Samsung B2700 Review

Introduction:

You feel like going sightseeing in the weekend? Are you keen on exploring strange, unknown places, including dark and wet caves, mysterious rain forests and lost ruins? Well, if you’re that kind of explorer then the Samsung B2700 is just what you need – a shock, dust and water resistant phone, capable enough in order to keep your journey as “connected” as possible.

Design:

The device itself feels really rugged and solid when you hold it in hand. It’s also thoroughly rubber-coated, so accidental dropping should no longer be a problem. The body is relatively heavy and introduces some interesting shapes on the sides, giving it a kind of a military look. The phone isn’t exactly unnoticeable when you put it in your pocket, but with the size isn’t too bad all things considered.



You can compare the Samsung B2700 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

The TFT display offers 262k colors and the image is bright and clear, although it sports a relatively low resolution of 176x220 pixels. A good thing is that it remains readable and usable even when exposed to the hot desert sun. The screen size is pretty modest, measuring 1.9inches.

On the upper end of the front you’ll find the additional camera for video conversations, and below it, a pretty standard candybar sight reveals: two soft-keys, the send and end ones, the 5-way D-pad and the numeric keypad. You may find the rubber-coated keys a bit hard to press, but  this contributes to the overall “toughness” of the device. The right side however, isn’t that standard as it houses the camera shutter and… the flashlight button. That’s right, the manufacturer has thought of the ones that are still afraid of the dark, and as a result, the B2700 comes with a built-in flashlight. A clever twist is that you can turn it on without having to unlock the keypad first. The volume rocker and the charger/headphones port are on the opposite side, and the only thing you’ll find on the top is the flashlight bulb.


The 2-megapixel camera is on the back, and you also have a microSD card slot, but in order to get to it, you’ll have to remove the battery lid, plus the battery itself, which means that you won’t be able to quickly switch memory cards.

Interface and Features:

Samsung has provided the B2700 with a simple interface which works fast and smooth, without any lag between menu transitions. The phone also features a theme creator for greater personalization options.


The phonebook has a specific, yet quite simple design. It’s divided into two tabs: one for Contacts, and another for Groups. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to search for a contact by his/her last name.

The B2700 has all the standard organizer functions like calendar, alarms, tasks, world clock, units converter, calculator and so on. The calendar allows for three different view types: Month, Week and Day. It lets you organize your day by giving you an option to choose whether a certain event to be an appointment, an anniversary, a holiday, an important or a private note. The rest of the functions are also pretty standard, so we’ll pay more attention to the non-traditional features.



To begin with, the B2700 has a flashlight that’s powerful enough to help you navigate through a small dark room. For those of you that are firmly determined to lose some weight by walking, the phone is equipped with a pedometer, which isn’t perfectly accurate, but will still be able to give you a result that’s comparatively close to the real one. You also have a compass, equipped with an altimeter. However, there is a calibration procedure which looks a bit weird – you have to rotate the phone in the way that’s being shown on the screen, which is really confusing. As a whole, we aren’t sure how accurate it may be and that’s why we don’t advise you to go too deep in the woods, relying only on the compass of your B2700.

Camera:

If you find yourself on a desert safari and suddenly feel the need to capture the moment, you can use the 2-megapixel camera (maximum resolution of 1600x1200 pixels.)   You’ll have to restrict yourselves to taking images mainly in well-lit places because the B2700 doesn’t have a flash. The camera interface is simple to use and still  offers some nice features such as white balance, timer and some basic photo effects. The shots we took looked decently enough,  given the low resolution. The details were up to grade and the colors stayed true even in low-light conditions. The B2700 also features an additional camera for video conversations.



Multimedia:

On the entertainment side the B2700 performs well enough for a phone that isn’t multimedia-oriented. It supports the most popular audio and video formats and is equipped with a music player that’s really easy to use. It allows you to filter your songs by artists, genres, albums and composers. The music player also has a simplified homescreen version, which is very handy. The loudspeaker sounds indeed loud so you’ll be able to enjoy your favorite music even without headphones. You’re also able to play MPEG4/H.263 coded videos. Of course the small display and its low resolution suggest that this phone isn’t intended to play videos on it.



Software:

If you find yourself too far away from a computer and want to check your e-mail or just to visit your favorite site, the phone won’t let you down. It supports 3G, but only has support for European and Asian bands. Unfortunately it’s equipped only with a WAP browser, but it’s still capable of displaying full and complex internet pages. However, navigating through them is anything else but easy since a pan view is missing.

Performance:

When we talk about rugged phones, every additional feature is warmly welcomed. Still, the importance of making and receiving calls plays a major part. The performance of the B2700 in this respect turned out to be a bit above average. On our end of the line the voices sounded real but also a bit quiet, which means that you may experience some difficulties when you’re in a noisy environment. On the other end the situation was different: the voices were loud enough, but also sharp and unclear.

The manufacturer has supplied the device with quite a powerful 1300mAh battery, but strangely it is said to last just the average 5 hours – not super result for a rugged phone.

Conclusion:

In the end, the Samsung B2700 seems lika a good and fair solution for the average user. Moreover, it has better chances to survive with the careless users compared to a standard phone. During our tests, we “accidentally” managed to drop the phone a few times and it stayed completely functional. This, combined with its pretty decent multimedia skills makes for a device that’s worth its price. It also allows for viewing office documents, operating with e-mail, video conversations and an acceptable internet experience, which contributes to its overall performance.