Reviews and tests | Samsung F250 Review

After such a distinctive trial of strength Samsung started to use similar in quality audio components in nonmusical models (let’s remember Ultra Edition II series) that is automatically put devices in one line with the best musical offers of other companies, and also launched a whole line of devises, positioned as musical. It was BeatZ series, where F210, F330 and i450 were included, their reviews you could already have read on our site. The line leader smart phone i450 offers almost the best sound on the market, slightly losing to only few, this is a direct competitor to N81, the musical leader of Nokia Company, and also in some way to 5610 XpressMusic. Generally, the solution is extremely successful, i450 deservedly treats customers’ attention. In middle segment F330 also shows good results, however in general it is not so interesting, though everything is normal on the competitors’ background. In lower price segment the company didn’t have such a strong offer, while Nokia and SonyEricsson offer quite balanced devices. With the F250 release the manufacturer solves this problem in his best way, but let’s dwell on everything seriatim.

Samsung F250 Main Specs

The price of F250 is on the level of 180 euro, for this price a user gets high sound quality, long battery lifetime in the playback mode, and, finally, unique element for this segment – a standard 3,5 mm jack on the body for headset connection. Interesting is that there are no direct competitors for this devise on the market at the moment, the closest Nokia 5300 XpressMusic leaves the scene, its life cycle was more than a year, other devices will replace it. 5300 is a well balanced product, similar to F250 almost in all parameters except display. Big and bright 320x240, with the support of 16 millions of colors, against dim and very grainy 128x160 in F250 – this is a serious device’s advantage from Nokia. But any way, the model has already phased out of production, there is no worth discussing it. Now in the cheap musical sliders' segment F250 is the only offer, already this has to bring it to success.

Samsung F250 is a compact slider, exactly compact, but not slim in comparison with many other company phones. Its dimensions are optimal for a wide range of users, because of its not too small thickness (17,5 mm) the device doesn’t have excess width and height. The phone comfortably lies on a hand, it’s very convenient in use.

In the last of the company's models the build quality traditionally deserves only praise, both in closed and in open state the phone is almost monolithic, there is no wobbliness of the slider or its certain parts. Though this is a company tradition, there are some exceptions, but there aren’t too many. There’s no separate finger rest for opening the slider, the finger rests just above the navigation button or display. By the way, while slider is closed, receive and reject call buttons are not available, they were moved to the numerical keypad on the upshift slider. It doesn’t cause inconvenience, it is possible to receive or reject call using two soft-buttons. It is interesting that in primary device design these buttons were positioned traditionally. On the other hand the appearance of the model became more laconic and interesting. Transparent keys with signs on the bottom layer are becoming a new trend in phones designs, in 2008 we will see a big amount of models, having similar keys.

The main keyboard is flat, made of metal list and has characteristic pattern, being iridescent like a CD surface. There are no complaints in ergonomics, keys, even though they are small, have sufficient pitch, and stray keystrokes don’t take place. Keypad backlight is smooth bright white color.

The phone is completely made of high quality plastic, and that is beautiful. Color combination is neutral: white side surfaces, light-grey mirrored front surface and dark-blue back surface. Soon there will be other color solutions: sky-blue, brown, beige and wine red. All of them are interesting, perfectly suiting the model appearance. The inner surface of the slider has a beautiful pattern, and also a small logo of Samsung musical series phones.

The integrated camera module is located on the back panel, there’s no lens guard, however everything is normal for a cheap device. Battery lid holds very tight, there is no wobbliness, however opening of lid is quite problematic. The panel has unobtrusive ornament, it nicely fulfils device appearance. Under the battery cover, there is an 800 mAh accumulator, and there are SIM-card and MicroSD expansion slots under it. Accordingly, hot swap is impossible, it should be referred to disadvantages of the design.

Side edges are interesting first of all for the presence of standard 3.5 mm jack for headset connection. This is the first cell phone on the market (smart phones are not taken into account) equipped with unified jack. Naturally, this is a big plus for a musical device, you are not limited with company accessories, and can directly plug any headphones. There is a company headset with 3.5 mm connector and remote control, though receive call button is not present. Headset is connected to proprietary jack, located on the right edge. Here camera/record launch buttons and music player launcher key is also located. On the left there is a volume regulating key, on the top edge there is an opening for strap fastening. There are own settings for volume regulating keys: while receiving an incoming call the button can be set to act either as Mute or Reject. In first case, ringtone is muted, while the second drops the call. Also F250 has text template sending option after the call is rejected. This is an interesting and above all demanded function, familiar to us by Nokia Company smart phones. When you are busy or on a conference and you cannot answer the phone, it is enough to set a text in advance, for example, «I am busy», and it will be delivered to a caller immediately after the call is dropped.

