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(More customer reviews)This is an extremely short post.
This is the phone the Nokia N96 dreamed of becoming.
The battery life is nearly twice that of the N96. Granted, I'm not in a 3G coverage area (it's not even supported in the US for this phone, just EDGE), but I can last at least 2 days per charge with heavy browsing, music listening, and "messing around" for a few hours, on this device.
Symbian S60 is an awesome OS, but it is beginning to show its age (especially after coming from an iPhone). However, Symbian is my favorite OS by far, but perhaps that is largely biased by my "geeky" figure-it-out-as-you-go nature. Now, it isn't HARD to use, it's just not as user friendly as some of the newer, more mainstream devices are. And this isn't a problem at all for me. The third party app. development for S60 is strong as ever. Immediately after unboxing, I installed both a p2p and a torrent app. This is a pretty amazing and convenient feature, for a phone. Granted, I have not used Windows Mobile, but I'm sure there are similar apps available for that as well. However, finding and installing those apps was very easy and non-problematic on the i8510's S60 OS. Not to mention, there are thousands of more useful apps available for your perusal (but they may take some effort to find; there is no "App Store" for easy-as-biscuits app-discovery and installation).
The hardware on this phone is amazing. It has an optical mouse for true, PC-like web browsing. Long gone are the days of using a 4-way directional pad for choppy and slow browsing on the included WebKit browser. With the optical mouse, the web is smooth and flowly to browse. And the sensitivity is easily alterable as per your own personal preference. I opted to increase the sensitivity vastly, which makes it even easier to use. Unlike most high-end Nokia phones (excluding some of the E-series), a good amount of hard, sexy metal is employed in the device design. This both makes it very sturdy as well as visually and tactically appealing to the fingers. Perhaps one of the few things Apple does right is incorporate metal into their devices; the new Macbooks being a prime example. I am very happy that this is being more generously applied to other electronics by other manufacturers now, and I hope it continues.
The camera is insatiable. It is 8 megapixels, which is high, but as they say, megapixels aren't everything. This is true. However, the camera quality is basically unrivaled in the phone arena. Some Sony Ericsson models aren't too shy of equality in this matter, and I think most of them have Xenon flash (which is amazing). Unfortunately the i8510 does not use Xenon, but LED flash instead. This is definitely acceptable, but for its price tag one would expect the highest of standards to be employed. The Nokia N82 is a very, very close second contender for the "best" Camera-Smartphone in my opinion. And I have owned one previously. Onto more of the things this camera does superbly, it employs a mechanical shutter. This is both very safe for the internal lens, and very cool. When you initiate the camera app., the shutter opens automatically. When you are finished, it closes automatically. Beautiful.
Other insanely useful qualities include WiFi, GPS, an external memory slot, a removable battery, and a gorgeously large 2.8inch 16M color display. In comparison to the iPhone (it can hardly be resisted nowadays, sorry), it trumps it almost unanimously in all of these aspects, exclusive of WiFi. They are both equal. GPS, memory slot, and removable battery, on the other hand, are all destroyed on the iPhone by the i8510. The GPS chip in the iPhone is fine, except for the software on the device is severely limiting. There is no voice navigation. This is ridiculous for such a "premium" device. The S60 OS of the i8510 allows for employment of third party applications (and there are already a couple) which offer voice-assisted navigation. Some of them are even free. An external memory slot is greatly valuable in a mobile phone, which the iPhone does not offer. The i8510's memory capacity is dramatically increased by this. I believe the highest capacity the device can "theoretically" (Samsung claims it is 16GB) support is 32GB. I have read a few reviews confirming tests with this result. Either way, 16GB + 16GB > iPhone 4/8/16GB. Not to mention the cards are hot-swappable; you can use more than one flash card and basically claim unlimited capacity in the i8510, only limited by the number of cards you have laying around. This is quite cool. A removable battery is something that has long plagued the iPhone for it not having one. You are free to modify and change it when you see fit. If you start seeing noticable decreases in battery performance, buy a new one. Hell, keep the old one as a spare fully-charged unit for when you are on a long trip. Just this trick alone beats the user-limiting non-removable battery of the iPhone. Apple is known for being quite restrictive of their consumers' freedoms. Symbian S60 is the exact opposite, and the hardware on the i8510 agrees as well.
Having DivX support is a plus, although XviD support would have been nice as well. Why stop at plain old DivX? There have also been reports of certain DivX encodings not working at all on the i8510. I have yet to experience this, but please be aware.
The build of the i8510 is stellar. It feels fantastic in the hand; the pictures do not do the device justice. Again, it incorporates a large amount of metal, both apparent in the back of the device and the keypad, as well as other key highlight locations. It is an extremely sturdy and durable design; there are no creaks or cracks/pops when you fondle the device. On my old Nokia N82 I heard all sorts of cracks and creaks when handling the device; this is the complete opposite on the i8510. Samsung really did a phenomenal job with the construction of the unit. I imagine the device can take a fair amount of abuse before showing any audible signs of it.
One small issue concerning the display is its lack of respectable readability in strong rays of sunlight. Many high-end Nokia models with similar (but admittedly lesser) specifications employ screens which are much more readable in direct sunlight than the i8510. Granted, I don't imagine most users will find themselves blinded by sunlight, but maybe that's just me. I seem to be taking more pictures at night (Xenon, please) than out and about in direct sunlight with my i8510.
Another area of note is the availability of software (firmware, specifically) updates for the i8510. I, and from most of what I've read so far, most other i8510 users are unsure of how often and how effectively Samsung will deliver firmware updates for the device. I know there are ways to update your phone to the more current firmware "unofficially," but this has its risks. Granted, I do not see any current issues with my firmware that warrant an immediate and emergency firmware update, but that could very well be due to the vast amount of my dorkiness and contentness with the amazingness of the phone in its out-of-box state. Your mileage may vary. However, it can only get better with updates.
I am extremely pleased with this phone (it makes phone calls too?!). For me, the only thing I wish it had was US 3G capabilities. Again, I don't live in an area with 3G access, but it would be nice if an investment of this stature warranted more longevity in my usage of it. EDGE data speeds are very, very acceptable for me though. Data-intensive web pages still load in a snap, and there is always the option of employing the WiFi chip for faster speeds, if applicable.
Aside from the 3G issue, everything else "wrong" with the device are very, very minute details. A lot of them are going to be remedied with firmware updates. On Samsung's website, they claim an update to be due by the end of 2008 or Q1 2009. Very agreeable, in my opinion, given how new the phone is.
This phone is a winner, and should definitely be considered over all Nokia N-series devices, with exception of the Nokia N85. From there, it is personal preference, and the i8510 stands out as the clear top-end champion of the smartphone/cameraphone arena.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung i8510 INNOV8 Unlocked Phone with 16 GB, 8 MP Camera, International 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--International Version No Warranty (Black)
