My D807 Review:

[Treatz]

I’ve been using the Samsung D807 for a solid 3 weeks now so it’s review time.
I’m currently using a Rogers Retail D807

The phone currently retails for $199.99 on a 3yr term at Rogers
http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wire...807R&summary=1

Reception:
The D807 is quite good when it comes to RF.
I ran it through all my usual usage patterns and tests in the 3 weeks that I had it. In that time it never failed me and worked well. It handled the drive test* fine and generally had excellent reception. I did have a bit of audio squabbles on that stretch of 19th between bayview and yonge @ the tracks there.

*The drive by test is:
Yonge and 16th, east on 16th to woodbine. North on woodbine to 19th. West on 19th to Yonge. North on Yonge to Bloomington. East on bloomington to Bayview. South on bayview to Stouffville sideroad. East on Stoufville sideroad to Leslie and Leslie back to the Hill.

Sound Quality
Incoming
The Imconing sound quality of the D807 is good. It’s a bit louder then the W810i but not as loud as the W600 or V3i for example. It is very sweet spot based as well, but once you find it you’ll know. The actual tonality of the phone is also very good although a bit on the treble side for my personal tastes.

outgoing
No complaints from on this end. The D807 has good outgoing audio characteristics. Being that it’s a slider format phone, when slid open the mic is fairly close to your mouth. Almost as close as a V3i, for example so it’s very good at picking you up. Even when I hovered over the store’s outside AC fan I was still heard which is always good.

Another point of interest is that I could not detect any transmitter buzz in the D807 at all. Even in the weakest conditions. This is a good thing for those of you who value quality of connection amongst anything else first.

Camera
The Camera on the D807 is a 1.3 mpix unit. The camera itself is decent enough for your standard phonecam variety and takes decent daytime pics. Night or low light pics aren’t that great though. The lack of flash / LED light also attributes to this.

The camera has a few different sizes available:
1280 x 1024
1152 x 864
800 x 600
640 x 480
320 x 240
176 x 144

The camera also has a few effects. While not as many tricks as the D606 it has more then enough to keep you entertained I’d suspect.

Single shot
Single shots
Multi shot
allows you to take multiple shots
6 normal / high | 9 normal / high | 15 normal / high
Mosaic shot
allows you to take multiple small shots to be pieced together into 1 large shot
2x2 auto | 2x2 manual | 3x3 auto | 3x3 manual

Here are examples of various shots

This is the famous “man without seeg” although he has MADSEEG now!


When’s the last time you’ve seen a VW FOX!


I wholeheartedly agree:


Fido’s current selection


Treatz doesn’t support consuming alcoholic beverages.
However, if you do, delicious!


Spilled HUARTZ! NOOOOOOOOO!



Aesthetics
The D807 is a very, very nice looking phone. From the matte black finish that doesn’t attract fingerprints like crazy to the chrome side rail accents and earpiece and centre button finish the D807 is all about style and class. It’s one of those phones that easily fits the jeans OR suit pocket and looks at home in either.









The D807’s direct competition in price and size would be the W810 so here are a few compare shots.










Just like the D606 before it and the T609, the D807 has doors that cover every major point of access from the charger to the headphone jack to the MicroSD card. Some think these things get in the way but I like them. It prevents the accidental splash into these ports of access

The actual sliding mechanism of the D807 is butter smooth and is quality. Open or closing is spring assisted and either way gives a satisfying “thump” once you’ve reached it’s full range of motion. You can disable the active slide well if you like, although I leave it so when I slide it closed it ends the call or whatever else I was doing. Conveniently enough, if you send a SMS and slide it shut it will not cancel the message and continue sending it. Once sent the keypad is locked.

Screen
The D807’s screen is simply brilliant.
Being a 176x220 screen it isn’t as fine as the D606, but you’d be hard pressed to tell unless you’re doing a side by side compare. However, the D807’s screen appears to be a transmissive based screen. Brilliant quality and clarity indoors but it takes a beating outdoors. In direct sunlight it’s very hard to make out though as are most transmissive screens.

