Samsung SGH-F500 Review

Performance:

Working with F500 is fairly pleasurable and comparatively fast, which is valid for both of its sides. You will not have to pass time in irksome waiting while another menu is being opened or a file – loaded. Even the big videos are opened quite fast – about 4-5 seconds for a 350MB DivX encoded *.avi file.

Ringtone volume is quite good and detecting incoming calls is trouble-free. If in a noisier environment, you can use a combination of melody and vibration. We do not recommend relying on vibration solely, since it can be felt only in case the phone is in a tightly fitting pocket.

The Samsung F500’s performance as a phone was not particularly good. During a conversation the incoming sound is at a medium volume level and voices are sharp. Occasionally there is also a slight background noise. At the other end things seem a bit better, but not at the desired level of satisfaction, either. Volume is above medium there, but voices sound muffled, even inarticulate. All conversation were made at quiet places with normal speech and in the conditions of full network coverage, so as to minimize the influence of all external factors on the assessment.

There is an interesting extra, though: one can increase the microphone sensitivity during conversation by selecting whisper mode. The very name suggests that it is supposed to pick quieter talking, even whisper. Your collocutor will understand that you are whispering, but at the same time – hear your exact words. Despite being only a small innovation, this feature will enable the users to talk without the uneasy feeling that they are somehow embarrassing the by-standers, even at a company meeting or a math class, for instance.

F500 cannot boast strong signal reception, either – its results rate it below the average. We would say our evaluation is 4.5 – identical to that of Nokia 5700, for example.

According to Samsung official data, the unit has a 950 mAh battery, which is supposed to secure power supply for up to 230 minutes in talk mode or 190 hours in stand-by. In reality, the device is operational for 310 minutes and in case this might seem little to you, there is always the cover battery pack at your disposal for making it even longer.


Conclusion:

The Ultra video can really catch the eye by its dual face design, as well as by the rotating lower part. It is indeed a terrific concept for this type of device and serving perfectly the goal of making impression, but we regret to say that its constructors have plenty more things to take into consideration. One of its drawbacks (or shall we say – nonsense?) regarding the distribution of functions to the two sides, is viewing Internet pages on the small screen only. The other is the indispensable usage of a SIM card for both sections – of course, a phone will need it, but why can the multimedia part not do without it?

It is obvious that in developing this model, stress was put mostly on what was considered most important – convenience at playing video, and the DivX support ranks it one step forward compared to rival models like Motorola RIZR Z8.