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Samsung Preston Icon

By Joseph Hanlon, CNET.com.au on September 1st, 2009

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icon, mobile phone, samsung, preston, touchwiz, touchscreen

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Overview

At this low price we can live without the bells and whistles of the more expensive phones in the Icon range, but we can't recommend a phone with poor call quality.

Editors' rating:

6.0/10

RRP:

AU$449.00

The good

  • Fantastic touchscreen display
  • Decent performance
  • Makes a good media player

The bad

  • Poor call quality
  • No 3.5mm headphone socket on the phone
  • No memory card included

Available plans

10 plans available starting from $19 to $89

What's in a name?

OK Samsung, we give up. What the hell does Preston mean? We've Googled it, we Binged it, we hunted around on urban dictionary. At one point we thought it was the name of the cousin in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but that guy's name turned out to be Carlton — a similarly preppy schoolboy name. So we throw in the towel, Samsung, you've beaten us this time.

Names aside, the Preston is a phone with a compelling sales pitch attached. With full touchscreen input and an AU$449 price tag, the Preston stands out amongst its brethren in the Icon range as the cheapest, if the lowliest in the specs department.

How does Samsung keep the price so low?

We don't mean to be too critical of the low-end features in the Preston and it's important to remember that this phone is about half the price of most of the touchscreens available at this time. The Preston is an entry-level phone, and the touchscreen is the feature that you get for your money. If you're new to phones without keypads then the Preston could be a nice, cheap way of testing whether or not it is for you. Needless to say, if you don't find what you need here the other phones in the Icon range might be better tailored to your usage patterns.

In terms of hardware, the Preston packs a 3-megapixel camera with flash which we quite like. The dip in resolution over Samsung's 5- and 8-megapixel range is noticeable, but the pictures we've taken have been fine for reminiscing after a night out with friends, or posting the evidence on Facebook.

Web browsing is decent with HSDPA (up to 7.2Mbps) and the screen does a good job of presenting the pages you'll visit. It's also quite a fast browser too, similar to the ones you'll find on today's best web phones, like Google's Android phones. However, if you surf the web a lot you might find the 2.8-inch screen a little small for prolonged sessions online.

On the software side, the pre-installed suite of apps is pretty basic, with the exception of a few excellent touchscreen games. The Preston is capable of installing Java apps, though there is no app store to search, so you're left to your own devices in hunting down new tools. Multimedia playback lacks the full range of file format recognition you find in the HD and Omnia Icons — there's no DivX or XviD — only MP4, H.264 and WMV video file recognition, and MP3, AAC and WMV audio.

Samsung has included a few nifty gadgets though: there's the Fake Call tool we saw on the Samsung UltraTouch; and there's Smart Unlock, a new function unique to the Preston. When you activate Smart Unlock you have the option to associate a letter of the alphabet to a small range of common tasks, like calling, contacts and the browser. Then, when the phone is locked, you can draw this letter on the screen to unlock the phone and take you straight to this function. It's a really nice idea, though the fact that you can assign letters to only about six apps weakens its usefulness.

Pleasing performance, Preston?

When we first whipped Preston out of the box we were pleasantly surprised. Next to the Samsung Omnia Icon, which we reviewed simultaneously, the Preston is a speed demon. The TouchWiz widgets home screen zips along without any lag, opening and closing menu items and apps is good, and even tough graphical items (like viewing photos) execute without any of the frustrating pauses we had expected.

It was a real shame then when we put in a call to a friend and suffered a bunch of niggling issues. Firstly, the earpiece volume is too low, even at full volume. We could have dealt with this if we didn't also experience audio clipping when people spoke to us as well, meaning the first word of some sentences were cut off or clipped. Lastly, we also endured several calls disconnecting, and sometimes several disconnections during the same call. This problem could be the result of numerous issues, but subsequent testing using the same SIM in other phones points the finger at poor old Preston.

Overall

For an AU$450 3G touchscreen handset, there's a lot we can live without. We can forgo Wi-Fi connectivity and Microsoft Exchange support. We can make do with a 3-megapixel camera and limited multimedia playback. But poor calling performance is something we cannot abide, after all, this is a mobile phone. The issues we experienced didn't mean we couldn't make calls, but it definitely meant that we struggled to hear calls clearly. If you want a touchscreen handset on a budget we recommend you wait until October and get a Samsung Jet (which may cost a little extra) instead.

Find the best Samsung Preston Icon plans available.


Specifications

General
Availability Virgin
Dimensions (W x D x H) 54.8 x 12.9 x 102.8 mm
Weight 92 g
Form factor Touchscreen
Phone type 3G, Multimedia, Imaging
Connectivity
Networks GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, UMTS 2100
Connectivity Bluetooth, 3G, HSDPA
Data services GPRS, WAP, HSDPA
USB connectivity Yes
Display
Screen resolution 240 x 320 pixels
Number of colours 16 million
Physical features
Included accessories Manual, Software (Windows)
Available colours White, Black
Battery
Talk time 3 hours
Standby time 300 hours
Messaging
Messaging options SMS, MMS, E-mail
Memory
Internal memory 80 MB
Expansion slot microSD
Functionality
Input method Touchscreen
Operating system Unknown/proprietary
Supported audio file formats AAC, MP3, WMA
Supported video file formats MPEG-4, WMV
Video calls Yes
Web browser Yes
Voice recorder No
Ringtone options Polyphonic, MP3
Java Yes
Supported picture file formats JPG
Camera
Camera resolution 3-megapixel
Camera flash LED
Video capture Yes
Entertainment
Games Yes
FM radio Yes
Video player Yes
Music player Yes
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Talkback

i see

u guys have stop taking reviews from c-net

AnonymousAnonymous September 26th, 2009
Report offensive content Reply (0) (0)

I would love to hear about the service

Any of you guys experienced how their service is? Can you survive without service or miserable service?

Buying a proudct is not the endBuying a proudct is not the end October 31st, 2009
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