Samsung D900

Samsung D900 review: Slim slider extreme

The slimmest slider in the world is already on the market. Samsung D900 (12.9 mm thick when closed) offers almost maximum equipment. It has also been given a special final touch: a 3 megapixel camera and a superb display. Now try to imagine it all in a stylish sliding body. The price, however, is rather high.

Key Features:

Supreme sliding construction
Stylish design of mere 12.9 mm thickness
Brilliant display with QVGA resolution
Comfortable keypad
3 megapixel camera with auto focus
Multi-field phonebook with thousand entries
Internal memory of nearly 60 MB, extendable through microSD cards
Applications for viewing Office documents
TV out
GPRS and EDGE Class 10
MP3 player
Bluetooth

Main Disadvantages:

Body is made of cheap-looking plastic material
Significant resistance of the sliding mechanism
No 3G
The phone needs to be activated to visualize missed events
No ringing profiles
Limited melody choice for SMS alerts
Navigation key’s center opens the WAP browser when the phone is on stand-by
Calls cannot be filtered
Java applications cannot be transferred via Bluetooth
Images cannot be saved straight to the memory card
No FM radio
No Infrared port
Fingerprints are visible on the display

Samsung D900

Mobile phones seem to have gone on a diet for good. The slim design first invented by Motorola and applied in its Motorola RAZR V3 model has become very popular among other manufacturers, of which some are slower, while others are even faster than the pioneer. There is no doubt that Samsung is the one who embraced the slim idea to the max. In a short period it has launched a slim model (being also the slimmest ever) in each mobile category existing on the market. After the ultra-slim classic model Samsung X820 and the clamshell Samsung D830 now Samsung is presenting the slimmest slider phone ever: Samsung D900.

Samsung D900 closed • rear side

Samsung D900 was first presented to the public at the CeBIT fair in March this year as Samsung D870. Later however, the manufacturer decided to change its denomination to D900, which the Koreans thought suited Samsung’s ultra-slim line better.

Dark flat fashion-freak

This new Samsung model links to the famous and pretty successful Samsung D500 and D600, and more precisely to their design and functional equipment. Yet, Samsung D900 abounds in changes and improvements. Closed the phone looks like a dark flat square. Its dimensions are 104 x 51 x 13 mm and it weighs 85 g and is thus able to hide into the front pocket of your shirt. Samsung D900 is a little bit wide, which is however compensated by its extreme slimness.

All covers are made of plastic, except for the battery one. Along with matt plastics the manufacturer has also applied black glossy plastics – on top and bottom of the front cover, which make the phone look more vivid. Yet, we find these materials much too cheap-looking for the category the phone belongs to. A bit more of metal details would have suited it better.

The phone is only 13 mm thick • comparison to a credit card • feels good

Samsung D900 brings no crucial surprises in terms of design. It is basically a “flatter D600”. Decorative silver elements have been applied moderately: a band above the speaker, a frame, the central area of the navigation key, and the lateral buttons. On the left side of the phone you will find a dual volume-control key; on the right side is the key that activates the camera (it would have been more comfortable to use if it had been located somewhat higher).

Ultra-slim handsets in competition: Samsung D900 and Motorola Razr V3i

Beside the respective keys, both sides of the handset feature a cap: the left one protects the slot for the microSD memory card, while the right one protects the system connector for hands-free, the data cable, and the charger. Both caps rotate both ways, but I cannot help myself fearing that I might break them too easily. The top and the bottom areas of Samsung D900 are bare.

Side parts feature 2 buttons, a data connector, and a memory card slot

So let us take a closer look at the rear side of the phone. Its top half constitutes of the above mentioned steel battery cover with a plastic manufacturer’s logo. The rest is plastic. In an uneven oval you will find incrusted Samsung’s website; two uncovered screws in both bottom corners are worth mentioning too. The battery cover is not easy to remove even if equipped with a tiny projection for thumb support. When mounting it back it is necessary to open the phone; otherwise the cover would not clap back fully. Beneath the cover you will find a Li-Ion 800 mAh battery, which is supposed to supply 198 minutes of call time or 260 hours of stand-by time. When the battery has left few minutes of life before it dies out completely, the display goes out, the keypad backlighting too, and neither the camera, nor the MP3 player or any Java application would run. This is how the phone saves its last bits of energy; yet in specific situations such functional limits may not be welco! me. The SIM card is inserted into the phone’s body. Its removal with sweaty fingers may be problematic.

