Samsung Monte GT-S5620 Mobile Phone

The Samsung Monte is the first mobile escaped from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The S5620 has it all and is located mid-way through a basic telephone terminal and smartphones sophisticated. This new Samsung mobile is more talented than its predecessor, that lacks WiFi, GPS, and with a smaller screen. His new TouchWiz interface touch screen 2.5 promises even more convenient with widgets better organized and good customization options. What services can actually make this phone compared to models more sophisticated and more expensive?

Package Contents

• A travel charger Ultra-compact


• A battery 1000 mAh


• A headset with in-ear headphones


• A USB cable


• A manual and 2 CD-ROM (with software Kies)

Design

With its smooth lines that match the shape of the hand, the initial contact with the S5620 is pretty good. We feel that the Samsung designers have made an effort. The camera is very light, and capacitive screen (like that of the iPhone) is responding well.

On the front of the mobile, the power button which appears in the screen is particularly ugly. The bright material of Samsung Monte have a low-end appearance and tinsel, which does not help. A volume control (one button + and -) on the left edge, three buttons below the screen and then two more right to lock the mobile trigger the camera, that’s how the orders are placed outside of those touchscreen. The button on the camera and mini camcorder is also so well placed that it tends to push it unwittingly at first. The design of Samsung Monte is much more sophisticated than its predecessor, but much less elegant.

           

The Samsung Monte keys are intelligently arranged and pleasant to handle. But it does not have any mechanical keyboard. You can write a message with the help of a virtual keyboard with ten keys, numbered 1 to 9. However you will not find QWERTY keyboard in this mobile to go faster.

With the help of a 3.2 megapixel sensor, the photo function provides images with correct brightness setting that does not compensate, however, the lack of flash. The camcorder function allows, in turn, record videos in a setting of 320 x 240 pixels maximum. So it is rather a notebook video than anything else.

TouchWiz Interface 2.5

On the desktop, pages are numbered in the same way. Finally after lot of criticism, the sidebar “widgets” has been disappeared. Now you will find six widgets in a pane at the bottom. To view other widgets just swipe your finger. Once we realized that the middle button is used to back up in menus and directories, the TouchWiz Interface 2.5 is a childish manipulation. In reality, this interface is twofold since it is part of a three offices with separate screens on which the user will have its widgets (now displayed at the bottom of the screen rather than on the side as before) and other a more traditional set of menus across three pages.

As for functions, we can say that Samsung has put the package, since more than thirty widgets and 32 menus, there is plenty to do. Essentially, widgets applications include adding more content, be it YouTube, Allocine.com, Target, Yahoo, CNN, Yellow Pages while menus together the functions of the device, parameter settings , clock, timer, voice recording, switching to Wi-Fi (which bizarrely is not included among the terminal settings), Internet Browser, MP3 player, calendar, file browser. However, this rule has numerous exceptions, so that we get lost a little bit. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or media player, FM radio (tuner is integrated) are available both ways.

The aspect of “social networking” or “community” put forward on many existing phones, either with YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or MySpace, have also won here to receive a full keyboard, even touch it. Without doubt the limited size of the screen she was deemed inadequate simply by Samsung.

Connecting to all floors

The Samsung Monte is bristling with antennas: 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS. The internal memory is limited to 220 MB, but it is 4 times more than its predecessor (56 MB). Want to store hundreds of photos and a lot of MP3? Better use MicroSD memory card for that.

The MicroSD card slot that can expand the memory of 16 GB extra, make this camera a good multimedia companion. Good, but not excessive, however, since the video playback, even simple DivX, is simply not possible without prior conversion (such as Windows Media Player is very good).

The addition of an A-GPS to locate themselves with Google Maps is, however, a rich idea, again at this price level. If the touch screen is not multi, zoom is a very fluid and easy with the relevant buttons. Like elsewhere in the Web browser, where a zoom function appears popup when you keep your finger pressed a given time on the screen. Notice also, the possibility of leaving some applications running (but not all) in the background. Google Maps can then be turned off altogether but also reduces or at run time (it continues in the background) or break (it is loaded into memory, but stops sending data, if any, limit free). Multitasking is good, as promised, on appointment.

Samsung Monte Specification

• Design Full Touch


• Platform
  
  
  
  • GSM&EDGE Band 850/900/1800/1900
  
  
  • 3G Band 900/2100
  
  
  • Operation System Proprietary
  
  
  • Browser Dolfin 1.5
  
  
  • Java/GPRS/EDGE/3G


• Weight: 92g


• Dimension: 108.8 x 53.7 x 12.4


• Display: 3.0″ TFT (240×400)


• Battery: 1000mAh


• Talk Time (Standard): 580min(2G), 290min(3G), 160min(VT)


• Standby (Standard): 760Hrs(2G), 450Hrs(3G)


• Input Device Full Touch


• Camera: 3MP with x4 Digital / Optical Zoom


• Video player 240×320, 176×144


• Video recording/messaging/streaming/telephony: Yes


• Music & Sound:
  
  
  
  • Music Player
  
  
  • MP3 Ringtones
  
  
  • Music Library


• Fun & Entertainment:
  
  
  
  • 5 Embedded JAVA games
  
  
  • 5 Embedded Wallpaper
  
  
  • FM Radio
  
  
  • FM Radio Recoding
  
  
  • FM Radio RDS


• Business & Office
  
  
  
  • Document Viewer
  
  
  • Mobile Printing
  
  
  • Offline Mode
  
  
  • Voice Memo & Voice Mail


• Messaging
  
  
  
  • SMS / MMS
  
  
  • Predictive Text Input T9
  
  
  • Email
  
  
  • vCard/vCalendar
  
  
  • Instant Messaging


• Connectivity
  
  
  
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  
  
  • WAP 2.0
  
  
  • SyncML(DS) 1.2
  
  
  • USB 2.0
  
  
  • AGPS Y
  
  
  • PC Sync Application ActiveSync
  
  
  • Internet HTML Browser
  
  
  • USB File-Transfer


• Memory
  
  
  
  • User Memory 200MB
  
  
  • SMS Memory 1300 + SIM msg
  
  
  • Phone Book Entries 2000
  
  
  • External Memory 16GB


• Personal Information Management
  
  
  
  • Calendar / To do List
  
  
  • Scheduler
  
  
  • Clock / Worldtime / Alarm
  
  
  • Currency Converter
  
  
  • Calculator
  
  
  • Memo Book
  
  
  • Stopwatch
  
  
  • Countdown Timer


• Mobile Tracker

Conclusion

Samsung Monte S5620 uses the same philosophy as its big brother. Its characteristics are obviously not at the forefront of technology but it does well in almost all areas, and it now has WiFi and a GPS chip. However, the recent fall in prices of smartphones can no longer grant him a significant cost advantage as was the case with the first Star Player of the name. In addition, the sound quality of this phone has been good in our tests, like the autonomy that amounts to three days if it is used little, and can drop to only two short days if the it is used extensively.