Samsung Beat DJ review

Typing on the on-screen alphanumeric keyboard -- there's no landscape Qwerty option -- is okay, but it proved too sluggish when we really got going. Occasionally, letters were missed out when we typed quickly, and we don't like the T9 predictive text because it's too time-consuming to select different words from the drop-down list.

You can drag widgets onto the home screen to display things like photos, media-player controls or upcoming events. It's all very flashy and customisable, but it can also be fiddly. We often ended up dragging widgets around the screen instead of activating them, for example. In addition, we sometimes found it hard to touch the smaller icons in the user interface accurately.

On the home screen, swiping your finger one way brings up the full menu, while swiping it the other way brings up a feature that allows you to tag people in photos, and contact them by tapping the image. It sounds like a cool idea, but it's time-consuming and mostly useless, since you can't use the tags when you're viewing your snaps in the photo gallery, for example.

Samsung hasn't made the most of the touch-sensitive area below the screen

The Beat DJ's buttons are well-placed and easy to press, but we were confused by the fact that the function of the volume key reverses depending on what you're doing. With the music player, which works in portrait mode, you predictably press up to increase and down to decrease the volume. But, when you open a song in the DJ application, which works in landscape mode, the key works in the opposite way. It's yet another example of how the user interface is well-designed in places, but not uniformly great throughout the phone.

We were also annoyed by other quirks, like the fact that most apps can't switch between portrait and landscape mode. When viewing photos, for example, it's useful to be able to swap between orientations.

Beautiful screen
Photos and videos look very good on the Beat DJ, thanks to a bright, beautiful, 71mm (2.8-inch) AMOLED screen, which ups the awesome level by being as bright and thin as an OLED screen while consuming less power. Despite this perk, though, the Beat DJ is battery-hungry, and we had to recharge it after only a day of testing.

Photos taken with the Beat DJ's 3-megapixel camera are average. It's good for capturing spontaneous moments or celebs eating lunch, but it won't replace your compact camera. The LED photo light does a good job of brightening up subjects in low light without being excessively harsh, but the shutter lag is very annoying. It takes about 5 seconds from pressing the camera button to seeing a preview of the final image. That's way too long.

Conclusion
The Samsung Beat DJ benefits from a lovely screen, unique appearance and a good range of features. The DJ app surprised us with its innovative use of gestures and the touch-sensitive area below the screen, but the rest of the phone doesn't exploit this potential and feels poorly thought-out. The sound quality also isn't as good as it should be. But the Beat DJ's not expensive, so it could be a good option if you're seeking a funky-looking touchscreen phone.

Update: We've updated the specs to reflect that the Beat DJ has GPS, which you can use to geotag photos.

Edited by Charles Kloet