Samsung G800

	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse £35.00
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse £39.77

Pros

3G and HSDPA, 5 MP camera with optical zoom.

Cons

No Wi-Fi.

RATING:

Samsung G800 Prices

Pay Monthly

	DEAL	PRICE
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£35.00
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£39.77
	Samsung G800 silver (O2) Carphone Warehouse	£35.00
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£83.92
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£152.22
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£39.77
	Samsung G800 silver (O2) Carphone Warehouse	£45.00
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£98.49
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£35.00
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£152.22
	Samsung G800 silver (Orange) Carphone Warehouse	£40.00
	Samsung G800 silver (O2) Carphone Warehouse	£73.92
	Samsung G800 silver (O2) Carphone Warehouse	£49.56

Pay As You Go

	DEAL	PRICE
	Samsung U900 Soul Pink (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£254.67
	Samsung S7330 Black (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£107.86
	Samsung L770 Pink (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£107.86
	Samsung F480 Tocco Silver (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£284.03
	Samsung S7330 Pink (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£107.86
	Samsung F480 Tocco Pink (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£284.03
	Samsung L770 Silver (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£107.86
	Samsung U900 Soul Silver (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£254.67
	Samsung U600 Orange Pre-Pay Mobile Phone Including... (ORANGE) Amazon UK	£79.99
	Samsung C300 Orange Pre-Pay Mobile Phone Including... (ORANGE) Amazon UK	£24.46
	Pay as You Go Vodafone Sim Card Pack Fone Studio c/o eDirectory	£4.84
	Samsung G600 (O2) O2	£97.86
	Samsung U800 (O2) O2	£78.28
	Samsung M3200 (O2) O2	£58.71
	SAMSUNG J700 PURPLE 340 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£49.99
	Samsung J700 (O2) O2	£48.92
	Samsung "J700" mobile phone (O2) LittlewoodsDirect.com	£39.00
	Samsung E250 Lilac (O2) O2	£29.35
	SAMSUNG C300 336 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£24.99
	Samsung U900 Soul (VODAFONE) Vodafone UK	£244.68

SUMMARY:

3G HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) slider phone with 5 MP camera phone and 3x optical zoom. No Wi-Fi.

Samsung G800 Review

release date: December 2007

colours:

silver

The Samsung G800 3G HSDPA slider phone is the first 5 MP camera phone with optical zoom. Key features include the 5 MP camera with 3x optical zoom, 3G and HSDPA (supports up to 7.2 Mbps download speeds).

The 5 MP camera is similar in quality to the Samsung G600. There's no Wi-Fi on the G800. Bwahhhhhh...

Design

A chunky phone (18.8 mm thick), the Samsung G800 dimensions are similar to a Nokia N95's - just a little thinner, slimmer and a little taller. The back and sides are plastic, the front is metal. The G800 weighs 129 g - this weight helps give the phone a quality and solid feel.

Keypad: Slide the front panel up to reveal the keypad. The keys are wide and easy to press.

2.4-inch screen: 262k colour, 240 x 320 resolution. Bright vivid colours.

Navigation keys: The front panel features the large navigation button, call, end, cancel and selection keys. Big and easy to press. Top marks.

Left side features the microSD slot, multi-function jack and lanyard eyelet. Right side features the volume keys and camera/application switch key.

The 5 MP camera with 3x optical zoom is on the back. Slide open the lens cover to use the camera. The Xenon flash sits above the camera lens. The speaker is on the top.

Features

3G and HSDPA

Theoretical download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps are possible. Vodafone's network has 7.2 Mbps HSDPA (3.5G) support. Most other HSDPA mobiles (to date) only support up to 3.6 Mbps download speeds.

Combined with the 2.4-inch screen, using the Web is OK - certainly better than browsing the Web on smaller mobile screens.

5 MP camera - Oolala

The Samsung G800's key selling point - a 5 MP camera with 3x optical zoom, Xenon flash, autofocus, macro mode and 4x digital zoom. The camera lens is protected by a lens cover - slide the lens cover open to activate the camera. Take photos in landscape mode.

Camera options include: shooting mode, image size, macro mode, flash, timer, face detection, scenes, effects, exposure meter, shooting mode, ISO (up to 400), anti-shake, extended digital zoom, wide dynamic range (WDR), image quality and more.

G800 vs G600 camera image quality: We have a few sample G600 shots on a computer. Compared to the G600, there's not much difference. Perceived quality will vary based on shooting conditions. Try tweaking the settings to get different results.

Face detection: You find this feature in many dedicated digital cameras. This feature recognises faces, then adjusts the focus and exposure to produce better quality images. TRIVIA: According to a FujiFilm project manager, "70 percent of images taken have a person as the subject".

According to several articles on "face detection", they can't detect animal faces. Our pet llama Boris doesn't care.

Wide dynamic range: Captures more image detail in bright light and deep shadows. WDR is supposed to give "superior tonal quality".

Anti-shake: Digital image stabilizer - you have to turn this on in the settings menu for each camera session.

Xenon flash: Better than a low-current LED flash. We don't think it's quite as good as the Sony Ericsson K850i Xenon flash.

Video capture: 320 x 240 pixels at 15 fps. Better than most other mobile phones, but still not great. The G600 has 640 x 480 at 15 fps video capture.

The G800 has image and video editor applications.

User interface

Pretty much the same as previous Samsung mobile phones. 3 x 4 grid, menus and sub menus.

Music Player

MP3, MIDI, ACC, ACC+, e-AAC+, WMA support. Rate tracks, album art, views songs by artist, genre, recent, album, composer, random loop...
The supplied earphones are fine. 110 MB phone memory and 4 GB microSD memory card support.

Other features

Video player, video calling, FM radio, document viewer, RSS feed reader, voice recorder, Web browser, PIM applications: tasks, calculator, world clock, converter, stopwatch, SIM application toolkit, TV-out...

Samsung G800 vs Nokia N95

The Samsung G800 is sort of chunky, just like the Nokia N95. The Nokia N95 also has a 5 MP camera - but no optical zoom or Xenon flash. The G800 lacks some Nokia N95 features - GPS, Wi-Fi and Symbian OS and it's quad-band. On a straight head-to-head features comparison, Nokia N95 comes out on top.

Samsung G800 vs Samsung G600

The G600 is cheaper, slimmer and lighter. The camera image quality is similar and there's no Xenon flash or optical zoom on the G600. The G800 has more phone memory (110 MB vs 40 MB) and supports a 4 GB microSD card. The G600 has EDGE only - no 3G or HSDPA, and a 2.2-inch screen. The G800 has a 2.4-inch screen and is better for browsing and downloading from the Internet.

Summary

The Samsung G800 is a good 3G HSDPA slider phone with 5 MP camera and a 2.4-inch screen. There's no Wi-Fi, quad-band or GPS (as found on the Nokia N95). Wi-Fi would have been nice. If you're after a slimmer camera phone, have a look at the Samsung G600.