Samsung S500i

Overall, the S500i is a good phone but not if you want to use it for anything serious!

I received the Samsung S500i for Christmas and I think overall it's a good quality phone. I like flip phones such as this because if you are clumsy like me, then if you accidentally drop the phone the screen has more protection. This is the first Samsung mobile I have had but I have found it really easy to use, so simple!

The battery is a bit of a let down, my mobile can't seem to last more than 3 days without having to charge it. Okay, I use the camera, iMode etc, but what is the point in having them on your phone if you are not going to use them.

The camera quality is ok, however, the most annoying part of the camera is once you have taken the photo you have to make sure you hold the phone and what ever you are taking a picture of still for about another 5 seconds. It's not that long to hold but it's rubbish if you are taking a picture with all your mates, or at gig etc, you can get them to just stand still or else it becomes blurry.

The video is good, sound and picture quality is really good! Can't fault them on this. However, I would like to have seen this phone store longer video clips.

MP3 player is also very good, stores whole songs, downloads them off iMode or from a friend.

I have not purchased a memory stick for this phone, no need to. There is loads of storage on this phone. I have a lot of pictures, mp3 songs, videos, sounds, etc and the memory is no where half way.

However, I do find that if you have a lot of pictures stored on your phone it takes quite a while for the phone to load them all up to have a look at.

I also find it a bit annoying that when you switch your phone off that you lose any picture you have stored on the front screen and any music you have stored in the mp3 player!

What I love about this phone is within 'Messages' you can create your own folders and store texts you want to keep, you can delete messages. Okay, so can all phones but you can select either all or select the ones you wish to delete, you do not have to individually delete texts which I have always found a nightmare when you want to keep a few messages.

I would recommended this phone for people who need a lot of storage on their phone for texts, pictures, videos, etc., also who likes to use iMode (which I think is great, check Ebay etc).

For people who want a phone primarily for taking quality pictures, then this is not the phone for you.

This phone is exclusive to O2 as an i-mode handset and overall I'm very happy with it. As I stated above, the screen is amazing (262k colours and a higher than average resolution - much better than the other i-mode handsets e.g. Z320i/S400i).

Everyone that sees it is impressed with the all black look, and it's light and easy to carry in your pocket.

I have found that a fully charged battery will last around 2-2.5 days with average use, but a few long conversations will easily kill the battery, but this is also because it has such a high resolution screen. There are also internet reports that using a memory card can adversely affect battery life (but hey, at least you get a memory card slot).

My favourite feature without a doubt is the i-mode facility. It beats WAP hands down any day. It is quicker and simpler (although on average more expensive to sign up to premium services), especially over a GPRS connection. Best of all is the built in i-mail facility. Each handset has a unique email address (username @ o2imail .co. uk) and when you receive email, it is automatically 'pushed' to your phone (like a Blackberry) and arrives like a picture message (MMS). This is great for friends at work to instantly contact you when they aren't able to use their mobile or for important emails that you need to reply to immediately.

The 1.3MP is nothing special nowadays, but I can't complain. I am much more impressed with the video recording facility (in Superfine mode, I was shocked how much camera phones have improved from the initial VGA affair).

The way to get around the inability to use MP3's as ringtones is to convert them to 'AAC' format (a type of MPEG4 file) using a simple program e.g. iTunes and then beam them across using bluetooth/infrared. You can also use the phone as an MP3 player, but it'll never replace an iPod. I think the ringtones do sound good because of the dual speaker (stereo) sound.

I haven't found it hard to text message, but it just isn't quite as slick as a Nokia when you use the T9 facility, but isn't hard either (unlike the nightmare of earlier Motorola's).

The user interface is quick with no lag (except when accessing your pictures/movies if you've taken a lot) and typically Samsung, the pictures are all very colourful.

Overall, a good choice if you like a good combination of looks and features, and O2's online tariff specials sealed the deal (especially Online 500).

I have just got the Samsung S500i mobile phone one week ago on a Hero tariff with 02, 1000 minutes anytime for £35p/m. The tariff is great, but the phone is not so great. For the last while I have been using a Sharp Gx25, which I thought was a great flip phone. This one however has disappointed me, so much so that I am looking at the reviews for other phones so I can send it back and get another, maybe the Z320i.

The MP3 buttons on the front of the phone were meant to be silver, but they are black, so the overall looks aren't that impressive. It feels and looks cheap and old, even though I've only had if for 1 week. I gave a full charge as requested, but battery life is appalling, sometimes barely lasting from morning to night, especially if you use the i-mode. The battery warms up I think because it's being drained so quickly. No voice calling, and MP3 can't be set as ring tones, why? I don't know.

Very Unimpressed Samsung.