Samsung Omnia 7 Mobile Phone Full Review

This is my full review of the Samsung Omnia 7 Mobile Phone. This new handset runs Windows Phone 7 operating system. It also has a 1GHz processor, a 4-inch super AMOLED display and 8GB of memory. Check out my review to see how it performs.

Current battery life for me between charges: 28 hours.


Manufactured by: Samsung

PC Build Series - Video 6 - Installing LG BluRay Drive & Samsung SATA Hard Drives

Without hard drives your PC won't really do much, so in this video I show you the LG BluRay Drive & Samsung SATA Hard Drives being installed.


LG BH10LS30 BluRay Drive price at time of build £99.
Samsung HD103SJ 1TB Hard Drive price at time of build £49.34 each.

One video every day, so keep checking back on the Geekanoids Channel for the next instalment.

Manufacturer websites:
Optical Drive: http://www.lg.com/uk/
Hard Drives: http://www.samsung.com/uk/

Samsung Story Station 1.5TB Hard Drive Review

I personally use a LOT of storage space. Producing video eats up terrabytes, so having some reliable backup solution is very important. The Samsung Story Station offers up some serious storage in a nice looking package. You will also find a handy formatting tip for Mac users. Check out the review below.

Product: Samsung Story Station 1.5TB Hard Drive
Price: Under £100
Supplied by: Scan Computers
Contact: 0871 472 4747

Samsung X830 Review - tiny MP3 mobile goodness

The Samsung X830 definitely tries to buck the current trend of smart phones that (try) to do everything. Personally, I have been caught up in the task of finding myself the ultimate mobile phone, something for emails, music, computer connectivity, web browsing, the list is just endless. With all this going on inside my mobile often ends up being a bit brick or slab-like.

When the X830 arrived in the office and I opened the box, the first impression, after picking my jaw up off the floor was "Where's the phone". This thing is tiny, a really beautiful handset. About the size of a Milky Way (the edible kind) the front sports a thin upright screen with a 128 x 220 resolution. Underneath the screen is a click wheel, which physically rotates for navigating the menus. It also acts as a 4 way directional button, with a fifth button for selecting items in the middle.
The left side of the handset has a hold button, for preventing accidental clicks whilst listening to music. On the right are the volume buttons, plus a nice hard plastic cover that swivels around to reveal the earphone and charging sockets.
The back of the phone sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, with 4x digital zoom, night mode and various other effects.

Getting inside the phone is wonderful, you rotate the whole front in a clockwise motion, to reveal the keypad. The swivel action is fantastic, you will be playing with it for hours. It snaps out in a nice vertical position every time, obviously a lot of thought went into this. The keypad is a nice size, with two additional soft keys and a clear button that doubles to activate the camera.

The menu system carries on the brilliant design of the handset. Although you can change the colour scheme, the default duotone, red and white, is really effective. You can move through the menus either by clicking the wheel in the appropriate place or by rotating it. The main screen menu gives you access to a call log, applications, messages, camera, phonebook, browser, files and your settings.
I won't delve into every menu here, but should mention the two great java based games you get. First up is Cannonball, which is a modern day pong type game. It has nice colourful graphics and is surprisingly addictive. The second game, Forgotten Warrior is a mini RPG game with a platform flavour. Seems like Apple's influence is everywhere, the first item I found was a iKey! Well, the graphics are nice and colourful and it kept me amused for a good half hour at a time…  

Now onto the biggest feature, where the X830 really excels. This tiny tiny little phone houses an MP3 player, plus the ability to record and playback MPEG4 files. The music side of things supports MP3, ACC, AAC and WMA files. You get 1GB of built-in memory, so plenty for carrying around a couple of days worth of tracks. In closed mode you simply press and hold the centre button to get into MP3 mode. The display tells you the track title, duration, time played, and number of tracks in current selection. In the background the display shows you exactly what the click wheel and centre button will do the the track (eg. play, pause, skip). You can select your tracks by recently played, mot played, artist, album, genre, podcasts, or by playlists. The built in speaker does a very good job for playback and actually goes quite loud. However, it goes without saying that things sound a whole lot better though the earphones.
With the screen rotated into the open position, you can also play back your music tracks accompanied by a nice visual display, which is very colourful and effective.

So, the camera is pretty good, with nice clear outdoor images. Even indoor snaps (see Excite Truck) are acceptable. The screen, although small, is bright and nicely detailed. The user interface is brilliant and a joy to navigate with the scroll/click wheel. Where the phone intends to excel, it really doesn't disappoint, the music playback is awesome. All this is wrapped up in an ultra cool design. If you are looking for something a bit different, that does all the above with style, plus makes a very usable mobile phone too, then the X830 is the way to go. Well done Samsung, if you keep releasing handsets like this my piggy bank will empty pretty quickly.

Product: Samsung X830
Supplied by: Samsung UK
Contact: 0870 726 7864

 

Samsung 215TW LCD Monitor - Spot on!

The Samsung 215TW is one of the few products I was actually happy to purchase for Geekanoids, without seeing it first. I had heard so many good things about it that I was just hoping that the rare occasion when my wallet comes out, was justified.

Samsung offer a lot of monitors in their range, and there are so many choices from other manufacturers. Apart from the reviews, the 215TW boasts an impressive specification. Of note, the 21-inch 1680x1050 panel offers 1000:1 contrast, is nice and bright at 300cd/m2, and has a nice 178 degree viewing angles. The panel is also true 24-Bit, so there is no trickery like found in some cheaper panels to achieve the 16.7 million colour display. Although I didn't buy this to play games, the 8ms response rate makes it ideal for gaming and video playback too. On the rare occasion I have played a game, there was no ghosting or noticeable lag.

Connections are very impressive, with DVI and VGA inputs I can have two computers connected at the same time. You are also treated to composite, s-video and component video inputs. Just for the fun of it I tried a DVD player through the composite video connections, and I was really impressed. Colours were punchy and the crispness and detail would be hard to beat.

My main use for the 215TW is graphic work, encompassing Photoshop, Quark Xpress, Freehand (yes, I still use Freehand) and a lot of web based work. The colour accuracy is very impressive and the display backlight is so uniform, it really is hard to find fault. Well, the only thing negative I can say is that the 215TW is so difficult to move. It has a very nice slide mechanism for adjusting the height of the display, which makes it difficult to lift. Thank goodness that you don't have to move these things very often.

There are a lot of cheaper monitors out there, some even adding an extra inch whilst still be cheaper. Be warned though, these cheaper monitors use different display technology. They would be OK for gaming, but if you are serious about graphic orientated work, then it is worth spending that little bit extra. There is no better test than seeing a monitor with your own eyes, but if you are not able to do this and you rely on mail order, then give a Samsung 215TW a go... I am certain you will not regret it.

Product: Samsung 215TW
Price: £360
Purchased from: Pixmania UK
Contact: 08700 118 117