Data connector and button for activation of the camera • volume control key and the slot for the memory card protected with a cap

Which button opens this slim beauty?

Let’s finally open the phone… To be frank, my first try took me a few seconds: accustomed to classic sliders I was pushing onto the bottom edge of the front cover without any success. The mechanism applied in Samsung D900 is different though: you need to place your thumb between the functional area of the keypad and the display where a special projection is located and then push up. The difficulty is that the projection is rather small and doesn’t help much to overcome the initial resistance of the sliding part. We happened to repeatedly press the upper way of the navigation key or smudge the display instead of opening the phone.

In other words, instead of using your finger tip you would better slide the top phone part out using your nail, sticking it between the above mentioned projection and the navigation key. Once the initial resistance has been overcome a special spring helps full-open the device. The same holds true when the phone is being closed. The phone can also be set up in a way that as soon as it is closed all running operations are stopped and the keypad is automatically locked.

Camera details • inserting the memory card • the bottom part of the front side does not slide out

Critics regarding construction have rarely been on a daily base when Samsung models are tested. The new model is no exception to the rule. Its sliding mechanism is very well elaborated; no visible spaces or gaps. The rest of its parts firmly stick together too. A creak would not come out even after a stronger press.

One of Samsung D900’s main advantages pops out when the phone is open. I am talking about its 3 megapixel camera with auto focus located in the top area of the back. The camera lens along with a tiny mirror for self-portraits and a LED is built into a bulge silver oblong plate. The rest of the upper part of the phone is just as thin as to fit in the display and its protecting glass.

Keypad is virtually perfect

The keypad is divided into two areas: a functional one, which is constantly accessible, and a numeric one only usable when the device is open. All functional keys are spacey enough and seamless to work with. Along with a standard four-way navigation key with a confirming center here you will also find a couple of context keys, keys for call initiation and termination, as well as a standard cancel key. In other words, SMS can be read, music played or WAP accessed even if the phone is closed.

Typing is comfortable • keypad’s functional area is accessible even when the handset is closed

The numeric part of the keypad constitutes of an even matrix of equally sized keys, the latter being divided one from another by spaces. The keys are large, but utterly flat, which makes touch orientation somewhat complicated. Press is accurate but accompanied by a rather loud click; in result, SMS typing in quiet environment may sometimes be considered disturbing.

Details of the keypad’s functional area • the numeric part is utterly flat

Keys’ legends are illuminated in white. The red and the green keys are the only ones with a different color but white, that is, they keep their red and green backlighting respectively. The keypad backlights can also be set to go on in certain daytime, for example from the evening to the morning; during the rest of the day the phone maintains the keypad backlighting off for energy-saving reasons.

Keypad’s backlights can be active in certain daytime interval only

Superb display again

Samsung handsets have also been distinguished for their brilliantly elaborated displays. Samsung D900 is no exception to the rule: thanks to the active TFT,with its 240 x 320 pixels and 262K colors it stands out in any aspect. Images are detailed; pixels are nearly impossible to distinguish with bare eye. Colors are true, animation is fast, and legibility under direct sunlight is superb.

Display is brilliant • featuring extremely fine images and vivid, real colors

The backlighting intensity as well as its duration is user-configurable from the main menu. When the active time runs out, first the backlights fade away and then the display goes out completely. In case of need to check for missed events it is necessary to press a random key or simply open the phone.

Speaker’s grid is decently elaborated

The display is protected by a glass reaching the very edge of the phone, also covering the black glossy frame with the manufacturer’s logo around the display. On the other hand, the material this protection is made of allows fingerprints to be quite visible and will require frequent cleaning. The speaker grid located above the display is decently elaborated and decorated with a silver band.

Interface and control: background for travelers

Samsung D900 is controlled in a way very similar to manufacturer’s former models. The main menu is accessible from the stand-by display through a press on the left context key. The right context key is reserved for the phonebook. The central area of the navigation key opens the WAP browser, again from stand-by. At the same time each way of this basic key – but the up one – can be assigned the function of instant access to one of 22 items. The up way is fixed to open the My menu, where you can configure your preferable and most frequently used functions.

