Samsung is sticking to its slider guns with the Soul U900, which incorporates modern technology into a classic design. Frills aside, we wanted to make sure that the Soul wasn't a hollow, gimmick-led phone with no oomph.
It's currently available from several major retailers, including Virgin Mobile and Carphone Warehouse for free on a monthly contract.
Design
When we first saw the Samsung Soul at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we didn't understand the fuss. Taking it out of the box months later, we've changed our minds -- not only does it feel weighty enough but on second glance, it's also rather attractive.
The Soul sits just right in our hand. A part metal casing gives it a solid look and feel. Everything is well laid out from the keypad to the screen. Some people might find it too chunky, but we think Samsung's hit the nail on the head, size-wise.
We weren't impressed by LG's attempt at using dual screens on the KF600 but the Soul pulls it off. The navigation touchscreen at the bottom is very responsive and provides an adequate amount of vibrating feedback.
Fortunately, all the heavily-used keys such as cancel and soft keys are mechanical. You can avoid the irritation of deleting a whole text message -- as you could on the Samsung E900 -- when you mistakenly brushed the touch-sensitive cancel key.
It looks like Samsung acknowledges its past mistakes and has cleverly engineered the Soul. The 5-megapixel camera, for example, is protected behind the slide mechanism, which is a small detail that adds to the overall user experience.
Features
The aim of having a navigation touchscreen seemed redundant at first, but starts to make sense when you use the Soul. When you access an app such as the camera, it offers a series of camera keys making it easier to change all the settings.
LG tried to achieve a similar thing on the KF600 but the often unresponsive touchpad left us tingling with frustration. Samsung's Soul reacts well to touch and you can even adjust the sensitivity of the touchpad to be higher or lower.
Fortunately, the touchpad isn't the only thing on offer. HSPDA (3.5G) allows for high-speed browsing, which is made better when you download one of our favourite programs -- Opera Mini -- to view full Web pages similarly to on a desktop.
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User reviews4
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Phil Bailey 24 December 2010
Good: Good quality Speaker, Nice and easy to text off and very crisp and clear screen
Bad: mine won't go on the camera when memory card is selected as default storage device
Comment: I think this phone is a nice one. Very easy to use and full of useful features. I think the sound quality is outstanding and the keypad is laid out perfectly for texting
Wenger112 26 September 2008
Good: Excellent looking piece of kit, touch pad works well,
Bad: Picture quality poor, sound quality poor, screen visibility poor in daylight
Comment: Very pleased with this phone having been a Nokia user for many years. Looks great, touch pad works very well, keypad very easy to text from. Good build quality. On downside camera and sound quality were not as good as I would have expected from a 5megapixel camera and a B&O speaker, screen smudges easily and display difficult to read in daylight. Software provided poor compared to Nokia PC suite. However this is still an excellent looking phone with a good range of useable features - definately recommended.
midhun b 31 August 2008
Good: Camera, sound quality and theme creator
Bad: Nothing
Comment: Its a great mobile phone
See all 4 user reviews