By Damian Koh
11/04/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,42129271p,00.htm

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.

Features

Usually by looking at the dedicated buttons on a phone, one will be able to tell the strongest feature on the unit, or how the device is positioned in the market. In the case of the i550W, Samsung has clearly given the built-in GPS and Web browser priority over other features with their own hotkeys. Of course, there's also Wi-Fi which has its logo at the top right corner.

Like we mentioned earlier, the i550W isn't Samsung's first S60 phone though we are glad the company is bringing it back again. In recent years, the Symbian platform has been intimately linked to Nokia's Nseries handsets. So when one mentions S60, the Finnish company almost automatically comes to mind. Now, S60 loyalists are handed another reason to make the switch from Nokia, if they previously held back.

Although the familiarity and the user interface of the Symbian S60 have been carried over to the i550W, Samsung didn't just leave it as is. The menu icons have been redesigned, so it looks different from the ones on the Nokia handsets. Ultimately, it's S60 in a different flavor, or theme, depending on how you look at it. That's good if you are already a seasoned user of the OS. Otherwise, it's only a matter of getting used to.

Samsung also spruced up the standby screen of the i550W with a Google search bar as a permanent fixture. Besides that, the Yahoo! Go software is pre-installed for users. It's a pity there isn't a Search application, like the one on the Nokia handsets which prowls through the phone's contents when carrying out a query.

Connectivity options on the i550W are plentiful. Besides Wi-Fi, the triband phone comes with HSDPA and Bluetooth stereo A2DP. There's also a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera with built-in LED flash for snapshots and an FM radio for music over-the-air.

GPS and Web browser

Previously, users who wanted onboard GPS on their phones had only Nokia to choose from. Now they have an additional option. The i550W uses the Agis NavFone mapping solution. Retail units will come bundled with a 1GB microSD card with the application and maps (Singapore, Johor Bahru, Malazza, Klang Valley and Kuala Lumpur).

Unlike Nokia's GPS handsets which already have the Maps software installed and ready for use, users will need to select the installation file on the flash memory to install both the application and maps themselves on the i550W. While that wouldn't require a rocket scientist to perform the task, it made us wonder us why Samsung couldn't save users the additional step involved. With regard to map updates, Samsung says users will be able to download map updates without incurring additional costs within a year after registration. The license key (which also includes turn-by-turn real-time navigation) is valid for as long as the handset is operational.

The GPS feature generally worked fine during our review and took approximately 15 seconds to achieve a lock on our position with A-GPS enabled. Unlike the A-GPS implementation on the Nokia GPS handsets which offload some of the computational work to the cell phone towers, the i550W equipped with Qualcomm's GPSOne Xtra uses Qualcomm's own servers for receiving data on the chipset to get a faster lock-on timing. This data file, estimated to be 10Kb in size, is activated separately from the NavFone software and requires an update every seven days.

Our only gripe is that the GPS button on the i550W doesn't activate the navigation software, which is probably what most people would use with the feature. Instead, it brings up the generic GPS data application that shows information like trip distance and position.

There are other useful features on the NavFone such as SMS Position and Where Are You options even though their uses are somewhat limited at this stage, meaning it's meant to be used with another i550W handset with the same map software. Ideally, the SMS Position function should not only send the latitude and longitude coordinates to the receiver, but also offer the user an option to view the position on the map software. We tried it with the Samsung SGH-i780 that was loaded with the NavFone app and found that not to be the case. Instead, the receiving end got only the numeric coordinates via a text message. Likewise, the same happened for the Where Are You feature.

Overall, while the NavFone application appears somewhat to be a more useful map application out of the box, Nokia Maps has slightly nicer graphics on its interface. No doubt, if Samsung could work out a firmware upgrade to address the issues in the near future, it would probably give the NavFone a slight edge.

As for the Web browser, there's the Mini Maps feature--something which has made the browser on the Nokia S60 phones very popular. There are just two matters to take note of: One is the usability of the trackball as mentioned earlier. Two, there's no option to search for a Wi-Fi access point from within the browser window. Instead, users have to define the Wi-Fi access point separately from the connection manager before the option will show up in the Access Point window in the browser. This is a feature which is available on the Nokia sets and no excuse for Samsung to leave it out.

Performance

The i550W uses a 1,200mAh cell which is rated for up to 7 hours of talktime and about 21 days on standby. We managed to get about 1.5 days of operational time with making calls, sending text messages, listening to music, using the Web browser and GPS navigation. When used outdoors under the sun, we noticed that the LCD appeared faded and screen legibility was poor. Otherwise, our review unit (with a 450MHz TI OMAP2431 processor) felt responsive during use and there's 128MB of RAM, of which 80MB is available to the user.

One of the issues we encountered during our review was the installation of the Samsung PC Studio 7. We got an alert message that said "Installation found Nokia PC Suite on this computer. Because Samsung PC Studio 7 and Nokia PC Suite cannot function flawlessly in the same computer, installation was cancelled. To use Samsung PC Studio 7 in this computer, first uninstall Nokia PC Suite."

We did as instructed, but the problem didn't end there. We got another alert popup saying: "The version of PC Connectivity Solution already installed on this computer is newer than the one you are trying to install. Installation will not continue." The response from Samsung was that they found conflicts when the two software were residing on the same PC, though it didn't mention specifically what. So this is one to take note of if you were previously using the Nokia PC Suite with a Nokia handset.

Picture quality from the camera gave average results which would suffice as snapshots or for Web use. It's not possible to use the focus-and-recompose method with the i550W as the camera records the picture immediately after a focus lock. Pressing "*" on the numeric keypad will show a series of camera shortcut functions that could be helpful for changing certain settings on the fly.

Conclusion

Although the specifications of the i550W give the handset a lot of headroom in an otherwise saturated market, we can't help but feel that Samsung is still lacking in its implementation of the S60 platform. In this aspect, Nokia, with its many years of experience, no doubt has an edge over the i550W.

The i550W fits nicely in Samsung's portfolio of products and is probably a sign of things to come. It's wonderfully priced (S$738 without contract) with an equally comprehensive set of bundled accessories (in-car charger and in-car holder), and if you can live with the limitations such as the quirky trackball that we mentioned, we would recommend the handset for its features, if not its price.