Introduction
Samsung was the first of the large manufacturers to launch a device that can handle two SIM cards, this was D880. We liked it, we loved it, and although the network operators didn’t sell it at all, but even at a SIM-free price it could serve real and founded needs. I know four-five people who use two phones for some reason, and they are not overly happy with it.
The support for two SIM cards is not such a big deal, CECT and similar Chinese companies are launching double-SIM-card crap clones one after the other, which are available at a very low price, but… they are not worth even that much. (Some time ago the Hungarian Chinese representatives, or community or I don’t know what wrote us a mail, where they considered it revolting that we run these products down so much, but since we were lucky enough to test a couple of these, I don’t think that we should even be discussing such things, not even if we consider that sometimes there are quite smart ideas put in motion in these devices.) Samsung is the first to offer a large quantity of dual-SIM devices at an affordable price, high quality and with manufacturer warranty. And it looks like they keep doing it, as here is D780.
In functionality it is almost the same thing as D880. We might even ask why this product is needed, and the answer has two parts: on one hand the form factor gives reasons, as the subject of our current review has the conventional, candybar design, and on the other hand we wouldn’t be surprised even if the form factor had been the same, as it is characteristic of the Korean manufacturer to launch all of their models with at least five types of covers and under different names.
We have received this package from XXL GSM (just like we had D880 too); the blueish box contains all important accessories (USB cable, headset, charger), but we didn’t find any microSD card inside. No matter, with these memory prices it’s no big deal, and anyway, the phone is what important.
Exterior
There is a large, heavy, manly model inside the box with a design with classical ratios. Half of the front is covered by the display, the other half by the buttons, everything is a bit angular and the grayish case won’t suggest playfulness at all. D780 looks like some really serious stuff, but we shouldn’t be afraid of it, it’s absolutely usable, comfortable and logic. The keypad is easy to handle, above the keys with a white backlight we can see a red and green light for the call handling buttons, while the navigation key’s OK label shines in a nice blue color.
Let’s mention the first idiocy (which has been present at D880 too), the manufacturer makes us scream the umpteenth time by assigning the WAP browser to the OK key, which has been explained until now by saying that “it’s requested by the network operator”, but since a dual-SIM device probably won’t appear in the offer of the operators, we can say that this is a simple lie.
The volume control keys are on the left side of D780, along with the dedicated key that is used to handle the SIM cards. I had only one problem with it, that it got pressed too easily, so I managed to press it unwillingly sometimes. The hotkey of the camera is on the right, along with the microSD slot – this is an important change compared to D880, where we had to put the expansion card under the battery.
There is not much interesting on the back, it’s a large, grey piece of plastic that covers the powerful battery, while under this we can find the slot of the two cards. The designers have even noted which the primary SIM card slot is, but this doesn’t really matter, as we can override this software-side, from the menu. The small hole of the camera and its non-emphasized design suggest that photography is no a power-feature of D780.
Basic functions
The menu system’s layout is the same as it was in D880. We have four themes, but unfortunately this model doesn’t have any theme editor either. The new generation of BlackUI does its job lightning fast, we can navigate easily. The interesting part of the phonebook that can store 1000 contacts is that it displays the contacts on the two SIM cards at the same time, and we can copy from one place to the other. The same thing is true for messages too, which includes SMS, MMS and email too. The calendar and the organizer features are again the same as in D880.
We can’t stress the use of two SIM cards enough. If the phone sees new SIM(s) then it asks the user upon power-on to select the primary one, and we can even give a name to the cards (max. 5 characters). This is good, as in case of incoming calls or messages, the phone displays which SIM was the one that receives these.
When we dial or send a message, then the button on the side can be used for changing between the SIM cards. Hence defining the primary card is just a comfort feature, D780 uses this by default for sending messages and initiating calls, but we can change this with the press of a button. There is only one feature where we can’t change between the cards, and this is data transfer: net and WAP connection is always initiated from the primary card.
