Samsung SGH-F480 Review

Introduction:

The first Samsung non-smart phones with a large touch screen were based on the Croix interface. It had a ton of drawbacks – monochrome, ugly and not very user-friendly.

Apparently, the manufacturer has decided to fix that and has developed new software, called TouchWiz. Its debut was in the F480, which is the subject of our review. This is a high-end device with a very attractive appearance, equipped with a 2.8” display, a 5-megapixel camera and HDSPA 7.2Mbps support.

The package contains:

• Samsung SGH-F480
• Metal lid
• Leather lid, covering the front
• 2 user’s manuals, brochure
• Warrant
• CD with software
• Handsfree
• Data cable
• Charger

There are two options for the battery lid – with and without a leather protector for the front side. Thanks to it you can avoid scratching and contaminating the screen, but at the same time, it will prevent you from using the phone with ease (especially when making calls). We are not happy that a stylish case is not included in the package, since we think it would have done a better job and could have been made to fit the design of the device.


In some parts of Europe the phone is known as Tocco (means “touch” in Italian), but since this alias is not used around the World, we won’t emphasize on it in our review.

Design:

At first sight, the most impressive features Samsung F480 has are its compact size (3.9 x 2.2 x 0.5 inches (98 x 55 x 11.5 mm)) and the brushed metal, covering most of its body. The weight of 3.5 oz (101 g) is justified by the materials, which adds a nice feeling for solidness and dependability.



You can compare the Samsung SGH-F480 to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare Tool.

Most of the front is taken by the 2.8” touch display, supporting a resolution of 240х320 pixels and 262k colors. It reacts only when touched by fingers (every touch can be accompanied by a sound and/or vibration), which is inconvenient when wearing gloves. Luckily, it has a great sensitivity, although a step behind the leader in this aspect – iPhone. The screen offers quite good colors, but there’s more to ask detail-wise. The same goes for using the phone in direct sunlight; it is usable, but the mirror-like effect prevents the user from seeing clearly.

Over the display, we have the video calling camera and the speaker, and under it are located the reject/accept buttons and one, activating the shortcut menu. They are all very user-friendly with the only thing being problematic is the lack of a clearly felt stroke when pressed.

There are only three more buttons to be found on the body – the volume rocker, for locking and the camera dedicated one. They are located respectively on the left (next to the microSD card slot), upper and right side (where is the charger/data cable/handsfree connector). The “hold” button is the only problematic one, assigned to lock/unlock the device. The trouble comes from its small size and the unpleasant pressing experience.


On the back of the phone is located the 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. As we’ve already mentioned, there are two options for the battery lid, but the metal one fits the overall look of the phone much better. Unfortunately, it will not protect the F480 from dust and fingerprints.

As a whole, Samsung F480 is one very attractive phone and it will surely draw people’s attention. Its clear design resembles the top fashion models – PRADA and Giorgio Armani.

Interface:

As we’ve already mentioned, the new TouchWiz interface makes its debut with the F480. The good news is that all icons in the menus are full-colored and are pleasure to the eyes. In addition, opening the various applications relates to a screen transition. However, as most of the operations in the phone it is accompanied by an annoying lag.

Unfortunately, there are almost no personalization options for the interface. The wallpapers are static and although beautiful, we got tired of them quickly. Besides them, a few other pictures can be used as a screen saver and those are not accessible from anywhere. The main menu has only two color schemes – black and white. We looked for the theme creator seen in Soul, but it’s not present here.

Overall, except for the annoying lag when navigating through the menus, controlling the phone is trouble free. The only serious comment we have to make is about the scrolling when you have more choices. Most of the time (like in the Settings submenu), this function is very adequate, and you can easily get from one end of the list to the other. However, in other cases (like adding a contact for example), you have to move the screen step-by-step, which is very uncomfortable. Since these menus are identical, it’s illogical to have the inconvenient way of scrolling in one of the modes.

The TouchWiz interface brings one heavily advertised feature:

Widgets:

Forget about the home screen, because it is now called “Widget”. Its idea is to let you add certain given “programs” and to let you arrange them the way you want. These can be found in the taskbar on the left side, from where you can drag them. In our preview unit, their number was not large and we expected to have more options in the final version of the device. However, this didn’t happen and all you’ll have at your disposal is as follows:

- Analog clock
- Digital clock
- Dual time zone clock
- Calendar
- Gallery
- Games
- Upcoming birthdays (taken from the phonebook)
- Profiles
- Radio
- Music player
- Events
- Carrier information


Besides these selections, most of which have very limited functionality, you cannot add anything else.

Nevertheless, the widgets in F480 are designed much better than those in LG KF700, where they are only 4 static ones. The main problem comes from the limited space, which you have on the 2.8” QVGA display. Here, you are hardly able to add more than 4-5 and in combination with the limited functionality, it becomes apparent that they are the next colorful marketing trick, intended to attract attention. As a whole, this element of the interface is pointless and it is more of a distraction than a feature designed to assist the user.

