What’s this we see? A phone from Samsung that isn’t a slide phone? This deserves our full attention. The new Samsung D830 is a fantastically featured handset that not only does everything, it also looks absolutely gorgeous. At only 9.9mm  thick, Samsung’s latest effort really does have to be seen to be believed. Following in the footsteps of the ultra-thin D900, this model is the next release in the ‘Ultra’ series.

Sporting 80MB onboard memory and an expandable Micro SD memory card slot (now apparently the standard memory configuration for Samsung models), the D830 is the latest attempt to be taken seriously in the flip phone market. After being the number one for slide phones for so long, this move is a bold one – and has it paid off?

Well, in terms of design, yes. In fact, very much so. Not only does this handset have the sexiest dimensions on the consumer market (103 x 54 x 9.9 mm), it also boasts a streamlined weight – at only 100g this is an extremely light phone. Perhaps suffering from being slightly too long, the phone does open up to reveal a 2.3” 262k colour screen which looks very nice indeed. On the outside of the phone, users are also treated to a small LCD screen which does nothing more than display the time and date. The LCD is also handy for displaying the names of whoever happens to be calling at that moment in time.

The keypad contained under the exquisite thin finish is one of the highlights of the phone. None of the keys actually stick out of the phone, all are on the same perfectly flat level and are so easy to press you could be forgiven for thinking Samsung had included the touch-sensitivity present on the E900. Feeling smooth to the touch, and responding amazingly, this is one of the only keypads actually worthy of its very own paragraph – and rightly so.

However all is not well with this handset - battery life is one thing which is gradually becoming worse with Samsung phones. The particular phone’s battery is only expected to last for 3 hours talk time, which means that without careful use you could find yourself plugging it in to the charger every other night, possibly more. 190 hours standby time also doesn’t amount to a great deal, considering that this means if you don’t touch your handset at all the battery will last just over a week.

The 2 mega pixel (mp) camera is now becoming a standard addition on phones (1.3mp is so last year) and this is no exception. The large colour screen does wonders for the resolution, and although Samsung do other 2mp models this seems to be the best quality for some reason. Also including a high-quality video camera, the D830 is fantastically featured as well as beautifully designed.

Samsung have also moved on in terms of menu displays. The E900 was one of the first to feature the new system that allows you to navigate the menu screens quickly and efficiently using a series of small windows that appear, showing just what is contained in the following menu. These windows can also be selected, meaning that navigation is made even quicker by the fact individual menus don’t have to be entered.

For the business users, and this phone does have a certain business appeal, the handset shows off its versatility allowing the viewing of MS Office documents (Word, PowerPoint etc) and PDF files, as well as the usual JPEGs and GIF files. This is great if you are planning on receiving a lot of e-mails or do much on Word, however one particular drawback is the fact that there is no way files can be edited once on the handset. So if you plan on receiving a few of these files through e-mail, the handset is great to download them and look through, but for those of us wanting to correct errors in such documents we find our options limited. 

Samsung’s annoyingly persistent habit of not allowing the user to change message tones to MP3s again rears its ugly hear, with the manufacturer apparently flat-out refusing to budge and make one small concession. The phone does support MP3 ring tones though, as well as allowing MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA files to be played through the media player.

Just to clarify on standard features, the Samsung D830 comes with Bluetooth and several organisational programs that are usually included, such as a calendar, to do list, scheduler, currency converter, alarm, timer, stopwatch and world time viewer.

This latest effort from Samsung is another phone worthy of high praise; however a shocking battery life holds it back from being perfect. Nearly top marks for Samsung, who just need to sort out battery life and the ability to send across your own message tones. Why are Samsung the only ones who go down this road when all other manufacturers offer their users full personalisation? However, the sheer beauty of this handset, and its staggering slimness, means that it should be the phone on everyone’s lips for a while to come.

Review by - Scott Goodacre

Published - 04/11/2006

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