Sony Ericsson offers the customer the last year’s bestsellers, - the K790i and K800, - along with a stylish modification, their modern cousin K810i, followed by Nokia N73, Samsung D900 / D900i and U600 / U700. Besides those the Russian cell phone market of recent months has been known to offer the disputable LG KG920, somewhat overestimated and thus far less popular in Russia. These creme-de-la-creme phones are backed with a few 3 Mpix autofocus handsets by lesser brands like Fly B600 and Voxtel 3iD along with the smartphone manufacturers like the Lenovo RoverPC.

Obviously there are quite a number of market participants but there’s still a huge way to go towards demand saturation, so the product lines are constantly renewed - Samsung E590 and Sony Ericsson T650i are to appear in July and August respectively. The two handsets share a considerable similarity though belong to different price brackets. While the Sweden-Japanese new gadget is positioned as a premium-class product, the Korean premiere is forwarded onto the mass market. A bit later, allegedly in November, the camera phone market will get beefed up with the Nokia 6500 Slide handset also featuring a 3 Mpix auto-focus camera. A customer opting to pick up a newer model as an upgrade to one of the last year’s top trio (N73, K790i/K800i, D900) or just someone looking for a mid-end camera phone will face quite a puzzling choice.

In spite of its somewhat plain appearance, the E950 plays quite a part among the ranks of Samsung product lines. This is the first yield of collaboration between the Korean company and a European designer. The design credit goes to Jasper Morrison, an outstanding representative of avant-garde art and the father of the ‘Modern Simplicity’ concept, his portfolio featuring a number of remarkable installation. Morrison was 15 when he won the German State Award for Design Achievements (Bundespreis fuer Produktdesign) and the Red Dot award, and lately the Design Museum magazine nominated him along with four other candidates for the title of Designer ‘2005. Acting in advance, let us mention here that it’s the first Samsung handset known to feature an absolutely neutral design. Somewhat of a disputable approach, but a really remarkable one.

E590 comes bundled with an extended set of accessories including a Bagpod that enables the handset to be fixed on almost any surface. The holder is designed similarly to a piece of plastic matter plugged into the handset via an interface slot. That’s one of the first attempts at bundling a camera phone with a tripod. By the way, the Ukrainian version of E590 isn’t bundled with this accessory resulting in a lower price.

The overall handset design is rather typical, being somewhat close to the D900 but in the candy bar form factor - an answer of sorts to the Sony Ericsson K790i. The model is based on the Suwon hardware platform (developed by Sysol research center) and is equipped with a 3.0 Mpix camera, making a difference between it and the recent U600. A fine bundling, a familiar set of features and an eye candy design multiplied by a clever marketing strategy can end up in a bestseller phone. Let’s get down to details then...

Communication:	GSM 900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE
Memory:	60 Mb of user memory + a 512 Mb microSD memory card bundled
Display:	1.79", 220x220, 262K
Communications:	USB2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, A2DP is supported
Camera:	3 Mpix (up to 2048x2536) Auto-focus
Battery:	capacity - 800 mAh up to 5.5 hr talk time up to 300 hr in standby mode
Dimensions:	94 х 42 х 13,5 mm
Weight:	65 g
Recommended price:	€200

Samsung are forwarding their new handset as something more than a simple camera phone but rather a designer phone (which is supported by the engagement of a famous designer). Considering this the handset is quite comparable to Sony Ericsson T650i although the price is fair enough even that the sales have just started. In our opinion, E590 is rather a mass product in the guise of a designer handset targeted at competing with Sony Ericsson K790i.

Design and ergonomics

Pictures don’t do the E590 justice, first appearing like a dull-designed candy bar handset with nothing smart or showy about it, being somewhat unusual among Samsung phones. Indeed the E590 has somewhat sparse looks and won’t probably be to everybody’s liking, but what is really nifty about its design are its tiny dimensions and surprisingly small weight - the E590 truly is the lightest camera phone of its class - 65 g only (closely approaching the ultimately thin Samsung U100!)

