Yahoo! Go is included too, pulling together into one app a bunch of online services, widget-style, including email. The addition of Fring provides VoIP calling and instant messaging. The GyPSsii client offers GPS-enhanced online social networking and content sharing, including the real-time location of other GyPSsii users. Samsung has also loaded some decent games – including FIFA 08 football and the Asphalt 3 Street Rules driving game.

The 2.8in display dominates the front of this phone

The i8510 isn't just geared up for fun - there's a hefty amount of smartphone organiser functionality in there too. As well as staples such as calendar, calculator and clock, there’s a dictionary, PDF reader and Office document viewers for files loaded onto the phone or received as email attachments.

There’s certainly plenty of gadgetry to play with in this handset, but Samsung hasn’t overlooked the bread and butter of voice calling, which is perfectly sound. The i8510 put in a robust performance on signal holding too, while the phone’s Wi-Fi set-up was similarly efficient and reliable.

But with so much functionality, battery life could be an issue. Samsung reckons the i8510 can run for up to 330 hours on standby, with a talk time of up to five hours on 3G networks or 8.5 hours in 2.5G coverage. How much the more power-hungry features are used is going to determine charging frequency. With our average usage, we could get two to three days' battery life, but if certain features, such as GPS, were used more often, daily charging became necessary.

Verdict

The i8510 is the most capable and impressive Samsung handset we’ve seen and it’s definitely one of the top S60 smartphones around. The icing on the cake is the eight-megapixel camera, which can produce excellent quality images. Samsung has gone to town with the i8510 and produced one cracking handset.