Samsung F250 display is the weakest point of device. Among the rest of prominent for its class characteristics, the display has the resolution 128х160, with a 2’’ diagonal and ability to display 65k colors. So evidently the granularity is highly expressed, in comparison with Nokia 5300 (similar physical dimensions, but resolution is four times higher) the difference is enormous. Having at least 176х220 display would automatically be the best offer on the market in its segment, but at the moment users are limited with the dull and grainy display.

«users are limited with the dull and grainy display»

The phone numbers are shown in large symbols, no problem arises here. The options include a setting that allows choosing the symbol type as well as font size, font color and background color.

The phone makes use of a Li-Ion battery with a standard capacity of 800 mAh. There’s no support for any enhanced battery types for this model. F250 is able to survive for about two days of moderately extensive usage (about an hour of talktime, two hours of listening to the music and another hour of application and menu interaction); the result is quite up to the modern standards. Few users are going to be dissatisfied with that.

Time of full recharge is 2.5 hours. The discharge indicator has one peculiarity: first two divisions fall quite fast, but on the last segment the device works in average for about one day. However, in mp3 playback mode Samsung F250 shows outstanding results. This is surely a musical phone, and the work done by company engineers over energy consumption lowering is very obvious. In the player mode the phone can hold the duty for 20 hours, this is surely a lot, and that’s because of the separate chip, responsible for energy consumption optimization, allowing an increase of battery life. The difference with high-end model in line Samsung F330 is almost double.

«In the player mode the phone can hold the duty for 20 hours»

Samsung F250 Battery

Samsung F250 is a three-band device (EGSM 900/1800/1900), has a full Class 10 EDGE support, but it does not support WCDMA. Wireless communications support of Samsung F250 is represented by the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR module. It gives raise to no reprimands, the Bluetooth options include the activation status (whether it is turned on or off), the list of visible Bluetooth devices, the Bluetooth visibility status of the phone itself, the device name and miscellaneous settings. The Bluetooth service includes a standard set of features, apart from one peculiarity, which we will mention below.

The A2DP profile has a very interesting peculiarity: Samsung F250 can broadcast the audio signal to two stereo Bluetooth-headsets at once. In the player while the playback it is possible to choose the option of translating to two headsets. The musical file is sent simultaneously to both headsets with similar quality, no problems occur, except, perhaps, not enough sound volume while working with the headset (work with two SonyEricsson HBH-DS200 was checked). In the options the main headset is specified by default. It is hard to say how demanded the given function is, there are not so many situations, when its usage is possible, accordingly it is interesting as an additional feature, but not more than that.

The wire connection is achieved through USB 2.0, but the data transfer speed is not the highest. On the other hand the phone sports full and correct support of Mass Storage, Media Player, Samsung PC Studio modes. The corresponding menu lets the user to set one of those as the default connection type or ask for choice every time a phone-to-PC connection is established.

Samsung F250 has been developed at the R&D Suwon centre, software platform is simplified version of what we see with Samsung G600, and it maximally reminds the one in Samsung F330. The most essential differences concern ring service realization (possibility to set a definite phone number, used by default, call screening, displaying of call time in the Call list and so on), ability to set various signals for SMS-messages, and certain other moments, which we will review in detail within this text.

Unfortunately, as in F330, G800 there are no full-fledged interface themes, you are limited only with lilac colored appearance, and among effects there are two variants: slide and door (effect of menu screen change). The Living World embedded interface plug-in (once the phone identifies its geographical location, it displays a corresponding desktop wallpaper, i.e. Kremlin for Russia) is also not present.

During the standby mode a screen-size clock can be set to be shown, that’s large enough for the numbers to be easily seen from a distance. Up to two clocks corresponding to two different timezones can be shown on the screen simultaneously and the clock indicating the time of your city of residence is shown in a bigger size.

In the status bar main indicators of running processes and active modules are present – these are Bluetooth, player, selected profile, Internet connection, battery level, network and so on, besides the indicators are also seen in the menu, icons move to a line below, that’s how it is possible to see what processes are active at the moment.

