Review Of The Samsung Mondi SWD-M100 Cell Phone

Cell Phones — By Ricky on September 3, 2009 at 8:00 am

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up:Slick design, generous feture-set

Thumbs down:Exorbitant price, not much of an use outside the Wi-Max markets.

Inside the trunk:

Screen Size: 4.3 inches
Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Processor Class: ARM11
Processor Speed: 800 MHz
Networking Options: 802.11b, 802.11g, WiMAX, 802.16e
Megapixels: 3 MP
Flash Memory Type: Micro SD
Bluetooth: Yes

THE WHIZ- KID SPEAKS:Welcome, to the new hand held computer in market. Well, certainly Samsung has come up with a gadget which is filled with fun and features which atleast I got hooked onto easily. But then again it has almost the same complications that every gadget of its type usually has. It is also the second WiMax phone available in the U.S and fortunately it is way better than its predecessor- Nokia N810 Anyways I’d surely like to celebrate the Samsung mondi before actually laying it to rest so here I go.

Razzzle-Dazzle:The Samsung mondi can surely get anyone on their knees asking for more on the basis of just its looks… atleast that’s what happened to me. It’s surely a stunner when it comes to looks, the only glitch being its size. At 4.88 by 3.03 by .63 inches (HWD) and 5.39 ounces, the Samsung mondi is not exactly the one which will fit into your pocket unless it’s like really a big one. Its certainly solid built and has a well responsive touch screen of 4.3-inch, 800-by-480 in size. It comes equipped with two cameras: a VGA camera in the front for video chatting and a 3 megapixel camera at the back.

When you slide up the screen there is a highly usable keyboard with kind of rectangular keys which are quite comfortable to use. The only glitch in the designing of the keyboard is that the keyboard when opened up is slightly close to the screen so at times I ended up hitting the screen instead of the keyboard.

Also there is a flip out kickstand at the back of mondi which makes it great for watching movies on the go. It can also be used as a in car GPS all thanks to the car mount.

Inside dope:

The Samsung mondi is the most quickest and probably the most fastest windows mobile device I have come across, and surely all the credit goes to 800 MHz Samsung ARM11 processor. It has also tried hard to make the menu buttons more finger friendly by making it large enough for a comfortable space. It is also provided with two home screens one a ‘bubble’ layout which puts new messages in the front and the back and the other a ‘touchwiz’ interface which lets you drop internet based widgets on the screen.

The Samsung Mondi SWD-M100 Cell Phone

It has a support for AAC, WMA, and MP3 files and most of the other desktop XVID videos.It has tiny in built speakers as well as aa 3.5 mm headphone jack plus a bluetoooth headset could come in handy too.

The mondi uses Wi- Fi or CLEAR’s Wi-Max network network which is available at the moment in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Portland. I tried it out with a Skype VoIP call which sounded quite tinny and also live streaming could not exceed 8 frames/bit. Also it is not possible to use Wi-Fi and Wi-Max simultaneously but probably in the next few months this should be sorted out with the help of a Mi-Fi kind of technology.

I was quite surprised by the speed of Web browsing which is better than most of the other windows mobiles. Also mondi recommends the Opera for browsing which is also one of the reasons for the fast browsing speeds. Though the videos that are streamed might by jerky at times but they are clear nevertheless.

The 3-megapixel camera of the mondi takes quite sharp pictures and the video mode takes somewhat jerky but sharp 640-by-480, 15 frame-per-second videos.

Review Of The Samsung Mondi SWD-M100 Cell Phone

Apart from the usual complications including the software I also experienced a few problems while using the GPS. Samsung’s included Route66 GPS software offers spoken directions in various languages, and loads 1.8 GB of US and Canadian maps right onto the device. But I found the GPS to be horribly insensitive—it couldn’t lock on in midtown Manhattan even after several minutes—and it didn’t work with the alternative free Google Maps, either.

Nitty-Gritty:The mondi on a serious note has a lot going for. It’s a VoIP phone, a camera and an in-car GPS. Its only drawback being its size. It’s quite huge to fit into your pocket so it cannot replace your phone. The keyboard is quite small for regular small so there it is hit again, it can’t substitute your regular laptop. Probably it could just be used as an in car GPS but then again the price is too exorbitant to be paid just for a GPS device.

All I can conjure from this piece of novelty that Samsung has come up with is that probably Samsung has tried to put its legs and hands in different boats hoping that it would reach the shore with the help of atleast one but that surely doesn’t seem happening atleast at the moment.