Introduction
Samsung’s “i” series usually includes phones with an operating system. There are both Symbian and Windows-based handsets too. i200 is an absolute entry-level category machine, this is the WM device with the least features, so I didn’t expect much extra of it. Still, the phone that costs about €230 EUR has 3G support and Samsung did wonders with the Windows interface.
It’s written on the box we got from XXL GSM that this is a „First Smartphone” and I have first cynically thought that those who will have this as a first smartphone won’t get any other afterwards, but besides a couple of software problems i200 is really the kind of handset that will make the user like the mobile edition of the windowed operating system.
More experienced users will just yawn and say: Windows Mobile won’t bring much new and Samsung had zillions of similar phones so there isn’t much to write about it. I have also thought this and then I started browsing the menu to be surprised again and again: wow, this is cool!
The closest competitors of i200 are Airis T470 and HP iPAQ 514 and although it’s a bit more expensive than these, but it still beats them like Michael Phelps beats Eric Moussambani.
Exterior
The design is elegant and clean, it’s a typical Samsung. This is further enhanced by the logo under the 2.3” display. The blue backlight spices the silver color of the circular navigation button, while the easy to use keypad has a white backlight.
The cover is a pleasant plastic; this is even truer for the back where we can observe the soft touches known from D900 although they haven’t used Coccolino for sure. The handset is pleasant to the touch; it has a proper size and good assembly quality.
The box also includes a stereo headset, a USB cable, a CD with some Windows logos and a charger. On the left of i200 we can see the standard Samsung data connector and the volume control keys. The microSD slot and the camera’s hotkey are on the right, while on the top we can only find the power button.
The layout and use of the buttons around the navigation key is unambiguous, the home and clear keys are required as i200 has no touchscreen so we have to control everything with the keypad. First smartphone… it’s perfect for that until now.
Menu, hardware
Well, we had some problems over here. i200 could haven even an OMAP CPU, as the new generation supports 3G. But a 400 MHz is not very probable as there are delays at some functions. But lots of programs fit in the memory and these can be opened-closed with the help of Task Manager.
So I have started investigating, beginning with the phone’s About menu, which told me that there is an STn8810 Nomadik CPU inside, running at 264 MHz, Nomadik being a multimedia chip with tons of features. After Samsung Hungary doesn’t officially sell this phone at us I gave them too a hard time, but the result was the same plus the info that the whole package is told to roll off a production line that is related to Philips (can a processor roll?). The size of RAM is 64 MB, but there isn’t much free space left for the user, as there’s only 25 MB of ROM free in best case. This is why microSD has been invented, isn’t it?
The operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard, so it’s quite new. Samsung added lots of own stuff to this, beginning with the twenty display modes for the standby screen. It’s really cool, one could hardly choose a best one, there are both spectacular and practical ones too. The Touchwiz graphics (similar to F480) is from the first category, there is the Living World with dynamic wallpapers representing the country we’re in, but there are lots that help use. I tried to make lots of pictures in order for you to see how many choices one has.
Of course there are lots and lots of skins for these, so we really won’t be bored until we manage to compile the settings that are perfect for us. Upon entering the familiar Windows menu with icons we get to see the most recently used apps on the first page, all the others are just a click away. There are so much of these that it’s easy to get lost. Of course software installed later on can be put in any kind of subfolder so we can get a clearer picture.
Basic functions
I won’t write too much about the phonebook, it’s just like on any other Windows Mobile handset. I personally think that search is unbeatable: you don’t even have to enter, just start typing the name like in T9 and I instantly get a perfectly filtered list of results from which I can choose whatever I want. It’s very fast, it’s very comfortable. Goodbye touchkeys!
Messaging is also the usual one, but there is a really nice feature that I just couldn’t get bored of, it’s called SMS Ticker. This makes a custom writing paper appear for incoming messages on the standby screen, with the sender’s name filled in and part of the message displayed.