Samsung also cared for good ergonomics to match the small size of the handset. The handset sits in hand beautifully, the keys are easy to feel and responsive and the screen is surprisingly big making a decent rival on this front event to Sony Ericsson’s top handset W880i. The Koreans guy made good use of Morrison’s talents to produce a device that utilizes to the limit all the vacant space available. However thinness is not among the E590’s virtues - its 13,5 mm thick, and even 16.2 mm at the camera location.

Two alternative color designs are available - Noble Black and Snow White. The casing is made of simple plastic without a gummed coating despite all the net rumours about soft-touch. The manufacturing quality is extremely high - no gap or grating are observed while squeezing the casing in the hand, the coating sports a high quality as well. Though one might mistake the handset for a cheap mid-end product at the first glance, the build quality along with the quality of casing material are quite suggestive of the contrary - the E590 is a steady mid-end product.

A fine design paired with a clever elements arrangement stand for brilliant ergonomics, the most spectacular feature being the keypad. The buttons are big enough and are very responsive, sharing a good arrangement and segmentation as well. Backlighting has a white colour, comfortable enough. Typing short messages on a E590 is a pure pleasure - a nice but unexpected surprise for such a tiny handset.

The Power button shares the drop call function which is unusual of the series (e.g. the U600 utilizes a separate button for that). The wrist band holder and the mic are located at the bottom end of the handset.

Samsung the E590 supports wireless communication utilizing a Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR module. Its only drawback is the lack of opportunity to transfer Java applications, an obvious rudiment of the outdated platform along with the missing 3D profile support.

The Bluetooh stereo headset (A2DP) displayed a nearly flawless performance save for a minor lack of volume (which is not the case of Sony Ericsson T650i). The following profiles are supported:

Bluetooth Samsung E590

Dial Up Networking Profile	+
File Transfer Profile	+
Generic Access Profile	+
Service Discovery Application Profile	+
Headset Profile	+
Handsfree (Car Kit) Profile	+
Generic Object Exchange Profile (OBEX)	+
SIM Access Profile	-
LAN Access Profile	-
Phonebook Access Profile	-
Object Push Profile	+
Synchronisation Profile	-
Basic Imaging Profile	-
Basic Printing Profile	+
Audio Video Remote Control Profile	+
Advanced Audio Distribution Profile	+
Cordless Telephony Profile	-
Enhanced Data Rate	+

Wire communication is limited to USB 1.1 only which means a relative low data transfer speed. On the other hand the handset supports modem connections, mass storage devices and PictBridge. The communication mode is chosen in the corresponding menu.

The handset was designed to function in GSM 900/1800/1900 networks and thus has a full GPRS and EDGE support. The third generation features are out of question which is typical for Samsung cell phones sold in Russia (unlike Nokia or Sony Ericsson ones)

Memory

Samsung E590 has a total of 60 Mb user memory and a support for a microSD expansion card; a 512 Mb expansion card is bundled with the handset.

The display isn’t among the strong points of the E590 unlike the usual strong positions of the Korean company on this front. The diagonal is less than average for handsets of that class - 1.79” only (unlike its closest match by Sony Ericsson - the T650i has a diagonal of 1.9”), the resolution is only 220x220 (again, most phones of this class are supplied with QVGA displays) and the color palette is only 65K (which is also something mediocre)

The display of E590 renders a very vague, almost unintelligible picture in the bright sun, and even indoors the image quality leaves much to be desired. The most disappointing fact about the display is its narrow viewing angle, dull colours are also nothing to get happy about. The brightness is the only strong point of the handset’s diplay.

User Interface

E590 is a quite typical Samsung handset based on the Suwon hardware platform. The Living World set of technologies follows the wake of the D900 model as found in the E590, breaking the stereotype of LW being exclusive to the top segment of the cell phone market only. The new E590 is not an exception too - so the patriots might be safe, the phone automatically detects the country of residense and displays a corresponding wallpaper - for instance, the Kremlin while you are in Russia.

