Screen
Samsung is one of the leading manufacturers of LCDs on the market, and
it should be no surprise that the Trace's 262K-color display is equally
clear and vibrant indoors and out.
As a mid-level device, the Trace's screen surpasses many competitors
by providing a large 176 x 220 px canvas found on many high-end devices.
The Trace's LCD is is one of Samsung's greatest improvements to the T509.
The increased diagonal space provides a more accurate viewing for images.
Built from TFT (Thin Film Transistor) technology, the transistor circuitry
is built within the glass to enhance brilliance indoors and out while improving
refresh rates for fast moving applications.
Audio
The Samsung Trace has excellent audio quality during phone calls. As
previously explained, the speakerphone is impressive, but when holding the
phone and talking, the sound is a bit weak.
 The
Trace features an MP3 player with a microSD expansion slot, but it isn't
a "music phone" per se, like the LG Chocolate, Motorola SLVR, or the Sony
Ericsson's line of Walkman phones which dedicate functionality to music.
Rather the Trace includes a basic player and interface found on other Samsung
phones, with little or no functional versatility.
Navigating downloads for the Trace is fairly straightforward; the phone
comes with over a dozen ringtones, several downloaded ringtones, and storage
for more. The microSD expansion and 21 MB of internal memory allows for
more downloads than the average mobile, but still the format works best
for photos better than music.
For productivity, the Trace caters to business users by integrating a
voice recorder, convenient for recording short memos.
Messaging
The Samsung Trace offers all text messaging standards for simple text
(SMS) and multimedia messages (MMS); the latter capable of sending video
and photos.
As with all current phones, T-Mobile users have third party email, chat,
and instant messaging capabilities preinstalled to satisfy the regular messengers.
The messenger menu opens to three choices: text message, picture message
or voice note. The basic text messaging system is pretty standard. A user
can send plain text with some additives such as simple graphics or quick
text. Quick text offers a list of pre-texts that can be inserted into text
conversation. This list consists of useful phrases such as: "Call me when
you get this," " When can we meet," "Where are you," and "I am here."
Users may connect to various third-party instant messenger services via
the smiling messenger icons in the main menu. When the playful messaging
bubble icon is opened, the consumer can choose their messaging community
from AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo!. The phone also offers access to
email and various chat rooms.
With text, media, email, and instant messaging available, the Samsung
Trace goes beyond the role of a simple phone and offers a complete messaging
package that should satisfy most users' needs. Consumers should be reminded,
however, that all Internet-based and multimedia services cost extra and
require a special subscription.
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