Stand-by display • main menu in black

The stand-by display offers an extensive number of settings. The top bar is reserved for standard details like signal strength, battery status, GPRS connectivity, ringing mode etc. Beneath that you will see a grey band with the current date and a digital clock. The operator’s logo can be located in the bottom or simply deactivated (its color and font type are user-configurable as well). The bottom bar features description of the functions assigned to the context keys. Samsung D900 could also be set to constantly visualize the month view of the calendar on its stand-by display, which is quite a practical option.

The selected icon is the only one colored • deeper menu levels use pop-up windows

The phone offers a total of 10 wallpapers, each of which can be applied as background of the stand-by display. Any other image could be used as well. Besides, Samsung D900 features a rather unusual animated traveler background with analogue clock, which recognizes – with the help of the respective operator – the country where the phone is being used and subsequently selects a proper background design. If you visit France, for example, an image of the Eiffel Tower will dominate your display. Background wallpaper is animated: birds are flying in the sky, clouds are moving etc. From 7 pm till 6 am it gets wrapped up in night mood: the sunny sky gets dark, while houses start to gleam with lights.

A sample of the white version of the main menu and its deeper levels

The main menu can be displayed either as a matrix of 9 icons or as a standard list. In any case it is colored moderately and has nothing in common with the “cartoons” in other Samsung phones. The menu has two color versions: a stylish black one, where only the selected icon is color-toned, and a more vivid and more colorful white one. The rest of the items consist of text only. Sub-menus are visualized as pop-up windows accessible through the horizontal ways of the navigation key. To my opinion however, the main menu has one disturbing minus: it memorizes the last visited item and the next time you open the menu it shows you the way to this item as a priority-one. In result, you will have to sometimes make steps back in the menu in order to open a different item. Generally, Samsung D900 leads you inside the menu relatively fast. Shortcut keys are available too.

Samsung D900’s camera belongs among the best

Samsung D900’s integrated camera can be without any doubt considered one of the phone’s most attractive applications, mainly due to its 3.2 megapixels. Maximum image resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels. Samsung D900 therefore enters the elite club of 3 megapixel photo-mobiles, which is not so crowded so far; Nokia N80, N73 and N93 and Sony Ericsson K800 and K790 are some of the members.

Camera view-finder • camera menu

The rest of the camera equipment is no less praiseworthy. Its auto-focus, which provides high-quality macro-pictures, works in a way somewhat different from the auto-focus in other competing mobiles: you have to press on the center of the navigation key, which serves as a release button; then the camera focuses on the image and shoots immediately afterwards. No two-stage shutter release in Samsung D900. The taking of one picture takes 3 seconds from the first press on the navigation key.

Selecting a shooting mode • photo settings

To take a picture you have to open Samsung D900 and hold it in a vertical position. If you don’t, the camera lens will remain hidden behind the bottom part of the phone and either the view-finder will fail to make use of the entire display surface, or only the central area of the taken picture will get visualized on the display. Around the view-finder you will see various icons providing details about the camera settings. You can set image size, insert frames, choose out of 8 effects, activate the self-release function or the night mode, modify exposure compensation or ISO sensitivity level, white balance as well as the degree of image compression. Digital zoom is also available. You could also apply a sequence of 15 shots or create mosaic images. The additional LED can be lit constantly or simply when pictures are being taken. It can also be activated automatically. Once the camera application has been switched off! and then switched on again however, the LED will be off (its standard setting). Even if not very powerful, the LED is helpful, especially when shooting close objects. The sound accompanying the release button (5 options to choose from) could be deactivated if necessary. Alternatively, camera settings could be modified through the use of shortcut keys as well.

Sample photos taken with the camera built-in Samsung D900:

Effects:

Exposure compensation

Mosaic images are only taken in resolution of 240 x 180 pixels

Digital zoom in full resolution

Additional LED is pretty handy for short distances

Shooting text: with and without auto-focus

Samsung D900 makes very good pictures. Yet these could hardly compete with the images created by today’s best photo mobiles on the market: Sony Ericsson K800 and Nokia N73. Samsung D900’s pictures suffer from chromatic aberrations; the details are not clear, color saturation seems far too high. Besides, pictures get blurred under low light conditions. On the other hand scanned text is perfectly readable thanks to the available auto-focus. Ready pictures can be further modified applying effects or inserting icons, rotating the image or adjusting contrast and brightness level. Images can be maximized to a full-screen size or slide-showed. Sending them via Bluetooth is seamless. What’s more, the phone is compatible with the PictBridge standard, which allows direct print without PC.

