Samsung Beat review (SGH-T539, T-Mobile)

The Beat's 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in six resolutions from 1,280x1,024 down to 128x160. Other features include a night mode, white balance and brightness settings, multishot and mosaic shot modes, metering exposure, five color effects, 29 fun frames, a self-timer, and a 4x digital zoom. The camcorder takes clips in two resolutions (176x144 and 128x96) with sound and a set of editing options similar to the still camera. Clips meant for multimedia messages are capped at 1 minute, 45 seconds; otherwise you can shoot for as long as the available memory permits. The Beat offers about 40MB of internal storage, but you can use a microSD card for more space.

You can personalize the SGH-T539 with a variety of color themes, wallpapers, and alert sounds. More options and more ringtones are available from T-Mobile's T-Zones service via the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. Gamers get three full titles: Arch Angel, Air Ship Racing, and Bobby Carrot. There's also a demo version of Bubble Bash.

Performance
We tested the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) SGH-T539 world phone in San Francisco using T-Mobile service. Call quality was decent though the volume could be just a tad louder. It wasn't a problem for us, but users with hearing impairments may want to test the phone first. Otherwise, we were satisfied with our experience. Voices sounded natural, we detected no audible interference and we had no trouble getting a signal. The phone did pick up some wind noise, but it wasn't an issue. On their end callers had no complaints, though they could tell were using a cell phone. Moreover, automated answering systems could understand us clearly. Speakerphone calls were also fine as were calls with a Bluetooth headset.

The Samsung SGH-T539 has a rated battery life of 4 hours talk time and 10 hours standby time. In our tests we got a very respectable 6.5 hours of talk time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Beat has a digital SAR rating of 0.597 watts per kilogram.