Samsung Monte Slider

Samsung Monte SliderThere are a number phones that endeavor to blind us with science and try to push the envelope to locate yet more uses and functionality for all our pocket pals. There are a handful of phones that basically want to be phones. Anywhere between two would be the Samsung Monte Slider, which does a great job for being a neat little phone, but comes a cropper if it attempts to get above itself. The firstSamsung Monte Slidermust have been a mid-level smartphone with good features along with sensible price. But what’s within a name? Well, not a whole lot going through this situation, since virtually not one of the Monte Slider’s specs match that relating to its popular predecessor. Make no mistake, it becomes an extremely basic phone, eventhough it comes with a small number of smart pretensions. It’s a good-looking device, snappily proved in gloss black with smoothly rounded curves and measuring an exceedingly pocket-friendly 99 x 49 x 14mm and 84g. It feels solidly assembled too and fits nicely in the users hand

Samsung’s own (i.e., not USB) power/sync slot is on the side protected by a powerful plastic grommet and because the name suggests, the top slides around reveal a conventional 12-button keypad. The buttons are flush but adequate to discover easily below the thumb and there’s a satisfying degree of travel as you push them. Texting and email messaging therefore is ok, though the speaker sounded a little bit distorted during voice calls.Below the back cover there’s a microSD slot that that will anyone to soon add up to 8GB towards measly 15MB of onboard memory, though none comes. Something else entirely that isn’t supplied is actually a data cable for syncing to the PC - should you wish to swap media or sync your contacts, you’ll will need to spend money on one for an optional extra . The 2-inch non-touch screen sports a somewhat low resolution of 128 x 160 pixels with resultant images that usually tend to look fuzzy and unfocused - also the numbers when you’re dialling. Beneath it are two soft keys, call start and prevent buttons together with a pleasingly asymmetric D-pad. The 1.3-megapixel camera feels like a throwback to another age. Maximum picture size is 1280 x 960 pixels and also the only extras are a night mode setting and a timer, with frames and effects thrown in. Having said that, picture quality is surprisingly good considering the low resolution, with decent colour balance and contrast. That’s not to say it can compete with 5- and 8-megapixel cameras on many modern handsets, however it will do for quick snaps

With no 3G or Wi-Fi, surfing the Internet is really a laborious business, and to make matters worse, the browser seemed to have trouble rendering pages. It showed the Guardian’s new stories in type that was big enough to read comfortably, but made the website basically impossible to navigate. There are Facebook and Google apps on board, however the screen’s low resolution makes checking your updates, and indeed your emails, a bit of a pain. There’s also a cache of web links to Facebook, MySpace, Picasa and others for uploading pics and updates, but the slow internet access makes using them a bit of a chore. The music player is basic in the extreme and not particularly intuitive to navigate - changing albums or artists involves a lot of unnecessary fiddling with menus. The supplied headphones are nasty and tinny but you’re stuck with them since they connect via Samsung’s own port interface rather than a generic 3.5mm headphone jack. There’s an FM radio on board though, which is basic, but okay. The battery held up pretty well, and we got a good 4 days of moderate use out of it - something you won’t get with a true smartphone, however you’re likely to use a real smartphone a lot more. TheMonte Slideris a good-looking basic phone, and it has a few nice features, at least on paper. The trouble is that they’re not very good, so it acts less as a gateway model to the smartphone universe, more of a gatekeeper likely to persuade you don’t really need this fancy stuff ‘cos it will just get on your nerves.


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