Samsung D900 also offers a simple photo editor, which applies effects or inserts frames

Samsung D900 automatically saves images into its memory (60 MB), which I find rather unpractical as any transfer from it to a memory card has to be made manually. At the same time the address structure of the phone memory and the one of the memory card are separated and fully independent.

My files • My photos (Photo gallery) • Memory status

The camera also shoots videos with sound in MP4 format with a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 pixels (CIF). Video duration is only limited by the available free internal memory. Both zoom and color effects can be applied during the shooting process.

Sample videos shot with Samsung D900:

Calling application lacks profiles and call filters

Call functions in Samsung D900 are grouped around its multi-field phonebook with capacity for 1000 entries. Each contact can be assigned first and last name, 5 phone numbers, email address, note, birth date (gets copied into the calendar automatically). Each contact could be further attached an image or filtered by ringing melody. Names can be organized in groups, which however, cannot be used as call filters. Each group could also be assigned a specific image and ringtone. The phonebook displays an overall list of all contacts from both the phone memory and the SIM card, which can be browsed by gradual typing of the initial characters. The phonebook is able to visualize 3 entries including their default numbers en bloc. The other contact numbers remain in the contact’s detail, which can be open by a press on the center of the navigation key. Contacts can be ordered by either first name or last name.

Phonebook menu • selecting the location of a new contact • creating a contact

Speaker sound is good, with sufficient volume to use even in noisy environment. The phone offers a loudspeaker. Incoming calls can be accepted by a simple opening of the device.

Each contact can be assigned 12 fields • searching the contact list • contact detail

Samsung D900 does not support 3G networks, but it is fully usable in the 4 standard GSM frequencies: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The phone lacks ringing profiles. The latter are substituted by a quiet mode activated by a press on the hash key. On the other hand, from the main menu you can select the way the phone should alert you about incoming calls: with a melody, with a melody followed by vibration, vibrating only, or by a combination of melody and vibration. The phone rings in 64-voice polyphony or using MP3 and AAC files. If you are onboard an airplane you have the option to switch off the GSM part of the device.

Messages: forget about sending 3 megapixel images via email

Standard SMS are written in a block of 6 lines. The editor visualizes the number of available characters as well as the number of written sub-messages (12 at most). Typing is facilitated by T9. As the phone supports EMS, messages could contain black & white images or animation.

Samsung D900 offers 200 positions for messages. Incoming message is announced by one of 10 pre-installed sounds, which can also be set to repeat every minute or every two minutes until the message is read. Received messages are visualized in 8 lines en bloc. At the same time the phone allows you to use zoom in order to modify the font size. Using the tiniest available font the phone displays a total of 14 lines en bloc. Another practical hint is the option to set the editor to delete any message received from 10 preset numbers. This way you do not even come to realize that such a message has ever come.

Messages menu • creating a new SMS • options

Each MMS could carry text, sound, image or video as far as its size does not exceed 300 KB. At the same time it could have more than one page. 3 megapixel images attached to a MMS get automatically reduced before the message is sent. Received MMS and SMS are stores into the same folder. Here once again you can set the phone to block incoming messages from up to 10 phone numbers.

Memory status for each type of message

The email client manages multiple accounts working with POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols. You could download either entire email messages or their headers only. In both cases downloading can be executed in preset time intervals. The email client supports attachments, but once again make sure they are no bigger than 300 KB. Email messages can be filtered by sender and subject too.

Organizer: comfortable browsing of MS Office documents

Like in any other phone, the calendar is the main organizing tool of Samsung D900. It is detailed. It offers a month, a week and a day view. The week may start on either Monday or Sunday. The calendar contains 4 types of events: appointment, anniversary, event, and task, each of which can be assigned an alert. Besides, appointments can be set to repeat daily, weekly or monthly. The phone also has a task editor integrated into the calendar. Tasks can be visualized separately, marked as priority, and marked-off once having been accomplished. Synchronization with MS Outlook is available, of course.

