Samsung's mobile phones have traditionally been targeted at the mid- to high-end market. So when we found out that the new SGH-i780 will be priced at S$828, we were pleasantly surprised. This makes it one of the least expensive HSDPA-enabled Windows Mobile handhelds out there--other models with similar features like the HTC TyTN II and i-mate Ultimate 8502 retail for at least S$1,100. Given the Samsung's sleek design and accessible price tag, do we have a sure winner here? Well, that's what we intend to find out in this review.

Design

Samsung boasts of having some of the slimmest mobile phones in the world. The company has obviously applied its know-how to this i780 as it is a mere 12.9mm thick. That's even thinner than the incredibly compact HTC Touch which measures in at 13.9mm. That said, we were not as impressed with the design of the i780 as we were with the HTC Touch. Somehow, it just didn't have the "wow" factor--likely because it looks so much like the Samsung i600 smart phone which we have gotten very used to seeing.

The i780 (left) put beside the i600 smart phone.

The i780 has a large 320 x 320 display. This has 33 percent more pixels than the more common 320 x 240 QVGA screens found on Windows Mobile devices. The LCD takes up most of the front of the handheld, but still there is ample space for the QWERTY keypad. The keypad buttons are longish in shape and well-spaced out with good tactile feedback. It makes for very good thumb typing, as good as what you'd find on Treo and BlackBerry devices.

Instead of a regular directional pad, the i780 has what Samsung calls an optical joystick. We've seen this in other devices, an example being the Raon Digital Everun UMPC. It's essentially an optical trackpad which controls movement in place of a four-way button. In mouse mode, a pointer appears onscreen and can be navigated by moving your finger around the joystick. It can also be set to work like a four-way navigator. In that mode, swiping in a direction is like pressing a direction button on a regular D-pad. You do have to make multiple swipes to keep it moving though, which makes it less effective than a physical D-pad. Pressing down on this optical joystick selects highlighted items in either mode. All in all, it's a novel feature, but we don't see how it works better than a normal D-pad. On the other hand, we did really like the large Windows and OK keys on the left and right sides of the trackpad which made getting to programs and getting out of menus really simple.

Many of the buttons on the i780 perform two functions. For example, long-pressing the spacebar toggles the silent mode, while the hang-up button keylocks the device. While common in mobile phones, other PDA-phone manufacturers should take a page out of Samsung's book to include more such features. This can only make their devices more user-friendly. One quirk--the keylock does not affect the volume control, so it's possible for you to accidentally bring the phone out of silent mode, which could be embarrassing in a meeting. Let's hope Samsung fixes this bug in an update.

One shortcut button is found on the right side of the device. In camera mode, this acts as a shutter button. But if you just press it quickly, an onscreen console slides up from the bottom of the display, showing what music is playing in the background. This is great for those who use their PDA-phones as MP3 players as well.

Also on the right side are a microSD card slot and a single connector for syncing, charging and plugging in a wired headset. Like many of the current HTC products, there is no dedicated audio connector. It's worse for the i780 because the single connector fits only a proprietary Samsung jack--at least HTC uses the standard mini-USB one. This means you'll need an adapter (which is not included) if you'd prefer to use your own headphones. Having a second charge/sync cable will also cost more compared to the ubiquitous mini-USB ones.

Features

Just like in the i600, Samsung doesn't scrimp when it comes to connectivity features. It has HSDPA for high-speed cellular data transfers and tri-band GSM which supports EDGE. Standard ones like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are also included, completing its arsenal of wireless radios.

There is also a chip found in the i780 for GPS navigation. The navigation software provided with the i780 is NAVFone PPC from Agis. In our review unit, the maps provided included Singapore and various Malaysian cities. Check with a local retailer for the bundle in your country. Because of the less common 320 x 320-resolution display, the application did not scale very well on the i780. In fact, both the menus and maps looked quite distorted as they were designed for a QVGA (320 x 240) display. Though you could still see the names of locations and figure out where you were, the mangled graphics were an eyesore. We downloaded MapKing 2007 and found the same issue. Users who have any indispensable third-party applications will do well to first check if those programs will run on the i780's square screen. There is a workaround by installing an application which allows you to scale the screen differently, but this is an additional step which may not be apparent to those not well-versed in Windows Mobile.

Getting a satellite lock took quite a long time using the i780. Once that was done, it did its job pretty well. The software also has turn-by-turn instructions, so getting to a destination was straightforward. There is an option in the settings to turn on Enhanced GPS, which is Samsung's way of describing a small data file you can download to help with the initial lock. This worked brilliantly with Google Maps, giving us a lock in just a few seconds even in a built-up area. Oddly, it didn't help the bundled software, NAVFone PPC, in speeding up its satellite lock-on. Do note that unlike its other GPS-enabled smart phone, the i550W, Samsung did not provide a car charger or holder with this handheld.

The Home screen on this PDA-phone comes with two custom rows. The first shows a large digital clock. The second is a tabbed interface for quick access to various items like wireless manager and some important settings. There is also an extra Task Manager application which appears as a pop-up at the base of the screen. Map this to a shortcut key and you can conveniently switch to any application running in the background or close them completely.

Many PDA-phones come with cameras that have 3-megapixel sensors, but the i780 lags behind with a 2-megapixel one. It doesn't come with autofocus or an LED for lighting up dark situations, either. We took a few shots and found images to be reasonably sharp for a camera-phone. Controls were a little finicky because of the optical sensor. We found ourselves zooming in and changing the brightness accidentally when the finger was placed in a ready-to-shoot position.

Performance

The Marvell PXA311 processor in the i780 made it pretty snappy. Videos ran smoothly in our tests and we did not experience slowdowns in our week with this device, thanks to the 128MB of RAM. While battery life will definitely vary between usage patterns, we managed more than two days on a single charge which included occasional Wi-Fi connections to hotspots. Its rated talktime is 7 hours. With GPS usage though, the battery depleted really quickly, so it's regrettable Samsung did not include a car charger in its otherwise excellent bundle.

Voice calls worked well with clear reception and no dropped calls. We did appear a little pale to the other party in a video call, but the quality was otherwise good with clear speakerphone performance.

Conclusion

S$828 is a good price for such a PDA-phone, especially given its bundle which includes a 1GB microSD card and an extra battery. The GPS application could have been better implemented and there are a few issues that need to be sorted out, though none of them are deal-breakers. Overall, it's good value for something with so many features and is even kinder to your wallet when purchased with an operator discount, going for as low as S$498. Even if you don't fancy this model, Samsung's aggressive pricing strategy will surely have an effect on how other manufacturers determine their RRP in the future--which is good news for future buyers of these products.