Samsung E530 review: High-tech for the ladies

Camera and video recorder

The built-in digital camera has a one megapixel resolution. While the older photo mobiles with VGA resolution have limited usage, Photo Call for example, the megapixel camera phones stand a comparison with the cheap classic compact cameras. Samsung E530 takes pictures in a little unusual resolution of 1152 × 864 pixels. There is also a lower resolution setting - it can be used when sending emails and MMS.

Camera viewfinder • camera setup • diode flash setup

You may select the picture quality from four different settings; it is possible to adjust the exposure compensation. Main color effects, frames and self-timer are available; you may shoot in mosaic mode (saves several photos in one frame) or multi shot mode (up to 15 frames in a sequence). You may switch on the diode flash permanently or only after the time of the exposure; you may use it as a flashlight in the darkness.

Sample pictures:

Photo quality could be higher, the purple fringing and the higher noise level in most of the pictures are rather annoying. The camera has big problems with the shooting of objects at shorter distance; the sharpness of the whole picture is ok with distant objects. The digital zoom is not good for any real use considering the unsuccessful conversion algorithm. The attendant sound of the zoom is interesting - it simulates the sound of a real moving zoom lens.

On the contrary, the quality of video recordings is high. You may record video clips in resolution of 253 x 288 or 176 x 144 pixels, which are stored in the internal phone memory (only the available memory limits the maximum size of the recording) in MPEG4 format. A matter of interest is the zoom option during recording. The quality of the video records is completely the same as the one of E720.

The MP3s are in fashion

You may store music files in MP3 format to the 80MB internal memory and may listen to them while traveling. The player doesn't have buttons on the front side of the cover (like the E720 model); the playback control is not possible even with the help of the additional handsfree set. It's a pity, that the phone doesn't have an additional memory card slot, so you just can't get many pieces into the internal memory. The reason is that this memory is shared with the other phone applications.

The supplied headphones

The music player is very simple. Put the audio files to the music folder and start the playback. Subsequently, you may pause it, stop it completely, jump across a track ahead or back. In the menu you'll find a repeating option or an option for random playback; you'll find also a simple equalizer with four presets. You can switch on the 3D effect, which however distorts the sound unnaturally. You may also select from three skins for the player.

The MP3 player is very simple

The player cannot run in background, so for example you can't listen to music while writing messages. The supplied headphones work quite all right, however more bass will suit better to the sound.

Other functions

There is no change in the functions for time organization, data ability and many other additional functions; their description could be found in the last chapter of Samsung E720 review. New, however, are the functions, especially specified for the ladies. In the menu under the cleverly named item The Women's Life you'll find some really interesting applications:

• Aroma type – in this application you enter information about your character (food consumed, drink, favorite music, activities planned - for example, aerobic exercises, color, fashion and many others) and the application will write which aroma suits you best. During the writing of this review, according to the phone, the best for me was gentle and cultivated aroma, wood with fresh forest tones. .
• Biorhythm – after entering your birth date, the phone calculates and displays your biorhythm for the present day and for the whole month.
• Height/weight proportion – calculation of the current value of the BMI index. The phone says that I don't have overweight. Yippee!
• Calorie – in case that you mind your line, it is enough only to enter the duration of the activity you're going to do (work, for example) and the phone will tell you how many calories you will burn. Do you know that for the time of writing this review I have burned 400 calories? The phone, however didn't know that during the writing I have eaten a whole Mexican pizza.
• Pink graphic schedule – a classic menstrual calendar, which can highlight also the time for birth-control pills taking.
• Shopping list – here you may define up to five shopping baskets in which you may freely enter different items. Then you just walk in the supermarket and uncheck the already purchased items one by one.

The calendar, the alarm clock and the timer are amongst the standard functions. The Java games and data functions are not forgotten either. The phone is equipped with wireless Bluetooth technology; unfortunately there is no infrared port. GPRS class 10 provides the data transmission in the GSM network.

Female functions menu • stopwatches cope also with mean times • calendar in month preview • alarm clock

Game samples

Why don't you have it already?

Samsung E530 is a modern phone, which belongs to the best phones that you may put in your purse. The phone inspired almost every woman to whom we showed it during the testing with its pragmatic and eye-catching appearance. I really can't think out any important limitations of this phone. So, if you are looking for a stylish phone, full of modern functions, this is the right choice.

With the help of Maciek Wilkos.