Samsung S7350 Ultra s

Posted on 06. Jun, 2009 by IBM in Reviews.

he Samsung S7350 Ultra s may as well be your next phone. Oh well, maybe no one will know but if you can live with that, you’ll get to enjoy a solid and attractive slider with a nice screen, premium data speeds and high-end media. Following in the wake of the standard-setting Soul, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s adds a larger and more vivid screen, improved video recording and GPS to sweeten the deal. Or more likely – to be in step with its time.

The tremendous Soul footprint in the Samsung portfolio is not the point here. We’re watching the new midrange take shape. Less prominent but more capable than yesterday’s high-end seems to be the way it’s going. Is it a fair trade – we guess we’re about to see.

Key features

Quad-band GSM and dual-band (900/2100 MHz) UMTS with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) support
Large 2.6″ 16M-color TFT display of WQVGA(400×240) resolution
12.6mm thick
5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, Wide Dynamic Range and geotagging
D1 video at 30 fps and slow-motion video recording
Built-in GPS with A-GPS support
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
microUSB v2.0, charging through USB
Accelerometer sensor
DivX and XviD support
Basic Java multitasking
Office document viewer
Smart dialing

Main disadvantages

No full-featured voice-guided navigation software
Inadequate flash performance
Video recording quality isn’t up to scratch (although the framerate is pretty good)
Initial memory card initialization is quite slow

Final words

If you want to stay away from the touchscreen excess but not loose out on features, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s just might be it. The interface uses pleasantly animated themes, which though not readily skinnable, are nicely done to match the handset.

What hides under the stylish brushed exterior of the slider is very satisfying. The camera has plenty of options and produces great photos despite lagging a bit behind in the megapixel race. DivX/XViD support and the 2.6″ screen can sure help kill an hour or two. The document viewer is always a plus and the elegant looks of the Ultra s make it a phone you won’t be ashamed to use after a business meeting.

A couple of things let it down however. The lack of Wi-Fi might not mean much to some people, and though the browser is nice but it has its quirks. The lack of proper GPS navigation software can also be a deal breaker for some.

The midrange offers plenty of phones to choose from and it’s a personal choice of what trade-off to make in terms of features. If the camera takes priority over voice-guided navigation, the Samsung S7350 Ultra s will definitely make it to the shortlist.

The Nokia 6260 slide is more compact but has a bigger resolution of 320 x 480 pixels on its 2.4″16M-color TFT display. It also offers the two things the Ultra s doesn’t – Wi-Fi and navigation via Nokia Maps. On the other hand, video recording is limited to VGA@30fps, there’s no DivX support and it’s a bit more expensive.

A second Nokia slider that has a special place in our hearts just got thrown in the 5 megapixel action and can hope to steal some of the Ultra s market. The updated Nokia 6600i slide sure lacks the D1 video recording and screen estate of its Samsung competitor but looks and handling make it a real gem. However there’s no Wi-Fi, DivX support and a document viewer, and the screen is noticeably smaller, which the price tag is certainly not on the small side.

Another contender is the Sony Ericsson C903. It’s a capable shooter with Wayfinder Navigator and TV-out (but no DivX). As with the other devices, it lacks a 3.5mm audio jack and uses the less popular M2 cards.

Finally, the bar-shaped sibling S7220 Ultra b is worth a look as well – both are almost evenly matched. And if it all comes down to looks the OLED screen of the Ultra b is quite a catch.

So, somewhat quietly, Samsung have revived their Ultra lineup. Quite obviously it’s not a matter of ultra thin any more, nor is it the high-end experience and design that made the Soul a landmark device. But having checked both the S7350 Ultra slider and the S7220 Ultra candybar, we’d say usability, elegance and skill are the new Ultra keywords.