Also any picture can be set as wallpaper, including camera shot. Apart from a picture it is possible to output a calendar and it will be shown above wallpaper, this option is known by all Samsung Company cell phones. Animated screen saver My Screen (known by F330) is absent.

The information displayed during standby (the name of service provider, the currently playing song title, the event indications) can be customized to be shown in a number of ways according to the user-defined preferences: font color, style and alignment are customizable.

The font style in the dialing mode is also customizable as well as size, color and numerical symbol style, the former two parameters being active only for the standard font presentation. However the preset figure types are more attractive - as one of the available variants the symbols traced with a fountain pen on notebook pages are offered, an appropriate animation present. Besides the font customization, you can also set the background color for the phone number window; almost everything here can be adjusted to your own liking, since Samsung phones have long been known for their strong positions in the field of user customization features, which is evidently a customer attracting factor.

Apart from the main menu, there also realized such called «My menu» function, by default it is called by pressing up the navigation button. It shows a list of a few shortcuts, selected by you and, accordingly, recently launched applications. The menu is mainly similar to quick launch menu of Nokia Company or SonyEricsson phones, and convenience was tested on many device generations. Sequence and number of shortcuts can be changed, icons are chosen from a list, but, unfortunately, it won’t be possible to set a third party application, the list is limited by the built-in applications. One can bind different functions chosen from a rather extensive list to the navigation button strokes sidewise (the list coincides with the one for «My menu»).

Another interesting and useful feature is the ability to filter the contents of phone book and call log by the three initial numbers while in the standby mode. In fact, if you know a phone number by heart you can trace it in your contacts book and the call log by merely typing the three initial letters... once you do so, you see the search results shown as a list of contacts’ names as well as surnames and phone type icons (home, mobile, etc). If the phone number is not saved in the phonebook, it’s only the number itself and the call status icon that are shown in the search results.

Keypad backlighting is adjusted manually: in the dark only, always or custom. And for volume controls, the variants are either call drop with an auto short-message response or mute.

Therefore the number of user interface settings and their realization Samsung Company devices are extremely interesting and nice to use, they closely approach Nokia phones and in some moments beat the last ones.

The support for sound profile is a pleasant feature of Samsung F300. The six profiles are present, but the user cannot add custom ones though the preinstalled list of six profiles is more than enough for the phone to be handy, the existing profiles can be modified. The profile creation mode is quite simple, but that doesn’t mean a lack of options. There are three main groups of settings - Call settings, SMS settings and Misc sounds settings.

The Call settings include the signal type (a lot of variants here - ringtone only, vibration only, ringone and vibration, vibration followed by the ringtone and vice versa, ringtone fade-in with or without vibration and so on), the ringtone itself is also set here as well as the volume of sound and the number of times the melody is replayed.

The SMS settings are much simpler, only three types of signal can be chosen: vibro only, sound only or vibro and sound. There isn’t possible to set a custom signal for messages, there are only four .midi variants. What is the reason for such a limitation is unknown. Miscellaneous sound settings include the keypad button sound, the power on/off sound and some minor service sounds.

Switching between profiles is only possible via the main menu, there’s no separate button for switching profiles. The Mute mode is toggled by holding the # key; the activated profile icon is displayed in the status line.

The main menu can be either set to show as the traditional icons tab or as a list with each icon hosting a pop-up menu listing its sublevel functions (this option can be turned off if you get annoyed with the crowding pop-up windows). As we have said, there are two effects of menu screen change, a slide and a door, it can be turned off though.

The navigation features the recently introduced ‘user action memory’ function found in the newer Samsung models - the phone keeps track of user actions and opens every menu at the menu item that was last activated. Fast menu navigation is possible through numerical keys.

The main menu consists of nine items, besides there is an item variation from phone to phone, by arrangement as well as their presence.

• Call log
• Phonebook
• Music player
• Browser
• Messages
• My files
• Applications
• Camera
• Settings

Among the few drawbacks of menu implementation is the lack of possibility to swap the menu item positions and the order of submenu items, there is no way to create new groups and icons either, there are no complaints in the rest.

The phonebook is called by pressing the right soft-button or via the main menu. The list contains phone numbers from the phone memory as well as from the SIM-card (a customizable item – it can be set to show only the phone memory or the SIM-card numbers). Every contact is given a small picture if the one is fixed or a preset icon. Filtering by the initial name letters is possible (up to 50 symbols). If several phone numbers are associated with a single contact, only the main one is displayed in the contact headline (mobile phone number by default).

A name, a surname and two phone numbers (a mobile phone number and a home number) can be associated with a newly created or edited account as well as an e-mail address, a short note, an individual ringtone and a call picture. Any picture, photo or preset icon can be used for that. The call picture is large, practically taking the whole screen. Unfortunately, it is impossible to add any new fields.

When giving a contact more than one phone number, the user can specify which number is to be used as the default one for making calls and sending messages. It is just an advance towards any smartphone’s book of contacts, the account items cannot be renamed and moved here, a quantity limit is present.

When setting the birthday date, the phone automatically offers to mark the event in the calendar, give the event a name and set the alarm clock to warn you in advance of the upcoming birthday.

The phonebook memory can contain up to 1000 contacts, each containing all the associated phone numbers. The user groups are supported; three groups are preset – family, friends, and work. All of the three groups being customizable, i.e. you can rename them or create your own ones. A unique ringtone and picture can be associated with each group. A group can contain up to 20 contacts. All the contacts as well as the namecard can be sent via SMS, MMS, E-mail or Bluetooth to another person. The quick dial list can contain up to 8 numbers, everything is standard here. The list shows only the person’s name and surname which might be a bit inconvenient if that person has several numbers and only a picture if it is associated with the contact.

Other miscellaneous options include the possibility to choose the storage location for the newly saved contacts - the SIM card or the phone memory (or set it to be asked for each time the user saves a contact). Contacts sorting is absent, but there is the template choice (Name+Surname or vice versa) here.

The call log keeps track of all the recent received, dialed and missed calls. Up to 30 records of each call type are stored. The call log can be either displayed as a common list with each call type having an indication icon or three separate lists for each call type. Switching between the lists is done by pressing the navigation button left and right, this aspect sharing the same approach as we saw in Nokia and SonyEricsson phones. The number of times that the specified number has been dialed is shown in brackets next to it. The stats tab contains info about the cost and number of incoming and outgoing calls as well as the length and cost of the most recent call.

Samsung F250 has a blacklist which supports adding undesirable contacts both one by one or even by a whole group. The latter function is a unique Samsung feature (in the sense of a manufacturer-preset function); its usefulness can’t be underestimated. It was very nice of Samsung to include this function as a standard function embedded into the firmware.

Samsung F330 traditionally employs a combined messaging system - the phone automatically defines the message type depending on its content. The phone memory can store up to 500 SMS messages + the SIM card memory. Up to 20 recipients can be defined for every outgoing message; up to 12 messages can be glued together in a single one. Sound, vibration and backlighting signals are available for warning the user of an incoming message. EMS is supported. The MMS memory is limited to 300 messages the multimedia content of which must not exceed the free user memory. The messaging interface supports a separate blacklist. The text message settings are minimal; they include only the text reply, the delivery notice and saving the copies of outgoing messages.

Besides the standard text messages, there's an option for SOS message sending. First you have to specify the phone numbers of the likely recepients of the SOS message and check the repeated delivery box if necessary. The SOS message text can't be customized.

There’s a separate recent contacts list for text messages. Once you are about to send a text message, the phone displays this list of recently contacted people so you can instantly choose one of them as the recipient of the current message. The other option is to use the phonebook to select the recipient. A message can be dispatched either to a single person or to a whole contacts group. The number of recipients is indicated near the icon to the left from the contact name in the contact line.

Upon starting a new message the user is free to set the font size (large, medium and small), colour and style (bold, italic). The same settings can be applied exclusively to a selected piece of text within a message. Possible attachment types include an image, a video clip, a calendar note (up to four task types plus a phone card) and a sound. Once a multimedia attachment is detected, the text message is automatically converted into an MMS. The photo and video attachments can be quickly selected from the gallery or instantly taken right with the camera without having to quit the image editor.

The following e-mail protocols are supported:


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

The maximum size of an outgoing message can’t exceed 300 Kb. The maximum number of e-mail accounts is five. There are the interesting functions of auto e-mail checking at user-defined intervals, sending the reading notices and the e-mail downloading mode - headers only or whole messages. The mail download limit is 500 Kb; an automatic delete is also present here. Deleted messages can be kept saved at the mail server if the user wishes so. All types of attachments readable by the phone itself or by the Document Viewer are supported. The viewer starts right here and when the file viewing is completed the application shuts, leaving the editor running. E-mail settings include a blocking option similar to the one used for messages and for the contacts book. The difference is that the user is allowed to blacklist specified e-mail addresses as well as header phrases to block spam.

