Samsung S8000 Jet

The music player supports MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA files and comes with an equalizer with 11 clearly distinct presets, and a 5.1 virtual surround option. Yet, this setting seems to have the effect of compressing the music more, rather than opening it out. You can browse your music's cover art in the iPhone's CoverFlow style in landscape mode and choose from a selection of onscreen visualisations.

Speed kills: battery merely lasts a day

The FM radio can save dozens of presets and includes station ID info. You can record tunes direct to your phone's memory at three different quality settings and also search for track info, Shazam-style. There's a 3.5mm headphone jack for upgrading the supplied headphones but they're not actually too bad – a little bass-light perhaps and a tendency to sibilance in the higher register, but better than many supplied 'phones we've tried. Call and reception quality was fine too.

The 2GB of memory on board is a good start, but you can increase the Jet's storage capacity with Micro SD cards – you'll need to remove the back cover to get to it, but not the battery. Considering it's got an energy-saving OLED screen, we were disappointed with the battery life of the Jet. Perhaps the powerful processor puts some extra drain on the juice, but the promised 180 minutes of talk time and 250 hours' standby translated into a barely a day of moderate use.

Verdict

The Samsung S8000 Jet isn't a do-everything phone but it's still a very attractive handset, and certainly seems to deliver on its core offerings: speed and ease of use. The OLED screen is a gem and though we would have liked it to have been a smidgeon more touch-sensitive, it's great for viewing videos and web browsing. Our only real problem was the battery life, which didn't quite come up to expectations.

All in all, it's a slick little media phone that delivers the fun stuff with style and flair. ®

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