Samsung's latest candy-bar offering, the SGH-X700, may not be the most powerful or best-looking phone out there, but it's packed with useful features. Equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, video and MP3 player and an onboard memory slot, there's really not much this midrange handset cannot do. Despite some minor quirks in music playback and camera, its affordable S$368 sticker price (with two-year mobile contract) makes it one of the best-value phones out there.

Design
Those familiar with the earlier Samsung SGH-X620C will find the X700's design somewhat similar, with its corporate black-and-silver theme and sleek candy-bar styling. However, a closer inspection reveals several aesthetic enhancements over its predecessor model.

Instead of a plastic case (on the X620C), the X700 now comes with a rubbery surface exterior which we first saw on the Samsung SGH-E760. This gives the phone a nice matt finish that will not leave stains easily. More importantly, it offers a better overall grip of the handset. We also like that Samsung has chosen to use a sliding cover for its headphone port over the X620C's traditional plastic cap, which can be quite a hassle to use if you frequently plug and unplug the headset.

The most impressive upgrade on the X700, however, is its LCD panel. Capable of supporting up to 262K colors, the 1.9-inch LCD displays crisp and bright images with good color balance. The screen itself is well-illuminated with a five-level control which, even in the lowest brightness setting, is bright enough for everyday use. The LCD does tend to attract smudges, though, particularly for those with sweaty hands.

We didn't find the keypad very responsive at times, probably because of the way the buttons are contoured. The "menu" and "contacts" keys are also placed too far down from the screen, which makes for a less intuitive user experience. Having said that, the buttons are large and well-spaced, so typing on the keys is comfortable.

Features
The X700 may share cosmetic similarities with the X620C but its feature set is actually closer to that of the SGH-D500C. You have a 1.3-megapixel camera which produces decent image captures good enough for 3R and 4R prints. It can also record short video clips. There's no in-built flash light, but that should be a minor issue considering most of these onboard photo lights hardly help to improve the image illumination anyway.

For entertainment, the X700 offers the standard MP3 as well as video player. While sound quality from handset is above average, the speaker is tad too soft at times. In addition, there are no onboard equalizer settings. The X700 also does not support MP3s encoded in 320kbps. This means users have to re-encode their MP3s at a lower bit rate to play on the phone. Samsung places the speaker on two sides of the LCD display, so the sound stays clear and loud even if it is placed face down on the desk.

One of the key advantages the X700 has over its D500C predecessor is its onboard memory expansion slot. Built into the side of the handset, the TransFlash or microSD slot gives users the option to add the much-needed storage space. This helps to effectively make use of the onboard imaging and multimedia functions. The phone itself comes with about 35MB of built-in memory.

The X700 comes equipped with the usual bundle of connectivity options that includes Bluetooth and USB. The onboard PictBridge support lets you hook up the phone directly to a compatible printer for printing.

Performance And Battery Life
There were no issues with the quality of voice calls or reception. As with other recent Samsung offerings, the user interface was also intuitive and responsive. We didn't encounter any significant lag when operating the phone and SMS texting was smooth and quick. Starting up the camera took a mere 2 seconds, while music playback was almost instantaneous.

A full charge of the battery gave us more than two days of usage, which is reasonably good given its 900mAh capacity.