GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 Review

Introduction:

Microsoft´s OS is rather outdated alongside of iPhone OS, Android and webOS. Without proper personalization packs, it looks unappealing and most people have troubles handling it.  Windows Mobile 6.5 is the latest attempt to change this, but the newest version continues to be finger unfriendly. And that´s exactly the problem that many manufacturers face when releasing a Windows phone without or with perfunctory customizations. Acer has made a step in the right direction with the Acer Shell - looks spectacular and makes certain functions way easier to use. Until now, we have reviewed two GIGA-BYTE cell phones – the Gsmart T600 and Gsmart MS820, with the latter coming with a slightly changed interface and a host of shortcuts. What we have in our hands today, however, is the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200, that looks promising and different. It´s more compact, sports a larger display and increased amount of RAM and ROM as compared to the MS820. Moreover, the device runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and allows access to all extra features of Windows Mobile 6.5 – Windows Marketplace for Mobile, Microsoft MyPhone etc. It also comes with several Flash-based personalization packs that look quite well indeed.

So, what´s in the box of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200?

- Wall charger and four cable tips
- Spare stylus
- 2 software CDs
- miniUSB cable
- miniUSB headset

Providing extra power cord tips is a neat solution and you can be certain that if you go to a country where a different power socket standard has been adopted, you will still be able to charge your device. We are somewhat disappointed at the lack of a protective case, because you really need one if you are intent on keeping your GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 shiny. Now, let´s take a closer look.

Design:

The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is both compact and good looking. Actually, this is one of the thinnest handsets running Windows Mobile we have seen to date. With its chrome-plated framing onto its front side, it reminds us of the LG ARENA KM900 and iPhone. The phone body is well balanced and feels great, both in your hand and pocket.



You can compare the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200  with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The size of any device determines how big its display is and in this case, it measures 3.1 inches. This is not bad, although when it comes to screens, the bigger is better we believe. Well, it must be reasonably large, of course, since we can´t say devices with 4-inch displays are really handy to use with one hand. The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 sports a display with high resolution (WVGA) that delivers really detailed images. Unfortunately it supports only 65k colors, which ruins the experience, because they just don’t gradate smoothly. The display sensitivity is great for a resistive screen, but certain interface elements prevent you from putting it to good use, so we came to rely on the stylus that gets into its compartment on the bottom left part of the device. The screen is usable in direct sunlight, but the shiny chrome framing can get you blinded if sun gets reflected against it and into your eyes.

The send and end keys are below the screen and feel easy to press on their sides. Generally speaking, the button in between is used for confirming screen selection (something similar to the Enter button on computer keyboards), but sometimes gets assigned other functions as well. It feels really rigid, but not to the extent of being troublesome.

The back of the phone and most of the buttons (except for the camera shutter) are made of hard plastic that is in stark contrast with the front side - if you first take a look the back of the handset, you will hardly feel impressed by it. Still, the material means it´s highly unlikely that the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 slips out of your hand accidentally and makes the phone scratch-resistant. Unfortunately, the power on button (located on the top) is really stiff and hard to press, which is annoying since it´s the one you need to use to unlock the screen. The metal camera shutter feels great to press, because it has a soft, smooth travel.






We are somewhat disappointed at the microSD slot. There is no protective flap, so you can press the card and have it released accidentally. Not that this is really easy to do, but it is possible to happen anyway. The miniUSB port is on the bottom and is not protected from the environment either. Finally, the list of disadvantages has to be expanded with the lack of 3.5mm jack.

As a whole, we do like the overall look of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200, despite the fact some of the hardware buttons are slightly annoying. We would recommend that you get a protective case, because the front side gets dirty really easy, which ruins the all round appeal of the handset. Now, we would advise you to keep reading, because we are about to tell you about the interface that is equally shiny.

