Samsung F300 review: A phone like no other

Telephony

The phonebook’s capacity is 1000 contacts. Each contact can be assigned a number of fields, for example: first name, last name, 5 phone numbers, email address, picture, ringtone, and a note. Contacts can be organized in call groups. Browsing through the phonebook on the small display is not a pleasant activity. The first line shows contact’s name, while the second one is reserved for gradual typing and searching. The contacts from both the phone memory and the SIM card are showed together. The phonebook can also be searched on the big display on the multimedia side of the phone, but it cannot be edited there.

Phonebook menu • only one item can be seen in the phonebook at a time

 
Contact details • call registers

 
Call groups

The phone has neither an answering machine, nor an option for call filtering. Ringing profiles are substituted by a silence mode and the phone is not able to ring and vibrate simultaneously. Nevertheless, ringing features 64 voices and is of high quality. The phone rings using melodies in any of the following formats: MP3, AAC, and WMA. Samsung F300 works in three GSM frequencies: 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz. 3G networks are not supported. An offline mode allowing the use of the phone on an airplane is available.

You can browse the phonebook using the big display on the multimedia side too, but you can not edit it

No email

Creating messages on the small display is no fancy activity, either. There are only two message types available: SMS and MMS. Samsung F300 does not have an email client. SMS are typed on two lines. The phone will also allow you to see and check your messages on the other, bigger display, but it will not let you modify them. Characters are counted from the number 1836 down and, of course, you will always be alerted of the start of a new sub-message. T9 has a rich dictionary. Thanks to the available EMS standard you can insert images or melodies in your SMS as well as format their text. Messages can be sent to 20 phone numbers at a time. An instant access to the last message recipients is available too.

 
Messages menu • a list of delivered messages

Since only two lines are available for message reading too, you should better read them on the opposite-side display – it is far more comfortable. Received SMS and MMS share one and the same folder. There are 10 preset message alerts available in the phone, so you will have to choose one of them. New message alerts can be repeated every one or two minutes until you read the corresponding message. Samsung F300 is able to save up to 200 SMS and 3 megabytes of MMS.

 
Both typing and reading SMS is done in mere two lines


Creation of MMS by using the menu • a view at a MMS

The phone has a special menu for insertion of subjects, texts, images, or videos and sounds, which eases the creation of MMS. The maximum size of each MMS is user-configurable and can be either 95KB, or 295KB. Ready messages can be controlled on both the small and the big displays. The phone also offers a SOS type of message meant to warn a number of preset recipients that the owner of Samsung F300 is being in an emergency situation or in danger and that he needs help. SOS messages are sent out instantly by a four quick presses on the side volume-control button.

 
View at a received SMS and at a SMS typed on the multimedia display • MMS

Organizer

The calendar integrated in Samsung F300 is very simplified. It only offers a day view because of the small size of the display. You can insert three types of events: appointment, anniversary, and task. There are only 100 entries for each type of event in the phone memory. Tasks can be assigned a priority and marked-off once accomplished. Appointments can be repeated daily, weekly, or monthly. You can set the phone to notify you about upcoming events in advance. You can filter the events by their type.

The calendar offers a day view only

Editing an event


Voice recorder • World time application

There are a total of three repeated alarm clocks in Samsung F300. Setting an alarm on a particular day of the week is not possible. The only available setting option is to skip weekends or perhaps Sundays. In this new Samsung experiment you will also find a 1-hour limited voice recorder, a world time application, a stopwatch with mean times, countdown, and text notes, whose maximum length is 100 characters. The phone does not have a calculator, which is rather strange.

There are three alarm clocks

Text note • stopwatch with mean times

Non-traditional camera location

The camera is built in a rather unusual place: above the tiny display on the phone side. The reason for this peculiarity is that the big display on the opposite side of the phone serves as a viewfinder. You can use the small display for self-portraits.

 
Camera view-finder • one of the camera menus

The camera offers two megapixels, which means that the maximum possible image size is 1600 x 1200 pixels. Image quality is surprisingly high, given the absence of autofocus. Pictures are sharp and colors are deep. Although Samsung F300 is not good at making macro images, you should have no problems to read text captured with it.

The phone display helps you to create self-portraits

The camera offers a wide range of setup options. You can modify image size and quality as well as adjust exposure compensation, set the white balance and define ISO sensitivity. It is also possible to activate the self-release function, apply night mode and use different color effects or frames. A pleasant surprise is the availability of a full-functioning good-quality digital zoom. The viewfinder may occupy either the entire display (but you will not be able to see the entire resulting image) or just part of its surface equivalent to the real size of the picture.

Sample pictures taken with Samsung F300:

       


Use of color effects: samples

 
Digital zoom interpolates images leaving them in full resolution


Exposure compensation

Night mode: off • on


Images with frames only have 176 x 144 pixels

We appreciate the fact that Samsung F300 shoots videos in MP4 format in QVGA resolution, that is, 320 x 240 pixels. Video length is only limited by the available free memory.

• Watch this sample video (MP4, 2.5 MB)

 
File manager • memory state indicator


Viewing images on the small display can only serve for orientation

Pictures and videos are saved in the internal memory. If you want them to be stored on the memory card, it will be necessary that you move them manually. All multimedia files can be displayed in “File manager” on the phone side or in the folder “Album” on the multimedia side. In any case they are grouped by type and types are separated one from another. The content of the memory card appears apart from the phone memory. Pictures can be displayed in fullscreen mode, zoomed, or organized in a slide show. An option for sending pictures to another device via Bluetooth is available, as well. It is a pity, however, that Samsung F300 manages images pretty slowly, which – in addition to the touch sensitive keys – leads to a poor overall experience.

 
Images can also be viewed in the folder “Album” on the opposite side of the phone

The Album serves as a video player compatible with MP4 and 3GP formats, too. Records can be rewinded or forwarded or even displayed fullscreen. The superior Samsung models F500 and F510 are those primarily designed for work with videos, though. They are said to even offer the DivX format support.

Video player has all necessary functions