Samsung Z500 review

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Verdict:

Review Date: 20 Dec 2006

Price when reviewed: £135

Buy it now for: £105
(see more store prices)

Supplier: http://www.vodafone.co.uk

Reviewed By: Tom Royal

Our Rating 5 stars out of 5

User Rating

The Z500 is significantly cheaper than the E870, but it has a well-made flip.

It supports 3G technology, so it can do a few things that are out of the reach of most phones here. It can make video calls to other 3G phones, and it can use 3G's data transfer systems to retrieve webpages and emails faster than a standard GPRS handset. This relies on you being in a 3G area, though. You can see which areas are covered at www.vodafone.co.uk/ukcoverage.

The Z500 has a bright colour screen inside and a colour OLED screen that displays standby information on the outside. The 1-megapixel camera takes reasonable photos, but pushing the photo button on the side of the phone switches to the small secondary camera rather than taking a picture. More annoyingly, the camera keeps reverting to a resolution of 640x480. 3G allows you to download emails quickly, but as with many Samsung phones they're displayed in an annoyingly large font that squanders the screen's resolution. Surfing the web is easy and far faster than when using a GPRS connection. The Z500 can play MP3 and AAC music, and you can add more memory using MiniSD cards.

If you're looking for a phone to use as a camera or music player then it's worth spending more on the Sony Ericsson W810i, but if you mainly want to surf the internet then this is a great buy.

Samsung user guides, reviews, FAQs and downloads at Know Your Mobile

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