The SGH-T100 is a very sexy phone, with a very sexy screen. We can't take our eyes off it.
The Samsung Colour Phone T100 is a small 88 x 50 x 21.9mm unit that clam-shells open when you want to use it. On the front is a small two-tone display that contains most of the information you need -- time, signal strength, and battery charge, as well as notification of incoming calls and messages.
Like most clams, the pearl lies hidden inside. The T100 opens to reveal a huge 128x160 pixel colour screen that looks simply amazing. In fact, we had trouble reviewing it as our colleagues kept taking it away and gazing at it in abject wonder. The screen is viewable from all angles, but loses quality the further away you get from a straight-on perspective.
It is also a marvel of buttonry. Apart from the 12-keypad buttons and the volume buttons on the side, there are a series of buttons that together resemble a flying saucer. There are the standard two soft keys and the answer call, reject call/on-off button, as well as a dedicated "clear", which is quite useful. Then there are four arrow-navigation buttons, with a fifth in the middle. Three of these buttons double has hotkeys to messages, tones and Internet.
All in all, this phone looks great. Of course, you could tell that from a picture. Our job is to tell you how well the phone actually works. In our tests we found the call clarity to be pretty good. It was a similar story in terms of reception.
SMS works well, but the phone has a disconcerting habit of not moving an entire word to the next line, so it looks like it's split over two lines. It comes out all right at the other end, though.
The menu has the standard features: Call Records; Messages; Voice Functions; Tones; Settings; Organiser; Games; and WWW Services.
The only outstanding feature, hidden in LCD/LED Settings, is the ability to change the wallpaper on the colour screen. The phone comes boxed with a CD containing images and ringtones, and a cable to connect your phone to a serial port on your computer.
The real joy comes with the ability to open your own images with the software, which allows you to crop and download them to your phone. You can transfer up to eight images across. We had an awful lot of fun with this. Just bear in mind that your phone is viewable from all angles before selecting images.
However, while the ringtones are pretty good and you can create your own, and you can set your phone to play a particular ringtone when a particular person calls, we think an opportunity was missed in that you can't do a similar thing with the images. We were hoping to set the phone to display a picture of our girlfriend when she called, a picture of an ogre when the boss called, and a picture of a tall cold one when any of our mates from the pub called.
Would this function have been useful? No, not really. But it would have been fun, and gadgety phones like this do sell on the fun factor.
As much fun as the colour screen is, it also forms the basis of our major complaint with the phone. The colour screen, as cool as it is, is a little ahead of its time because there's no real use for it just yet. For example, when you surf the mobile Web the interface looks just as it does for a normal mobile screen in all the situations we tested, although we are aware of a couple of applications which will soon use GIF images. When you include an image with your SMS, it uses and ordinary black and white pixellated image.
The phone is advertised as having up to 80 minutes talk time and up to 60 hrs standby time. We found it lasted from 8.30pm Sunday to 8.30pm Tuesday, just 48 hours. That's a lot less than claimed, and also less than other phones we've tested. We can only assume the colour screen really chews up the power.
The phone works well, and looks amazing. However, it doesn't really have the added functionality to justify spending AU$1,099 on it. However, if you have money floating around and you like impressive gadgets, this is definitely the phone for you.
SGH-T100
Company: Samsung
Price: AU$1,099
Distributor: Samsung
Phone: (02) 9763 9700
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