Samsung Gleam Review

Introduction:

The Samsung Gleam U700 is a fashionable flip phone, sporting a shiny black and gold exterior, and is targeted to consumers that are looking for a mid-range phone at a modest price. Even though it lacks the 2GB of internal memory that is featured on the Samsung Juke, we found that overall the Gleam is a much more capable device. Its biggest competition are the Motorola KRZR K1m and the LG VX8700, but between the three, the Gleam is by far our favorite.

The Retail Package includes the Samsung Gleam U700 phone, 800mAh battery, wall charger, and user manual.




Design:

One area that we were surprised by was the slim design, making it around the same size as the LG VX8700 and Motorola RAZR V3m, but the weight is noticeable lighter.

The flip design of the Gleam is nothing new, except that the phone is very shiny, constructed out of black and gold plastic throughout. Even though it looks “flashy” and is lightweight, the phone feels durable and should hold up to everyday use. The hinge is designed well, and has a very fluid movement when opening and closing. Located on the front is a modest 2MP camera, external display, stereo speakers, and touch-sensitive music control buttons. On the left side is the volume rocker and camera button, and on the right side is the charger/data port, 2.5mm headset jack, and hold button.




The External display is rather small, measuring only 1” diagonal with 96x96 pixel resolution and 65K colors. Because of the small size, you can only really use it for checking the date & time, message alerts, signal strength and battery level. The Internal display is much more capable, measuring 2.1” diagonal with 240x320 pixel resolution and 262K colors. Images are shown with good color detail and saturation. There are six levels of brightness settings, but even at the highest setting it does not hold up to use while in direct sunlight, which is the case with most TFT displays of Verizon phones.

Located on the bottom flip is the white backlit keypad, that is has a very reflective silver coating on it. The D-pad is located at the top, and we were able to use it without problems navigating through the phone’s software. The numeric keys were also easy to use for dialing numbers and for typing text message, thanks to their large size and the ribbed grooves on the surface. The only problem that we encountered with the keypad was when using it outside during the day. Due to the silver coating, it reflects a large amount of sunlight, which can make dialing difficult. A better choice would be a darker color, such as black.