The wallpaper is animated as usual - it shows the night succeed the day and vice versa, a weak signal finds an artistic expression making the sky grow overcast with clouds, an unanswered call or an incoming message are indicated by a fireworks animation. Not much of news here, but still a unique feature so far found only among Samsung products. Besides the Living World wallpaper the user can set a custom wallpaper as well chosen from uploaded pictures or camera shots.

There are two options for the menu color scheme - white and black. There are traditionally no full-blown distinctive themes unlike the rest of A-brands - Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson. The main meny can be displayed both in a row fashion and a set of icons. Every subtier of each menu item is a popup menu.

Menu navigation is remarkable for its brand user action log found in latest Samsung phones - on activation the handset always displays the latest menu that the user was browsing previously - a disputable feature not to everyone’s liking. Among the useful ones we should definitely mention a fast search by three initial letters and a well-designed dialup display themes.

The main menu comprises nine items:

The phonebook is activated either by pressing the right soft key or via the main menu. All the contacts from the user memory as well as those from the SIM card are found in this menu. Searching by name is possible, using up to 20 initial symbols as a filtering mask. Contact properties include such attributes as name, second name, five phone numbers (mobile, home, work, fax and a misc one), E-mail address, a brief note, a unique melody, picture and video. The phonebook storage capacity is limited to 1000 records that can be sorted into user group (one fixed and three customizable one) with a separate picture and ringtone. Up to 20 contacts can be stored within a group. All the contacts along with the visit card can be sent via SMS, MMS, E-mail or Bluetooth. Up to eight contacts can be added to the quick call list.

The call journal stores data about latest incoming, outgoing call and unanswered calls - a separate list of 30 records per type is available. The E590 also utilizes a blacklist added manually or along with a whole group. The Stats menu item brings you accounting stats for incoming and outgoing connections and the latest call. A few options is available for the latter - the latest call only or all calls, or those over a limited period of time. Unfortunately there’s no support for voice dialing.

Messaging

The E590 traditionally utilizes a combined messaging system - the phone itself sets the message type depending on its content. A memory sufficient for storing up to 200 SMS messages is available + the SIM card memory. A single message can be forwarded up to 20 recepients, up to 12 messages can be conjoined into one. Optional message signals include vibration, sound and display flashing. EMS is fully supported. A multimedia messaging system (OMA 1.2) sets a limit of 300 Kb per message with up to 20 recipients per message as well and a text limit of 1000 symbols. As for the E-mail capabilites, the following protocols are supported:

Samsung E590: Email

POP3	+
IMAP4	+
SMTP	+
SSL	+ (3.0)
TSL	+ (1.0)
OTA E-Mail Settings Configuration	+
Push E-mail	EMN OMA 1.0 (TBD)

The same message size limit of 300 Kb is observed here. The forwarding funciton is also supported along with an opportunity to blacklist an undesired person’s address. The message can be instantly sent for printing via Bluetooth. Viewing functions include a zoom capability for people with impaired eyesight and a curious but hardly useful Vivid Message function which enable the message to be viewed in orange letters a an creeping line.

Typing mode can be set either to manual or to T9, the latter having a few glitches. Copy and Paste functions are supported along with the Insert function as well, text can be formatted in a number of ways (font size, font type, font alignment). Message templates can be inserted at any position in the text as well as contact numbers and browser bookmarks, multimedia fragments like previously saved videos (not instant camera shots) and music files (save for those stored on the memory card) can be also embedded into a message. The Messaging system of E590 seems to be performing well though it definitely lacks a fast a hotkey menu similar to that of Sony Ericsson.

Multimedia

The multimedia platform of Samsung phones is far from being the most functional among its counterparts. Video processing support is one the most worrying points here with no support for many popular formats like AVI, there’s no option for reshuffling, video scrolling is glitchy due to a low performance. Audio files are better supported however a number of flaws persist here as well - only four playlists available with the maximum number of songs limited to thirty for each playlist. No options for sorting by album, performer, etc. Although all the essential multimedia features are present.

