Digital Trends

Samsung SCH-u620 April 9th, 2007 | by Stewart Wolpin

Testing and Use

Like the LG VX9400, both picture and reception of the V CAST Mobile TV service on this phone are excellent. But LG's reception is a bit more consistent, and the colors and black levels of the actual TV picture are both superior on the slightly larger LG LCD.

Also like the LG, when a call comes in while you're watching TV, you are asked if you want to answer or ignore the call. But after the call, the u620 asks you if you want to resume your TV viewing; the LG just assumes you want to continue watching and automatically switches you back after around five seconds.

As a phone, calls over Verizon's EV-DO network are actually a bit crisper and clearer on the u620, with plenty of volume and less of the ambient noise problem from the other end of the call that we experienced with the LG. Ringtones are not as loud as the LG VX9400, but are still loud enough. TV sound through the speaker was shrill and scratchy compared to the LG.

As with most Samsung camera phones, the camera shutter on the u620 seems to operate on its own inner clock. There's a seemingly interminable chasm of a couple of seconds between the time you push the button and the time the picture actually gets snapped. Indoors, this is a good thing, because the camera will have stopped moving post-button pushing when the image is actually captured, resulting in less blur. But you're just as likely to move the phone — thinking either there was something wrong with the device or the picture already got snapped and you missed it — before the image does get captured, resulting in a poorly-framed, blurry image requiring an "Erase" and re-shoot.

After you have waited patiently for the shutter to click, the resulting pictures from this phone compare unfavorably not only to the LG, but to most 1.3 MP camera phones. Images are bleached with no contrast and inaccurate colors, both indoors and out.

Like the LG, getting pictures out of the camera is a challenge. Neither phone lets you transmit images from the camera to a PC via Bluetooth.

This phone also lags behind the LG in EV-DO Web access. Access time is two to five seconds slower on the u620, and pages fill two or three seconds faster on the LG.

Rated battery life on the u620 is 210 minutes (3.5 hours) for talk, a bit less than the LG, and 250 minutes (8-plus days) standby, a bit more than the LG. But while the LG let us watch TV for six hours on a single charge, the Samsung ran for just about its rated talk time, a little less than three-and-a-half hours.


Conclusion

If this were the only phone with V CAST Mobile TV, we'd have lots of good things to say about it. It's an above average phone, which is good. But for $50 more, you can get a truly superior and much cooler phone, the LG VX9400.


Pros:

• V CAST Mobile TV capable
• Slider design
• EV-DO connectivity
• Stereo Bluetooth
• External microSD slot

Cons:

• Constant vertical/horizontal orientation issues
• Poor camera images
• Short TV-watching battery life
• No stereo Bluetooth for TV listening