Today we are going to review a very interesting touchscreen phone from Samsung - S8300 Ultra Touch. This model is equipped with an AMOLED display. In addition, there is a good functional set, including a GPS-module, an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, Bluetooth version 2.1. Note the presence of GPS in the device, because this function is rarely seen in a "regular" phone.
Equipment
The packaging of the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch mobile phone contains:
• Charger;
• Wired headset;
• Cable USB for connecting the device to a computer;
• CD with software and drivers;
• User's manual.
In general, the delivery set is standard and does not differ in any excesses.
Design and ergonomics
Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch has an outstanding design. When you first look at the slider, you recognize Samsung. As for the assembly, no particular flaws were identified. The body parts fit well, with the exception of the battery cover, which is not very reliable. But the assembly materials were disappointing to us. The plastic on the back is too thin and the coating is not scratch resistant. After several days of careful use of the phone, several small scratches appeared on the case. At the same time, the display bezel is very high quality. It is made of aluminum.
The backlash between the two slider halves is minimal. When pressed, the device creaks slightly, which is not surprising given the form factor. The mechanism of automatic adjustment of the slider works well.
Above the display, you can see a small peephole of the front camera, a speaker (which is also a system and telephone one) and two sensors - light and distance.
Below the screen are the buttons for receiving and rejecting calls, as well as a quadrangular button resembling a joystick. In fact, this button has only one function - to return to the previous menu.
The buttons on the main keyboard are medium in size, so users with large fingers will not feel discomfort. The keys are pressed softly and quietly, and at the same time have a good response. The telephone keypad buttons are evenly backlit in white. In the dark, characters can be distinguished without problems. If desired, you can adjust the backlight on time. There are no special comments on the S8300 keyboard. Nagging, we can say that the top row of buttons when typing messages quickly is not very convenient to press.
In the open state, on the back of the front half, we see a photo unit, which consists of a camera lens, a flash and a tiny mirror, which allows us to take self-portraits with great convenience.
On the left side face there is a swing key, which is responsible for adjusting the volume. On the same side there is a small hole for attaching a lace. On the right side there is a camera button, a microUSB connector and a block key. The microUSB connector is protected by a rubber cap.
Above, there are no functional elements. In turn, only the microphone hole is located at the bottom.
Under the back cover, in addition to the battery, there are two slots: one for a SIM card, and the other for a microSD memory card.
Display
The diagonal of the screen is quite large - 2.8 inches. As mentioned above, the device has an active AMOLED matrix. The difference between this matrix and conventional LCD matrices is in brighter and more natural display of colors. In addition, AMOLED displays accurately reproduce colors when viewed from different angles. The brightness setting has five levels. The image remains readable in the sun.
The touch display responds very quickly to pressing (almost instantaneous). Each press is accompanied by a short vibration. The power of these vibrations is adjustable.By the way, this technology is called VibeZ. In addition to everything, Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch is equipped with an accelerometer, so you can view photos, videos, etc. in both horizontal and vertical orientation of the device.
Radio
The FM receiver works only when a headset or headphones are connected, which act as an antenna. If desired, the user can output the sound to an external speaker. There is support for RDS. The benefits of this feature are minimal, since only the name of the current radio station is displayed without any additional information. The functionality of the radio app is standard. The frequency is entered manually. An automatic scanner is also available. It is not possible to enter a name for the stations found. This is a Samsung feature.
Menus and Applications
The highlight of the touchscreen phones interface is the widgets. Thanks to widgets, it is very convenient to use Samsung phones (regardless of platform). Widgets allow you to control the basic functions of your mobile device. In addition, some widgets are full-fledged applications.
We were pleasantly surprised by the variety of pre-installed widgets: clock (digital and analog), calendar, events, weather, notes, reminders of important dates, world clock, messages, Samsung Fun Club, player, voice recorder, radio, Google search. Widgets are customizable. Downloading new ones is also available (for example, from the official Samsung website).
The desktop consists of three screens. You can go to the next page with one movement by "pulling" anywhere on the screen.
Preinstalled applications that deserve attention: a simple video editor, a voice recorder, an organizer, an application for managing blue-tooth connections, a calculator, as well as a timer and stopwatch.
Entering text
There are two ways to enter text. It can be either a slide-out keyboard or a touch-sensitive keyboard. Both in the first and in the second case, it is possible to enter T9. In our opinion, using the touch keyboard is much more convenient. True, the font when typing is too large, which is why only three lines fit on the screen.
