i550 Pre-Review:
I won't call this an i550 review, as the phone wasn’t even activated and it simply wouldn’t be fair until I could actually use an activated final version...
Ratings--
Hardware Design:8/10
User Interface:8.5/10
Features:8/10
Fixing i500 user complaints:7/10
Overall:8/10
Notes:
-According to the samsung rep the model on display is a final production model, it’s not released due to more R&D being required, and possible shortage on parts such as the OLED screen...
-The i550 will be Sprint-only, as has every previous samsung palm phone, so VZW users, we wish you all the best...
-Price with a new contract will be $500, which translates into $650 without a new contract, as i had assumed in the faq's a few months ago...
-the i550 currently has a 1xrtt data module, the samsung reps were unable to confirm/deny whether sprint has asked them to put in an EV-DO Module(this is especially a concern due to the late ETA, b/c sprint is expected to be well into EV-DO deployment by then...)
Ok, before I showed up I thought I was really going to hate the extra bulk of the i550 (it didnt display the info there, but the specs are apparently 3.43" x 2.13" x 1.06"), however when I first picked it up, I was impressed with the way it really was "hidden"--it's about the same width at the top, but it grows a little thicker at the middle, and it still fits nicely in a pant pocket--at any rate I liked it better than the i500 with the standard battery.
Hardware Design:
Note:
-Toggle apps switch has been moved from the side to above the talk key.
Pros:
-Stunning External 65k color Oled, and internal Hi-Res Screen.
-Palm hard buttons are much easier to use due to their new position than on the i500
-5 soft palm buttons are better placed for their respective uses also.
Neutral:
-Stylus is nicely built, it "springs" open, and it's easy to take out of the phone (it pops out the bottom), however there is no reset pin built in!!!
Cons:
-As I said it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but it’s a shame they had to bulken it to over an inch thick.
User Interface:
Note:
-OS is 5.2.5
-i550 SW Version x108
Pros:
-Improved Voice Recognition System
-Although some may dislike it, I loved the new layout of the phone prefs menu
-Nifty state matchup when you dial a number
-When you call CS, all your phone info now pops up, very handy imho.
-very cool, easy to use transparent on-screen pop-up graffiti pad.
-When flip is closed, you can still control the camera, camcorder, media player, and name dial.
-5 way directional pad is very useful.
-Many very nice screen savers
Cons:
-Still apparently no way to toggle from max ringer to vibrate, or to have vibrate on anything besides max volume, except that you can now touch the level you want when you push the volume button.
Features:
Notes:
-28.3 out of 64 MB is actually user accessible memory
Included apps included:
Alarm, galaxy browser, camcorder, camera, content manager, graffiti 2, media player, picsel viewer, picture mail, text message.
-30 built in ringers, and a section for custom/downloaded ringers.
-When you take out the battery it unfortunately still hard resets, meaning that problems with FSOD's will in all likelihood remain
Pros:
-In the Roaming menu on the i500 the options are 1.sprint 2. automatic 3.analog, on the i550 number 3 is roaming only, instead of analog only! which seems to imply that you can force it to look not only for analog roaming, but also for digital roaming.
-Innovative No Battery Backup Feature-simply put, everything is stored in flash, so your battery can die, but you won’t lose your data.
-New Galaxy Browser is Javascript Compliant, had I been able to actually use it, the features ratings may have been higher, but unfortunately the phone was not activated
-Megapixel Camera (with flash) pictures appeared very sharp on screen
-Videocamera (I didn’t have enough time to test this out for more than a few seconds, but it appeared to work well.)
-Built-in alarm clock, with alarms from the phones ringers, finally!
-Real SMS
-Speakerphone seemed to work very well.
-sdi/o slot
-200 MHZ Processor is speedy, much less lag time than the i500.
Cons:
-NO BLUETOOOOOF!!!
-the standard battery is only 3.7 V (same as i500's slim battery voltage) so one can only wonder what the battery life will be.
Fixing i500 user complaints:
Pros:
-Built-in alarm with phone ringers
-Real SMS
-No more dead graffiti pads (there is no graffiti pad...)
-Spekerphone
-less lag time due to faster processor.
Cons:
-As mentioned above, there is still apparently no way to toggle from max ringer to vibrate, or to have vibrate on anything besides max volume, except that you can now touch the level you want when you push the volume button.
-Also as previously mentioned, no bluetooth
Overall
All in all a very solid device, with its positive features vastly outweighing the small thickness sacrifice, so unless you simply can’t have a camera, there's no reason not to upgrade.
If the device were to come out today, there's no doubt it would sell like hotcakes, unfortunately that's not going to happen, and ultimately it's up to Samsung to bring this to the market in the most timely fashion possible, before it becomes obsolete by default.
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