The Samsung SGH-V200 has the stylish appearance typical of Samsung mobiles, with a great screen that the handset maker intends to put in all its phones.
The clam-shell phone is 90.8 x 47.5 x 23 mm when closed, and weighs 96 grams. It has a small LCD screen on the front, volume keys on the side and a rotating camera in the hinge. The phone looks good, even if the hinge is a little more prominent than we're used to.
TFT screen measuring 128x160 pixels, which looks great. While smaller than the screens of many mobiles, the crisp image quality is such that most people won't care. The screen allows for great images in games, and the background can be set to show clear animations - ours was of a dandelion. The screen also allows the photos to look good, which we think is a definite plus for a mobile with a camera.
The button layout is fairly standard, with a 12-keypad topped by answer/reject call buttons and a "clear" button. Above this is a four-way arrow navigation pad with a button in the middle that connects straight to the Internet - assuming you have it set up. Two softkeys lie on either side of a camera button that takes you straight to the camera menu. We found the button and menu layout intuitive and easy to use.
The camera included with the V200 takes good pictures for the mobile, with the size going up to 352 x 288 pixels, which is larger than the screen. The ability to rotate the camera 180º gets around the problem of taking pictures of yourself and other people. Rotating the camera will of course turn the picture upside down, but this can be toggled using the volume buttons on the side of the phone. There is no way to flip a picture inside the mobile once it has been taken.
The camera includes a 4x digital zoom, and gives you the ability to change the brightness of the photo. Finally, there is the option of a 10 second time delay. You can view the photos singly or in a multiview of six images. There is storage space for 100 pictures, according to Samsung.
One of the annoying things about the V200 is that it makes a sound like a camera every time a photo is taken. We can see the benefit of this, considering the privacy issues that have cropped up over inappropriate use of cameras in mobile phones, but that doesn't make it any less annoying.
We typically like to have control over most things in our phone, particularly those things that would affect other people, such as noise. The mobile also comes with 40 polyphonic ringtones, which is becoming standard in high-end phones these days, and is a nice feature to have.
The call clarity of the V200 is excellent, although this is obviously dependant on things such as the network, and even weather conditions. The volume on calls is sufficiently loud.
The mobile also handles messaging reasonably well. Up to six SMS's can be joined together to send a message 918 characters long. MMS's can also be sent, and are easy to create on the V200.
The battery life is advertised as 3 - 5 hours talk time and 120-140 hours standby. This seems to be conservative, since our battery lasted just over 135 hours. We didn't use the phone continuously, but we did all the basic things you do with a phone and tested all the features, so we expected the battery to last quite a bit less than the advertised standby time. Considering the quality of the screen, the battery life is fairly impressive.
The V200 has the normal menu functions, including messages, phone settings and organiser. The organiser contains a calendar, calculator and currency exchange, and allows you to create To Do lists and set an alarm.
The final folder is the 'Funbox', which contains two games (a shooting plane game which was actually quite good, and a virtual tamagotchi style game), a WAP Browser and a downloads section with space for sounds and pictures. Naturally, these last features are dependant on the network you are connected to.
The V200 is a tri-band phone covering 900/1800/1900 MHz, and has GRPS connectivity. It can support a WAP 1.2 compliant Web browser,
The Samsung SGH-V200 is a high-quality mobile that comes with a correspondingly high price. The phone is sure to impress, despite the fact that it is not a 3G phone. However, you'd need a lot of cash to burn to justify spending over a thousand dollars on it.
SGH-V200
Company: Samsung
Price: AU$1,099
Distributor: Optus
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2%
Having purchased a SGH-V200 recently, I'm extremely dissapointed that this phone has now failed. When I turn the phone 'on' it just does the normal search for a moment or two then 'freezes'. The only way then to turn it off is to remove the battery. Your comments please..