Sound Quality

Samsung follows suit with the SGH-E715. Like the V205 and S105 before that, The SGH-E715 has excellent sound quality. Incoming calls are crisp and clear. There are also no significant traces of background hiss common in GSM phones. Outgoing calls are just as clear in quiet environments, as in noisy ones. From a sound clarity perspective there are no major flaws or complaints.

RF Performance

Samsung has created a new type of internal antenna it calls an Intenna. The Intenna is a convergence design innovation, which includes the traditional functions of antennae, like the receiving function. It receives and transmits voice, data, images, and email, over a global wireless internet based network. All while being neatly concealed inside the phone.

But how does it perform. We're glad to say that the SGH-E715's Intenna has excellent RF performance. Compared to its predecessor, the SGH-E715 even outperforms the V205's external antenna. Compared to such phones as the Sony Ericsson T610 or Samsung S300, the SGH-E715 is in a league of its own. It can be safe to say that reception worries can be put to rest. The SGH-E715 will have no problems with reception from a hardware perspective. Tower distance and signal strength is another matter. The SGH-E715's Intenna is just as good as it claims. And the fact that it's internal makes it even more impressive. Overall the reception gets our rating of:

Pros

· Bright and colorful 65,000 color TFT display. Although similar to the V205, its still one of the best on the market.

· Incredible sounding polyphonic ring tones. The SGH-E715 plays up to 40 simultaneous tones, and contains one of the largest tone banks on the market. It sounds so realistic that you'd think they might be MP3s.

· Lots of camera features. Although the picture quality of the camera is average, features such as zoom, built-in flash, filters, and frames give the SGH-E715 added flexibility and customizability that makes camera phones fun.

· Solid messaging functionality. SMS, MMS, and EMS are included. What more could you ask for?

· Enormous 9 MB of internal memory. Much of it is partitioned, but plenty of room to store pictures, ring tones, and games.

· Excellent reception and sound quality. The new Intenna provides reception comparable to an external antenna, but with the sharp looks that an internal antenna provide.

· Downloadable Java games. The SGH-E715 has the J2ME game platform. There are currently already hundreds of games available online already. Some are free for download, some require a fee.

Cons

· No email client. If you plan on setting up POP3, IMAP4, or SMTP accounts, the SGH-E715 doesn't come with a 3rd party client. The closest thing to email it has is through MMS and your service provider.

· Weak audio capabilities. Lack of speakerphone, FM radio, and MP3 player.

· No Bluetooth. If you don't need it then its no big deal.

Conclusion

While not perfect, Samsung has released a solid phone. The SGH-E715 comes at a time when there is stiff competition from many great phones on the market. The Sony Ericsson T610, Nokia 3300, and Siemens SL55 are a few to name. But the SGH-E715 had large shoes to fill. The V205 before it had many amazing features. It had a 65,000 color screen, 40 chord polyphonic ring tones, and rotating camera.

While these features look oddly familiar in the SGH-E715 specs, many improvements have been made to make it even better. For instance, a built-in flash and improved OLED front screen, and downloadable J2ME games were added. And internal memory was increased.

Typically the aesthetics of phone design has conflicted with the functionality of the external antenna. And many people have wanted strong reception, but have sacrificed it for the more appealing internal antenna look. But the SGH-E715 combines the best of both worlds. The reception is truly exceptional for an internal antenna. In some cases better than some external antenna phones. With the Intenna, will get what they've wanted for years now.

Samsung has kept many strengths of the V205 as in the SGH-E715. The bright and crisp 65,000 color screen and 40 tone polyphonic ring tones are still top of the line. However the phone has not been able to keep up with the audio capabilities of other competitors. Nowadays phones have built-in FM radios, MP3 players, and speakerphones. All mysteriously missing from the SGH-E715's application menus.

Nevertheless, Samsung has listened to its customers and fixed some flaws the V205 had. It made synchronization and connectivity much easier, and added support for the J2ME downloadable game platform.

Overall, the SGH-E715 is a great phone. The major factors such as design, screen, ring tones, messaging, and connectivity are all one of the best in the market. However, with a few missing features here and there, the SGH-E715 becomes vulnerable to competition Most notably the lack of Bluetooth, audio features, and email. Many phone users will be more than happy the SGH-E715. However, users with specific needs might be turned away by one of the missing features. But overall, we think the SGH-E715 is a great phone and deserves a rating of:

< Prev Next >

This article is Copyright 2002-2008 Mobiledia Corp. and the review in part or in whole may NOT be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from Mobiledia. For information on reproducing any part of this review (or any images) please contact us.