Pros
·
An incredible 65K color TFD display. Even better than the already top of
the line SGH-S105.
· 40 chord polyphonic ring tones. Ring tones so beautiful, you'd swear
they were MP3s.
· Class 8 GPRS support. With all the downloading this phone can do, it's
good to know you won't be waiting a lifetime.
· Excellent reception and sound quality. The SGH-S105's external antenna
holds small signals extremely well. You won't have problems calling out,
and if you do, you're out of your service provider's range.
· Multimedia Messaging. Even without email you can send messages to an
email address.
Cons
· No email. "Huh? They still make phones without email?" Apparently they
do.
· No voice dialing or commands. Ahhh...
· Samsung got rid of downloadable MIDlets. So now you're stuck with the
same games that were preinstalled on the SGH-S105. At least they could have
changed games.
· You can't add new words to the T9 predictive text. A huge drawback
if you're a messaging maniac.
· Connectivity is just about as bad as it gets. Can't transfer anything
through infrared. No pictures, no ring tones, no games, nothing.
· No profile settings. This seems to be a common feature in other phones.
· Can't ring and vibrate at the same time. You can either ring, or vibrate,
or vibrate first then ring.
Conclusion
The thing that baffles us is that Samsung enhanced some feature in the
SGH-V205, yet has also taken away some things we loved about the SGH-S105. You would
think that they would constantly be improving newer models.
The
major addition to the SGH-V205 is the built-in camera. However without the
ability to easily transfer pictures from your phone to a computer, it's
severely hinders its usefulness. The only thing you can do is set them on
your background. In our tests, the pictures taken with the camera were decent,
but not printable quality.
Regardless, the color screen is amazing. You really have to see it to
appreciate the brightness and clarity of the screen. Be forewarned, once
you set your eyes on it, your old phone will look terrible.
Another improvement was the ring tone quality. Samsung stays top of the
line with the introduction of the SGH-V205's 40 chord polyphonic ring tone.
Quite simply unbelievable.
One enormous drawback is the lack of connectivity to a computer. Infrared
is a joke. Expect to buy multimedia for your phone. Pretty much the only
thing you can use infrared for is to use your phone as a modem.
The downloadable MIDlets made the SGH-S105 that much more appealing. Unfortunately,
such functions are not found on the SGH-V205.
With all the changes the SGH-V205 has compared to the SGH-S105, you might want
to weigh your options before you choose. On one hand, the SGH-S105 has more
multimedia features and connectivity. But the SGH-V205 has a better screen and
enhanced ring tones.
Either way, both phones do very well in our reception tests, and both
are good phones. But overall we preferred the SGH-S105 slightly over the SGH-V205
due to its flexibility. However connectivity doesn't really bother you,
and you tend to stick with the same wallpapers, ring tones, and games, then
the SGH-V205 might be a better choice for you. Either way, we didn't think the
SGH-V205 was a huge improvement over the SGH-S105 and gave it a rating of:
Above Average
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