Samsung SGH-i320N: All your e-mails in a stylishly slim envelope

At the rate technology is moving, pretty soon the common and ordinary will be unrecognizable. That’s how I felt when I got hold of the box containing Samsung’s new SGH-i320N.

When I opened it, I thought: Is this how mobile phones are now these days? Aside from the usual phone and fast charger, it also had headphones, a PC cable, a spare battery and a very portable battery charger. I wondered if Alexander Graham Bell would recognize his invention if he ever woke up from the grave today.

When Blackberry introduced its wide-bodied QWERTY phone in the local market, I expected it to someday spark a trend. And now Nokia, Motorola and Samsung have joined the technological challenge to cram just about everything into a mobile phone. Before, in this text-crazy country at least, the emphasis was SMS. Now it’s sending and receiving e-mail.

The SGH-i320N (someone at Samsung ought to think of a name for this, name recall being an important tool in marketing) is Samsung’s bid in the QWERTY phone market as mobile phones connect more and more to the Internet. The box says it all: "Imagine all your e-mails coming in a stylishly slim envelope." Actually, the phone is Samsung’s second take in the business phone market, the first being the SGH-i320.

At 11.5 mm thick, it’s some envelope. It sounded more like a pocket PC than a mobile phone when I switched it on. I was struck by the fidelity of its stereo speakers on the back. The engineers must have shrunk PC speakers and crammed them in.

Another attention-getter is the phone’s 320 x 240 pixel screen. Simply superb clarity and definition. But don’t think of using it for taking vacation pictures. It’s good but use a real camera for special moments when you can. The phone’s 1.3-megapixel camera is great for taking those unexpected photographic situations when you don’t have a real camera on hand.

Still, the SGH-i320N’s screen and camera clarity made me feel I was using a digital camcorder when I tried it out in our after-New Year family vacation in Palawan. Yes, it takes videos, too. The high image definition is sufficient for preserving treasured memories.

Another joy I like is the phone’s portable spare battery charger, which looks more like a battery container. It allows you to charge up while you’re using your phone.

Battery life is reasonable, good for two days with moderate use. But you’ll have to charge up at the end of the day if you’re one of those phone addicts. I venture to guess that Samsung engineers knew that their new phone would use a lot of juice because of all the doodads and they threw in a spare battery and portable charger to defuse potential irate customers.

But the emphasis of the phone’s design – let us keep in mind – is that it’s a business phone for people who can’t seem to stay in one place for a long time and still do business. Imagine bringing your PC or laptop with you wherever you go. You got the idea.

Aside from the usual Microsoft home screen menus – run by a Windows 5.0 Smartphone Edition – it has a tiny toolbar at the bottom of the screen to enable you to quickly access functions, especially those you use often.

With a phone memory of 120 MB and an expansion slot for a MicroSD memory card, the phone can keep a lot of stuff but still manage to run reasonably fast enough with its 416MHz processor and 64 MB of RAM. We know that the scourge of storing a lot of info, pictures, video, phone numbers and what else is that it can slow down a device.

The SGH-i320N (you really need a good memory to know what phone model this is) has dedicated button for text and e-mail, which is managed Microsoft Outlook-style. Emphasis on e-mail, remember?

Its sleek, black monolithic design is very corporate or businesslike. At 111 x 59 mm and weighing 95 grams, it feels good in the hand. Not too thick, not too wide, which is good for people with small hands.