November 21, 2007
Product Review: SGH-L760
As I’ve earlier blogged. On the 22nd October, I was invited to join a bloggers TT and at the same time crash test their yet to be launched in Malaysia SGH-L760 Bloggers/Youtube phone. (it’s already launched at the time this review is published) Now I present you a full review of this phone which I’ve spent an entire month with.
What you’ll get
Straight
out of the box you’ll receive (as shown in the picture above):
- The phone
- Battery
- Battery Charger
- Headphones/hands free kit
- Data Cable
- Driver CD
- 2 very thin manuals (one in English, the other in Chinese)
- Warranty card
- Samsung Mobile fun flyer
Phone spec (in case you’ve missed it)
Network
- 3G (UTMS 2.1 GHz)
- Tri-band (900, 1800, 1900MHz)
- EDGE
- GPRS Class 10
Dimensions
- 99.5 x 47 x 15mm / 92.8g
Battery ( Standard) Li-ion, 900mAh
- Talk Time : up to 3 hrs
- Standby Time : up to 400 hrs
Display
- 262144 Colour 2.0″ TFT ( 240 x 320 )
Camera
- 2.0 Megapixel (X4 zoom) / VGA
Video Recording & Play up to 1 hr
(MPEG4, H.263, Video Streaming H.264)
Mobile Blog (ShoZu Client)
SyncML DS v1.2
Music
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA
- WMDRM / MTP
Memory
- 30MB
- microSD (up to 2GB)
Connectivity
- Bluetooth Technology v 2.0: A2DP
- USB 2.0 Full Speed
WAP 2.0 ( Net Front v3.4) / Java 2.0
EMS / MMS
Black GUI, Smart Message
FM Radio with RDS
Document Viewer
Hands-free Speaker Phone
Organizer
Physical Appearance
Samsung phones need no introduction on its colorful history of producing stylish phones form budget low ends like the X300 too the latest high end the F500. The SGH-L760 is no exception to inherit its stylish legacy which is a slim slider phone that feels really solid and durable. I’ve been using candy bar form phone since I got my first mobile phone 7 years ago all of which are bigger then the SGH-L760, and holding this slim wonder needs little getting used to for someone with big clumsy fingers like me. In fact I dropped this phone the moment I took it out form the box for inspection. Thankfully there are no physical damage from the meter high drop onto hardwood floor. It’s that tough. Other then the original protective film on the LCD protecting the screen form scratches from movement during transportation, there’s also another thinner, tougher film on the top of the phone to protect the shiny chrome-ish finish of the top slider.
What would bug most new users is the small stepping (elevation) at the bottom of the phone that houses the microphone. This structure would obstruct texting if you are the type of people uses the center of you thumb to press its buttons. This obstruction could easily be overcome by using only the tip of your thumb to press the numpad instead. It took me 3 days to get used to this texting style, and a week to get used to its small form factor such as sliding open with one flick of the finger and be able to text quickly with one hand.
Score: 9 (Executive look, executive feel, learning to use it is no biggie)
Phone Function
The first and foremost feature to be tested is no other then its ability to make phone calls, it is after all a phone. The earpiece above the screen produces audible crisp clear sound. However, ringtones (be it midi or MP3) are somewhat to be on the soft side even on the loudest setting. It’s not a problem for me since I work in a calm and quiet environment, but when outdoors, it’s a must to have vibrate turned on just in case the rings goes unnoticed.
What I especially like about the phone software is the auto-complete feature where the phone will search the phonebook/SIM for contacts that has the initial matching numbers that has been keyed in. The search is fast (for both normal contact search and auto-complete), even when the contacts are stored in the SIM card. Unlike my old K750 and P800, where the speed of accessing the SIM can be compared to a computer accessing a 3 ½” floppy disk.
Large numbers are displayed when keying numbers to be dialed. It’s really handy even for someone who has 20/20 vision like me. Why squint when there’s extra large fonts to read from?
Other standard features such as assigned ring tone, caller picture is available for contacts stored in the phone memory. Such option is not available for contacts stored in the SIM.
The only grunt I have for this phone function is that the speed dial for the number 1 has been fixed to the voicemail. I don’t get that many voicemail as compared to the number of calls to people I need in my speed dial.
Score: 8 (everything great except for speed dial number 1)
Messaging
Second to be tested is the messaging software where ultimately, messaging has been the choice of communication for those who cannot afford lengthy telephone conversation. Even with a slim, thin numpad, messaging is not difficult after 3 days learning how to use this phone without dropping it, and an additional 4 days of usage experience. The messaging software comes with 7 input types, namely pinyin, S Stroke, T Stroke, Numeric, Symbols, T9 and ABC (multi tap). In any input mode, numbers still can be inserted by pressing and holding down the desired number. I’ve let my younger brother to play around with the pinyin (since I can’t read Chinese) and through several messages sent, he found the messaging software much friendlier then his W810i. He said “Choosing words is faster (by pressing the corresponding number) and so is viewing them (the ability to scroll up and down to view a new set of optional words). As for me, the T9 is mediocre, nothing to shout about except for its symbol input system which is very user friendly.
