Samsung D880 Duos review: Pure-bred dual SIM

Samsung D880 Duos 360-degree spin

The Samsung D880 Duos body is entirely made of plastic and, most importantly, you can tell that right away. There's no chrome, nor steel, and the design… well, we've had enough of it.

Design and construction

Samsung D880 Duos in its essence is a regular slider phone of well aged concept and design. Yet it is neat and simple with comfortable controls and large keys. Its dimensions are 104 x 51 x 18.9 mm and it weighs 116 g. Samsung D880 Duos is obviously off the ranks of slim phones, but it fits well in hand while weight isn't such a burden.

All covers are made of plastic, while the battery cover has a soft rubber-like matt finish that ensures a great grip and looks like leather, a bit vintage in a way. Along with matt plastic, the manufacturer has also put some dark-brown glossy accents - on top and bottom of the slider. Though not looking bad or anything, the exterior is rather conventional.

Samsung D880 brings no surprises in terms of design. It is basically a "thicker D900i". Silver accents have been applied sparingly: an ornament above the speaker, a frame around the D-pad, and borders between the front controls. The other silver elements are the dual volume-control and the camera key.

The navigation pad is below the large 2.3" QVGA 256K TFT display. The D-pad with confirming action under the display is quite conservative, though comfortable and responsive. Around the D-pad the traditional two soft keys are placed. The call and end keys with the C correction key in-between are at the bottom of this layout.

Display and D-pad of D880

The alphanumeric keypad is pretty much the same - great for typing without looking at the keys at all. The keys are large enough, with great press feedback.

The comfortable keypad

The right-hand side of the Samsung D880 Duos only features the camera shutter key and the connectivity port under its plastic cover. The Connectivity port is as usual used for plugging the supplied charger, data cable, or wired headset.

The D880 Duos has a one-step shutter key, even though the camera features autofocus. A single press is in charge of focusing, locking the exposure and eventually taking the picture.

The right side of the D880 Duos

The left-hand side of the Samsung D880 features the volume rocker and the dedicated dual-SIM management key. It is fairly proof against wrong presses as it's entirely flush with the surrounding surface, as opposed to the slightly elevated shutter key and volume rocker.

The left side of the D880 Duos

The top and the bottom of the D880 are completely bereft of controls, quite typical of mobile phones in the slider form factor.

The top and bottom parts are pretty bare

The rubber-like fake leather back panel of the Samsung D880 is entirely flat, declining at the very edges of the phone. Sliding the front up reveals the 3 megapixel camera lens and the self-portrait mirror. The camera works in portrait orientation, even if the shutter key on the left side suggests a regular landscape position. The camera key is actually quite meaningless, as it only gets used for starting the camera. While shooting, it is far more comfortable to use the center of the D-pad as a shutter key.

The back panel of the D880 Duos

Removing the back panel reveals the powerful Samsung 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery. It's quoted at up to 240 h of standby time and up to the amazing 9 h of talk time. In reality the battery was an average performer - we had to recharge the G880 every three or four days.

The D880 Duos looks like a typical Samsung slider until you remove the battery and the dual-SIM bed gets revealed.

We were surprised to find the memory slot under the battery too, given the more than ample 18.9mm thickness. Hot-swapping is impossible with this design.

Battery and dual-SIM compartment @ the memory card slot is under the battery

We really liked the way the Samsung D880 feels in hand. The smooth front finish and the slip-proof back panel, as well as the comfortable size and weight make for a really pleasurable experience. If you find it hard to understand our appreciation for the classic Samsung lines, a few days of using the D880 will probably change your mind.

Samsung D880 Duos is a real nice job of a handset offering great user-friendliness

Nice display, but stay out of the sun

The Samsung D880 Duos has a shiny 2.3" TFT screen of QVGA resolution capable of displaying up to 256K colors. As usual for Samsung, visibility under direct sunlight is poor.

Display in the dark

The white keypad backlighting is even and strong enough. The navigation keys backlighting adds to the high level of user-friendliness the Samsung D880 Duos offers.

The keypad and D-pad in the dark