The Samsung D900 has been a hugely popular phone in the UK ever since it was first released in 2006. A member of the Samsung Ultra Edition family, it is a fairly slim phone, at just 13mm. Samsung is starting to build something of a reputation as a manufacturer of slim phones, with other models such as the P300 and the mega-slim X820, which is an incredible 6.9mm deep.
The D900 is an attractive looking phone and comes with a wide range of features, more than you would expect on a phone this thin. There’s all sorts of gadgetry to keep you amused.
First of all, there’s an excellent camera (3-megapixel), there’s a microSD slot for additional storage and of course there’s the latest stereo bluetooth specification, also known as A2DP. This feature is great because it allows you to listen to your favorite music in high-quality stereo with the need for a wire between the phone and a pair of bluetooth-compatible headphones.
The D900 competes directly with it’s stablemate the Samsung D600 (a very popular phone), the D800 and the Sony Ericsson k800i, which comes with an excellent camera.
So is it as good as the Samsung’s earlier models? It’s actually a lot better!
For a start, the D900 is much slimmer and lighter than the D600 & D800. Weighing in at only 83g, it is actually 15g lighter than the more bulky D800 and 20g lighter than the more bulky D800, but comes with a better, more comprehensive feature set than both models.
Functionally, it is extremely easy to use, although some users might find that the little lip at the bottom of the phone gets in the way a little when using the keypad.
The camera is one of the most impressive features of this little phone. It holds up well against the excellent camera on the Sony Ericsson k800i, which originally set the benchmark at this level. The D900′s auto-focus feature is excellent and its multi-shot option, while not as intuitive as the k800i’s BestPic feature, works well. The D900′s flash leaves something to be desired however, as it is not as bright as it could be (and certainly not as bright as the xenon flash on the k800i). But all in all, it’s a great camera and probably Samsung’s best to date. Not quite as good as the k800i in that department, but getting there.
So let’s look at the phone in a little more depth.
First of all, it’s size. As mentioned earlier, the Samsung D900 is very slim and very light. The dimensions are similar to the Motorola Razr V3, another popular slimline phone.
The main display measures 43mm by 32mm and is bright enough, with 262k colours. We tried it outdoors on a sunny day and the screen was easy enough to read.
The layout on the front of the phone follows the same principles as most Samsung slide-open phones. At the top you have the display screen, below that there are two soft keys and the main navigation key and at the bottom you have the now typical send, cancel and call end keys.
Ergonomically, it’s all pretty good. The soft keys are nice and big, the main navigation key is also a decent size and there’s another nice little touch Samsung have thought of. When you slide open the phone, you won’t inadvertently press a key and start an application because they’ve place a little ridge above the navigation key. It’s a small touch but these are the kinds of things that make phones more user-friendly.
The left hand side of the phone contains the volume rocker switch (both for adjusting call volume and the MP3 player volume) and a microSD card slot that enables you to expand the memory up to 4Gb. This is very handy if you want the phone to act as your main music MP3 player for example. Although the phone comes with 80Mb of memory as standard, you will quickly fill this up if you listen to a lot of music on your phone.
To the right of the phone, you have the combination headphone, USB and charging port and the main shutter button for the camera.
The camera itself, as we briefly mentioned earlier, is excellent. It contains a wealth of features, such as an LED photolight, good accurate autofocus and even a portrait mirror. You can adjust all sorts of settings via the inbuilt camera application, including things like ISO speed and white balance, and there are a range of effects you can add to your photos using the in-built editing features.
As well as the camera, the D900 contains a great little MP3 player. And because the phone is compatible with the latest bluetooth specification (A2DP), you can listen to your music in full stereo with a pair of bluetooth-compatible headphones with trailing any annoying wires around. Great for when you’re in the gym for example!
So what are some of the other features? The D900 is fully quad-band and EDGE compatible, so you should be able to use it wherever you are in the world. There’s a speakerphone so you can use it hands-free. If you want to dictate memos, there’s a handy voice recorder. You can browse the Internet using the built-in web browser. And there are also some very handy features like a document viewer and a TV output slot, which allows you to connect your phone to your TV screen, great for viewing your photos (it’s surprising that more manufacturers don’t offer this option). Lots of other goodies are there as well, like games, calendar, calculator, alarm clock, etc.
There are a few weaknesses to the Samsung D900 however. The biggest problem we found was with the keypad design and the slide mechanism. Because of the where the slide mechanism sits when the phone is open, accessing the bottom three keys is unwieldy, unless you have tiny fingers.
Also, the camera, wile very good, is not on a par with that of the Sony Ericsson k800i. The flash in particular is very disappointing.
And the lack of 3G connectivity is also a major weakness. If you want to use the phone for any more than basic web browsing, it is very slow.
Other than that though, the Samsung D900 is an excellent little phone for the price.