The multimedia messaging system (OMA 1.2) limits the maximum size of a multimedia message to the usual 300 Kb. Up to 20 recipients can be specified per message; maximum text length is limited to 1000 symbols. The MMS setup includes the priority, the expiry date and the delivery time (from one hour up to one week and the time fixed by the user). An MMS message limit makes from 30 up to 300 Kb. The auto resize mode to the given limit can be switched on. According to the settings, the message type can be set either freely depending on the size of the created message or strictly limited - should the image exceed the limit, it’s automatically modified to fit. When inserting an object, its actual size is specified, and an already composed MMS message can be previewed prior to sending.

Besides the listed options the MMS messages can have their font size (large, medium and small), colour and style (bold, italic, etc) adjusted in the same manner as SMS messages, the same goes to background color and message viewing mode, the latter option is set to Fullscreen by default. The automatic deletion function is absent for the MMS messages. SMIL is supported - the maximum number of pages and objects inside a message equals to 15 and 35 respectively.

The Personal Information Manager includes a standard set of applications like calendar, alarm clocks and quick notes.

Up to six alarm clocks can be set, the first one named Wake Up alarm. Each of the alarm clocks can be flexibly tuned, schedule is fully supported (the days of the week are chosen); the alarm signal can be replayed at a user-defined interval. The alarm turns on even if the phone is turned off. Each alarm clock can be given a unique title and adjusted to play a unique song, including .mp3 files or turning on the radio. Much like the sound profiles, the alarm clocks support a variety of signal types - ringtone only, vibration and ringtone, vibration followed by a ringtone, fade-in ringtone with or without vibration and so one. Once an alarm clock is adjusted and activated, a short info on that alarm’s settings is instantly shown on the screen, everything being more than evident.

The Calendar has a few viewing options: by month, by week or by day. The schedule can include up to 240 records (on the whole as well as for one day). Preliminary notices and recurring event signals are supported. Sorting events by type is well-implemented (meetings, anniversaries, tasks). A day that hosts a specified event is indicated by a colored corner, the color corresponding to the event type shown in the status line (meetings, anniversaries, tasks).

The default view mode is adjusted in the options, as well as the starting day of the week (Monday or Sunday). Memory manager is in its place, indicating the number of occupied and free event slots in the calendar memory. The expired events are deleted being picked out or after a period of time.

All the necessary event parameters are specified on adding a new event - date, beginning and end time, the alarm activation time in case an alarm signal is associated with an event and the interval at which an alarm signal is replayed. The total amount of events, as noted above, equals 240, that’s 100 is reserved for meetings, 50 for anniversaries and holidays each and 20 for personal and important events each.

As we have already mentioned in the phone book description, the Birthday line associated with every contact is automatically added to the calendar as an Anniversary-type event, the user is asked to set a reminder, specify the day and the time when the alarm must be activated. So you won’t miss your grandmother’s birthday, and the preliminary warning will remind you to buy a present beforehand. This calendar option is really handy.

Notes - these work just as the name suggests.

Samsung F250 is first of all a musical phone, we have already mentioned long battery life during the multimedia cycle, presence of 3.5 mm jack on the body for connection of any headphones, and high sound quality. On the right edge of the device there is a separate key for a player launching from any position. Now let’s talk about music player interface. On the whole the controls are comfortable, no reprimands here. During the playback the screen displays info including song title and the name of performer, the album cover (thanks to the Album Arts function), the playbar (the progressive rewind mode is supported) and all sorts of indicators showing the on/off status of different player settings.

• Playback settings (repeat and shuffle),
• Sound output via a wireless stereo Bluetooth headset,
• Sending of a sound to two headsets,
• Add to playlist (one, several or all created),
• Ratings system (from 1 to 5 or unrated),
• Setting a song as a ringtone or alarm signal,

Frankly there are not so many settings for a musical phone, even equalizers are absent, and there are no playback effects (as, for example, in G600). Any track can be directly from player sent via MMS, E-Mail and Bluetooth. There is also an option to disable the receiver/transmitter part of the phone (Flight Mode), increasing the phone's offline lifetime in the playback mode, and which is especially important, Flight Mode works without SIM-card, in other words for listening to the music and using other functions not related with mobile networking, the SIM card doesn’t have to be inserted.

During background mode, the player window is automatically minimized to a small box corresponding to the user-defined color and style. The song name and the control indicators are shown in the box. Its options include sorting songs by performer, song title, genres, recently played tracks, most frequently played tracks and so on. In the settings it is also possible to see functions corresponding to the phone keys (the last ones can’t be changed).