Shortcut menu:

You can enter this menu, by pressing the functionality button, located under the display. No matter which menu or application you were in, 5 shortcuts will be visualized on the screen. They lead to the music player, messages, the main menu, the Internet browser and the dialing pad. This feature will help you reduce the use of the main menu to a minimum.

Phonebook:

Here you can save up to 1000 contacts with up to 5 numbers, including home, business and office. On top of that, you can add pictures, ringtones, birth date and a short note. Searching is done only by first name, which is a common problem, but is largely annoying when present in such a high-end device. In addition, only three names are visualized on the screen, which makes the navigation much more difficult. The contacts can be organized in groups with their own picture and ringtone.


Unlike most of the new phones, inputting a number does not activate a search for matches.

Organizer:

Samsung F480 offers some rather useful options, to help you organize your day. From the main menu, you can set up to 5 alarms, to make sure you make it to work/school on time.

In the calendar, you can store events (up to 100), divided in appointments (up to 50), anniversaries (up to 50), vacations, important and personal (the last three you can add up to 20 each). The calendar can be viewed as an entire month, week or day.

On top of that, from the applications menu, you are able to write short reminders and tasks (limited to 20). Here is the world clock, the calculator, the unit converter and the timer with a countdown timer. Everything that needs to be here is present.


Its built in memory is 220 MB, and it is expandable via microSD cards. However, we experienced a strange problem; cards, which were operational in other phones, had to be formatted in the F480.

Messaging:

Thanks to the Messaging menu, you can write and send text/multimedia messages and emails. You can set up to 5 email accounts. In order to save on traffic, you have the option to limit the size of the letter to 100/300/500KB. You can also set the system to automatically check for new messages every 0.5/1/3/6/12/24 hours. However, all accounts must be setup manually, since there is no assistance even for the largest Web mail servers (Yahoo; Gmail), which is not logical for a device of such a class in 2008.

There are no factory preloaded templates, but you can save such for both, text and multimedia messages. The T9 system is present here and it will assist you type text faster. Inputting text is only done via the screen numeric keypad and the lack of other options to do that (like full QWERTY)is absurd. You’ll have to live with the large buttons and press them multiple times when the T9 is not available. Thos limits the freedom offered by the touch display to a great extend. Most likely, Samsung’s designers didn’t think a full keyboard would be necessary. We disagree and prefer to have the option to choose the input method and not be limited as if working with a hardware keyboard only phone.

Connectivity:

Samsung F480 is a tri-band GSM, which limits its use in the U.S. The good news is that it supports HSDPA with speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s, which will provide you high speed internet access.

We expected the presence of a good browser, and the 3G capability and the touchscreen let us compare it to the best ones on the market: Opera and Safari (found respectively in HTC Touch Diamond and Apple iPhone). At first, when loading PhoneArena.com everything looks fine (correct visualization), but it is zoomed in at 100% and only a small part of the page can be seen. If you hold a finger on the screen options appear, including page pilot, which will show the entire page (on a small scale). Then you are able to navigate and zoom in to a specific area. This however, is still slower than just having to double tap in the Touch Diamond and iPhone. The text doesn’t automatically rearrange and you’ll have to constantly scroll or zoom out, using the volume buttons.


The browser is good and useful, but still the superiority of the champions is noticeable.

To connect locally, the model is equipped with Bluetooth 2.0, as well as with a USB cable. The wireless method has an interesting visualization; the F480 is visualized in the middle of a circle and all the other devices available are around it. When you want to pair the phone with another Bluetooth capable system, you have to drag and drop its icon on the one in the center.

In order to synchronize your contacts with Outlook, you’ll need the latest version of Samsung PC Suite (included in the package on a minidisc). It is high quality software, as we know it.

Camera:

After we’ve witnessed some very good results from Samsung cameraphones such as G600, we expected a lot from F480.

It takes about 3 seconds to start the software, after holding the button on the right side. Focusing is a fast process and takes approximately 1.5 seconds. The period between two pictures is relatively short too (3-4 seconds).

We were disappointed from the appearance of the interface – it is ugly, monochrome and not user-friendly. The upper part is taken by a row of icons, indicating the current settings. We accept that solution since the symbols are too small, to be easily pressed with fingers. There are four options on the lower row – to change the mode (camera/preset scenes /video recording), settings, gallery and return to the main menu.


The settings are not that much, but they are irrationally spread on a few pages. In order to get to the less frequently used settings such as ISO sensitivity, picture quality, and digital stabilizer, you’ll have to go to the second page and then, to “more settings”. Therefore, whenever you need to adjust one of those, you’ll have to make six taps on the screen, which is not that fast.

The only non-standard options offered by the camera are wide dynamic range, face detection and the smile shooting mode. The first one doesn’t actually do anything that important, but it simply increases the contrast in the darker areas of the pictures. You can actually get similar and even better results by using many computer programs. Once you turn the face detection on, the camera will stay focused on the face you’ve selected even if it moves. If the person you are trying to take a picture of walks outside of the camera range, the camera will try to find another face, and if there are no people in front of the lens, the autofocus is fully inactive. The Smile shooting mode looks for a smile and when it detects one it automatically captures the moment. Unfortunately, the function is not very precise and overall, it’s useless.

