vB Easy Archive - Samsung S100

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Samsung S100
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Posted by: BigBlue007

Hi guys,

I'm originally posting reviews on a german board. One of your members asked me to post my S100 review that I posted on our board exclusively for him (well, more or less...

) here on your board. This was my first english review. My german ones are usually much longer, containing self made pictures, sometimes also sound samples and stuff like that. I hope you like this short one anyway.

package content
As usual for most Samsung mobiles (at least here in germany). 2 batteries (standard, slim), headset, lots of manuals, data cable, power supply, CD. The manual says something about a strap which is missing at least in our german packages.

keyboard
Extensive SMS writers complain a bit about the keys, for instance because there is no space between them. The keyboard light is a bit less evenly that on the T100. Especially the hook on key and the upper cursor key are as good as "unlighted". On the other hand the remaining keys are very bright and very nice to look at.

display
Probably the greatest pro of the S100. 65.535 color DSTN with 128x160 pixels. Unlike expected the S100 display is almost equal to the TFT display of the T100 when looking at the brightness and color sharpness. Normally I would have expected a bit less brightness since the DSTN technique is less advanced as TFT. The advantage of the 65k colors (compared with the 4k of the T100) can be seen easily when you put in your own TrueColor pictures into the devices. On the T100 I saw those sharp color edges that you can also see if you set your windows desktop with a TrueColor picture down to a lower color depth. On the S100 the same pictures look perfect. The only disatvantage of the S100 display is its ability to display the color black. On the T100 black is really black. On the S100 black is something like a dark grey.
There's another little con about the S100 display but this one is obviously not related to the DSTN technique. With some of the predefined animations, you will notice a very little flicker of the display on each animation switch, especially in the upper line where the battery and network indicators are located. You must look very closely to see it and it also seems to depend on the color range that the overall display currently shows. That means with some animations the effect is stronger, with others it is almost gone. Some say that they don't see this on their S100's but yesterday I had the chance to have a look at 6 S100's here in my local "T-Punkt" ("Deutsche Telekom" store). And they are all equal. But since some others don't see this effect chances are that it won't bother you as well.
Speaking about animations: On the T100 you could copy up to 8 images into the device and then activate a slide show function to have a custom animation. On the S100 you can use animated .GIF files instead. Of course you can still use standard images in .BMP or .JPG format. All images must be reduced to 128x128 pixels before using them in the S100. The S100 PC software does not support image resizing (as the T100 software did).

connectivity
With the included data cable you can use the phone as standard or GPRS modem. Both works very easily and out-of-the-box. Works also with IR of course.
The included PC software lets you edit phonebook (in phone and on SIM) and calendar. You can send and receive SMS out of this software. It is also used to download pictures and melodies into the S100 (but you cannot browse files in the S100 from here). You can import your windows adressbook (this is the adress book you open from within Internet Explorer). Normally no one uses this adress book but it's quite easy to export/import adresses from other applications into WAB. Unfortunately on my system EasyGPRS crashes all the time when I try to copy the WAB to the S100. I do not yet know why...
All this also works with an IR connection, that means you can download picures and tones via IR, but only using the EasyGPRS software. Sending or receiving items directly from/to other mobiles does not work.
The data cable has a swith where you can select between "data" and "download" mode. This switch is locked on "data" mode and deactivated by a little piece of rubber - which can easily be removed...

I assume that the "download" mode will be used for future software upgrades. As you might know, Samsung has a support webpage where they will offer software updates in the future. Currently, there is no device available for update but I could imagine that the S100 will be one of the first.
Cons about connectivity: No real PC synch, no way to send or receive things like contacts, calendar items or pictures/melodies via IR.

Java
In the meantime I've seen a lot of midlets running on the S100 so my first thoughts that it is incompatible to everything were obviously wrong. Actually, almost every "generic" midlet on midlet.org/wap works fine on the S100. The major problem is the limited memory of only 300kB. Another big problem for many of us here in germany is that currently Java download seems to work only if you have a T-Mobile (D1) SIM. We have not yet found a way to get it run with other operators. Things would be much easier if Samsung would allow you to download midlets via data cable or IR. But WAP is the only way and with a probability of 99% this will not be changed in the future. It's already a big surprise that Samsung will offer a selfmade firmware upgrade since they were absolutely not known for regular firmware updates at all in the past.

ringtones
Absolutely amazing. You must hear it to believe it. If you already know the T100 or the N6x0 then you already know this.

other cons
1. Phone book does not really store 500 entries because every single phone # in each entry needs one slot. That means a phonebook entry with 3 numbers consumes 3 of the 500 slots.
2. No profile function.
3. No way to change the font size. Especially when dialling numbers or writing SMS the characters are way too large (almost 1cm!).
4. T9 is unable to learn new words.
5. Some other minor details that I would have expected to designed a bit better on a "business" mobile.

conclusion
The S100 is not the business mobile Samsung wants it to be. There are too many little things that simply do not fit when you compare it to real business phones like T68, S45 or 6310. It is an improved version of the T100 with a lot of useful functions added. If only the Java stuff would have been integrated a bit smarter...

But anyway - if you're after a high tech toy which is really much more than just a toy then the S100 might be your best choice currently.

Posted by: ymlccc

thankx a lot!!

Posted by: justlovejo

what about battery life ??? can u read the STN screen under direct sun light ??

Posted by: BigBlue007

@justlovejo: Battery life is approx. 2 days with normal use (appox. 2 hours of speaking) with the slim batt. and a day more with the standard batt. Cannot yet give more detailled results.
The display is quite dark in direkt sunlight, a bit darker than the T100 display I would say. However still readable enough. And if nothing else helps - just turn around 180 degrees to get some shadow on your S100...

Posted by: Bezbozny

Is the software CD compatible to Macintosh computers?

Thank you in advance,

Bezbozny.

Posted by: BigBlue007

Unfortunately not. The software on the CD ("EasyGPRS") is windows only.

However, you will at least be able to insert the CD in your Mac's drive...

Posted by: Bezbozny

Damn... i hate using windows... well what can we do? I will have to reinstall VirtualPC on my mac or use my cousin's PC. I hate when companies do this... neglect some users completely....

Thank you again for your answer,

Bezbozny.

Posted by: oil fighter

How is the reception?
When you say it has no profile function, does it have stuff like "beep once. Vibrate.." where you can set the phone to by pressing Menu and some sequence of numbers? (Like on samsung N105)

Posted by: Bezbozny

Does it have voice dialing? Can you record a conversation or a voice note? If yes for how long till it get s full? Can you view the nokia animated sms? [i was reading somewhere that you can] Can you write a sms with more than 160 characters [which while sending it will brake up to more than 2 sms]? Is the ringer and speaker volume loud?
[well that's all that i can think about now... more questions will follow

Thank you for all your help,

Bezbozny.

Posted by: Weath

its my b'day soon and the S100 hasnt been relaeased over here in england yet.

i'll settle for a T100

Just a quick question

Bigblue:- is the shape of the s100 roughly the same as the t100 or is it back to the thin flip phones(width wise)

Posted by: SharpST77

How much did u buy it for? is it unlocked? you should sell it on the b/s/t forum!

Posted by: Tallfnguy

I heard Verizon is coming out with the Samsung Jupiter in November and wanted to know i this wasthe same or similar phone. Also was curious how it compared to the Audiovox 9500. I heard the 9500 has a built in speakerphone. Does the Samsung Jupiter? Thanks for any help.