Samsung's Solid Immerse is aimed at people with an adventurous streak. Its sturdy exterior allows it to resist water, repel dust and laugh in the face of bumps. Sadly, the phone's shortcomings mean you may think twice about taking it on your next outdoor escapade.
The Solid Immerse is available for around £100 SIM-free. Monthly contract prices start at around £10.
Built to last
With a chunky design and IP67 accreditation, the Solid Immerse has been built to take punishment, including drops, submersion in 1m of water for up to 30 minutes, and dusty environments that would make your vacuum cleaner beg for the sweet release of death.
When placed alongside some of the svelter phones on the market, the Solid Immerse looks positively gargantuan. All of its ports are covered with stoppers, and the keypad is fashioned from a single piece of rubber. This prevents dust and liquid from entering the inside of the device.
"Have a bit of that," we cackled, as we put the Solid Immerse under the cold tap. It withstood the waterboarding session with aplomb.
The 2-inch screen has an anti-scratch coating to prevent damage, and the battery compartment is kept watertight thanks to a unique locking system that requires the use of a coin or suchlike to open.
Although Samsung is cautious about the Solid Immerse's ability to stand firm against the elements -- the instruction manual warns you against intentionally dunking the handset in water -- we were very impressed with its construction.
Simple Samsung
The Solid Immerse has a proprietary user interface developed by Samsung. The upshot is that the phone's pretty easy to use. The grid-like menu system will be instantly familiar to anyone weaned on Nokia and Sony Ericsson handsets circa 2005, and finding your way around is a relatively pain-free experience.
The Solid Immerse even comes with some neat extras that you wouldn't normally associate with a dumb, as opposed to smart, phone. A built-in pedometer allows you to track your epic cross-country hikes, and Facebook and Twitter connectivity offers some limited social-networking opportunities.
The phone's a pretty sluggish performer, though. The Solid Immerse offers 3G network connectivity, but venturing online is a chore. Web pages take an age to render, and just accessing your Twitter stream is like pulling teeth.
The phone has a 2-megapixel camera capable of snapping panoramic shots by stitching images together, but the overall image quality is less than inspiring, and its videos are so poor that they're barely worth mentioning. For those who like to grab visual reminders of their epic mountain climbs, it's disappointing that the phone isn't capable of capturing better images.
On a more positive note, the LED torch on the top of the phone is genuinely useful -- not only when you're potholing, but also when you're fumbling for your door key in the middle of the night. Next to this is a sturdy lanyard holder that allows you to wear the phone around your neck.
Won't go the distance
When you consider the relatively modest tech within the Solid Immerse's tank-like exterior, you'd think that its battery life would be exceptional. Sadly, that isn't the case -- the 1,300mAH power cell should be more than up to the task, but it struggles to last an entire day with even moderate usage.
The torch could mean an end to stubbing your toe while on a late-night pie hunt.
Given the adventurous aspirations of the Solid Immerse, this lack of staying power is especially worrying. We dread to think what would happen if you were to rely on this phone to contact others in the event of a fall or injury during an outdoor excursion. The last thing you need on a weekend away in a remote location is for your phone to give up the ghost in less than 24 hours -- you might find you end up cutting your own arm off.
Conclusion
The Samsung Solid Immerse is well hard, but it's let down by its disappointing software, a dismal camera and lacklustre battery life. If you're deadly serious about acquiring a phone that you can depend on when Mother Nature turns nasty, we'd recommend the Motorola Defy. Should your budget not stretch to a smart phone, the Solid Immerse is a worthy contender -- just make sure it's fully charged before you go for a long walk in the hills alone.
Edited by Charles Kloet
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klw 28 January 2012
Good: Rugged construction, waterproof, dustproof, shockproof, very long battery life
Bad: Not the best internet performance, average camera, video resolution is too low
Comment: This is a review of the Samsung GT-B2710 Immerse phone – the rufty-tufty waterproof, shockproof and dustproof model.
I was expecting something much bulkier with a heavy-duty rubberised coating and a spongy feel to it. Instead it’s smooth plastic and much more sleek – quite a pleasant surprise and it really doesn't look any different to a less-rugged phone. I also like the ability to add a lanyard to fasten to a rucksack, belt, canoe or hang it around my neck.
