Samsung SCH-U550 Review

Introduction:

The Samsung U550 for Verizon Wireless is a modest upgrade to the U540 and is targeted to consumers that are looking for an entry-level flip phone with good voice quality, instead of high-end features, while maintaining a low price. Its main competition is the LG VX8350, which we reviewed last year (insert review link), since both have similar features and are in the same price range. Another alternative would be the Samsung Gleam, though at a slightly higher price, it does offer a higher resolution camera and display, which some users may want to pay extra for.

The Retail Package includes:

Design:


The U550 is a standard flip phone, but has more updated styling than its predecessor, with the external being almost that of a pewter-gold color. The hinge design is similar to that used in the Gleam, with a fluid movement when opening and closing. The overall build quality of the U550 is quite good, and is more impressive than the flimsy design of the VX8350. Located on the front is an inlayed two-tone plastic facing, where the 1.3MP camera, external display, and touch-sensitive music control buttons are enclosed.


On the left side is the volume rocker and lock key, and on the right side is the speakerphone key, camera button, and 2.5mm headset jack. The charging/data port is located on the bottom, the mono speaker is on the back, and the microSDHC memory card slot is under the battery door.


The External display used on the U550 is identical to the one used on the Gleam; a small 1” diagonal 96x96 pixel resolution TFT, capable of showing up to 65K colors. Due to its size, you can only use it for checking the current date & time, indicator icons, and for showing the current track when playing an MP3. The internal display is still the same 176x220 pixel 262K color TFT that was used on the U540, whereas the Gleam uses a higher resolution 240x320 internal display. Because of this, images and text do not look as good on the U550 as they do on the Gleam, with jagged edges and faded colors being to two most noticeable differences. Even though there are six levels of brightness, it can still prove difficult to view the screen while in direct sunlight.

Located on the bottom flip is the white backlit keypad, which is easy to view against the black color of the keys. We like this color combination better than the shiny mirror coating that is used on the Gleam’s keypad, which makes it quite difficult when used outside during the day. The d-pad is located at the top, which is now square shaped and is easier to use than the circular shaped d-pad found on the U540. The only caveat here is that it lacks backlit arrows for up, down, left, and right navigation. The numeric keys are easy to use for dialing and for text messages, due to their large size and easy to view numbers and letters. However, there is very little tactile feel to the keypad, since it has a smooth service. This is the only area where we liked the Gleam’s keypad better, with its ribbed grooves that help for better thumb placement.

Software and Features:

By default, the Main Menu is categorized into Get it Now, Messaging, Contacts, Recent Calls, and Settings & Tools. Even though there are only two themes included (Classic and Pastel), the Pastel theme allows for three viewing modes (Tab, List, and Grid), and the List and Grid mode allows you to choose from two different layouts (Messaging or Personalizing). Using the Pastel theme and Tab mode, you have the familiar Verizon UI, but using a more pleasing color scheme. When changing to the List mode, all the menu choices are shown in a list from top to bottom, while the Grid mode shows all 9 icons on a 3x3 grid. The extra icons, when choosing the Messaging layout, are for My Ringtones, E-Mail, VZ Navigator, and Mobile IM, and for the Personalizing layout the icons change to My Picture, Games, and VCast music. We are glad to see that Verizon is now allowing more choices and viewing customizations of the phone’s main menu, yet it still has a way to go to equal that of menu designs used by other carries. One other note is that the U550 does not come with the Living Wallpaper feature that is used by the Gleam and FlipShot, so you’ll have to use a wallpaper of your own, or one of the defaults.

The Phonebook remains unchanged and is identical to the Gleam and FlipShot, 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.

Having an integrated 1.3MP Camera is pretty standard among entry-level phones, and the U550 is no exception. Image quality is lacking, with poor color saturation and soft edges. However, we do feel that the U550 takes better images than the LG VX8350, since it does not suffer from the purple fringing and poor auto white balance that plagues the VX8350. There is also no flash for the camera, which makes taking pictures in low light nearly impossible. You should only look at using the camera for taking quick images while on the go. It will by no means replace your standard digital camera, and my no means comes close to images taken by the V9m, Maxx Ve, and Voyager.

