Samsung F480 review | Features
Samsung TouchWiz phone screen
TFT LCD touchscreen
One of the main parts of the Samsung TouchWiz is undoubtedly the 262,144 colour TFT LCD touch screen. It has dimensions of 240 x 320 pixels and is heat-sensitive. Compared to previous touch screen models of Samsung, there is a clear progress and improvement where precision is concerned. Scrolling is easy and the monitor responds fast and accurately. Even when you are not used to working with a touch screen, you will soon gain control over the operation. And it is not a disadvantage by any means that the possibility to work with a stylus is not available. The feedback in the form of a vibrating signal gives you the feeling that something actually happens when you press a button. The intensity of the vibration is adjustable, so if you don't like the dominating vibration, you don't have to completely deactivate this option. The colour reproduction and the brightness are great, I cannot say otherwise. The only minus I can find is the fact that pictures taken with the on-board camera prove to look slightly more noisy on the screen of the cell phone than they do on the PC.
Main menu of the Samsung F480
User friendly menu interface
The function button 'menu' or the quick menu offer access to the main menu directly from the standby mode. It looks like the screen is turned over from a graphical perspective, and as if you're looking at the back side of the standby mode. The main menu offers some twelve colourful icons on a black or white background depending on the style setting of the main menu. The combination of these icons, a black menu background and the design of the cell phone, make the TouchWiz look similar to an iPhone as far as appearance is concerned. Furthermore, all the settings and functions of the Samsung F480 are easily accessible thanks to the clear and logical structure of the menu. At times Samsung have a tendency to drift away from the logical, familiar menu structure, for example the Samsung G810, however, the TouchWiz again is well-organized and user-friendly. Selecting a sub menu is carried out with graphic effects. Not only these visual details are a nice addition to the Samsung TouchWiz interface, also the sounds of the keys are; I never found the sounds disturbing, probably because the various sounds are linked to various actions which prevents it from becoming somewhat monotonous.
Samsung F480 charger
Samsung F480 USB cable
Samsung F480 earphones
Samsung F480 TouchWiz widgets
Widget bar
The Samsung F480 has so-called widgets at its disposal that allow for personalizing the screen of the TouchWiz. Various icons are found in a bar on the left of the touch screen and can be dragged to any place on the screen. They offer access to, for example, the clock, photo album, the music player and phone profiles. What's so unique about these widgets is the fact they operate by themselves, and don’t just function as a quick access button to a certain menu. You can actually call up the options to the start screen and you can act on the spot, like playing music or setting a background. There are four standard widgets and besides these, there are eight preference widgets to be activated or deactivated in the reproduction settings. In my opinion there could have been more choice, for example the alarm widget that I missed here. The entire widget bar can be removed from the screen which gives you quite a lot of control over what there is to see and do in the standby mode of the TouchWiz.
Samsung F480 audio options
MP3 player & FM radio
The main menu of the Samsung F480 features an icon for the MP3 player. Since the battery of the TouchWiz has a considerable life-span, it doesn't hurt to listen to some music every now and then. With and without headset, the sound is equally excellent. The equalizer, directly accessible from the MP3 player's interface, allows you to optimize the sound. It is also possible to make play lists and to search for songs by artist, album or genre. The MP3 widget lets you scroll through music lists and play, pause and stop songs directly from the standby mode. In addition, the Samsung F480 has been equipped with an FM radio that you can listen to providing you plug in a headset. The FM radio widget makes the menu almost redundant, except for when you want to store FM stations or use song recognition. The latter serves for finding out which artist is singing which song on the radio, by recording a sound sample. This is a marvellous option that is found in several mobile phones nowadays.
icon.
Category Sitemap