Barnes and Noble introduces the NOOK
CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 04/27/2005
Open the phone, and the smart design continues. The black finish is again punctuated by a pair of silver rings, one of which surrounds the 1.8-inch-diagonal display. The internal screen, which supports 262,000 colors, is great for viewing photos, playing games, and using the animated menus, available in three styles. The backlighting time is adjustable, but the display disappears in direct light. For text messaging, you can change not only the font size but also use other editing options such as bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough.
Below the display, you'll find the main navigation keys. In another departure from the usual square Samsung design, the controls take a snazzy circular shape. A four-way toggle acts as a shortcut to four user-defined features. Though it's a bit small in size, it gave us no problems when we used it to navigate the easy-to-understand menus. We have one complaint, though: The button in the center of the toggle acts as an OK key when in a menu, but in standby mode, it's merely a shortcut to the Web browser. That means the menus can be accessed through only one of two soft keys--not the ideal arrangement. In addition to the soft keys, a Clear button, a dedicated voice-command control, and the traditional Talk and End keys surround the toggle.
The keypad buttons are ample and attractively designed. Though we normally don't approve of almost-flush keypads, we like that the P207's keys have a slightly curved design. The backlighting is sufficiently bright, but dialing by feel is difficult. Other controls include a volume rocker on the left spine of the phone and a key on the right side that opens the camera and activates the speech-to-text feature (see Features). The headset port is above the volume rocker, but be advised that Samsung has resorted to a proprietary jack.
The Samsung SGH-P207 comes with a solid set of features. Though the voice functions are the top draw, we'll discuss the basic offerings first. The phone book holds 1,000 entries (and 250 more on the SIM card), but because each phone number or e-mail address counts as one entry, the number of total contacts can be significantly less. That said, each contact can hold three phone numbers and an e-mail address. Contacts can be assigned a picture or any of 10 polyphonic ring tones for caller ID purposes, or they can be organized into caller groups. Other features include a vibrate mode, a voice recorder, a calendar, a to-do list, a calculator, a currency-exchange tool, and PC syncing. If you'd rather send a message than make a call, the P207 offers a few options. Support is included for POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail; text and multimedia messaging; and AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ IM. Yet some important features are absent. You don't get a speakerphone, and though the lack of Bluetooth is somewhat understandable, there's no infrared port, either. Because Cingular usually throws an IR port into even the most basic phone, we are puzzled by its absence.The P207's star attraction, however, makes a few omitted features forgivable. This mobile phone is the first sold in the United States with support for speech-to-text dictation; this allows you to speak, rather than type, your text messages into the handset, which will then transcribe them into text. As with any new feature, we aren't surprised that its first incarnation isn't perfect, but we're excited to see it, regardless. During one test, the phone transcribed the spoken message "I will be late" correctly three of five times. The errors weren't terrible, however. It missed the I once and wrote later instead of late once. Fortunately, in the event of a mistake, you can choose from a list of suggested alternatives--and, more impressively, the voice feature can correct some of its own errors, as when it interpreted I as Iowa. Training the feature, which required us to say 122 words and several numbers, took a bit of time, but that's an infrequent necessity. Be aware, though, that you must pause between each word; as a result (and because background noise will interfere), you should avoid using the feature in a public place. It's not completely hands-free, either. You must hold down the key on the phone's right spine when you speak, so it's not appropriate while driving. And because it doesn't work for multimedia messages, e-mails, and IMs, frequent use is unlikely.
As with some other Samsung phones, the P207 comes with an extensive voice-command menu. By pressing the voice key, you can direct the phone to send a text message or dial the number of a new contact (by saying the phone number) or an existing contact (by saying the name). You also can check the mobile's status, signal strength, and battery life; look up your own phone number; and open the calendar, the ring-tone menu, the to-do list, the phone book, and voicemail. We found the voice commands useful, and the phone usually understood our instructions. And we especially liked that the voice-command key is inside the phone, which keeps misdials to a minimum.
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