Samsung Z560 HSDPA phone review
Philippine telco service provider Globe lent me a Samsung Z560 demo unit for a HSDPA safari for two days. I was not able to do a thorough test of the high speed data access but I also realized that commenting on the roll out of HSDPA in the Philippines (we are the first in South East Asia with HSPDA) would be unfair since it is still very premature. I’d compare it against WiFi, but then again these are two different systems at work - not just from an infrastructure point of view, but more because WiFi has been around for years in the urban areas and HSDPA is still at its infancy.
On to the phone. The Samsung Z560 aims to impress with its ultra slim form factor which is characteristic of Samsung’s new slim designs. Best known for their clamshell designs, the Z560 takes a bow with the same elegant design. When closed, the front real estate shows off a mini LCD screen that displays pertinent phone information such as the time and signal strength.
Opening the phone, you are greeted with the standard numerical keypad, a 5 way directional pad, two menu buttons, a dedicated Internet button, a shortcut key button, plus the standard cancel, call and end call buttons. It comes with two sets of cameras which is standard for 3G units - an auto focus 2MP camera with digital zoom at the back and a VGA camera at the front for video calls. What I found interesting about the camera at the back was that the picture taken by it is actually larger than the screen itself. After taking a shot, you will see left and right scroll buttons which shows you that the picture is actually much larger.
What I found disturbing was that even if the Z560 is geared towards high speed surfing, there are some basic problems with the phone’s antenna. For one, call fidelity is really bad. In every singe call I’ve made and answered using this phone, I get fluctuations in the volume level and at times - a total blackout of the call which gets restored after a few seconds with the person on the other line screaming “Hello? Hello? Are you still there?” This bug was present in the other phone as well given to my colleague and we are quite sure that this has nothing to do with the telco signal fidelity - but with the antenna.
Perhaps the cutest feature of this phone is the animated numbers that get drawn by a quill pen whenever you type a number. It’s a small perk but nonetheless an interesting way to see how your numbers get typed out.
When rendering web pages, the phone’s Access Browser allows for small to large font types as well as a “desktop view” which shows the actual footprint of the web page as if you were viewing on a computer monitor.
What I liked
Cute animations
Very loud audio
Thin form factor
Bright screen
What I didn’t like
Phone heats up when being used
Reception problems
Complete specs here.
Tags: Cell phone, HSDPA, SamsungRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cell phone, HSDPA, Samsung
1 opinion for Samsung Z560 HSDPA phone review
Anita
May 12, 2008 at 9:17 am
Hi, Is there anyway that the theme of the quill pen could be downloaded or is there a way of getting it. Thank You
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