Features:
The Samsung U800 SoulB is a 111 x 46 x 9.9 mm mobile that weighs a mere 90.4 g. It is very thin and exceptionally sleek. The SoulB sports a 240 x 320 pixels screen that supports up to 16 Million colours. Other features include the now standard Bluetooth and USB2.0 connections.
The U800 also comes equipped with a 3.6 Mbps HSDPA modem. The mobile comes with 1GB of onboard memory which is very useful since it has a good camera.
The Samsung SoulB has a 3.15 MP camera that supports resolutions up to 2048×1536 pixels. The one feature of the camera that I absolutely loved was that it offers an option to enable a “grid” view when taking a photo.
The secret behind many great photographs is not to center the subject of your photograph but divide the photo into thirds, and make sure your subject fits in one third of the photograph. I have never seen this option on a camera before and it is a very welcome addition.
The Soul B also comes with built in Shozu support that works incredibly well. As you take a photo you can share it immediately via Shozu and thanks to the 3.6 Mbps modem, the photo uploads at lightning speeds.
Some other basic features of the SoulB include a FM Radio with RDS support and MP3/AAC/eACC+/WMA support. The sound quality is not bad, but I have heard better. We are also presented with an office document viewer, organizer and built-in hands-free option which is perfect for driving. The sound quality for the hands-free was impressive and the person on the other end of the call could hear me perfectly.
Applications:
Since the SoulB supports JAVA MIDP 2.0 applications I could install all my favourites. First to be installed was Opera Mini Browser. Naturally there were no problems installing it and it ran very smoothly and loaded up exceptionally quick.
Next I installed MXiT and Nimbuzz and both applications installed perfectly. I found that I got more battery life out of Nimbuzz, but thats probably more of an application feature than anything indicative of the SoulB. Taking photos and sending them from within the application gave no problems so thumbs up there.
Battery Life:
This is the part of review I’ve been dreading. 3 Hours. Thats it, after charging the phone for 16 hours I logged into MXiT and in just over 3 Hours the battery was dead. It is unforgivable. This great little phone is ruined by it’s battery life.
They do only promise us around 3 hours and 20 minutes talk time so I shouldn’t be surprised but it is really a very negative aspect. Nimbuzz clocked in at just over 4 hours. Now to give you an idea of why I’m so disappointed, with Nimbuzz for Nokia N70 that I got in 2006, I can stay logged into MXiT all day and my battery ends the day on about 30%. If I use Nimbuzz instead all day, I have about 60% left at the end of the day.
Fortunately, the Samsung DOES charge while connected to a pc via its USB cable. This is especially useful when making use of the U800 as a modem.
Conclusion:
If it weren’t for the battery life, the Samsung SoulB U800 would be an amazing little phone. Even though you cannot have multiple applications open at the same time, the other features would make up for it. Unfortunately, the battery life is beyond terrible.
If you are a social person and you use your cellphone a lot during the day, especially for running applications, this cellphone is NOT for you. If you’re the type of person that occasionally receives an SMS and makes a few calls, the Soul B will be a great little mobile.
