Samsung SGH-L770 Preview

Introduction:

The toughest battle is fought on the market for entry level and middle class phones. In the high-end models, all you need is a two-digit megapixel resolution camera and you get the attention of the media, but for the entry-level models to be attractive, they have to be carefully balanced between the extras, the pricing, and the design.

The most popular tactic is to copy the image of a successful phone of a higher class and to chop down the hardware specifications to a minimum. Such is the case with the new slider L770, which looks like it belongs to the Ultra series, but it has less capabilities.

Currently, all versions (globally) of the phone are prototypes and that’s why we are previewing it instead of giving you an in depth review. For our full detailed testing, we always use only final versions of the product, to make sure the results are impartial.

Design:

At first sight, the L770 looks very much like the U700 (Ultra 12.1). It even has similar dimensions - 4.0 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches (102 x 48 x 14 mm) and weighs 3.0 oz (93 g) or in other words, it’s one compact model. Surprisingly for a phone of such class, it is equipped with a TFT display with resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Over it, we have the camera for video calling, and below it is located the 5-way D-pad (which, despite its round shape, does not rotate unlike the one of the U700), accompanied by the soft and the answer/end buttons. In contrast to these keys, the one in the Ultra series models are hardware and are not touch sensitive.


When pushed up, the slider reveals a standard keypad, a “clear” button, and two shortcuts. The one on the left leads to the shortcut menu with the most frequently used functions (call, messages, internet, music player and end all), and the other, activates the video calling.


The side buttons are positioned symmetrically. On the right side, we have the camera shutter and the microSD slot and on the left one, the volume rocker and the connector/charger used also for the data cable/headsets.


The main camera is 2-megapixel and is only accessible when the phone is open. There is no flash present, which is normal considering the class of the phone.

The overall design of the phone is very good and would be seen as attractive by most of the people. We very much liked the color of the phone, we reviewed – it is electric brown, resembling bronze. The manufacturer promised that there would be more color options in the future.

Interface:

The well-known interface, we’ve seen in the latest Samsung models, is present here also, making its debut in the lower class. This brings a lot of advantages to the user, such as animated home screen, multi-functional main menu, and better organizing options.

The music player is the same as in the high-end cameraphone G800. It offers various options for sorting files in the playlist or according to the artist, genre, and album or according to how frequently they are played. These features, combined with the microSD card slot, make the L770 a good investment if listening to music on your phone is important to you.


The camera offers everything necessary for a middle-class mobile phone and even a bit more. It only snaps pictures in portrait mode, but has a lot of options, which you can set – multi-shot, mosaic shot, timer, effect (black&white, sepia, negative), frames, white balance.

So far, only a tri-band version of the L770 has been announced and is intended for Europe and Asia. We are very impressed that a mid-class phone, such as this one, is HSDPA capable and has a full HTML browser. This gives it a good head start compared to the competition, especially if you bear in mind how popular is the Internet in our everyday life. The browser is very high quality and it loads pages with no trouble. It offers zoom (called Page Pilot), zoom in/out (page size), and desktop view. Unfortunately, shortcuts to those functions are not present.


With all the features taken from a high-class phone, it is not surprising that the L770 has stereo Bluetooth for local connectivity.

Samsung L770 is exactly what a middle-class phone has to be – cute and multifunctional. A device, which will not make you go bankrupt in order to buy it, but you will still get all you need. The only thing it lacks, is innovation of any type. Apparently, this perk is kept for the high-end models.