Since we recently had to review another 5-megapixel phone by the same manufacturer (Soul), we decided to compare the camera test results. The first thing we noticed was the difference in the file sizes. F480’s pictures are a bit over 1MB, meanwhile Soul’s are approximately 2MB. Nevertheless, the photographs made outdoors are of almost equal quality, good detail and color reproduction. Soul is a master of the fine detail, but F480’s captures are not back either.


The Indoor result were quite disappointing – even with bright lighting in place, there was a slight blur and some noise (same like with Soul). We recommend using the flash even when there are other light sources present, to help the camera focus. Unfortunately, it creates unpleasant shining when snapping close-ups and from far away, it doesn’t enhance the overall quality. There is no Macro mode, but that doesn’t stop the phone from focusing very well at extremely short distances, which will allow you to take detailed close-up pictures.


The videos recorded are with a 320х240 pixels resolution and 15 fps – these having become a standard for most cameraphones and even the ones from the entry level. It would have been good if it could record at 640x480 pixels or at least 30 fps. The quality is not impressive, especially if you are shooting indoors.

As a whole, we liked the camera, because it is fast and makes good outdoor pictures. However, the interface is not user-friendly and the quality of the photographs made indoors is poor. It is sad to have a 5-megapixel camera and not be able to use it at a party or even in a bar.

Multimedia:

As every self-respecting high-class device, F480 has music and video player. The music player has two versions – one taking up the entire screen, and which is accessible from the main menu and a second one that is visualized as a widget.

In the first one, under the album cover and the track info now playing, there are four buttons. They are used to rate the track, access the equalizer, for switching to shuffle mode and changing the playing mode (repeat, folder repeat). You can sort tracks by the number of times played, artist, genre, album, composer. Overall, the interface is easy to use but has unattractive “antique” design. The simple functionality (fast forward, play/pause) is accessible via the widget player.

Unfortunately, the same weak speaker you use during a call is employed for sound reproduction. A light metal crackling noise is heard when at maximum volume. The sound in the receiver is also pretty quiet, but with good quality. There is no 3.5 mm jack included in the package so you’ll have use the standard earphones, which are not very comfortable and don’t even have external volume control. As a whole, the music quality is a bit over the average.

The model is equipped with an FM radio, which needs the handsfree to be plugged in, because it is used as an antenna. The radio has automatic search, which however is not very adequate and during our tests it was constantly finding stations with noise only. Unfortunately, you cannot enter the names of your favorites.


It would have been better if we could use the 2.8” display to watch videos. For that purpose F480 is equipped with a simple video player. It visualizes MPEG4 files (coded in the modern h.264 or h.263) and if they are with resolution up to 240х320 this is done trouble free. Unfortunately, even at a normal frame rate per second (24) the sound doesn’t correspond to the picture and some screens are skipped. Overall, the phone is not suitable for watching quality videos, which is totally unacceptable for such a high-end device.


Besides the regular voice recorder, in the applications menu you also have a video editor. It has an extremely uncomfortable interface and the only thing, which it will allow you to do is create videos from pictures (adding sound as well) or to modify existing ones. The only formats supported are 3gp for video and amr for sound, and there is no way a to add effects, which makes this function pointless.

You have an option similar to the Track ID (seen in Sony Ericsson), called Music Recognition. It didn’t work when we tested it, saying that the Internet server is “temporarily offline”.

Software:

The phone comes with a built-in puzzle game, which is not really entertaining. You can use your own pictures too. Since the device supports JAVA MIDP 2.0, you can easily add more games and/or applications.

Samsung F480 will let you view (not edit) Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Adobe Reader (PDF) documents. You’ll have some big troubles opening large files. Once zoomed in, you cannot jump to next/previous page by running your finger across the screen. To do that, you have to choose the “GO” tool. What do you need a touch display if you can’t easily execute such simple functions?

The complicated Excel files are not opened correctly, because of “insufficient memory”.Regrettably, Office 2007 documents are not supported yet.

Performance:

No matter what new and various capabilities the modern phones have, their main purpose is to be able to make a call. In this aspect, F480 is a disappointment. The voices in the receiver are very quiet and monotonous, and you won’t understand a word in a noisier environment. At the other end of the line the situation is better, but at times, the sound is too sharp and annoying.

Even though it doesn’t offer great quality, the speaker is not useless and both you and your collocutor will understand what is being said.

According to the manufacturer the battery should provide 3 hours of talk-time and about 12 days of standby. According to our tests, it could last even a bit longer if you use the phone for calls only, since the display (the main consumer), is dimed very quickly.

Conclusion:

Samsung F480’s price in Europe is about $600 and the big question is “What are you getting for your money?”.

Impressive design combined with TouchWiz interface which although drawing the attention, is not very comfortable to use. The phone also offers many mediocre functions. Only the camera can be considered of relatively good.

Is it worth buying the F480?

Definitely not, considering the limited capabilities, the awful sound, and the price tag.