Keypad
The keypad is a bit of a mixed bag for me personally. I have no problem with keys that are “all one” as I get used to the phone and know where my thumb needs to go. The problem for me lies in the tactile feel of these keys. While they press down a decent amount, I find that sometimes I miss keys cause I didn’t’ press enough. Don’t worry however, because as I kept using the phone the keypad almost “broke in” and got better for my usages. My only issue really is the centre internet button. Coming from a SE W810 I get so used to the middle button being the menu key I kept pressing it the first few days. Of course it’s not a big issue to many though as I presume D807 buyers will be buying this as a new phone and most new phone buyers don’t have predetermined ways



T9
The D807 has T9 for text input, and it was a pretty straightforward affair allowing you to enter custom words. Composing SMS wasn’t at all hard on the D807 so no complaints there. However, I still prefer SE’s sms system for it’s abillty to have alpha numeric words. It seemed no matter how many times I entered D807or Huartz they never stuck and I was always having to re-enter them. Why this was, I don’t know.

Battery
One thing I found interesting was the D807’s battery life.
If you leave the screen on 100%, it’s horrible. However, since I had dialed the W810’s screen down to 50% I got the bright idea to dial down the D807’s screen to 50% and low and behold I was getting a full day out of the unit. In this respect, if you set the screen to 50% you’ll get decent battery life.

Ringtones
The D807 supports MP3 ringtones. At least the one I have. The word on the street is that the MP3 ringtones are being locked by Rogers but the unit’s I have in stock allow MP3 tones. It’s safe to assume I have older stock and once those are sold out it’ll be DRM locked toners so get em while they’re hot!

That being said, the Memory card limitation still exists in that MP3’s can be stored on the card no problem, but if you want to use them as ringtunes you need to have the file on the phone’s memory. To facilitate this Samsung at least prompts you with copy to phone and set as ringtune? which makes things simple

VoiceSignal
Heralding it’s return from the T609 is the VoiceSignal SW.
This SW is amazing for BT headset or BT car kit users. Not only does it turn every single entry in your phonebook into a voice dial, without the need to pre-record your own voice tag but it actually works.

It’s so simple to use and is very effective.
I had no issues using the D807’s VoiceSignal with my BT headsets or my BT car radio. IT understood me more often then not. Furthermore you can say the command in one fluid sentence instead of having to wait and dictate every step

EG>
Call hofo: Howard mobile
instead of
Call:
Say the name:
howard
Home, work or mobile
Mobile

You can also simply tell it to dial a # as well
Call 416-555-1212

There are other commands to:

Send text

send text to hofo: howard mobile

ookup

Lookup hofo: howard

goto

calendar / ringtone / contacts / voicemail / games

Connectivity
The D807 is a definite contender when it comes to connectivity options. Only lacking IR all the bases are pretty much covered. Bluetooth, USB cable, SD card. It’s all here.
Be sure to install the Samsung PSsuite and USB driver prior to connecting the D807 though or it wont’ work. I personally found it easiest and fastest to load the MicroSD card into the SD sled and putting that in a PC card reader.

For those of you wondering, the D807 will not accept java based games being pushed to it over Bluetooth or via cable. If this is a big thing to you then take note of this

PCSuite
Packaged with the D807 is the Samsung PCsuite 3.0
It’s a great little program that allows you to transfer media, sync up with outlook, manage your files and messages, Make a DUN internet connection via EDGE, manage your movies/photos and even edit your movies. You can also use the suite to edit sounds, compost MMS and play Multimedia files. It’s a pretty concise and through package and it’s inclusive of the phone contents so you can’t go wrong.

Sync
The D807 sync’s up without any complaints using PCsuite. It’ll sync up your calendar entries, notes and phonebook entries. It will even sync up your contact’s Email addresses although the D807 lacks an Email client so really it’s good for MMSing your buddies Email addresses. The ability to sync is a huge thing for me as I easily have 300 contacts with email addresses etc so using the SIM card isn’t an option. I’m quite happy that Samsung has included PCSuite 3.0 with this phone

MP3
Being billed as an MP3 player as well the D807 brings that feature to the table. Inclusive ot the packaging is a 512meg MicroSD card for all your media. You also get the aforementioned USB cable and Stereo Headset.

The MP3 player gives you your basic features like playlists and stereo effects and does it’s job. It may be a little to basic for some, but then again, some people like it really simple. The sound qualify of the earphones was decent. Also worth mentioning is that the included cables do not allow you to swap out your own stereo headsets, at least from what I saw.