Background mode is fully supported, various playback settings are available (repeat, random), four equalizer presets (no support of customized preset), 3D sound support is also present. Every song on the playlist can be instantly sent via SMS, E-mail or Bluetooth, or set as a ringtone. Here you the user can also choose the receiving device - the handset itself or the Bluetooth headset, which is very handy - no need to check the connection. Another option is Flight Mode, providing for a longer battery life (however the advantage proves to be mostly negligible in practice), though this setting is unavailable with no SIM card in the handset, so Samsung E590 would mak a poor music phone. Among other drawback on this front we’d also mention the non-standard headset slot exclusive to Samsung product, however this makes no serious nuisance - a much needed 3,5 mm adapter costs only 150 roubles and is already available at retail stores.

As for the audio file format compatibility, the Korean brand new gadget supports following audio formats:

MP3	+
WMA	+
Polyphonic	+, 64 голоса
Real Audio	-
AMR (Voice Tag)	+
AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+	+
i-Melody	+
SMAF	-
Midi (SMF)	+
SP-Midi	+
Smart Messaging Ringtones	-

As it’s obvious from the table, all the basic formats are supported save for RA. A similar situation is observed on the graphics front with all formats supported but BMP:

WBMP, BMP	+
PNG	+
GIF, A-GIF	+
JPEG	+
SVG, SVG-T	-
Macromedia Flash	-

3gp (H.263 + AMR)	+
MPEG4	+
MotionJPEG + AMR	+
ASX, ASF	+
Real One	-
PacketVideo (PVX)	-
WMV	-

The embedded FM was good enough to justify our hopes, sharing an common Samsung-style realisation with headset acting as an aerial. Search and Autosearch functions are available, the frequency can also be set manually. A memory book storing up to 99 frequencies complements the whole deal. Radio can also be played on the loud speaker along with the headset. Overall radio sound quality is somewhat inferior to that of Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Radio Data System is not supported. A background mode is available. The overall multimedia features of the handset outweigh its weak points, making the E590 a camera phone with a fair music player but no more than that.

PIM

Three options for calendar viewing are available: by month, by week and by day. Up to 400 event records can be stored in the timetable. Preliminary notice and recurring event settings are present. Event sorting by type (meetings, anniversaries, tasks) is another good point on this front. Different types of events are indicated in the calendar in different colors.

Up to four alarm signals can be set, each with unique settings. A timetable is available to set your alarms along with an option to set an interval at which the alarm recurs. Each alarm can be given a unique name and melody, including mp3 files selected from the memory card.

Software Bundle

Samsung E950 offers only a limited pre-installed software bundle that would probably disappoint a fastidious user because it only includes a few basic applications, leaving aside much needed functionality like RSS support or blogging application commonly found in Sony Ericsson’s products). However even this basic stuff gives the user all the essential functions including Picsel File Viewer 3311 for Microsoft Office document viewing. Files of TXT, DOC, XLS, PPT and other types can be instantly viewed without having to be converted. Cyrillic fonts are fully supported, zooming and scrolling go without any staggering or glitches, no editing function is present though. Document browsing is quite easy and comfortable, primarily due to Fit Size, Rotate and Navigation functions. Available file manipulations include Rename, Delete, Copy, Send to Flash, Send via MMS, Bluetooth or E-Mail. Find in Document function is especially interesting. We’d score this program good for its overall usefulness (yet a certain lack of functions). Surprisingly enough, the manufacturer didn’t make the File Viewer a separate menu item - the traditional and only way to launch it on a E950 is still activating a document while in the file manager.

Voice recorder. The E590 voice recorder comes with a very useful interface easy to handle. There’s an option to limit the maximum record length to that of an MMS message or set it to one hour. Both user memory and/or flash card are available for storing voice recordings. A few visualisation options are available, including Disco Lights and Rainbow Pulse. A really huge drawback is the lack of opportunity to record actual phone conversations. However normal sound records have quite a good quality.