The following multimedia formats are supported by the Korean novelty:

MP3
WMA
Polyphonic, 64 voice
AMR (Voice Tag)
AAC
AAC+
e-AAC+
i-Melody
Midi (SMF)
SP-Midi

As we see, all the basic standards are supported save for RA. Like the majority of the latest models by the Korean manufacturer, the novelty makes use of a dedicated sound amplifier based on the patent-protected technology by Bang&Olufsen. The sound chip was dubbed ICEpower Mobile, and generally the quality and volume of sound in F250 corresponds to all the latest offers by the company(U600, F330, i450) (U600, F330, i450), in other words, are on a very high level. The sound quality is more or less comparable with the rest of the musical phones (XpressMusic series from Nokia, 5310 and 5610 models, Motorola ROKR E2, E8), it is obviously higher than Walkman devices line from SonyEricsson, and including that F250 is a cheap phone, everything is just perfect. With its cost the device offers the most balanced kit of characteristics: high sound quality, long working time in playback mode (more than 21 hour), standard jack on the body (ability to plug third party producer headphones, without using adaptors). Saying shortly, as a musical model F250 has been made well, competing offers don’t have all of these points.

«the quality and volume of sound in F250 corresponds to all the latest offers by the company(U600, F330, i450)»

We have made a comparison of actual musical phones in sound characteristics side, using Right Mark Audio Analyzer (RMAA) program, where also Samsung F250 took part, the results you will be able to read next week.

There is no memory card in the sales box, but there you will discover a pair of small speakers, and a brand headset with response button and adapter for 3.5 mm jack. Unfortunately there is no remote control.

«There is no memory card in the sales box, but there you will discover a pair of small speakers»

Samsung F250 comes equipped with the track recognition function, similar to TrackID of SonyEricsson Company. It works simply and clearly, when launched you are offered to record a small part of any song (as from an external source, as from a radio), the data is transferred to the net, checked with track database and after half a minute the name of the song ,singer and album art is shown. The mp3 found can also be bought. The results are saved in memory, and more than 30 records can be saved. The function is really useful, works without any failures quickly and effectively, and the tracks database is quite big.

Radio realization is typical for Samsung, i.e. there are standard search and auto-search functions, manual set of frequency, etc. The frequency wanted can be added to canals list, and set a name. Afterwards typical operations of removing, moving and setting as an alarm-clock signal are possible with saved canals.

Tuning is performed by finger-rotating a circle that is shown on the screen, everything is more than evident. The station memory can contain up to 99 stations, RDS is supported. Sound output can be configured both for the headset or the embedded speaker. The FM tuner as well as the MP3 player can stay fully functional during the standby mode. The reception quality is high and raises no objections. But Samsung G600 and E740 possessed the enhanced ability to record radio broadcasts. There is no such function here, everything is simple.

Samsung F330 comes with a standard variety of preinstalled applications. We have already reviewed some part of it or are going to review (Image Editor and others). Now let’s dwell on some other features.

The voice recorder application found in the F330 has a nice and easy to use interface; it’s functionally simple yet highly effective. Maximum voice record length can be limited to fit the maximum MMS length or to one hour, the recorded file can be saved either to phone memory to a memory expansion card. The record volume and the record name are set by the user. Unfortunately the voice recorder is unable to record phone talks, but the exterior sound source records turn out fine, no reprimands.

The world clock function is quite standard and allows for displaying two timezones and corresponding cities on the world map.

The integrated calculator displays a good functionality; it can handle both basic operations as well as complicated mathematical functions like sinus and cosines. The basic math functions are implemented by pressing the designated buttons. The calculation result can be immediately transferred to the measures converter should such necessity arise. The measures converter can handle and convert all kinds of currencies, measures of length, weight, area, volume and temperature.

The countdown timer and the stopwatch are quite typical of most phones, nothing to talk about.

There are several pre-installed games, they are all traditional for the company devices. Cannonball, Paris Hilton’s Diamonds, Freekick, Arch Angel, Mini Golf, Midnight Pool are among them. The games are not so interesting, but sometimes they will help to while away the time on the road. As we have already mentioned, additional games and software can be installed via the air as well as via Bluetooth (jar and jad files are required, they are placed to “Others” folder).

There is no Smart Search, TV-Out, Document Viewer, Google Search. This is not surprising for a cheap device.