Personally I feel that there should be one dedicated button (green receiver) to automatically send the message. At the moment to send the message, I’ve to press the left [--] button to open up the options and then select send. Some times the Send option is the first (1) and at other times two (2). Due to this randomness, I’ll need to be extra careful before pressing the next button.
Score: 7 (I want that quick send button!)
Software Interface
I’ve instantly fallen in love to the lightning quick interface of this phone. It’s a far cry compared to the K750i. There are numbers listed on the side of the options to quickly access it. So, instead of scrolling the list of options, you can press the corresponding number to instantly access it. My old K750i also has this feature to quickly select options by pressing the number instead of scrolling, but most of the time I’ll have to count or guess the number since there’s no number indication. The SHG-L760 has made is much simpler by displaying the number itself. No more counting or guessing.
Another feature that I like about the interface is settings is highly accessible. For example, managing internet connection settings. It can be accessed through settings from the main menu, or can be selected at the browser itself. And this is not just limited to selection of preferred method of connection, but also the ability to add, edit and delete such settings.
With much googling, i’ve came to notice that the SGH-L760 uses the same software as the U600, U700 and U900 (tested the U900 at a hand phone shop at Digital Mall about a week ago)
Score: 8 (near perfect, nothing’s perfect in this world anyways)
Camera
I find this section of the review quite disturbing. In the many places Samsung has done right for the SGH-L760, this part is where it failed worst. Unlike its lightning fast and responsive interface, the camera software is extremely laggy.
There are two ways to activate the camera. One is by pressing the camera button found on the side of the phone, while the other through the menu. Either way of activating the camera, it takes about 3-5 seconds to load the camera software. You’ll be entertained with an animated spiral while you wait. Once the camera software loaded, the lag doesn’t ends there. All thanks to the auto-contrast/brightness adjusting setting that the software comes preloaded with (which cannot be disabled) lowers the refresh rate significantly especially when taking twilight shots. It’s like having night mode turned on and there’s no way to disable it.
There’s also no flash, and the picture is grainy even at super fine and maximum resolution setting. Even when compared to other non auto-focus camera phones, the SHG-L760 still pales in comparison to the W850i which is also a 2Mp slider phone.
Another bugging issue is taking pictures itself. On my K750i, after a picture is taken, it’ll be displayed. Press the camera button again and then resume taking pictures. While on the SGH-L760, a second button has to be pressed which is the “back” button when the picture taken is being displayed. And this also lags the software making picture taking painstaking long. There is however an option to disable the preview all together to allow continuous shots to be taken at minimal pause. There is also no shortcut button to access pictures taken while in camera mode. The pictures has to be manually accessed through the main menu (after shutting down the camera software).
Score: 3 (I’m giving it points simply because it has one)
Music
Portable music has become a fad which made music playing a standard feature in all midrange phones. The SGH-L760 comes with a built in media player which supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA format.
I’ve done two separate tests on music playing capability of the SGH-L760 which was reported in TechARP forum. From the two tests, I’ve realized that the SGH-L760 plays high treble songs really well but it did horribly for music with high bass. High bass songs sounded really flat through both the phone’s external speaker and the supplied headset as well. What’s worse is that there’s no equalizer to set bass and treble levels.
Other features is the ability to let the media player to run on the background after the slider is closed. pretty neat feature without having to change slider close options in the phone settings. The media player has the ability to sort songs to their genre, album, and artist but I didn’t venture much into the remaining options and abilities after being terribly letdown by the poor music
quality.
Score: 3 (Also because it because it has one)
Video
Watching videos on the SGH-L760 is a little bitter sweet of an experience. It’s sweet as the large sharp LCD display brings life to the video. Bitter as there’s lack of bass in the sound.
Score: 5 (Great picture, poor sound)
Connectivity: Bluetooth/Internet
Bluetooth: I spend a good portion of my working hours driving, since my work require me to do so, a bluetooth headset has become part of my dressing attire. I’ve tested the SGH-L760 with Nokia’s BH100 bluetooth hands free (b’day gift form Marc and Weang Kean). Usage log is recorded at the TechARP forum. Disconnection of both the BH100 is not uncommon as it does happens with the K750i. And Nokia bluetooth hands free sets are notorious for its compatibility issues. However, i do find that the BH100 is more compatible with my K750i then the SGH-L760. Compatible is the sense that the BH100 disconnects more frequent on the SGH-L760 then the K750i. Usage wise, sound quality is crisp and clear on both phones.
Other then hands free, I also use the bluetooth to transfer pictures to my office PC. An interesting find is when the SGH-L760 and the PC is paired, I can browse through the shared folder of the PC through the phone and the files can be downloaded onto the phone. Really handy feature if that PC is occupied and I need to download something off it.
Internet: Internet access via 3G is not as fast at the telco advertised, it feels worse then 56k connection. Either how, I don’t think that the SGH-L760 should take the blame for the poor internet connection. Anyways, surfing on the built in browser is convenient especially through its large clear LCD display (refer to pic above) even when screen brightness is set to the minimum to conserve energy. Picture is sharp and text are legible eventhough small if compared to SMS fonts.
