Samsung D900 review: Slim slider extreme

Calling application lacks profiles and call filters

Call functions in Samsung D900 are grouped around its multi-field phonebook with capacity for 1000 entries. Each contact can be assigned first and last name, 5 phone numbers, email address, note, birth date (gets copied into the calendar automatically). Each contact could be further attached an image or filtered by ringing melody. Names can be organized in groups, which however, cannot be used as call filters. Each group could also be assigned a specific image and ringtone. The phonebook displays an overall list of all contacts from both the phone memory and the SIM card, which can be browsed by gradual typing of the initial characters. The phonebook is able to visualize 3 entries including their default numbers en bloc. The other contact numbers remain in the contact's detail, which can be open by a press on the center of the navigation key. Contacts can be ordered by either first name or last name.

Phonebook menu • selecting the location of a new contact • creating a contact

Speaker sound is good, with sufficient volume to use even in noisy environment. The phone offers a loudspeaker. Incoming calls can be accepted by a simple opening of the device.

Each contact can be assigned 12 fields • searching the contact list • contact detail

Samsung D900 does not support 3G networks, but it is fully usable in the 4 standard GSM frequencies: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The phone lacks ringing profiles. The latter are substituted by a quiet mode activated by a press on the hash key. On the other hand, from the main menu you can select the way the phone should alert you about incoming calls: with a melody, with a melody followed by vibration, vibrating only, or by a combination of melody and vibration. The phone rings in 64-voice polyphony or using MP3 and AAC files. If you are onboard an airplane you have the option to switch off the GSM part of the device.

Messages: forget about sending 3 megapixel images via email

Standard SMS are written in a block of 6 lines. The editor visualizes the number of available characters as well as the number of written sub-messages (12 at most). Typing is facilitated by T9. As the phone supports EMS, messages could contain black & white images or animation.

Samsung D900 offers 200 positions for messages. Incoming message is announced by one of 10 pre-installed sounds, which can also be set to repeat every minute or every two minutes until the message is read. Received messages are visualized in 8 lines en bloc. At the same time the phone allows you to use zoom in order to modify the font size. Using the tiniest available font the phone displays a total of 14 lines en bloc. Another practical hint is the option to set the editor to delete any message received from 10 preset numbers. This way you do not even come to realize that such a message has ever come.

Messages menu • creating a new SMS • options

Each MMS could carry text, sound, image or video as far as its size does not exceed 300 KB. At the same time it could have more than one page. 3 megapixel images attached to a MMS get automatically reduced before the message is sent. Received MMS and SMS are stores into the same folder. Here once again you can set the phone to block incoming messages from up to 10 phone numbers.

Memory status for each type of message  

The email client manages multiple accounts working with POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP protocols. You could download either entire email messages or their headers only. In both cases downloading can be executed in preset time intervals. The email client supports attachments, but once again make sure they are no bigger than 300 KB. Email messages can be filtered by sender and subject too.

Organizer: comfortable browsing of MS Office documents

Like in any other phone, the calendar is the main organizing tool of Samsung D900. It is detailed. It offers a month, a week and a day view. The week may start on either Monday or Sunday. The calendar contains 4 types of events: appointment, anniversary, event, and task, each of which can be assigned an alert. Besides, appointments can be set to repeat daily, weekly or monthly. The phone also has a task editor integrated into the calendar. Tasks can be visualized separately, marked as priority, and marked-off once having been accomplished. Synchronization with MS Outlook is available, of course.

 
Planner (List of organizing functions) • Samsung D900 offers three repeated alarm clocks • World time application

Samsung D900 has three repeated alarm clocks, which will wake you up with any sound, even when the phone is switched off. As expected, configuration of week days is available, of course. The phone fits in a total of 100 text notes, each consisting of up to 1000 characters at most. Further on, you are offered a calculator, a voice recorder of one-hour limit, a world time application, a unit and currency converter, a timer, and a stopwatch with four mean-times.

  
Month, week and day view at the calendar

 
Selecting event type • modifying event details • a complete day list of same-type events

As many other mobiles of the Korean manufacturer, Samsung D900's document browser works with DOC, XLS, PPT and PDF. Here you can not only surf through documents using the ways of the navigation keys, but also search them and view them in landscape mode. Font size can be modified too. It takes the browser about a second to focus a newly opened page when a document is being searched. Yet we are talking about a pretty handy function, which is seldom found in mobile phones without OS.

 
Calculator is pretty detailed • Timer

 
Converter managing plenty of physical measures • Stopwatch with mean times