This phone is probably the coolest looking phone out there, and there's precious few sacrifices made with it. The internal antenna gives me pertty good reception, for T-mobile (San Diego, CA). The camera is just about the best I've seen in a mobile phone. It has adjustable brightness, and a zoom feature (of questionable quality). The best part is that if you have a laptop or other computer with an infrared port, you can use the free software available on Samsung's website (EasyGPRS) to move pictures off the phone, and upload wallpapers and ringtones to the phone, without paying WAP charges. So far, I've been totally happy with the battery life, but then I'm not snapping pictures three hours a day, or expecting it to go for weeks without recharging. The external display is a blue organic LED, not color. It's not a downside-- the signal strength, clock, and battery icons are always on and lit-- also helps finding your phone in the dark. The main part of the external LED is used for an analog or digital clock which stays on for an adjustable amout of time after closing the phone, and as a grayscale viewfinder for using the camera in self-portrait mode. Photos attached to the caller ID don't show up on the outside, just the text caller ID. Overall, a great little phone for GSM 900/1900 use.
Regarding a couple of things I saw in other reviews: Yes, the battery life is short on the first couple of charges. This is mentioned in the manual, and isn't uncommon for Li batteries that have sat around for a couple of months. Just charge it up all the way, run it until the battery warning goes off (sounds like a doorbell chime), charge it up all the way, and you'll be fine.
The IR port: it can't talk to other phones or PDAs. It can (and does) work with the IrDA port on a Win2k or WinXP machine, and Samsung's easy GPRS software. You can use it to upload 128x128 pixel images for wallpaper, upload ringtones (I've uploaded a number of .mmf files, all work just fine), and download pictures from the camera to the PC. You can also use it as a modem, letting your computer access the net using the GPRS system-- note that unless you have the unlimited GPRS plan, you'll pay by the MB. Still, kind of nice to be able to check your e-mail from anywhere.
Pros:
Stylish, lightweight, seems pretty durable
Excellent internal and external screens
Super-easy connectivity without shelling out for a data cable (if you have IrDA on your computer)
Very customizable ringtones and wallpapers
Best phone-camera I've seen so far
Cons:
Slight buzzing noise when using the phone in a very quiet place, nothing major
Reception so-so (but that's more T-mobile than the phone, I think)
The phone comes with NO decent ringtones, if you don't want a song or the t-mobile jingle, you'll want to download a "normal" ringtone right off the bat. Some of the more annoying ringtones use the three-color LED on the front to make your phone look like a disco. Yech.
Not a tri-band, so it can't do GSM 850/1800 regions
Default settings "out of the box" seem to be designed to annoy you and everyone around you (loud t-mobile jingle ringtone, loud keypad tone, annoying flashing leds indicating service, ugly T-mobile/Catherine Zeta-Jones wallpaper).
Everybody wants to play with your phone, which can get annoying ;)
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