I’ve no trouble accessing TechARP forum and was able to login and post some comments. Not all websites can be viewed properly through the phone due to its limited cache. And posting in a forum can be a tad tedious since there’s no T9 input and the only input options are miltitap ABC and numbers.
Combined Score: 7 (Internet is fine, bluetooth sometimes troublesome)
Special Feature: blogging/YouTube
Blogging: This is the meat of the sandwich, the main selling feature of the SGH-L760 which is its blogging capability and YouTube streaming.
Blogging is done through ShoZu client that came preinstalled. Activation of the ShoZu client takes only a few minutes through 3G connection. After activating the client on the phone, blogging/uploading settings such as log/facebook/flicker address can be set by visiting ShoZu website through a PC.
Mobile blogging is easy. Just snap a picture, choose the “upload to web” option. Then just fill in the empty fields for title and description (or leave it blank).
And select where you’ll like to have it uploaded which is whatever log/online photo album that was earlier set at ShoZu website.
For this test I revived a long dead blog of mine which is supported by ShoZu since currently ShoZu doesn’t support Friendster blog which I’m currently using. I’ve came across some technicalities where only one mobile blog was posted while four others weren’t although I’ve replicated the same process. All my settings were unchanged since the first mobile blog. But the missing mobile blog were shown in my RSS.
Personally, I wouldn’t regard this as blogging per-se since description is only limited to 50 characters. That’s right, I can only key in 50 characters (including space) for the content. Not much of a content if you ask me. Furthermore it’s impossible to blog without first selecting a picture to upload. Bluntly put, it’s meant for on the spot uploading photos into the internet then blogger type of blogging.
YouTube: Mobile you tube can be accessed at m.youtube.com/ through the phone built in internet browser. It’s responsible for YouTube to warn its users to use unlimited download plan due to its high data transfer for streaming. Once a video is clicked, the built in media player will automatically launch and begin streaming the media. Video streaming was okay to say the least, There was no skips but there occasional graphical artifacts once in a while like watching a scratched pirated VCD. There was no sound skipping but the sound quality was really sub par compared to non mobile youtube. and the collection of video available is very limited. Unlike the PC version of YouTube, to replay the video, the media player will re-downlaod the movie again. I guess the cache is very limited for videos to be stored.
Combined Score: 5 (It can blog and play YouTube, but not great at doing it either)
Others: Games/Radio/Calculator/Memo & Task
Games: The SGH-L760 comes pre-installed with 3 trail version games of which can be accessed through the file manager. It’ll give the first impression that there’ no games until one search further. For a gamer who spend most of his or her time playing java games, it can be troublesome to browse through the file manager all the time to access the games. But it’s also a good move to prevent pesky little nephews and neases from playing with the phone. Just show the phone to them, “see, no games” and they’ll leave you alone 
Installing additional games on the other hand require one to visit mobile fun website to directly downlaod additional games. There’s no option to install games through bluetooth transfer or through the supplied PC sync software. JAR files are unrecognizable by the phone. Personally, I don’t like this feature or should I say, lack of feature.
Radio: Like all other mobile phones, the SGH-L760 uses the supplied headset as an external antenna to receive radio signals. Like the media player, it has an option to let the radio to run on background. I’ve tested the radio both on the road and at home, and on both occasion I was not able to get a clear signal from my favourite radio stations namely FlyFM, 988, AiFM and MyFM. In fact, I could not get clear signals from any stations including government run stations. It’s still audible but with faint white noise at the background. Even RM10 FM radios sold at night market get better reception then the SGH-L760.
Calculator: This is by far the best calculator i’ve ever used. the add, minus, multiply, divide functions are bined onto the directional D pad with an on screen legend which makes using the calculator very easy and fast. Something that my K750i doesn’t have.
Memo & Task: Like the mobile blog, the memo is plagued with a maximum of 50 characters leaving little room for detailed description. Also, it does not have a “sticky” option where important memo/notes are posted on the main screed on idle like the K750i. I’ll need to refer it once in a while. Sure there’s a task function which has an alarm setting to remind at the set time. If i’m going to use that, what’s the use of memo then? Even the task, too has a 50 character limit. At least I’m able to add a 50 character title, and to top it up with another 50 for description, it adds up to 100 characters for task.
Combined Score: 5 (could’ve been lower but the calculator save the day)
SGH-L760 Score Board
Understanding Radar Charts: In a nut shell, the bigger the area, the better the phone.
Final Verdict
Priced at Rm1099 retail, I was expecting more from this phone especially the blogging feature which is truly a let down. Do note that ShoZu supports a wide range of other mobile phones from various manufacturers. So, that doesn’t make the SGH-L760 the only bloggers phone. Although it may be the first to be shipped with it as a basic feature. The only saving grace for this phone is its lightning fast software and stylish appearance. It’s not as bling as the SGH-U series (which i find it over bling) and yet stylish enough to give it that executive feel.