The effect of the two cards is that in the top right corner there are always two signal strength bars, while operator displays are doubled on the idle screen. The two cards are connected to the respective networks at the same time, so no matter which card gets an incoming call, we can accept it, but we can’t talk on both of them at the same time, we can’t connect calls this way. If we’re calling ourselves, then the phone gives a busy tone. It is important to know that the card in the second slot won’t work on 1900 MHz networks, although this is important only if we’re in the USA.
Multimedia
The camera is the second part where D780 has different specs from D880. That’s because this phone is simpler in this matter, the image sensor has a resolution of only 2 megapixels and it has no autofocus. This of course means that the resulting picture quality is inferior, although the number of settings we can change is quite high, just as usual for Samsung (ISO, white balance, effects, frames, environmental profiles, self-timer). Videos can be recorded at maximum 352 x 288 pixels, but only at a speed of 15 frames/second.
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D780 is no big hit in musical terms either, although the MP3 player can run in the background, but it’s a bit hard to assemble a playlist, we can’t sort tracks by different properties. The equalizer knows only four presets, but there is stereo Bluetooth support, shuffle and repeat modes. The headset included in the package has a mediocre quality, it cannot be taken apart, so those who would like to use an own accessory have to acquire a separate converter.
It’s good news that the built-in FM radio works very well, it finds stations easily, it’s easy to use, but of course it needs a headset to be connected in order to work. In the list of games there is a real land of wonders, we can find all known Samsung programs here (except the terror called Bobby Carrot), although only the first two games are full version, the others are only demos.
Data transfer, battery
D780 supports only GPRS and EDGE. We can hardly wait for the device that supports two SIM cards and at least 3G (theoretically there is one, although that’s Chinese too), but this evidently is a new, more complex task. The browser is still Access NetFront, but at such a speed we won’t be browsing HTML content, and for the rest it will do the job.
At local level we have stereo Bluetooth 2.0 and USB to serve our communication needs. Both functioned properly, in the case of the second one the system saw the memory card’s contents as an external drive, but after installing Samsung PC Studio we can tamper with the contact list and messages too.
The battery under the hood is of course a powerful one, a 1200 mAh battery is quite rare nowadays for cell phones. It is needed, however, as the phone is on two networks at the same time, which needs much more power. The phone worked for three days at me, which can be extended with one more day if we don’t use the handset too much.
Summary. D780 and D880 are almost the same. The younger brother is more business-like due to its design, but the weaker camera is compensated only by the fact that the microSD card can be changed without taking out the battery. Since D780 has appeared only now in our stores, we can’t yet compare its price with the one of D880, but if the Koreans have a logical pricing policy then the subject of our current review should be cheaper with a couple of euros. For those who have two SIM cards (company and personal for example), it is still very much Recommended in case we don’t need 3G.
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| Samsung D780 |
Bog
Translated by Szaszati
Samsung D780 has been provided by XXL GSM.
The phone can be bought at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| Samsung D780 | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 115 x 49.6 x 15.7 mm | |
| Weight | 109 grams | |
| Colors | Black-silver | |
| Display | ||
| Display size | 2.1” diagonal | |
| Display resolution | 240 x 320 pixels | |
| Display type | TFT | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | 1000 | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | 200 / 295KB | |
| Internal memory | 32MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSD (max 2GB) | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | present / present | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | none / none | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 A2DP | |
| WiFi | none | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | none / none | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra function | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | none / none | |
| Sound recorder | present | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | present | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Samsung Balck UI II | |
| WAP / HTML browser | present / present | |
| E-mail client | present | |
| Java | present | |
| Games | 7 (max 4MB) | |
| Currency converter | present | |
| Extra software | thumbnail | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | 2 megapixels, fixed focus | |
| Secondary camera | none | |
| Video recording | CIF | |
| Music player | present, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | presets | |
| FM radio | present | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 1200 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | 250 hours | |
| Talk time | 3 hours | |
| Other | ||
| Dual-SIM | ||