Camera Settings:

• Color Effects: Normal, B&W, Antique, Negative, Aqua, Green
• White Balance: Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent
• Memory: Phone, Card
• Auto Name: On, Off
• Preview Mode: Full Screen, Standard Screen
• ISO: Auto, 100, 200, 400
• Metering: Average, Center, Spot
• Icon Display: Display All, Partial, Guidelines, No icon
• Sound Effects: Ready Sound, Shutter Sound
• Night Shot: On, Off
• Self Timer: 3 sec, 5 sec 10 sec off
• Quality: Fine, Normal, Economy
• Resolution: 1280x960, 1024x768, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120, 128x96
• Multishot: Series, Divided

Unfortunately, the music player uses the same outdated interface that is used by most other Verizon phones. Playback quality is not as good as the Gleam or FlipShot, due to there being only one speaker that is located on the back, which somewhat muffles the sound. We do not understand why Samsung would replace the two stereo speakers on the front of the U540 with only one mono speaker on the back of the U550. Music played though it is not as loud as other phones, and does not seem to produce as good sound quality. Located on the front are the touch-sensitive music control buttons for rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward. They only light up red when they are touched, and it can be rather difficult to find them in the first place. A better idea would be to have them stay on while listening to music, so they are easier to see. There is also the option to connect a Stereo Bluetooth Headset to the U550 using the A2DP and AVRCP profiles.

Other software features include Mobile Web 2.0, VCast Music downloads, VCast Video streaming, and VZ Navigator for GPS guided directions. You can also download a wide variety of games and other application using Get it Now. The only problem that we encountered (just like with the FlipShot) was when using the Mobile Web program and going to large HTML sites, such as PhoneArena.com. The page would stop partway during download and display an “out of memory” error message, causing us to either restart the browser, or to view the page without any graphics. When going to smaller sites (Google) or WAP pages, the browser was able to work without problem.

Performance:

The Reception and Voice Quality of the U550 is quite good and equal to that of both the Gleam and FlipShot. When comparing the U550 to the VX8350, it produced the cleanest sounding and most “pleasing” voice quality through the earpiece speaker, without any background noise or interference. People that we called on a landline also agreed that the U550 produced good sound quality, with our voice being clear and lacking any interference. Also, the reception was better than that of the VX8350 and could be used to place and receive more calls while in fringe areas. Despite the this being an entry-level phone, and at a lower price than the Gleam and FlipShot, we are pleased that Samsung did not “cut corners” in regards to its reception and voice quality, since we believe those two features are the most important. The Speakerphone uses the mono speaker located in the back, which means it’s not as loud as some other phones, but it is also distortion free, even at high volumes.

Accessing any of the downloaded applications is easy and there is very little delay in opening them up. We also did not encounter the random re-boot problem that happened a few times while we were testing the Gleam. The User Interface is fast, regardless of which theme and layout we chose. The U550 only comes with 25MB of internal memory, and 8MB of that is used out of the box, leaving only 17MB of free memory to the user. Thankfully, the phone can support microSDHC cards up to 8GB in size, which provides plenty of space for storing pictures and MP3 files.

The included 800mAh battery is rated by Samsung to have 3.5 hours of talk time or 8 days of standby time on a full charge. Our testing showed that the U550 and Gleam both get 3 hours of talk time or 4 days of standby time on a full charge.

Conclusion:

Even though the Samsung U550 isn’t a major upgrade from the U540, we believe that for an entry-level device, it is overall a better phone than the LG VX8350. Both the call quality and reception were excellent, and equal to that of phones costing much more. Not to mention that U550 has a better build quality and overall feels more durable than the VX8350. We also like the color scheme more than the Gleam, since its not as shiny, but it does give up a few extra features. We highly recommend the Samsung U550 for anyone that is looking for a no frills cell phone, while staying on a budget, and without sacrificing call quality.