Samsung SPH-M300 Review

Permalink: Samsung SPH-M300 Review by Franz Bicar

A lot of mobile phone users are looking for that basic and budget-friendly camera phone that they can take anywhere on rugged trips and adventure, but at the same time maintain its stylishness and fashionable design. After a few hourse of looking, I came up with the Samsung SPH-M300. This is a phone that perfectly fits the description mentioned above.

The SPH-M300 is a compact flip-phone equipped with a VGA camera and a speakerphone, and it even manages to throw in a couple of nice extras, including voice dialing and integrated Bluetooth. Released in mid-2007, this phone is basically not new, but its feature set is still something that a lot of users will appreciate. The M300 is a fine and stylish choice if you just want a cell phone for making calls. The Samsung SPH-M300 is available in red or silver

As they said, there is beauty in simplicity, and the Samsung SPH-M300 is just that, a compact and simple phone. Its front flap has a cool mirrored face and you can choose from two color choices: dark silver or misty-rose red. At just 3.6 inches by 1.9 inches by 0.7 inch and 2.6 ounces, the clamshell M300 is compact, light, and functional. And despite the featherweight design, the handset has a solid construction and is comfortable to use as a phone.

Under the mirrored face is a 1-inch, 65,000-color screen with a 96×96 resolution. It displays basic information like the time, date, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID. You can even switch between digital and analog view. You can also use it as a viewfinder for self-portraits; the camera lens is located just above the screen. There is a camera activation key on the right spine along with a 2.5mm headset jack and a power connector port, while there’s a volume rocker on the left side.

The SPH-M300 features a 2-inch diagonal internal screen with a 128×160 pixel resolution. It is not really exceptional when compared to today’s standards but colors are bright and reading text or numbers on the screen, even under sunlight, is no problem at all. However, images looked pixelated but that is expected from this rather old phone.

Navigation controls for this phone is very easy to use. Its alphanumeric keypad is no exception either. Users will have no problems typing and navigating through this handset. To operate the M300, there are two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a back button, and a navigation toggle with a central OK/Menu key just beneath the display. Most of the controls are large and easy to press.

Now we go to the Samsung SPH-M300 features. The phone has a 299-contact phone book with room in each entry for five numbers, an e-mail and Web address, nickname, and memo. For caller ID purposes, you can assign a photo, a group ID, and one of 29 polyphonic ringtones to your contact. This is not much, but it is enough.

Other phone features on the M300 include a speakerphone, voice commands and dialing, a scheduler, a memo pad, a task list, a countdown timer, an alarm clock, and a calculator. In addition to text and multimedia messaging, the M300 also offers e-mail and instant messaging support for popular clients, such as AOL, Yahoo, and MSN, via the phone’s Web browser.

The Samsung M300 has integrated Bluetooth, which you can use to connect to wireless headsets and hands-free kits. You can even use the phone as a wireless modem for your laptop.

The M300’s built-in VGA camera can be described in one word - poor. Image quality was really blurry and the color was dull with a brownish overtone. The camera has no video recording capabilities and is really disappointing. It does have three resolutions that you can choose from, 640×480, 320×240, and 224×168. It also has five shutter sounds, and a self-timer.

In addition, there is a feature where you can tweak the brightness and white balance, and while there is no flash, you do get a night shot mode. Once you’re done snapping pictures, you can save them as wallpaper, assign them to a contact for photo caller ID, share them with friends, or send them to a compatible printer via PictBridge. The phone only has 8MB of internal memory (without the option to expand it) though, so you might want to take note of the number of pictures you are taking.

You can personalize the Samsung SPH-M300 with a number of tones, wallpapers, screensavers, and applications. Unfortunately, the phone does not come with any games, but again, you can download titles via the phone’s Web browser.

Sources:
http://www.phonescoop.com
http://www.mobileburn.com
http://www.letstalk.com