Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
Samsung is one of the few cellular phone brands that have managed to develop a smartphone that can give the i-mates and HTCs of the world a run for their money. The i780 is not perfect, but it comes pretty close.
Having been a loyal Windows Mobile phone user for many years, I have used almost every Windows Mobile device that has seen the light of day.
Early last year, Samsung launched the i600 in South Africa and I was blown away by it. It offered everything you could ever want from a smartphone and even outshined its HTC competitors, the S620 and S630 (the latter was never officially launched in South Africa).
Therefore, it was with much anticipation that I awaited the arrival of Samsung’s latest smartphone, the i780. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the first sample to hit our shores, and while the white (pre-release) box seemed a little bare, the most important bits were all there, including two batteries and a car charger.
The phone is a little larger than the i600 and the LCD is just a tad bigger than that of its predecessor. It also features a touch-sensitive LCD and it even has a GPS receiver built in.
From a design point of view, the i780 is a little bigger than what I would have liked, but the extra space makes the keyboard an absolute pleasure to use. I also found it interesting that Samsung included a touchpad on this phone. It allows you to navigate the i780 using a mouse cursor.
Looking at the GPS component, Samsung included a copy of Garmin’s Mobile XT GPS software, but I am still not convinced that GPS on a mobile phone is a necessity. Yes, it is handy if you don’t have a stand-alone GPS device, but it’s quite power hungry and unless you use the bundled car charger, you won’t have enough power to make a phone call after a GPS-guided journey.
Overall, I loved the Samsung i780 barring two factors. Firstly, the Samsung-customised Today screen in Windows Mobile 6 is not particularly pretty and there is not enough space to view all the important bits on one screen.
Secondly, and this problem is not limited to Samsung’s phones, it uses a proprietary data-synchronising and battery-charge port. This means that unlike many Windows Mobile-based cellphones, you cannot use a mini-USB cable for data synchronising or charging.
Overall, I actually enjoyed this phone. The only thing that bothered me is the user interface, but from a functionality point of view, this phone is topnotch.
Having been a loyal Windows Mobile phone user for many years, I have used almost every Windows Mobile device that has seen the light of day.
Early last year, Samsung launched the i600 in South Africa and I was blown away by it. It offered everything you could ever want from a smartphone and even outshined its HTC competitors, the S620 and S630 (the latter was never officially launched in South Africa).
Therefore, it was with much anticipation that I awaited the arrival of Samsung’s latest smartphone, the i780. We were fortunate enough to get our hands on the first sample to hit our shores, and while the white (pre-release) box seemed a little bare, the most important bits were all there, including two batteries and a car charger.
The phone is a little larger than the i600 and the LCD is just a tad bigger than that of its predecessor. It also features a touch-sensitive LCD and it even has a GPS receiver built in.
From a design point of view, the i780 is a little bigger than what I would have liked, but the extra space makes the keyboard an absolute pleasure to use. I also found it interesting that Samsung included a touchpad on this phone. It allows you to navigate the i780 using a mouse cursor.
Looking at the GPS component, Samsung included a copy of Garmin’s Mobile XT GPS software, but I am still not convinced that GPS on a mobile phone is a necessity. Yes, it is handy if you don’t have a stand-alone GPS device, but it’s quite power hungry and unless you use the bundled car charger, you won’t have enough power to make a phone call after a GPS-guided journey.
Overall, I loved the Samsung i780 barring two factors. Firstly, the Samsung-customised Today screen in Windows Mobile 6 is not particularly pretty and there is not enough space to view all the important bits on one screen.
Secondly, and this problem is not limited to Samsung’s phones, it uses a proprietary data-synchronising and battery-charge port. This means that unlike many Windows Mobile-based cellphones, you cannot use a mini-USB cable for data synchronising or charging.
Overall, I actually enjoyed this phone. The only thing that bothered me is the user interface, but from a functionality point of view, this phone is topnotch.