Samsung E630 review: Elegant in black

Messages writing

I am sure that many people would appreciate turning off permanently a T9 dictionary but in fact, it is necessary to deactivate it manually every time when you start writing a new message.

Writing a message • setting a diacritics

Working with messages is otherwise comfortable, also thanks to the quality keypad. During SMS writing, the phone counts down written characters and show the user how many parts the text will be split up. Internal memory can hold up to 200 SMS and the same amount of multimedia messages too. MMS editor is well arranged; besides the text, it can manage also a picture and sound. Why there is no e-mail browser available? After all, we know that Samsung implemented it already in the D410 model.

MMS editor

Voice recorder for 6 hours

I am going to start the organizer section untraditionally with the voice recorder. It uses whole memory capacity of the E630 and so it is possible to record up to 6-hour long records. Voice recorder is also accessible, even in closed phone position; you will get to the context menu by pressing the down arrow key.

Organizer functions selection • voice recorder (note the record length)

At the other organizer applications, I do not see any change. Samsung offers three types of repeated alarm clocks, you can choose days when they will give an alarm. Active alarm can turn the phone on if it is turned off.

Alarm clock setting

Calendar is the same; in a month view, week starts by Sunday and days' abbreviations are corresponding the English names. Calendar also displays tasks from to-do list, meetings, birthdays and reminders. It is possible to assign a reminder to every item but Samsung cannot do repeated events - neither at the birthdays.

Month view on the calendar • one item in the calendar • to-do list • task detail

Next, you will find a countdown timer, a stopwatch and a calculator in the menu. The calculator handles priorities of the mathematical operations.

Countdown timer • stopwatch • calculator • units converter

Fast Java and GPRS

Your entire neighborhood will know immediately that you entered the menu of java games and applications in the phone. That is because E630 will play several seconds long jolly melody (why?!). You will find two games in the phone as a standard: Snowball fight and Bubble smile game that is similar to Tetris. In Java, by the way, it is possible to use the middle button for confirmation.

Two integrated games • status of a memory for Java applications

Samsung supports MIDP 1.0.3 and in jBenchmark 1.0 scored 792 points. Comparing by this criterion the E630 stands among the fastest Samsung models but overall it is just an average result.

Integrated Wap browser uses GPRS class 10; it is also possible to connect to the Internet from the PC using the phone as a modem. Part of the EasyStudio pack is also an application used for easy setting of the data connection. You can connect the phone with a PC using the infrared port or a cable.

Wap browser

A pet

Samsung E630 have not surprised in any way. Generally, it is the same phone as all other Samsung phones of this class. However, it is not reaching some other rival brands from the functions point of view and still several identical mistakes remain, the producer is interested the most whether his products are attracting the consumers. Moreover, that is obviously not Samsung's problem: Samsung worldwide surpassed Motorola in the third quarter and stands on the second position behind Nokia.

Samsung E630 is a mobile phone for common users who need mainly call and work with messages. The phone handles these functions very well and I would emphasize for example exceptionally quality sound. This phone is not suitable for the users who are interested in organizer functions; the other drawback is the half-working infrared port, which cannot directly send pictures. Samsung spared on the sliding mechanism, we have to resign to that fact, but I still cannot get used to the embedded main button. For example, the selection of icons in the main menu was very inconvenient and I was rather using the numeric keypad shortcuts.

The price of Samsung E630 is more than acceptable. For its price, the user gets a really nice phone.