Samsung FlipShot Review

Interface:

The main menu of the FlipShot is laid out just like every other Verizon phone, with categorizes for Get it Now, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools. Fortunately, the red bars from the A990 are now gone, and there are 3 FlashUI Themes to choose from: Camera, Espresso, and VZW Classic (rainbow). We first saw the Espresso used on the Gleam. We are glad to see that Samsung is now including modern themes on Verizon phones, but between those choices, the Camera theme is by far the best looking since it compliments the design of the phone. The FlipShot also features the new Living Wallpaper, but there is only one included, instead of four that are on the Gleam. When turned on, it shows a roll of film that will change color depending on the time of day, as well as icons that will light up when there is a new text or voicemail message, missed call, calendar appointment, or when the speakerphone and vibrate modes are activated. However, if the living wallpaper is not your taste, you can easily assign any image from the microSD instead.



Phonebook:

The Phonebook is identical to the Gleam, with up to 500 Contacts being able to be stored, each with their Name, Mobile 1, Home, Work, E-Mail 1, Group, Picture, Ringtone, Mobile 2, Fax, E-Mail 2, and Notes. After a contact is saved, you can assign them to one of 999 speed-dial locations.



Camera:

One of the main selling features of the FlipShot is the 3-megapixel AutoFocus camera. Just like the A990, you activate it by flipping open the phone, rotating the display 180-degrees, and then flipping it back. This allows you to use the 2.2” display as the viewfinder in landscape mode, just like a real digital camera. Images taken outside are somewhat washed-out looking with dull colors, and do not have sharp edges or good detail. This is not what one would expect a 3MP camera to produce. Indoor images are even more problematic, with the Auto White Balance having trouble, and forcing us to manually change it to either Tungsten or Fluorescent. Using the Flash was another disappointment, since it’s not nearly as bright as the Maxx Ve, and only has a range of about 2.5 feet. We were anticipating that the AutoFocus would be faster than the A990, but unfortunately this was not the case. The FlipShot takes between 3-5 seconds to focus on an object, and then an additional two seconds to save it. This equals a total of 14 seconds to focus and capture one picture, save it, then focus on a second object and take its picture. This is way too long for most people, and is only good if you can get the subject to hold still for several seconds. Another option would be to turn off the AutoFocus, thus only taking 2 seconds to capture and save an image.






Overall, we were disappointed by the camera on the FlipShot. It has been 1.5 years since the A990 was launched, but the image quality and autofocus time has not been improved. At this point, we believe that the V9m and Voyager take better looking images, despite them both being 2MP.

Videos are limited to a maximum of 320x240 resolution, but can be recorded up to the available space on a microSD card. Due to the low quality, it should only be used for quick “on the go” videos and not for recording your family vacation.






Multimedia:

Music playback on the FlipShot is almost identical to the Gleam, and unlike the A990 that only supported WMA files, the FlipShot supports standard MP3 files and microSD cards up to 4GB in size. The actual music player remains unchanged, with categories for Genres, Artists, Albums, and Playlists. The quality of music playback is better than on the A990, but still does not sound as “clear and defined” as when played using the V9m. This might be because the V9m has one large speaker on the back, where the FlipShot has two smaller stereo speakers on the sides. Under the external display there are 3 touch-sensitive music control buttons for rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward. They light up red when pressed, but when not used they are dark and difficult to locate. For better quality music, you can connect the FlipShot with a Bluetooth Stereo headset.


Software:
Other software features include Mobile Web 2.0, VCast Music downloads, V Cast Video streaming, and VZ Navigator for GPS guided directions. The only problem that we encountered here was when using the Mobile Web program and going to large HTML sites, such as PhoneArena.com. The page would stop part-way during download and display an “out of memory” error message, causing us to restart the browser. When going to smaller sites (Google) or WAP pages, the browser was able to work without problem.