Planner (List of organizing functions) • Samsung D900 offers three repeated alarm clocks • World time application

Samsung D900 has three repeated alarm clocks, which will wake you up with any sound, even when the phone is switched off. As expected, configuration of week days is available, of course. The phone fits in a total of 100 text notes, each consisting of up to 1000 characters at most. Further on, you are offered a calculator, a voice recorder of one-hour limit, a world time application, a unit and currency converter, a timer, and a stopwatch with four mean-times.

Month, week and day view at the calendar

Selecting event type • modifying event details • a complete day list of same-type events

As many other mobiles of the Korean manufacturer, Samsung D900’s document browser works with DOC, XLS, PPT and PDF. Here you can not only surf through documents using the ways of the navigation keys, but also search them and view them in landscape mode. Font size can be modified too. It takes the browser about a second to focus a newly opened page when a document is being searched. Yet we are talking about a pretty handy function, which is seldom found in mobile phones without OS.

Calculator is pretty detailed • Timer

Converter managing plenty of physical measures • Stopwatch with mean times

Fun: minimized MP3 continues to play

MP3 player has finally learned to play when minimized. Besides, it offers four playlists, repeated and random playing, and an equalizer with four curves. When the player is on, one of the two available visualizations can be seen on the display. The sound coming from the loud speaker is relatively good even though certain resonance is noticed at higher volume levels. Apart from the speaker the phone is also able to provide sound through Bluetooth stereo earphones or a pair of standard earphones (should be plugged into the data connector). Unfortunately, I am not able to give you more details about how earphones work as the model Samsung delivered to our office did not include any. The player opens MP3, AAC, and AAC+ formats. Samsung D900 does not have FM radio.

Main display of the music player and its settings

The phone opens and plays videos in 3GP and MP4 formats. Videos can be fast-forwarded and can be maximized with the help of 1 button.

Another attractive option is to connect the phone to a TV set through a special cable (not included in the standard package though). Once such a connection has been established, you should be able to see on the TV screen exactly what is displayed on the phone. Samsung D900 works with PAL and NTSC – both selected from the menu.

For those who get bored easily the manufacturer has prepared 8 Java games. However, it is hard to say if the officially sold version of the phone is going to feature all of them. More games can be downloaded online. If you download them through Bluetooth or a memory card the phone denies opening them.

Here are the results of the jBenchmark application:

jBenchmark 1.0: 1659 points
jBenchmark 2.0: 100 points

Data: 3G would have been useful…

Samsung D900 supports GPRS and EDGE, both Class 10. A special icon in stand-by mode indicates which one of these technologies is currently available. To my modest opinion a phone of class and price so high should have also been equipped with UMTS, but it is not. To connect within close range use Bluetooth (2.0 version) or the USB cable enclosed in the original package and phone’s data connector. There is no Infrared port. Before you plug in the data cable you can select your preferred mode: PictBridge, modem, disk space. This way you can access data on the memory card without having to install any additional controller.

Web browser and its menu

The web browser is good and does well with simple internet pages. Web addresses are entered directly. There are 15 positions for favorite web pages. WAP gets displayed in 11 text lines en bloc.

Style costs money

Samsung D900 is a stylish slider with extremely slim design. It is suitable as a fashion accessory rather than a working tool. There is no doubt your friends won’t take their eyes off it. The most attractive among its extensive equipment is its brilliant display and 3 megapixel camera. Yet, it is a pity that Samsung has failed to deliver a few important applications: the phone does not have FM radio or ringing profiles. It is not able to filter calls either. Higher-quality material would have suited it better too. Given its high price Samsung D900 could have also been designed to support 3G…

If 3G is important for you, have a closer look at Samsung Z400 – a phone not so light, but elegantly silver and equipped with video calls support. Another alternative for those indecisive is Samsung D800, which features poorer equipment, lacks a slot for memory cards and “only” has a 1.3 MP camera, but cost at least 100 euros less.

For our reviews we shoot, download and prepare much more pictures then finally appear in the article. They can be interesting for some of you therefore we offer all of them in one place: photo gallery.