Samsung U100 review: Razor sharp

Fun: music, TV, Java

Samsung U100 features a good music player that allows minimization. Tracks can be arranged in playlists, shuffle & repeat mode are available. The music player works with MP3, AAC, AAC+, and e-AAC+ and WMA. You can enjoy your music on a relatively good loud speaker. A proprietary headset is included in the retail package, but you can also use stereo earphones via A2DP Bluetooth profile. The enclosed earphones will hardly satisfy music freaks, but they will do for regular users. A microphone and a call-control button suggest you could use the included headset to call hands-free too. The Samsung U100 hasn't got a universal connector, meaning you won't be able to use third-party headsets. The phone offers an equalizer with three modes (classic, jazz, and rock), as well as an enhanced stereo function. No FM radio in the U100.

  

Music player

Samsung U100 also plays video records in 3GP and MP4 formats. These can be fast-forwarded and viewed in a full-screen mode (by pressing the hush key). The internal memory count of only 70 MB is a downer for the multimedia functions of this phone and there is no memory card slot.

The phone can be connected to TV through a special cable, which you don't get in the standard retail package - a common practice for TV-out enabled Samsung phones. Once a TV connection has been established, you will be able to display the content of the phone on the screen. PAL and NTSC color encoding is available. Sound is played too.

There are six pre-installed games in the phone, but most are in demo versions only. One of the most popular Samsung games is the BobbyCarrot logic game. Freekick is a penalty shootout game, Asphalt is a racing one, Midnight Pool and Mini-golf Las Vegas are also there. Here is more information on Java capabilities:

Results from jBenchmark:

• jBenchmark 1.1: 1785 points
• jBenchmark 2.1: 139 points

 
Several preinstalled games • two of the games

Data and other

Samsung U100 has only GPRS and EDGE support, both Class 10. A low-end Ultra Edition II, it lacks UMTS or HSDPA support. There is no Infrared port, either. No wonder given its ultra-slim body. Still, we have Bluetooth v2.0 supporting all possible profiles, including the wildly popular A2DP for listening to music on stereo headphones.

  
Internet browser • setup options for Bluetooth

Samsung provides the PC Studio software package for data synchronization with PC. Transferring music and images is done via Bluetooth, anyway. You can transfer files to and from the handset via the data cable so you'll hardly ever need to install the above mentioned software. PC Studio is crucial for synchronizing Samsung U100 with Outlook, though.

Samsung PC Studio

 
Downloading data from the phone • managing the phonebook • organizer • a view at the data profiles

Synchronization with a computer

The WAP browser is quite good; it manages both simple Internet pages and the WAP 2.0 protocol.

Samsung U100 offers excellent handling of PDF and MS Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) files, as well as of most common image formats. Browsing is fast, except for panning and zooming, which seem to take a few extra seconds. Documents can be rotated too.

The last feature we look at is the so-called intelligent search. It unveils each section of the phone contents step by step, including the stuff stored in the internal memory.

A smart function for searching the entire contents of the phone

Samsung U100 scores high

Samsung U100 is the slimmest handset yet. It takes a while to really appreciate its strengths, but its design and construction will surely be worth admiration for quite some time. It has many usable, even if not overwhelming features. As Samsung U100 carries little memory, ringtones seem to be a downer.

 
Accessories enclosed in the retail package: charger, earphones, cable

Samsung U100 scores high on features and usability. You'll get to discover a practical detail day after day. Control is very comfortable.

Like it?

Samsung U100 is an interesting alternative to lifestyle phones. It is aimed at users on the lookout for fresh, compact and well-featured handsets at a reasonable price - much like the Samung X820.