Interface:

Well,the interface of Windows Mobile is something that can give almostanyone proper nightmares, especially if you haven’t used it for a longtime, meaning you´re still not get used to its peculiarities. Version6.5 that has been released recently, improves on certain aspects and ifanything, at least the home screen is finger- friendly now. Gettingdeeper into the interface, however, means you will face the much thesame lists of tiny letters and unhandy controls. The difference toiPhone, Android and webOS is still enormous. All these youngeroperating systems are really easy to get used to in several minutes andeven a young kid can handle them with ease. If, however, you kidmanages to wrap his or her mind around Windows Mobile, you should takethem to a school for gifted children.



That´swhy the interface customization packs for Windows are not justadvisable, but mandatory feature. It seems at GIGA-BYTE are well awareof the fact, although they seem to have taken a slightly unusualapproach in the particular case of the GSmart S1200. Instead of comingup with a single customization pack like Samsung and HTC, they stake onvariety and provide not just one, but six Flash-based interfacecustomizations to cover the true face of Windows Mobile 6.5professional. So, what you have is:

-    Live Nature
-    Smart Zone
-    Meng-Landscape
-    Meng-People
-    Meng-Folk
-    Chinese Painting



The latter fourhave been influenced by the Chinese culture and are really well drawn.You can see the Chinese motives not just in the wallpapers, but in theicons that resemble the small tiles used in Mahjong games. The Mengpacks allow access to five home screens, one basic and four additionalones that you can switch between by sliding your finger up- anddownwards or to your left or right. They host eight shortcuts each,leading to various functions. The wallpapers change depending on theparticular time and some of them are pieces of fine art. The one thatcomes with Chinese Painting remains the same, but its backlight fadesor intensifies depending on the time of the day. There are cranesflying around on the screen every now and then, which looks reallycool. You have three more screens with shortcuts on them and onededicated to widgets that we are going to discuss later.



Live Naturechanges its appearance depending on weather and time – sometimes cloudswill appear, or you will see animated rain, shining sun etc. All thishappens on the background of a lushly green meadow, birds and airplanespop up every now and then and sometimes you get to see even cows andsnails. As a whole, this is a really amusing interface. Sliding afinger upwards opens a menu of three tabs that features shortcuts toalmost all functions. The widgets are in the opposite direction.




And last, meet the most complex interface,the Smart Zone. It consists of one main screen that hosts a largeclock, weather forecast pane and 8 additional sub-screens dedicated tovarious applications. To get to any of them, you must first open thehome screen or enter a menu that shows all of them.



Asa whole, we always appreciate variety and this is one of the aspectsthat we do like about the interface of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200.Unfortunately, many screens do not equate to superior functionality. Aswe have already emphasized on several occasions, the things you seemost often are just shortcuts and not active applications. Thedifference to the HTC´s TouchFLO 3D interface is huge, where almost allthings you need are placed on the tabs of the startup screen and yourarely need to leave it. In the case of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200, thehome screen is just something that makes the navigation (fingerfriendly) to various functions (most of them not personalized) easier.Moreover, you just can´t figure out what´s on the next screen beforeyou get there, so you will have to remember where the functions youneed are, so as not to waste too much time searching around.



The widgets arejust another painful revelation about the interface. Judging by theirimplementation, we are under the impression that the designer team atGIGA-BYTE has heard they are all the rage these days and whippedsomething up in a slap-dash manner. The widgets are, well, huge and the3.1-inch screen of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 can host up to threewithout them getting overlapping (there are just 7 anyway). Actually,just the two clocks and the one dedicated to weather forecasts areactive; the others are simply shortcuts.



The list of shortcomings,however, doesn’t stop here. The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 comes withoutaccelerometer. “Well yeah…”, you will say, “but Windows allows me toswitch the screen orientation manually”. This is true indeed, the thingis the shiny interface packs don’t exactly work in landscape mode,which leads to certain troubles with the keyboard that we are going totell you about in the part dedicated to messaging.



