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The Samsung SGH-T809's camcorder takes videos with sound in two resolutions: 128x96 and 176x144. There are two choices for video length; those meant for a multimedia message are capped at 30 seconds, or you can film for however much memory is available. Editing options are similar to the still camera's, but the grainy videos are of average quality. You can save your shots and clips to the phone's 70MB of shared memory or to the TransFlash card. One 32MB card is included with the phone.
The Samsung SGH-T809 also comes with a serviceable MP3 player. You can play music stored on the phone or on the TransFlash card and transfer it between the two locations. But what's really cool is that you even can accept MP3 files sent via Bluetooth. You can organize tracks into playlists and utilize a variety of settings--including repeat and shuffle modes, as well as equalizer and 3D sound--which didn't seem to do much. The player's interface is user-friendly and attractive, with a number of graphics to match the playing music and two interface designs.
You can personalize the Samsung SGH-T809 with different wallpaper, color themes, and sounds. If you want more options, you can download them through the WAP 2.0 wireless Web browser. Gaming options are plentiful, with five tiles included: Forgotten Warrior, Freekick, Arch Angel, Tetris, and Block Breaker Deluxe. As always, if you want more choices, you'll have to buy them from T-Mobile.
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Samsung SGH-T809 world phone in San Francisco using T-Mobile's service. Call quality was generally good, with adequate volume and clarity. Voices sounded a bit metallic, however, and callers could tell without being asked that we were using a cell phone. The phone picked up a bit of wind noise, but we noticed no significant interference from other electronic devices. The speakerphone calls were loud enough, but the metallic voice quality was exacerbated. We quickly paired the SGH-T809 with the Plantronics Explorer 320 Bluetooth headset and experienced similar audio quality when we were on normal calls.Audio quality on the Samsung SGH-T809's MP3 player is about what you'd expect. It can't compare to that of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones, such as the W800i or even the Motorola Rokr E1, but it's not terrible either. There isn't much in the way of bass, but if you're hungry for some tunes and your MP3 player is at home, it will do the trick.
The Samsung SGH-T809 has a rated talk time of 3 hours and a promised standby time of six days. The talk time was on the low side for a GSM phone, and we got 3.5 hours in our tests. Our standby time was also low at 4.5 days. According to FCC radiation tests, the SGH-T809 has a digital SAR rating of 0.32 watt per kilogram.
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