MISC
Vibe and ring
The D807 has vibe AND ring, which was strangely absent from the D606.

Wap browser
The wap browser worked fine for banking and all other stuff, but oddly enough I was never able to log into wap.howardforums.com with the D807’s native browser, I had to use Opera mini.

Email
The D807 lacks a pop3 / IMAP email client

Profiles
The D807 lacks any real profile setup. While you can quick switch between silent/ring with the # key you can’t customize various profiles for quick access like the Moto’s or SE’s

Ratings:
Performance…………………..8.5
Build quality…………………..9.5
Battery life……………………..8 (if screen on 50%)
Features………………………..8.5
Software………………………...7
Bluetooth………………………..9
Keypad………………………….8.25
Camera…………………………..8
Features for $$.........................7.5

Overall…………………8.5

Good phone but a little bit short compared to the D606 for it’s screen or A2DP or W810 for the Email client, Easy install of java games and generally better implemented T9 and menu systems.
The W810 brings more features for the price point. This is clearly is evident. However, the D807 brings the aesthetic style and Voicesignal to the table which is invaluable if you’re a BT headset / car kit user. And really want a handsfree approach.


PRO’s
*Excellent RF
*Excellent mic position / sound quality
*Excellent slide mechanism
*Good Bluetooth implementation
*Very nice phone aesthetically
*Decent earpiece
*VoiceSignal
*Matte black finish doesn’t attract fingerprints as easily
*Keypad lights up nicely and uniformly
*External LNB jack if you want to hook up to external antenna
*Screen is georgeous
*Quadband vs D606
*512 meg MicroSD card inclusive
*access ports protected

CON’s
*Poor battery life (screen on 100%)
*no Email client
*T9 doesn’t always take custom words
*Keypad not as tactile as the D606
*java applications very hard to install
*Center wap key may be an issue for some
*Wap browser inable to get on wap.howardforums.com
*no Flash
*lack of different profiles

[onei0077]

Just what I thought, looks really nice but thats about it.

[MrWizard87]

Awesome review as usual. Eagerly waiting your w300i review.

Like onei0077 said, it looks pretty, but poor battery life really turns me away from this phone. Oh and I'm not a huge fan of Samsung UI.

[brucele]

been using it for almost a month now and have to agree with Treatz regarding the battery.

[Harkonnen]

I've had this phone for about a week now, and I must say it's the best phone i've ever had. It's miles ahead of my old S710, no transmitter buzz, and crystal clear audio. My battery hold up well, lasts about 3 days between charges so far.

I love it, and don't regret the purchase one bit!

[mlerner]

Nice phone and the camera is pretty good for 1.3 mp.

[bubble.tea]

VoiceSignal, nice

no a2dp?

[JwY]

good review

stopped by DQ for a treat eh?

[MOBB]

Does the D807 have a QVGA screen? Comming from a V635 would the screen be a big improvement or on the same level than the v635???

[Treatz]

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonW300i/R9A Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.2.3.15.0)

Does the D807 have a QVGA screen? Comming from a V635 would the screen be a big improvement or on the same level than the v635???

176 x 220.

[Power-Playa]

I just got the D807 in the mail after upgrading.

However I will be unlocking it to use for my Fido account.

Right off the bat I noticed I couldn't upload mp3's to the memory card but instead I have to upload to the phone's stock memory and then transfer to the MicroSD.

Secondly, I can't find a sub menu where I can adjust the menu settings. Instead of the Icons I want to make it a "list" option like the ones on Moto's.

Can anyone help me? It's my first samsung phone so it may be the reason why I'm having such problems.

Thanks

[WorldIRC]

Who's that ugly guy w/o seeg in the pic?

[MOBB]

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonW300i/R9A Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.2.3.15.0)



176 x 220.

lol, didn't get that not too technical with screens, just wanted to know if the D807's screen would clearer than the V635's!

[Treatz]

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonW300i/R9A Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.2.3.15.0)

Wirelessly posted (SonyEricssonW300i/R9A Browser/NetFront/3.3 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.2.3.15.0)



176 x 220.

lol, didn't get that not too technical with screens, just wanted to know if the D807's screen would clearer than the V635's!

It's the same resolution. The 807 is larger and more rich

[Anemic Royalty]

Nice review. However I am left scratching my head how this phone ranks lower than the lowly t609.