Samsung U900 Soul

	Samsung U900 Soul Pink + Nintendo Wii (Orange) buymobilephones.net £29.37
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 590401 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles £34.26

Pros

3G and HSDPA (7.2 Mbps), 5 MP camera, Face detection and WDR, Metal casing, Looks good.

Cons

Tri-band only, No audio jack.

RATING:

Samsung U900 Soul Prices

Pay Monthly

	DEAL	PRICE
	Samsung U900 Soul Pink + Nintendo Wii (Orange) buymobilephones.net	£29.37
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 590401 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£34.26
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 717472 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£24.47
	Samsung U900 SOUL PINK 714421 (VODAFONE) Affordable Mobiles	£35.00
	Samsung U900 SOUL 717535 (T-Mobile) Affordable Mobiles	£25.00
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 718316 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£34.26
	Samsung U900 SOUL PINK 718469 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£44.04
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 724611 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£48.94
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 925187 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£58.72
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 924595 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£58.72
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 716874 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£29.36
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 861778 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£44.04
	Samsung U900 SOUL 722695 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£29.36
	Samsung U900 SOUL PINK 862648 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£78.30
	Samsung U900 SOUL PINK 724450 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£53.83
	Samsung U900 SOUL BLACK 862751 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£78.30
	Samsung U900 SOUL 725098 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£34.26
	Samsung U900 SOUL 715550 (T-Mobile) Affordable Mobiles	£40.00
	Samsung U900 SOUL 714439 (ORANGE) Affordable Mobiles	£24.47
	Samsung U900 SOUL 720267 (T-Mobile) Affordable Mobiles	£35.00

Pay As You Go

	DEAL	PRICE
	Samsung U900 Soul Pink (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£254.67
	Samsung U900 Soul Silver (THREE) 3 Mobile - PAYG	£254.67
	Samsung U900 Soul (VODAFONE) Vodafone UK	£244.68

SUMMARY:

Stylish 3G HSDPA 5 MP slider camera phone with unique touch-pad navigation. Good features and build quality, the U900 Soul is Samsung's flagship phone for 2008.

Samsung U900 Soul Review

release date: April 2008

colours:

graphite

silver

The Samsung U900 Soul is a tri-band 3G HSDPA slider phone with 5 MP camera, touch-pad, and FM radio. It's the last of Samsung's "ultra edition" range of phones. "Soul" is an abbreviation of "The Spirit Of Ultra".

The U900 Soul (aka Samsung Soul) has several stand-out features.

1. 5 MP camera with face-recognition, wide dynamic range (WDR) and image stabilizer.

2. Magic Touch by DaCP. The area beneath the screen is a touch-pad. The icons change according to the menu you've selected. For example, select the camera, and you're presented with camera control icons.

This contextual menu design is very much like the LG KF600 - the "mind-reading" interactive phone.

The U900 Soul is available in 2 colours - Graphite and Silver. A red version also appears to be available.

Say Cheese:

Samsung Soul U900 - Barcelona

Samsung Soul G400: A flip (clamshell) version will launch in the next few months (Q2 2008). The G400 has two 2.2-inch screens.

Design

The U900 Soul has stainless steel casing. It has a solid quality feel, much like many of the other metal mobile phones, such as the Nokia 6500 Slide. The slider is smooth. Build quality is good.

Front: Earpiece, display, touch panel, soft keys, dial key, power/menu key, front camera lens (top left). Slide open to reveal the keypad and microphone.

Left: Multi-function jack, video call key, volume keys.

Back: 5 MP camera lens, mirror, flash.

Right: Camera key, microSD memory card slot.

User manual: Samsung are superb at producing useless mobile phone instruction manuals. The U900 manual is another winner. C - , could do better.

Keypad: Good. Big flat keys, separated by ridges. Easy to use. Top marks.

Samsung Soul U900 Keypad

Touch-pad: The icons change according to the application you are using. EG: Switch to the camera (you get camera controls), music player (you get the music player controls). Very straightforward. 5 icons per application - 1 in the centre, and 1 in each of the four side positions. Haptic feedback on each press.

Samsung Soul Touch Pad

Features

5 MP Camera

5 MP camera (2560 x 1920 pixels) with QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) video capture. Key features / settings include white balance, shoot mode, effects, auto focus, face detection, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR), image stabilizer (anti-shake), picture quality, ISO, exposure compensation.

Quality-wise, yeah, looks quite good. There's not much to choose between the U900 and other 5 MP camera phones: Samsung G800, Nokia N95 8GB or the LG Viewty.

Video capture is 320 x 240 at 15 fps - not great. Nokia phones are the best when it comes to video capture.

Face Detection: The camera detects faces in a scene, then sets the focus, exposure and flash. Cameras without face detection can sometimes miss faces and focus on something else - producing lower quality photos. Trivia: "70 percent of images taken have a person as the subject". The software can only recognise human faces.

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

The Samsung G800 also has face detection, WDR and image stabilizer. The Samsung G800 also has optical zoom.

Tri-Band GSM

Tri-band GSM only. No 850 Mhz. 850 Mhz is used in Caribbean, South, Central and North America. Why not quad-band?

Music Player

Fine. Playlists, recently played, most played, artists, genres, visualizations, equalizer. Plug earphones into the port. There's no 3.5 mm jack, so you need an adapter to plug in your earphones. The U900 uses Bang & Olufsen amplifiers. Sounds OK.

Other Features

FM radio with RDS, organiser / PIM tools, video and image editors, games, NetFront Web browser, video player, shozu, document viewer, HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps Internet download speeds), SMS, MMS and email.

Summary

Looks good. Feels good. The touch-pad is easy to use, and features are fine - 5 MP camera, music player, FM radio... You can buy the Samsung U900 Soul for "free" on a pay-monthly contract, or get it for about £240 on PAYG. Check out the home page to view the latest latest mobile phones.