Image editor. An image editor suited for digital image processing. The user can make changes both to previously saved pictures and instant photos directly from the camera. The editor has plenty of features including a variety of special effects - B&W, Negative, Sepia, Blur, Sharpen, so don’t get upset if you forgot to set one of those before taking the picture. Brightness, contrast and saturation are perfectly adjustable, there’s also an option to rotate the photo. Quite a number of frames, cliparts and smiles are available for photo decoration. The S590 image editor seems a very nice addition to its powerful camera.

My files. A file manager sporting versatile functionality but don’t expect to find any pimp features here. Samsung file storage system traditionally allows for user folder customization and storaging multimedia content in a custom order (unlike the LG phones, for example). The user is allowed to sort the files by date, type, name and size, there’s a formatting function and an option to access a memory card via Bluetooth. The user can share files via Bluetooth and perform all sorts of manipulations with them. Either a group of files can be simultaneously selected for further processing or the whole content.

World clock. Brings up a picture showing two time zones and correlating cities with their location on the map.

Calculator. A neat calculator supporting a wide range of mathematical functions like sin, cos, etc.

Converter. A value converter handling different kinds of currency, measures of length, weight, volume, area, temperature.

Timer. A backwards count timer.

Stopwatch. . Just a stopwatch.

Camera is among the key features of Samsung E590. A 3 Mpix auto-focus camera is quite a thing even by today’s standards, although it misses the flashlight. It’s nearly the same camera as found in last year’s D900 and its successor, D900i.

The maximal photo resolution is 2048x2536, video resolution - 352x288 (15 fps). The camera supports a set of standard services:

A 4x digital zoom is available. A separate button for switching camera mode is a nice feature. It brings up a quick menu consisting of four options - photo, video, media folders, settings.

Examples of pictures taken at highest quality settings:

Samsung E590 / SonyEricsson T650i

All in all, the E950 camera possesses a superior quality being something in-between Sony Ericsson K790i and T650i, nearly approaching Nokia 6500 Slide.

Performance

The performance of E950 is traditionally low for Samsung products, it’s clearly seen while rewinding a 60 Mbyte 3GP clip. Another drawback is a so-so Java support involving a somewhat low data processing performance.

As you see, there’s no support for 3D profiles and there’s no way to transfer Java applets via Bluetooth or data cable.

Samsung E590 utilizes a 8 mAh lithium battery. The manufacturer declares a 5,5 hr of talktime, up to 300 hr in standby mode and up to 1,5 hr of recharging period.

Our tests expose some of the novelty’s weak points, especially against the background of Sony Ericsson’s products traditionally strong on this front:

	Samsung E590	SonyEricsson T650i
Standard performance	1-1.5 days	2-3 days
Multimedia cycle, video (3GP)	2:36	4:09
Multimedia cycle, audio (MP3)	8:59	18:37

Samsung E590 retains a steady position in its class - an abundant accessories bundle, an acceptable price and a lot of features along with an extended functionality found all in one. Personally we’d point out Sony Ericsson K790i as it’s most likely rival. The Korean handset sports compactness, lightness, high capacity flash card support and a bagpod. The Swedish-Japanese alternative is notable for its powerful A100 software platform, an excellent battery life and a high-quality Java support let alone the friendly display.

Our Opinion

Samsung E590 is a splendid camera phone offered for a fair price, one of the most promising phone among the new models of its price range. It shouldn’t be mistaken for a revolutionary innovation nor it possesses any outstanding camera features never seen before, but the overall balance gives the handset a bright outlook for the future. The critically weak points of the new handset are the uptime and the display. The phone does however quite well on all the other fronts, being quite a match to Sony Ericsson camera phone and the K790i in particular, enjoying amazingly compact dimensions and a small weight for a phone of its class. Among other advantages we can mention a wide range of features and good ergonomics. We recommend considering E590 as an alternative to K790i.

Author: Dmitriy Ryabinin, dm@smape.com

www.smape.com

	Comments: