It appears Samsung is still trying to get in on that Motorola Razr action, and with this ultrathin offering it looks like it's going in the right direction. But is it a case of too thin, too soon?
Design
The Samsung D830 is the company's slimmest clamshell phone to date -- it's noticeably thinner than Motorola's Razr V3, measuring just 10mm in depth. It weighs 91g and feels light, and has a metal and tough plastic casing so it won't shatter if you drop it.
On the top of the front section of the D830 there's a 2-megapixel camera surrounded by a silver border. Underneath this is a small blue OLED screen that displays signal strength, battery life, the time and date, and incoming calls or text messages. The rest of the front section is minimalist, as is the back.
On the right side there's a microSD slot, while on the left there's a dedicated volume rocker and a charging port that doubles up as the headset port.
Opening the D830 can be fiddly at times. The slim nature of the handset makes prising it open like trying to crack a pistachio nut. Once opened, however, there's enough space to manoeuvre. The D830 is 54mm wide, making it easy to hold, and 188mm tall when open, fitting comfortably against the ear and mouth.
Inside, there's a bright 240x320-pixel colour screen at the top that displays 260,000 colours, and at the bottom is a flat alphanumeric keypad.
The keypad, unfortunately, suffers from a serious lack of feedback -- you find yourself having to press the keys rather hard in order to get a response. On a positive note, the lip at the bottom doesn't interfere with you pressing the lower half of the keypad, in the same way as the D900's lip does.
Features
For a range so slim, the Ultra Edition series is feature-packed and the D830 is no exception. There's a 2-megapixel camera that takes still photographs and video. You can adjust the size, quality, white balance and ISO of shots, and even add effects or frames to make things a little more interesting.
After you take a photo you can do basic editing with the image editor and view your pictures on a TV using the TV-out option and an adaptor.
You can listen to music on the music player, which lets you set your songs on shuffle and repeat, and adjust the equaliser. It will support MP3, ACC, ACC+, eAAC+ and WMA files, and there's an expandable microSD slot so you can store all your favourite tracks and pictures.
If you need to browse the Internet you can, using the WAP browser and GPRS connectivity. It's not as fast as a 3G connection, but it will serve to access WAP sites or send MMS messages. There's also an email client, so you can check your POP3 or IMAP4 email accounts on the go.
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User reviews2
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Mark Bradley 8 December 2006
Good: Screen quality; responsive keypad; UI; design
Bad: Tricky to open quickly; no flash; only 2 UI skins
Comment: I'm surprised at reviews stating problems with the keypad. The keys are large and strongly back-lit. Granted the keypad takes a little getting used to - each key has a central "sweet-spot" so it doesn't react if you don't touch it in the right place, but this is easy to adapt to, took me a couple of minutes. I can understand that avid texters may not like the fact these keys are not tactile, there is no physical feeling that the key has been pressed, but I've experienced no problems.
The 2.3" screen is stunning in its brightness, colour and clarity. The Samsung menu system is up to its usual standard, with pop-up submenus to aid navigation.
The UI default skin of black is very attractive, although the only other option is white.
The 2MP camera has auto-focus but no flash, but if you want top quality, buy a proper digital camera! Such embedded cameras in phones are for fun only not serious photography.
The internal memory is large (when compared to Motorola's) and is expandable. The music player is adequate, although my Sony Ericsson W810i does this job much better, but you would expect that from the Walkman brand.
The small external screen does everything necessary (showing incoming message/calls) and as it's blue on black, it doesn't suffer in direct sunlight as much as multi-coloured displays, it's still easy to read.
As the model is so thin, it really is fiddly to open quickly, and is large when open (a long distance from earpiece to speaker). These are minor niggles, however, more than made up for by the clear call quality.
If you like to text a lot, it may be best to steer clear due to the keypad restrictions, but if like me, you want a phone which does a great job as a phone (with an adequate camera and MP3 player too), fits easily into a pocket adding little bulk or weight, and don't use it extensively, then this could be the one for you.
Mark Bradley 7 December 2006
Good: Stunning screen; thin-ness; simple design; responsive keypad; strong vibrate
Bad: Tricky to open quickly even with 2 hands; only 2 UI skins
Comment: I'm surprised at reviews stating problems with the keypad. The keys are large and well back-lit. Granted the keypad takes a little getting used to - each key has a central "sweet-spot" so it doesn't react if you don't touch it in the right place, but this is easy to adapt to, took me a couple of minutes. I can understand that avid texters may not like the fact these keys are not tactile, there is no physical feeling that the key has been pressed, but I've experienced no problems.
The 2.3" screen is stunning in its brightness, colour and clarity. The Samsung menu system is up to its usual standard, with pop-up submenus to aid navigation.
The UI default skin of black is very attractive, although the only other option is white.
The 2MP camera has auto-focus but no flash, but if you want top quality, buy a proper digital camera! Such embedded cameras in phones are for fun only not serious photography.
The internal memory is large (when compared to Motorola's) and is expandable. The music player is adequate, although my Sony Ericsson W810i does this job much better, but you would expect that from the Walkman brand.
The small external screen does everything necessary (showing incoming message/calls) and as it's blue on black, it doesn't suffer in direct sunlight as much as multi-coloured displays, it's still easy to read.
As the model is so thin, it really is fiddly to open quickly, and is large when open (a long distance from earpiece to speaker). These are minor niggles, however, more than made up for by the clear call quality.
If you like to text a lot, it may be best to steer clear due to the keypad restrictions, but if like me, you want a phone which does a great job as a phone (with an adequate camera and MP3 player too), fits easily into a pocket adding little bulk or weight, and don't use it extensively, then this could be the one for you.
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