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The Samsung F400 is a much more affordable music phone compared to previous releases from Samsung. In this review we will take a look at its design, features, and performance and give you all the information you need to know.
A very important aspect is it's 3.5mm headphone socket. Throw out your bundled cables because you don't need them to use this handset. Although you'd think a music phone would automatically come with this feature and that it should be assumed that it was included—even the highest-end music phones forget this part.
Most slider phones are light-weight, almost as slim as a piece of paper, and break easily. However, don't look forward to that with the F400—it's built constructively and is very rugged. That doesn't mean you should throw you new F400 against the wall to see how versatile it is! Although it would also make a great paperweight too!
Being most commonly a music phone, it comes with Bang & Olufsen mini-speakers integrated behind the screen. Undercover speakers… such a nice thought, right? Don't hold your breathe! Simply slide the screen downward and you will see where they are. It does, however, come with a nice keypad that is big enough to set a high texting speed.
It comes packed with a 240x320-pixel (56mm or 2.2-inch) screen that is very clear and easy to use. However, keep indoors or the glossy plastic coating may become a problem in the sun's rays.
Features
One impressive but not extraordinary feature is the microSD slot which allows expanded memory space for the things you normally wouldn't be able to fit on the phone. It comes bulked with a 3-megapixel camera which produces good quality and it is even equipped with a LED flash making it top other phones in that aspect.
Don't worry about compatibility issues with your music, the F400 supports many different audio formats, including but not limited to: MP3, unprotected AAC, WMA, and even songs purchased from services such as Napster. You can even enjoy listening to your “jams” on wireless headphones by using the built-in stereo Bluetooth, A2DP.
Enjoy the music while you can because you'll be disappointed when trying to watch a video. Not only is it more difficult to access than your music, it seems like a full-time job just to meet the requirements of the phones capabilities with video files. It has strict file formats and you MUST obey resolution and bit rates. Don't worry though; Samsung includes the [hardly] easy to use software that allows people to tweak their video conversion setup.
Although it's not a nice process, few phones make this an easy task—not just Samsung.
We were, however, impressed by the 3.2Mbps HSDPA data connectivity. This allows for fairly quick web browsing. Personal preference, of course, makes us throw out the idea of the built-in browser and go straight to the free Opera Mini browser and create an enjoyable experience to web browsing with the F400.
Performance
Although it tried to compete in the music phone industry, it still lacks some important characteristics used by other phone models, such as the dedicated 3.5mm headphone sockets. Claiming to have “breathtaking sound quality” is possibly an over-statement when put to the test. Some distortion issues arose but most people would be happy with its performance.
Even though the phone is fairly easy to use, there are some tweaks that still need to be made such as, not having to stop your music to browse your music list. However, its call quality is well above average but not quite the top of its competitors.
Conclusion
Lacking things that stand out from other mobile phones make the phone not as top quality as we expected. It is, however, a good phone in the long run. Being marketed as a phenomenal music phone would be a bad idea since it then gets compared to dedicated MP3 players, in which it stands no shot.
Although a music phone, the best features seem to be its flash-equipped camera and its easy usability in regards to texting and navigation—rather than its music capabilities. If you are looking just for a music phone, we don't recommend this phone—however; if you want usability along with music then this phone is for you.
The Nokia N79 is one of those phones you just love to love. It joins the ranks of the other Nokia N-models on the market - its siblings are the N78, N82, N85 and N96.
Without a doubt - the Nokia N79 has to be one of the best mobile phones on the market - the 5 Megapixel camera sports Carl Zeiss optics, CMOS sensor, a Tessar lens and 20x digital zoom. Then too it has autofocus and a very helpful two stage capture key. If that isn't enough to tip the balance, try adding the option of the Xpress On smart covers, allowing choice of theme depending on your mood, environment or dress code for the day.
The Nokia N79 is a quad band phone, powered by the Symbian operating system on S60 software. Ask anyone in the know and their comment on Symbian will be - “It's good.” This is reassuring when it comes to decision making based on operating software reliability alone. The networks covered by the handset are the GSM850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 and WCDMA. This allows for world-wide use (handy for the business traveller), but access will ultimately depend on the service provider used.
WLAN hotspot functionality (Wi-Fi support) allows for access to the internet, supported by the internal HTML, XHTML and WML browser, and printer use/data transfer is possible by means of either USB or wireless Bluetooth.
As a businessman's aid, the Nokia N79 has to be experienced to be appreciated. It provides a comprehensive means of text/SMS messaging, as well as a wireless email support service which has filtering and attachments for SMTP, IMAP and POP servers. The predictive text input mechanism makes typing on the compact and yet highly useable keyboard a pleasant experience, and if you don't like to use a keyboard, or can't, the N79 will work with Text-to-Speech Message Reader.
When it comes to helping you with your personal organisation the N79 offers a calendar, a phonebook which supports images, a calculator, flight mode, a discreet vibration alert mechanism for signalling incoming calls and messages and even the viewing of popular formats of documents.
Conference calls are possible, with a maximum of 6 participants, including VoIP Internet Call support and a Push-To-Talk option. Regular calls are made easy by the hands-free speaker phone and speed dial features.
Music formats supported are WMA, AAC, eAAC+ and MP3. The phone has an integral equaliser for use with 3D stereo speakers, and FM radio with RDS support. It also supports Internet Radio.
Games in Java format are embedded in the phone on delivery, and it is possible to download additional Java games from the internet. With a 50MB memory and 4GB microSD memory which can be expanded to 8GB the handset offers the gamer a great time, 5.5 hours of talk time, and a standby of between 170 and 370 hours, depending on the method used (GSM versus WLAN).
The camera deserves an additional mention. Video recording and streaming is possible with playback in 3GP, MPEG4, H263 and H264 formats. The camera includes a stabiliser for video filming, and video lighting features, including auto and night time video lighting settings.
This is a tremendous phone, and a credit to the name of Nokia.