In terms of performance, it’s not a smartphone, cannot pretend to be, and anyone who’s been spoiled by a fast, high-performance smartphone is going to be sadly disappointed by it. But, if you’ve had a smartphone and concluded that they’re just too fragile for putting in a pocket and sitting on, dropping in the street or using in the rain – then this could be the phone for you, particularly if you’re an active or outdoorsy person looking for a phone to match your lifestyle.
Construction feels solid unlike some phones which feel quite flimsy and fragile. It’s easy to hold, the keypad has larger keys than every other phone I’ve used and there’s a positive feel to them. They’re also very easy to see, illuminated in the dark and a doddle for texting, even with cold hands or gloves on. The screen has an anti-scratch coating so dripping it into a pocket with your keys isn’t going to cause much damage although the rear camera lens, which is only slightly recessed, remains vulnerable.
It’s a simple phone to operate with all the usual facilities available from various menus – camera, video, sound recording, music player, radio, multiple alarms, organiser, emal (complete with pre-installed settings for hotmail and gmail) and there are apps for Facebook, Twitter and Google Maps. There are a few other good features – a compass, pedometer (which is surprisingly accurate) and a good LED torch. The fixed focus camera is OK – it’s nothing special and not up to the same crisp image quality you can expect to find on Sony Ericsson phones but it’s acceptable for snapshots and pics can be edited and effects added. The video function is very poor though and the low resolution clips are virtually unusable. The music player is good with excellent sound and the radio reception, using the supplied headphones, is very crisp.
Performance as a phone is very good with good volume for incoming calls and I’m told that I can be heard clearly on it.
Internet performance is good for a basic non-smartphone and it benefits from 3G, but it’s nowhere near the experience offered by a good smartphone. To demonstrate, it accesses the internet fairly quickly and is good for checking email using a web-based service (there are also email apps but I don’t use these because I don’t want to download hundreds of messages onto my phone), you can check the weather, visit sites such as BBC mobile and the character size can be increased by pressing the volume up button on the side of the handset. However, there are some shortfalls. It’s not compatible with all online forums – I found it wouldn’t allow me to enter my login details on some secure sites. Another very major shortfall, for me at least, when entering text on a few sites, predictive text wouldn’t work and the character size is so tiny that even with my very good reading eyesight, I couldn’t read it but had to rely on carefully inputting the correct letters. However, for general casual browsing, Facebook and Twitter updates, it’s fine.
Some phones are actually a joy to use but I wouldn’t describe this phone in this way. However, I would say that it’s a phone you can use in any environment without worrying about it getting knocked, scratched, wet or damaged. If you drop it, it will survive. If you tip a drink over it, just rinse it off. If it falls in the loo – no big deal. This phone will survive just about anything in normal day to day life. I use it with animals and know I can wash it when it gets dirty, I’ve used it canoeing and for taking photos then uploading them to Facebook while in the middle of a lake, it can go on a beach without worrying about sand ingress so it really is a go anywhere phone and one that isn’t going to let you down – and with its long battery life, you can take it away on a week’s holiday knowing that it may even last all that time without needing charging!
It might not be the trendiest and most high-tec phone but it’s one that you can rely on.
superBLUE 23 November 2011
Good: Can withstand anything you care to throw at it
Bad: Camera
Comment: Well after having a few smart phones and dropping one down the loo and another one dropped onto tarmac which cracked the edge I decided to look for something that could withstand a lot more.
I came across the Samsung Immerse, a month down the line and it continues to be my trusty friend, although I don't seem have had as many accidents since I got this phone! I did drop it into a stream whilst out with my dogs and it also hit a rock during the fall so I just wiped it off and used it straight away totally unharmed in any way at all.
The camera could be much better but it's by no means dreadful, The screen looks good and it is easy to use and navigate through the menus, and the battery life is quite good under moderate use.
No more worries about damaging an expensive handset, the Samsung gives me total piece of mind. You certainly don't see many people being able to stand in the rain and have a conversation on their dripping wet mobile!!
von dutch 11 June 2011
Comment: "cough" motorola "cough" defy "cough"
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