It’s just a click and we’re already at Windows Mobile’s messaging interface where there is another small treat to make everyday messaging a better experience. i200 (just like many other phones nowadays) displays messaging with a partner in a chat-like display, which makes reviewing messaging history much easier. There is only one thing that annoyed me, which was that the phone always wanted to make me use the German T9, which resulted in words like “üblen”, which I couldn’t even find in the dictionary. No matter, I’ve sent the message, I weren’t really in a fully conscious state then and a ROM upgrade will probably fix this annoying thing.
The calendar has nothing extra, besides being perfect. Office documents can be edited (this is one of the new features of WM 6.1), we have a PDF reader and lots of Samsung applications. These include the fine calculator, the stopwatch, the world clock and the speed dialer that is very easy to set up. With Smart Search we can go looking for word(s) in all kinds of content, while the function of Smart Converter is pretty easy to guess, I think.
Multimedia
The specs nothing extra in terms of multimedia, but this is where the Nomadik CPU does its job. We can play back videos with real-time decoding without problems, we can even view VGA resolution MPEG4 files at 30fps without stuttering or even 4048x4048 pixels large photos can be displayed.
I don’t say that these are an absolute necessity, but the processor theoretically barely uses more power than during normal use, which can have a positive effect on uptime. Anyway image display speed is great, even zooming is smooth and fast. The thumbnail view is also nice as the currently selected picture gets larger with an animation and we still can’t observe that the hardware would have a hard time with displaying the effect.
Of course the 2 megapixel camera with fixed focus is no big deal. The settings are the usual ones from any other WM handset, but exposure is fast and photos are not bad (of course one should keep in mind that this is a very basic camera).
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In terms of music we only have the not much liked Media Player, but of course we can install any other player we like, thus creating a much better experience. The phone is clear on the loudspeaker, but it’s maybe not loud enough, while the headset is very plain and it cannot be taken apart so we can rightfully be annoyed about the proprietary Samsung connector.
Data transfer, summary
Stereo Bluetooth, USB, 3G, HSDPA, EDGE and GPRS are supported. According to some sources HSDPA has a speed of 3.6 Mbps. Explorer is not the best partner in mobile web browsing, but this can be swapped out, but anyway on a 2.3” display a 384 Kbit/s speed will do. Unfortunately there is no WLAN, although this would have pumped up the ratings a lot.
I found a frighteningly small battery under the back, which wasn’t promising at all. It might be the Nomadik chip or Samsung’s optimization, but it’s a fact that the handset took it for more than three days with one charge. But I have even made video-calls, as thanks to the internal camera we can do such tricks too.
Summary? It’s surprising. I have awaited something much worse; first smartphone, muhaha and then it turned out that i200 is a well though-out and handy little phone. Its current price might be just a bit too much, but there aren’t many WM 6.1-based, well assembled smartphones with 3G support and a 200+ MHz CPU on the market. The same thing with a touchscreen would have incredibly high sales, that’s sure, it will be a bit harder for it this way, as unfortunately Windows Mobile Standard doesn’t have as many programs. Those who can settle with basic functionality won’t be disappointed, that’s sure.
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| Samsung i200 |
Bog
Translated by Szaszati
Samsung i200 has been provided by XXL GSM. The handset can be bought at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| Samsung SGH-i200 | ||
 | Technology | GSM/GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/UMTS 900/1800/1900/2100MHz |
| Operating system | Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard | |
| Size | 50.8 x 116.7 x 11.8 mm | |
| Weight | 103 g | |
| CPU | 264MHz STn, Nomadic chip | |
| ROM/RAM | 64/64MB | |
| Display | 2.3“ diagonal, 240x320 pixels resolution, 16 bit color depth TFT | |
| Expandability | microSD | |
| WiFi | none | |
| Infra/Bluetooth | none/2.0 | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Audio | stereo headset included | |
| Camera | 2 megapixels, fixed focus CMOS | |
| Battery | Changeable Li-Ion | |
| Other | Today skins, SMS Ticker | |
