Samsung touts the T400 as the blokey equivalent of the T500 Flaunt; does that mean it comes with a breathalyser and free tickets to the footy? You'll have to read our Australian review to find out.

The Samsung T400 is the male version of the T500 Flaunt , and appears to have gained the sub-moniker of 'surprising', at least according to Samsung's web site.

Unlike the carmine stylings of the T500, the T400 comes wrapped in shiny aluminium. The T400 is squarer than the T500, and at 80 x 42 x 21.5 mm is slightly larger. It's also lacking the 'health' folder that Samsung's female phone includes, so if you're a bloke who wants to know his biorhythms, this isn't the phone for you.

The T400 does include a lot of the features that make the Flaunt an impressive phone. The interior display lacks the ability to turn into a mirror, but you do get a a 65,000 colour TFT (thin film transistor) screen. The screen is a truly impressive piece of work, and the animations that come with the phone look exceptional on it. However, the same pictures and animations that come with the girly T500 are included with the T400. Surely this is a mistake for two phones that are supposed to target different market segments.

There is an external screen measuring 96 x 46 pixels, but you can't seem to change what is displayed there, as you could with the T500. You can choose which of six colours you want the service light to be.

The phone also has a 40-polyphonic ringtone capability, which improves the sound of the rings and alarms compared to other phones on the market. However, the T400 does not have multi-media messaging (MMS) capability. For a phone with such a great screen and ringtones, the lack of MMS is a shame.

The T400 has the same buttons as the T500, but the layout is a little different. The softkeys are beside the arrow keys, which means you sometimes press an arrow key when you mean to press a softkey, and vice-versa. The arrow keys double as hotkeys to 'messages' and 'tones', and the blue hotkey to the Internet is once again in the middle of the arrow keys. In addition there are the answer call and reject call buttons. Volume is handled using two volume keys on the side of the phone, which is very convenient.

The mobile has space for 20 voice dial tags and 19 voice activated menu commands, which can be controlled from the 'active' folder. There is also space for three 30-second voice memos. The menu is relatively easy to navigate. In the "Organiser" folder are tools such for such things as conversion of measurements, a map showing the time in different parts of the world, alarm and stopwatch. There is also a Scheduler and a Calendar, although the only thing the Calendar added to the Scheduler was the addition of a lunar calendar.

The phone comes with three games: Bowling, Speed Up (a racing game involving trucks) and Honey Ball. Once again, the games are similar to those found on the T500.

The mobile is advertised as having 2.5 hours talk time, and 120 hours standby. We found it lasted from 9.30am Thursday to 12.30am Monday morning - about 87 hours.

All things considered, we think more of an effort could have been made to differentiate the male T400 and the female T500. We're not sure what additional features would appeal to men - suggestions such as breathalyser and automatic pick-up line generator being too impractical for a mobile - but even something as simple as varying the ringtones and pictures between the two phones would have made a big difference.

As it is, the only real difference is that the T400 doesn't have the 'health' folder and looks a little more masculine. However, despite having less features it still retails at AU$999. As with the Flaunt, the T400 is a very impressive phone, but would be a much more compelling phone if it came with MMS capabilities.

SGH-T400
Company: Samsung
Price: AU$999
Distributor: Samsung

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