Built-in player
The audio player is the same as found in the vast majority of the South Korean manufacturer's music phones. There is support for the most popular audio formats: MP3, WMA, AAC. I must say, this is enough for the head, because the music is distributed mostly in MP3 format. On the positive side, there are no restrictions on the bitrate of audio files. You can download your favorite songs via a USB cable, or via the Bluetooth 2.1 wireless interface.
The disc supplied with the mobile device contains the PC New Studio utility, which is used when connecting to a PC.
The player has all the necessary functions. You can create playlists, sort songs (by artist, album or genre), send melodies via MMS or Bluetooth (directly from the playback window).
A headset is supplied with the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch. It produces a fairly clear sound. Of course, it is far from ideal, but we have dealt with much lower quality headsets that come with mobile devices.
The video player supports the following formats: MPEG4, H.263 / 4 and DivX. I am glad that the device reproduces most of the films without preliminary conversion. We did not notice any slowdowns when watching a DivX video file with a bitrate of 1 megabit / sec. The only thing is embarrassing that the player is not able to forcefully stretch the image to full screen. The battery drains very quickly when playing video files.
Camera
The phone in question is equipped with an 8-megapixel photomodule with autofocus and flash. The number of settings is quite large: macro mode, focusing on the face (this is still a rarity for a phone camera), panoramic focus, etc. Face detection works in conjunction with blink detection to alert the photographer of a person blinking.The camera focuses on objects pretty quickly. There is one drawback: if focusing fails, the interface "freezes" for a couple of seconds.
White balance settings: automatic, cloudy, incandescent, daylight, fluorescent. As for the exposure setting, it is fully automatic, with the exception of exposure compensation adjustment in the range -2 .. + 2. Metering modes: center-weighted, matrix and spot.
Naturally, only the shutter speed changes, since the aperture value is unwavering, it equals 2.6. The maximum value of sensitivity is 1600 ISO. If you use such a high value, the noise will increase several times.
Now a little about the flash. It is LED in Samsung S8300, and it is single. As a result, its power is not enough for more than half a meter.
It is possible to adjust the sharpness and contrast of the picture. Also note that thanks to the GPS module, the device can record the coordinates of the image, i.e. of the place where it was made.
Like many other cameras, this module is capable of recording movies. You can choose one of three resolution options: 320x240, 640x480 or 720x480. There are also 3 quality modes and several white balance presets. The phone's camera shoots videos of good quality (as for a phone). All the same, mediocre "soap dishes" record much better.
PC connection
The connection to the PC is carried out via a USB cable, while the user is provided with 3 connection options: data carrier mode, MTP and PC Studio mode. We measured the data transfer rate in the Everest Disk Benchmark utility. The phone supports two types of cards: regular microSD and microSDHC. We decided to run the test for both types of memory cards. The test results are shown below.
Performance for microSD 80x
Performance for microSDHC class 6
As mentioned above, the phone supports Bluetooth 2.1 wireless interface. The following profiles are supported: speakerphone, headset, stereo headset, file transfer, remote access, serial port profile, as well as contact access and quick print. The average data transfer rate via Bluetooth was 247 kbps. It took 3 minutes to transfer a video of just over five megabytes.
Battery life indicators
The mobile phone is equipped with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The capacity of this battery is only 880 mAh. Given the variety of phone capabilities, 880 mAh is not always enough. For example, many smartphones are equipped with batteries one and a half or more times more powerful, while in the GPS navigation mode, their charge lasts for a couple of hours. The hero of our review could hardly hold out for an hour and a half.
In non-stop playback of audio files, the S8300 worked for about 13 hours. Video playback (DivX format, bit rate - 1 megabit / sec) drains the battery much faster - in 3.5 hours.
If you actively use the functions of a mobile device (half an hour of conversations a day, several camera shots, a couple of hours of listening to your favorite music), then in this case the battery will only last for one day. If you plan to use this phone as a GPS navigator when traveling on foot, then you should take care of purchasing an additional battery. Otherwise, you can be left without communication at the most inopportune moment.
Conclusion
Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch has an elegant appearance, a fairly thin body, an excellent AMOLED touchscreen display, and a good 8-megapixel camera. I liked the pleasant and intuitive interface. Widgets are very useful. In addition, the performance, as for a phone, is very good. A nice addition is the presence of a GPS module.
Among the shortcomings, we would like to highlight the following: the surface of the case is easily scratched in many places; battery capacity is clearly not enough; low baud rate when connected to a PC. The lack of a standard audio jack can also be attributed to shortcomings.
The price of the Samsung S8300 Ultra Touch is not much different from the Samsung i8510 smartphone, which has some advantages - a better camera, a huge amount of available software. The S8300 benefits from a chic touchscreen display and a thinner body.
