Samsung U700 review

Samsung U700 Review

Reviewed by: Patrick Wignall

Reviewed on: 24 August 2007

Weaknesses
The version of the phone we had was decked out in a silver and grey colour scheme. From a distance it looks a million dollars but when you're up close the finish is actually a bit plasticky. If you're thinking of purchasing the handset you might be better off opting for the alternative dark grey and black version.

Another issue we had was with the controls. The touch buttons that are positioned under the screen look great but you don't get any tactile feedback from them, so they feel a little bit strange to use at first. Sometimes there's also an annoying lag between tapping the buttons and the phone registering the key press.

Also, although the centrally mounted dial acts as both a scroll wheel and four-way navigation key, it doesn't work well at either function. Often you'll find yourself skipping over icons in the main menu that you are trying to select.

The handset can be used as a music player but it's not a very good one. Although the supplied headphones have decent sound quality, navigating tracks is a nightmare.

The phone doesn't present you with artist, track and album menu options. Instead it just lists all the tracks held on your memory card and then allows you to manually sort them into artist and album categories. Most of the time, you're left just scrolling through very long lists of track names until you find the one you want to play.

Conclusion
The U700 is a bit of a mixed bag. It looks good, has a brilliant screen and really is a blistering performer for viewing Web sites. However, there are times when the touch buttons and wheel make it feel quite awkward to use. The interface for the music player is also woeful. It's certainly not a bad handset but we don't think it's a great one, either.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday