Samsung X820 review: Just for the record

Calls & phonebook

The memory Samsung X820 carries is sufficient to save a total of 1000 contacts. What's more, it has no problem to fit in all 12 fields available inside each contact. The phone views SIM and phone directories simultaneously. The phonebook is searched by gradual typing of the contact's name. A highly appreciated feature in all smartphones is their ability to search contacts both by first and last name. Let's hope that common handsets will all soon be equipped with this option as well.

  
Each contact can be assigned up to 12 fields • contact details

Contacts can be organized in groups, which can be assigned a special melody or image. Yet, groups serve as folders and only help mass message sending. Nothing more, nothing less. Samsung X820 does not offer any ringing profiles, which means that call filtering is not available either. The phone alerts you for incoming calls by using a polyphonic melody or MP3 files. Samsung X820 cannot vibrate and ring simultaneously, which - to my modest opinion - is quite a drawback. Anyway, when the phone vibrates, vibrations are apparently created by the built-in speaker as even a tiny vibrating motor would never fit into such a thin body.

 
Work with a particular contact • editing group parameters

The main speaker is loud enough. At it highest volume level, it sounds as a kind of a quiet loudspeaker. All sound bands are present and clearly recognizable. A pretty interesting thing is the so called extra tones. Samsung X820 uses one type of sound to confirm that connection to an opposite call party has been established (ringing), and another type to alert you that the connection has been terminated. Wireless connection is also available thanks to the presence of Bluetooth support.

Work with messages

The SMS editor offers a total of 5 text lines at a time. To my surprise, it counts written characters down from the crazy number 1836, so one needs to make certain efforts in order to count up the characters still available to use. At least it alerts when a sub-message has been finished and another one has been started. In all lower segment Samsung models the T9 dictionary needs to be deactivated every time a message has been started. In Samsung X820, fortunately, this is necessary no more.

  
SMS editor • T9 dictionary does not use diacritics

The MMS editor offers several interesting features: it allows for saving more than 1 page, each of which can contain text, an image or a video, and a melody. In addition, directly from the menu, you may also insert a business card, a timetable, an anniversary, a note, a planed item, and a so called "another file", which is a file, which the phone cannot make use of (game etc,) and which otherwise won't be possible to be sent away in a MMS (a java game, for example).

 
Creating a new MMS • available memory sufficient for 200 SMS straight

The email client is very good. It gives the possibility to create up to five POP3/IMAP accounts, provides automatic mail checking in pre-defined intervals, and attaches files seamlessly. It even offers a simple anti-spam filter! In other words, it is fully sufficient for replying to urgent mails.

Games and images

Samsung X820 works with MP3 music files. Yet I fear passionate music fans will remain unsatisfied with the capabilities of this new Korean dandy for several reasons. First, the phone offers no memory card slot. The built-in memory offers a reasonable capacity of 82 MB, which is however far too less for storing music. Besides, music fans are rarely fond of non-standard connectors, which obligate them to use only the earphones enclosed in the original phone package, which is exactly the case of Samsung X820. I do not have to write that this type of earphones almost never offer good music experience. And in the end, Samsung X820 does not have a radio application.

 
Music player is quite good; it plays even if minimized

What the phone lacks in terms of music, it makes up for in imaging. Samsung X820 is equipped with a 2 megapixel camera, which takes photos of surprisingly high quality. Of course, we could hardly expect it to compete with the best on the market, but its results are definitely above the medium level. Pictures feature a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. Colors are sharp; white is balanced successfully, even if there is a slight case of overexposure. In the camera menu you will find plenty of functions. One of the most interesting is the option of ISO value setup, which helps creating pretty sharp images under artificial light conditions.

Sample photos in full resolution:

Samsung X820 is also able to shoot videos with sound in a resolution of 352 x 288 pixels. While shooting you can use zoom, modify brightness levels, apply various effects. Videos are saved in MP4 format. The available memory allures to save longer videos or even entire series, but in such case, make sure you convert the respective material into 3gp format. Data and files can be easily transferred from a PC into the phone and vice versa using Bluetooth.

Macro mode would have come in handy; even so shooting text has a nice result

No zoom applied • full zoom