6 Jun 2008
Samsung Electronics flaunts another addition to its plethora of 3G Smartphones that features breakthrough modern technologies, the Samsung I200. The electronics giant describes the Samsung I200 as the ultimate answer to the need of every busy, minimalist professional to get a hold of a mobile phone that encapsulates the technologies and strategies to suit their very lifestyle.

Even at 11.8 millimeters in thinness, the Samsung I200 offers features that observers say can match up with the Blackberry. The Samsung I200 sports an external design that resembles the modern, stylish and compact candybar look that most recent mobile models are known for. Its full dimensions are 116.7mm x 50.8mm x 11.8mm, and weighs 102.2 grams. Samsung I200's user interface allows direct access to the handset's menus, thus navigating the home screen is easy. It is comparable to LG’s latest phone - the LG Secret, although some have found it to be the slimmest handset in the market today.

The Samsung I200 phone has a QVGA TFT display screen which is enlivened with 256,000 colours in 240 by 320 pixels. Its actual screen display measuring 58.42 millimeters makes text messages easily readable and images much clearer. Externally, the screen boasts of a silk coating, and is installed with a light sensor that reportedly helps users in minimising consumption of the handset's power. It gives users the capability to automatically adjust the brightness of the keypad and the LCD. In effect, the sensor aids in prolonging the handset's battery life.

It houses a standard 1100mAh battery, which allows up to 4 hours of talk time and a maximum of 360 hours of standby time. Its internal memory can store files of up to 25 Megabytes, but this memory capacity may be expanded by using the microSD memory card.

The Samsung I200 supports messaging services like EMS, SMS, MMS and instant messaging. It also has voice memo, voice command and organiser features. Its internal phonebook is supported by the photocaller ID technology that helps identify a caller. The Samsung I200 also houses a built-in loudspeaker.

The mobile phone is operated by a triband technology in GSMs 900, 1800 and 1900 networks on Class 10 GPRS/EDGE system. It is a 3G HSDPA device, allowing faster data transfer and downloads. The unit’s superb inter-device downloading and transfer tasks are made possible through USB v2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0. The Samsung I200 also supports the A2DP tool for faster cellphone to cellphone/computer data transfer rate.

Online access and browsing is a breeze with the Samsung I200's WAP 2.0 as HTML browser. As such, email retrieving and sending are possible. The Java application MIDP 2.0 also runs on the mobile phone. It allows emails in HTML format, offers basic editing features like cut, copy and paste and supports unified email. Mobile printing through a connection with compatible devices is also supported by the Samsung I200.

The Samsung I200 particularly stands out in its mobile technology powered by Windows Mobile v.6 operating system. As such, the mobile phone provides functionalities in various Microsoft Office applications and programs such as MS Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel and Ms PowerPoint -- which qualifies the Samsung I200 as a Smartphone. Additionally, it runs on 3.6 Megabytes per second HSDPA or 2100MHz for data communications. Thus, to a business professional, the Samsung I200 is a fine hand-held computer at its thinnest.

However, it's not all work for this stylish, yet business-minded mobile phone, because it has pre-installed games for entertainment purposes. Additionally, the Samsung I200 has a built-in music player that allows playing and downloading of audio tracks in AAC, MPEG4 MP3 WMA, AAC+, eAAC+, OGG and AMR formats.

For photo hobbyists, taking pictures with the Samsung I200 is easy with its 2-Megapixel CMOS built-in camera that has the “smile shot feature”. Moreover, this outstanding camera allows better subject focus with its face detection capability. This ensures high-resolution shots. The Samsung I200 also allows video recording and playback with its camcorder.

Some observers have found that a major downside of the Samsung I200 is that it lacks Wi-Fi or GPS, which could have made it a winning 3G phone and at par with other 3G-enabled handsets from Samsung. Still, others speak out that Samsung Electronics could have integrated the quadband feature on it, instead of its current triband techology, for better and farther reach in terms of worldwide use.

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