Samsung X820 review: Just for the record

Calendar is simple

The calendar is available in a monthly, a weekly and daily view. Inside this application you can store 4 types of information: name, note, place, and starting and end date and time. This way you can create an entire school timetable. The problem is that the phone repeats subjects every day and nothing can be done about it. Further on in the calendar you will also find an anniversary option that repeats every year, a simple note, and a planned task, which replaces the missing task organizer.

  
A monthly view of the calendar • weekly view • daily view with a list of events

The phone is able to save up to 100 notes of the same type, which is more than enough. Pitifully, designers have not reserved a bit of the standby screen for instant view of the events inside the respective selected day.

Internet & extras

Samsung X820 supports data transfers in GPRS and EDGE Class 10. Of course, the phone can also serve as a modem for connecting to other devices through a cable or via the wireless Bluetooth.

  
Bluetooth menu • WAP browser • main menu

No current mobile phone can do without Java these days. Samsung X820 is no exception of the rule. The phone offers two pre-installed games: the first one is a close relative of the famous Sokoban, where you have to use the rabbit to gather (in the right order) all carrots located in a labyrinth. In the second game you shoot penalties into a football gate. Additional games can be downloaded through WAP or via Bluetooth.

  
A list with pre-installed games • penalties • simple calculator

Further on the phone features a voice recorder which offers a recording duration limit option, which allows for inserting an audio record into a MMS or email. The maximum duration a voice record could reach is one hour.

Samsung X820's music player is nothing special in terms of graphics, but it can play music in the background, which is good news. Other functions worth mentioning are the calculator, the world time, the physical unit converter, the timer, and the stopwatch with mid-time measurer.

  
Three separate alarm clocks • smart converter of physical units and measures • image editor

The alarm clock of Samsung X820 offers three separate alarms, two of which can be set to repeat once or daily. The third one can be set as an alarm on working days only. The phone is equipped with an image editor, which is also worth our attention as it allows additional application of 9 effects, rotate pictures in all directions, and resize images so they can be attached to a MMS. Cropping is also available. Modified pictures can finally be saved under a new, different file name, while the name of the original image remains unchanged.

Just for the record

There is no doubt that extreme slimness will become the greatest advantage of the new Samsung X820. Let's also remind its brilliant display, its comfortable keypad, its significant memory capacity etc. Nevertheless, it is also necessary to point out that the price/features ratio leaves Samsung X820 somewhat behind the competitors with similar software load. The slimmest in the world lacks a memory card slot, for example. In other words, this new Korean dandy will hardly interest you if you insist on having a feature-packed mobile phone. Samsung X820 bets on sentiment instead on reason.