The G800 looks to impress musically, too. Its player app can handle MP3, MIDI, ACC, ACC+, eAAC+, WMA and ASF files, and categorises tracks in the usual way. Samsung also trumpets the phone’s internal amplifier, developed by Bang & Olufsen.
B&O amplifier on board
All well and good, but by including a decidedly mediocre set of earphones in the box, Samsung certainly doesn’t make the most of this feature. Audio performance through these is average.
Getting tunes to the phone is straightforward. The G800 can be synced with Windows Media Player 11 via USB cable, or you can use Samsung's own PC Studio software. You can also copy files directly to the phone's memory card by setting the phone to mass-storage mode and dropping tracks from your PC.
You can download tracks over the air to the phone too, if your operator offers a compatible music service. Its 3G HDSPA connectivity makes this a quick and painless experience.
When it comes to surfing, the G800's Access NetFront v3.4 web browser isn’t as sophisticated as some of the latest smartphone browsers. By default, it fits pages to the screen's width, and it's a bit hit and miss. Some pages don’t work well like this but complex sites can come out unsatisfyingly mixed up, though you can opt for a more satisfactory quick-loading full-page views. Flash isn’t supported here, however.
The G800 also supports RSS feeds for grabbing regular updates from your favourite websites automatically.
COMMENTS
but
can the MP3 player handle more than 20 tracks? the e900 couldn't and that was pretty recent. Also, have they started supporting phones after sale yet? firmware update anyone? warranty voided, you lose!!
The camera is crap
Just sent one of these back today, as the camera is useless in the situations you are most likely to use a camera phone, i.e. indoors with poor lighting with the camera settings on auto (the flash just does not help either) - and it had a tendency to switch off auto at will.
OK to be fair if you've never used a Sony Ericsson K750, K800, etc you might like the Samsung G800 camera, but in comparison they beat it easily.
If this had been a Sony I'd have waited for a firmware upgrade, but I could see little evidence on the Samsung support site that such updates were common. So back it's gone - remarkable how all the media reviews of this phone are singing it's praises, enough to make one wonder uncharitable thoughts.
Thank goodness, a proper (non video) review
Some sample pics would have been nice though (to see how good the optical zoom is). I wouldn't mind seeing a video of the phone in operation (but in addition, not instead of) - just to see how responsive it is.
"Unusually for a cameraphone, the G800 has an anti-shake image stabilisation option" - I have this on my K800i which is an obsolete phone
"Then there’s the timer and macro mode to choose from, plus a red-eye reduction option in the flash menu. That’s no bad set of options for a phone." - again I have this on my K800i which is an obsolete phone
Still, I don't want to complain too much in case we end up with style over substance and head down the "video only review" route again...
