| 01 JULY 2005 |
| Samsung
e317 Mobile Phone |
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With the wide variety of cell phones
available on the market today, choosing a cell phone can be more
time consuming than ever. In fact, it's almost like
picking out clothes. You want to choose something that was
designed well and basically fits and suits your needs. It
is interesting to take a look at how different companies design
their cell phones and the tradeoffs that go along with it.
For instance, a cell phone's average display may be made up for
with an abundant set of features, or vice-versa.
The Samsung e317 is a compact,
stylish phone. As a budget phone, this phone provides all the
basic features, and more, that most people want in a cell phone.
As expected with many flip phones, this phone offers a mediocre
battery life, however, many people will still choose this phone
because of its compact package with an intuitive interface.
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The Samsung e317 is immediately seen
as a smaller clamshell
design compared with similar phones. The phone has a
silver design with a patch of black on the front of the
clamshell which prevents the phone from looking bland. Because
this phone has been out for quite a while already and is now
considered a budget phone, buyers will be immediately attracted
to the screen on the clamshell lid. There are still many
budget phones on the market that still don't have a screen on
the front.
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The screen in front may look just a
tad small at first, but when you see the screen light up for the
first time, you will realize how adequate it is. The
screen is intended to show the time, data, reception quality,
battery life, and small things like whether you have a voicemail
message waiting. Because this screen is well
organized, it does make the screen more spacious than it
actually is. Although not
of great importance, there is a green LED below the screen that
flashes in intervals that just tell you the phone is active. |
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| When opening the phone, you can see the unique design of how the
lid fits well into the base of the phone where the keys are.
The edges of the base of the phone are tilted upward to form a
'cup' around the keys. This actually helps provide some
grip when holding the base of the phone.
The base of the
phone has your typical layout. You have your numbered keys
at the bottom, and the main function buttons around the top with
a directional pad. Nearly all flip phones follow this same
layout. The only difference between phones is the shape
and feel of the keys. The keys on this phone are pretty
much all flat, with the exception of the directional pad which
has an almost unnoticeable curvature.
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This phone has very few button
around the sides of the phone. You just have your basic up
and down volume control on the left side of the phone and a
camera button on the right side.
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The right side of the phone has an
infrared port and a snapshot button. The snapshot button
is used to take pictures with the built in camera when you are
in 'Snapshot' mode. The infrared port is used to transfer
data between a device such as a computer and the phone.
What this phone lacks in is
expandability. It only has a single port at the bottom of
the phone which is mainly used for the charging the phone.
I suspect you may also be able to find a headset that will work
with the phone, but that's about it.
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As with any phone, the physical
phone itself is only half the story. It is also important
that the interface of the phone works well with its built in
features. Overall, I found the interface to be fairly
organized. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the color
of the main screen, but I noticed the menus generally used the
similar colors to make it easier to navigate. When
navigating from menu from menu, the menus are mainly in list
format. There may be the ocassional menu which uses large
icons.
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The built in camera is more of a
novelty. This camera can be used to take general pictures
of other people's faces, or you can even take a picture to
change the background of the main screen. Other than that,
don't rely on the picture quality if you want to take pictures
of more memorable moments. |
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The Samsung e317 is a very likeable
phone for budget phone buyers. The phone is very compact
and still manages touch base well on all the basic features.
You will probably have to look at other phone offerings if you
are looking for more advanced features such as Bluetooth or more
advanced multimedia capabilities. This phone has most of the features that you would expect in
more expensive phones, but they are basic at most. In
general, this phone can be customized to some degree in terms of
ring tones, games, and settings. The primary way of
obtaining new ring tones or games is by buying it online through
the phone. You can probably find this phone free with
activation with a wireless phone provider or easily less than
$100.
Reviewed by
ronald@digitalreviews.net
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