. Although the keys are smaller compared with the traditional rectangular buttons, these are well-spaced-out and provide decent tactile feedback.

The most unique implementation on the i550W is the trackball which replaces the standard directional pad. Its role is to save us from clicking by rolling to the desired point on the screen with a swiping motion. The flipside is we now have less precise control over the navigation compared with using the D-pad. On the i550W, we recommend increasing the sensitivity of the trackball to its maximum limit as anything less hampers the user experience.

While the trackball has a novelty appeal, it doesn't work that well in the Web browser and the Navfone map application. That was when we wished the trackball was an option instead as it was a pain to scroll across a larger area of the screen. With a hardware directional pad, pressing and holding down a button usually does the job. But with the trackball, we had to make repetitive swipes in the same direction. Quite the opposite, the trackball on the BlackBerry Curve 8320 performed significantly better and felt a lot more responsive than the one on the i550W.

The i550W comes with a 3.5mm audio port and that is on the top edge of the set covered by a protector. This lets us plug in our headset from the top, so there won't be anything protruding along the sides when the phone is in our pocket. Elsewhere, there's a microSD expansion card slot on the left and a connector port behind a sliding door on the right.

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