Samsung F500: Dual-face  with a twist

Only a few months back, Korean phone maker Samsung introduced the first dual-face phone in the market — that is, a phone on one side and a multimedia player on the other.

The dual-face SGH-F300 stormed into the market with no less than singing sensation Beyonce introducing the new phone model with an innovative design. Following its global launch in April, mobile phone enthusiasts have been watching the telecom space for yet another design innovation from Samsung that will push the creativity of its design team further.

The year is not yet over and here comes the sequel — the SGH-F500, a brand-new dual-face phone that is introducing another industry-first feature that is meant to enhance further the multimedia experience in a handyphone.

With the balance between mobile phone and media player retained in its dual-face design, this phone has been completely reinvented to become another thing. The F500 is the first mobile phone to support DivX, which, according to Samsung, is a highly compressed, high-quality video format that enables users to convert and optimize video storage.

Samsung promises that with DivX, users can store up to four movies in its 1GB memory.

To support movie viewing in the F500, its second screen (at the back of the regular phone screen) has been widened to a 2.4" 263K QVGA TFT display. Samsung says the HSDPA (3.5G)-enabled phone allows users to transmit data at broadband speeds five times faster than 3G. Because of this Ultra Video users can download large files.

Compared to its predecessor, the F500 can now be twisted somewhere in the middle, allowing users to angle the screen for better viewing. When twisted, the keypad also becomes a stand for hands-free viewing.

Because the phone is too thin (only 10.7 mm) and flat when you place it on an office desk, the twist or swivel design is a most welcome innovation as it allows users to view movies properly or to select music with ease while working.

The 2.4" widescreen is also most appreciated as the back-screen functions as a viewfinder for the camera and video recorder. When focusing for a shot, it helps a lot that the screen is wide enough.

Still on the back screen, the phone includes a Piscel File Viewer for viewing doc, xls, ppt, pdf, text, html and mhtml. On video format, it plays mpeg4. H.264, WMV and DivX files.

For music and video lovers used to the touch keypads of the most popular brands of multimedia players, the F500 offers the same luxury. Its Touch UI replaces keypad buttons in such a way that you merely sweep your fingers on the screen to navigate through the controls. The back screen features the music and video player, camera, settings, album and the document folder.

Unlike the F300 which makes alternating between the front and back a challenge because it inadvertently switches back and forth between the two sides, the F500 has now better control of the front and back screen, such that while tinkering with the keypads, you will never accidentally switch the phone to its other screen.

This makes the F500 a truly dual-face phone with dual functions completely separate from the other. Moreover, the phone side has also a bigger screen display at 1.5" compared to the 1.4" 65K TFT Sub LCD display of the F300. This difference adds one more line of text when sending or reading SMS.

The entry of the second Samsung dual-face phone in the local market makes this design a standard offering of the Korean phone maker. And the two models banner the company’s efforts to perfect the personal multimedia device for the mobile multimedia generation.

It took this reviewer’s teenage son to discover why the F500 is tops as a personal multimedia device. Since his school does not allow the use of mobile phones in campus and he rarely uses it at home, it was the music and nothing much else matters.

According to Samsung, the F500 can play a wide variety of music files, including MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA. It can also play Music CD files and is compatible with music portals AOL music, MSN music and Yahoo! Music.

Through its PC synchronization function, music files stored in the computer can be easily transferred to the phone and vice versa. The playlist can, and is in fact, modified daily by true blue music lovers. 

The dual-face’s appeal is expanding. On one side you appreciate the phone for its high-end capabilities but flip it over to the other side and you get the feel of how the world sound, look and feel to the multimedia generation — them with their blogs, their touch keypads, their street dance beats, their Multiply accounts. It was the world of Justin Timberlakes, Jay Rocs, Pussycat Dolls, DJ Shadows and instant 24x7 high-speed connectivity.

Then you begin to understand why a mobile phone needs to be a multimedia device at the same time.