Finally,there is no way we turn a blind eye to the sluggish operational speedof the phone. The transition effects stutter and this really ruins theoverall impression, not to mention that menus take at least 2 secondsto open. The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is significantly snappier whenrunning the standard Windows Mobile interface, which simply means theFlash packs have not been properly optimized. As a whole, the shiny andamusing interface will entertain you for some time, but once you´vegotten used to it, all you will need is comfort of use. Ultimately, theinterface lags far behind its rivals in terms of ease of use.

Phone contacts:

The phone contacts are one of the few elements of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 (aside from the standard home screen) that have been personalized, even if in a slipshod manner. The letters that the names of your phone contact entries start with get displayed on half of the screen and you can use them to easily filter the search results. However, the said letters get in the way at times, because the list will sometimes appear over the contact names and numbers and hide them.

Similarly to all other Windows phones, each entry allows you to enter and store more information about a particular person than you know about yourself. You put in all details via a standard menu with really small letters, which is rather unhandy. You better use Outlook on your computer then synchronize your contacts.

The dialing menu is also personalized and the digits are large and handy to press with your finger. The same menu permits searching within the names and numbers in your phone contacts.



Organizer:

The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 comes with the standard Windows Mobile calendar and version 6.5 doesn’t add anything new. Still, the organizer functionality is one of the things that are highly valued with smartphones running this particular operating system. The app is quite capable, although its interface is not exactly handy to use.



The operating system offers functions like notes, tasks, calculator and world clock. No novelties here, but what you have is capable enough.

Messages:

You are about to see the standard Windows Mobile 6.5 face yet again. Similarly to the previous version (6.1), the messages can be visualized in a threaded style, which is convenient indeed. Setting up the email client is as easy as ABC if you happen to use a major service provider, because the settings will get automatically configured for you. Not last, you´ve got push support.



The major problem when it comes to composing messages on the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is called keyboard. Since the phone doesn’t sport an accelerometer, there is no easy way of switching to landscape mode (there is no option at all if you opt for one of the personalization packs) and the portrait mode QWERTY keyboard features such small letters that you don´t have a choice really and must use the stylus. The standard keyboard comes with larger buttons, but their alignment is not the standard one, say the Delete key is on the left and the Spacebar on the right. This is something we got used to in time, but we would have liked to see that the first symbol assigned to the “1” key is full stop and not apostrophe. As a whole, you can write at normal speed using the keyboard and we prefer it to the QWERTY version.



Connectivity:

The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is intended for the Asian and European markets and supports 900 and 2100MHz 3G frequencies (peak download rate of 3.6Mbit/s). Moreover, it sports Wi-Fi connectivity (type 802.11b/802.11g).

The manufacturer has pre-installed two internet browsers – Internet Explorer and NetFront (NF). The latter is developed by ACCESS and you might have seen it on feature phones (cheaper models by Samsung and most latest handsets by Sony Ericsson). Allegedly, the app is as fast as the wind and visualizes pages as a real computer browser. In our opinion, it´s horribly sluggish alongside of modern Webkit browsers, loads and renders pages awfully (if at all) and the fact that we are as happy as can be to see Internet Explorer should speak volumes. Ultimately, we got Skyfire from Windows Marketplace and this was our browser of choice - it is twice as fast and plays Flash videos. We would recommend that you set it as your default internet browser, it´s well worth it.

Camera:

The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is equipped with 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, but without flash. Its interface starts up really slowly (takes about 5-6 seconds), but once running, it´s a pleasure to use. You can use the hardware camera shutter or the screen key to take pictures and the settings accessible via a row of icons at the bottom allows you to fiddle with white balance, image resolution, exposure, ISO sensitivity and add effects. The maximum allowed video capture resolution is VGA at 15 frames per second.



GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 video sample at 640x480 pixels resolution

Similarly to most Windows Mobile phones we have seen to date, the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 captures low-quality pictures. Their colors are thin and washed and simply put, there are not enough details (the images look as if taken with a low-quality 2-megapixel phone camera). Having the snapshot you´ve just captured saved takes about 2-3 seconds and you better stand still in the process, unless you want to end up with a totally blurry picture. The videos are mediocre as well – the low frame count means stuttering content and the colors look surreal. Still, the camera performs much better when taking videos than pictures.




Multimedia:

The myth that the Windows phones are only suitable for business lies in ruins. It has been shattered to pieces by devices like the Samsung OMNIA I900 that was one of the first to come with DivX and Xvid support. Unfortunately, this is not something the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is any good at. We managed to play MPEG4/H.264 videos with resolution of 800x480 pixels in Media Player, although we evidenced slowdowns and the sound track was out of sync, getting ahead of the video stream. Proper playback is only available if you convert your clips to 480x360 pixels or lower resolution. We also tried watching Xvid and DivX content in CorePlayer, but the playback was stuttering, there were constant hang-ups and to top it off, the player crashed on several occasions.



The sound is sharp, metallic and annoying through the loudspeaker and milder and more bearable, although almost with all the bass frequencies completely cut out through the boxed headset. Unfortunately, the set doesn’t contain an adapter to 3.5mm jack, so you will have to buy one if you want to plug in a pair of better earphones. The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 sports FM Radio with RDS that comes with really cool looking interface, showing you the genre of the track being played in a small box in the upper right corner.



Software and GPS:

Since the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 runs Windows Mobile 6.5, you will have access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile. You can quickly stock up on various applications and there are quite a few that are completely free of charge. We first got a Facebook client to help us follow things on the popular social network service. It was somewhat sluggish (like the phone itself), but its functionality proved to be pretty similar to what the iPhone client delivers. Still, we would have liked to see the option to integrate at least profile pictures into the phone contacts (similarly to the way it’s implemented on the HTC Touch Diamond2), but well, the world is not perfect. Another really useful app that we have already recommended is the internet browser Skyfire. The preinstalled Office Mobile opens office files without a hitch, even Office 2007 documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). The phone also comes with a PDF reader (AdobeReader LE 2.5).



The GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is equipped with GPS, but comes without pre-loaded navigational software. The GPS is extremely fast and will pinpoint your location in about 10 seconds even on its first run, provided you have downloaded the latest satellite position data.

Performance :

As we have already mentioned, the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 gets rather sluggish when running its interface personalization packs. We figure the device either needs a more powerful processor than the one it’s been equipped with, i.e. Qualcomm 7200A at 528MHz, or better software optimization. In terms of operational memory, the device is well prepared and has 288 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM.

The slow operational speed and the stuttering issues are annoying by themselves, but they are not nearly as important as the low in-call quality. Speaking on the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is a quaint experience. The voices of people sounded dull and monotonous and we were unable to catch onto what we were being told in noisier environment. The same people complained that we sounded sharp and metallic on their end, but claimed they could still clearly understand us. Lucky guys, we wish we had been on the other end as well.

The battery of the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 cannot be called robust with its 1010 mAh capacity and you will have to charge your device on a daily basis even in medium usage scenarios. According to the manufacturer, the battery should provide about 4 hours of continuous talk time and up to 6 days in stand-by. 

Conclusion:

In spite of its appealing overall look, varied and personalized interface, the GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 is a mediocre Windows phone. We don’t suppose anyone would be willing to sacrifice the comfort of use and proper functionality for showy interface. The low in-call quality and sluggish speed of the handset prevent us from being able to recommend it. In case you are firmly intent on getting yourself a compact Windows Mobile 6.5 cell phone, consider the HTC Touch2 and Samsung OmniaLITE B7300. The former runs the already proven TouchFLO interface and our first impression of the device is that it’s a snappy performer indeed. The prototype of the Samsung OmniaLITE B7300 that we had the chance to test impressed us with its performance and the final units will come with the widget-based TouchWiz interface, similarly to all other members of the same family.

GIGA-BYTE GSmart S1200 Video Review: