Samsung S7220 Ultra b review: More than meets the eye

The back of the Ultra b is where the five megapixel camera lens and the LED flash are accommodated. The lens has no cover, so the frame around it and the fact that it is slightly embedded are the only protection against scratches.

The 5 megapixel camera is the star backstage

Removing the battery cover reveals the 960 mAh battery. In our field test it managed three days of stand-by that included half an hour of talk time and a few hours of poking around the features and taking some photos.

Opening the battery cover reveals the 960 mAh battery and the microSD card slot

The microSD card slot is also under the rear panel on the right-hand side, but it's easily accessible without having to remove the battery. As we managed to confirm, the Samsung S7220 Ultra b can handle a 16GB microSD card, which is the largest currently available on the market. It also has an acceptable start up time with that kind of cards, unlike the S8300 UltraTOUCH, which was simply intolerable.

The general build quality of Samsung S7220 Ultra b is commendable and the handset looks reasonably fit to withstand daily wear and tear.

The Ultra b held in hand

User interface is well familiar

Samsung S7220 Ultra b comes with the classical Samsung non-touch user interface, except that this time it is Flash-based. The only noticeable differences however include some nice visual changes like the animated backgrounds in the menu.

The user interface has improved looks

A handy custom menu gets activated upon pressing the left soft key from the standby screen. The custom menu allows you to pin any of the items in the interface submenus for an easier access.

The custom menu is a convenient way of rearranging the main menu

The main menu is accessible from the stand-by display by pressing the confirmation center of the D-pad. The right soft key is reserved for the phonebook. The four directions of the touchpad have shortcuts of their own and these can be changed according to the user preference.

Samsung S7220 can use the animated traveler background (formerly known as uGo) with analogue clock we came to know since the good old Samsung D900. It sets the standby screen background image according to the country where the phone is being used. The wallpaper is animated: birds are flying in the sky, clouds are moving etc. From 7 pm till 6 am night mood takes over: the sky turns dark, while houses get lit up.There is also another option for the wallpaper - you can select a number of photos that can run in slide show on the desktop. The transition effect can also be changed.

The main menu displays a standard 4 x 3 grid of nicely animated icons. Sub-menus on the other hand appear as lists. All in all if you happen to have used a Samsung non-touchscreen handset in the past two years the Ultra b will hardly surprise you.

Probably the only major change is the added basic task manager - the so called Application switch, which lets you quickly toggle between calling, texting, browsing and Java Apps. The Java apps section allows you to run several Java titles simultaneously.

The uncomfortable thing about the Application switch is that it can only be started with the camera key. There's a setting that allows you to use the camera key for only the task switcher, the camera or for both. The last options brings up a popup window every time you press the key.

Samsung S7220 has some nicely designed themes that go excellently with its design. There were three of them preinstalled and then there's the nice little app that let's you create one of your own.

The two alternative themes available

The dialing display is also customizable by font type, size, color and background color - just as with every other similar Samsung recently.