Samsung’s Live Loud campaign has struck their packaging and made it look kick ass. Currently, Samsung Mobile have a few phones launched for their Live Loud Campaign and this includes a phone we recently got to view – the Samsung SGH F400. We were able to get one up close and review it for a couple of days. Our verdict: WOW.

It is ironic to say that one of the best features of the F400 is the fact that it borrows the Nokia S60 platform as its operating system. This seems to be the trend now with phone manufacturers licensing competitor OS’es as a way to transition users into their brand. Nokia is big in Asia. So is Samsung. So a stylish Samsung phone that runs an ease-of-use Nokia S60? Cool beans. Not a lot of manufacturers have licensed S60 – I can only name Siemens with the SX1 many many years ago and it sucked. Well guess what, the F400 integrates S60 pretty well sans the Nseries standard functions such as WiFi connectivity.

What sets the F400 apart as well is its rubberized scroll wheel which comes out when the top half of the phone slides down (sliding up the SGH F400 reveals the keypad). This brings up a music scroll menu that’s so hardcore, it makes me wonder why the iPod didn’t figure this half circle layout before. The rubber really helps the tactile feedback and helps me choose songs. Pressing down on the rubber pad actually makes a selection. Let’s go to audio: the Bang and Olufsen speakers are truly amazing. They’re loud and crisp.

One gripe I have about the phone is the proprietary headphone connector. Music phones, by standard usually have a 3.5mm jack so that you can attach any sort of earphone brand available. Samsung makes use of a proprietary connector similar to the one it uses for the charger.

Overall, the SGH F400 is a great music phone. The camera is good. The audio and B&O speakers are fantastic. It doesn’t have WiFi but it does have 3G. The fact that it makes use of a Nokia OS allows those people familiar with the Finnish architecture want to switch to something as stylish as a Samsung with almost zero learning curve.

Pros
Good integration of Nokia S60 platform
Decent camera
Ultra loud audio
Mind blowing alternative selection interface with the “rubberized wheel”

Cons
Proprietary headphone connector

Post from: Cellphone9

Exactly a year ago, Samsung was working on releasing a mobile phone – the Samsung u740 that featured a dual-type keypad that exploited both numerical and QWERTY keypad in one sitting. A year later, Samsung took a different direction and offered dual SIMS in one phone, widgetized user interfaces, and even outsourcing a competitor’s operating system to come up with one of the most kick ass music mobile phones this year.

Post from: Cellphone9

Note: This device was previously confused with a Samsung F400.

Wowzers! Here are some photos of the new Samsung SGH i450. This is obviously Samsung’s high end music phone calling forth the serious technology of Bang and Olufsen speakers built into the real estate. The SGH F400 borrows the dual slider that the Nokia N95 made popular. Sliding the body upwards reveals the keypad while sliding the top downwards turns the phone into music mode. The interesting thing about the latter form is that the touch sensitive navigation is made of rubber for easier thumb gripping and scrolling. Ingenious really! This mode also pulls out the rich B&O speaker that’s dominant on the phone’s top.

The SGH i450 also comes with the Song ID feature that the Motorola ROKR E8 boasts. I guess music phones are now having this as a staple in their feature set.

The complete set of features of the Samsung SGH i450 includes:

HSDPA Connectivity
B&O ICEpower Amplifier
Digital Natural Sound Engine
3Mp camera with LED flash
FM Radio with RDS
Music Recognition Software
3.5mm audio jack compatible
24MB internal memory with up to 4GB of microSD support

Photos taken by myself during the 2008 Samsung Mobile Roadshow.

Post from: Cellphone9