Introduction

Much of the SGH-V205 looks similar to its predecessor. The SGH-V205 incorporates a 65K color screen, polyphonic ring tones and a clamshell design. But looks can be deceiving. Hidden in the hinge of the phone is a built-in digital camera. Underneath you'll find many other surprises. Some good, some bad.

Design

Samsung released the SGH-V205, successor to the extremely popular SGH-S105 in 2003. Much like the SGH-S105, the SGH-V205 has a 65K color screen, polyphonic ring tones, and the same clamshell design. Much of the applications are similar as well.

The SGH-V205 has a 65,000 color TFD screen. This results in brighter, richer colors. This phone also boasts an astonishing 40 instrument polyphonic ring tone capabilities. This more than doubles the 16 instrument SGH-S105.

The Samsung SGH-V205 comes with a great set of multimedia features. One of the most notable is the built-in camera. Users can take pictures with your phone, with no accessories to buy. The camera sits in the top hinge of the phone and has the ability to rotate 180 degrees.

On the outside the SGH-V205 is just about the same as the SGH-S105. If you like clamshells, you'll like its conventional design. At 91 x 48 x 23 mm, its slips easily in a pocket, and is big enough to hold in your hand easily while talking. When open, the phone extends about 6 inches total, which should be perfect for people's faces. Also, an antenna sticks out about an inch. At 96 grams it's slightly larger and heavier than the SGH-S105.

An outer cover has an external monochrome LCD display that shows the day, date, time, charge level, and network status. When a new call comes in, the phone number is shown, or tells you that you missed a call.

A disappointing feature we would have liked to see is voice dialing. If voice dialing is important to you, look elsewhere now. You won't find it here. Also since the SGH-V205's applications are so very similar to the SGH-S105, some menus overlap one another. So if you've read the SGH-S105 review, much of this review will look familiar.

Screen

Absolutely fabulous. At 65K colors, this 128 x 160 px color TFD screen is even better than the already incredible SGH-S105 screen. It should be noted that the screen is divided into 3 parts. There's a top toolbar, the center where the wallpaper is, and a bottom toolbar. The actual area for the viewable area for the wallpaper is 128 x 128 px. The screen measure 1.7 inches diagonally for a large viewing area.

The external monochrome LCD is 96 x 64 screen with a slightly reflective bluish backgrounds. This makes it easier to read with little light outside.

Controls

The SGH-V205 has interconnected keys, which might be inconvenient when you try to dial by feeling. Keys on the same row become difficult to differentiate since they are all joined. Other than that, the keypad is fine.

The SGH-V205 is also equipped with a 4 direction keypad. This is fine for a phone, but we really like the 5-way jog dials of the Sony Ericsson. If you've used one, you'll know what I'm talking about.

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.