Samsung’s i780 has the dubious honor of being the handset with the smallest key/body size ratio. This sounds extremely bad – but what does it mean in everyday use?
Looking at the front side of the device, one can immediately see the forward-facing camera, the multi-state light and the keys. The lamp at the top is a multi-color LED – it indicates wireless and charging status:
When looking at the keys and the 5way in more detail, one can see that the device has a few extra keys (the envelope one at the bottom) and that it lacks a real 5way nav. Both of these will be covered in a later part of the review – in the mean time, it suffices to say that they are there:
The keys themselves are horribly small: typing a longer text on them is an absolute pain compared to devices like Palm’s Treo or BlackBerry:
The back of the device is plain – 2MP camera, speaker and stylus silo:
Pulling the back off allows you to access the battery and the SIM tray:
As usual, the power button and a wrist strap lanyard can be found at the top of the device (Samsung loves these thingies):
A volume rocker can be found on the right side of the device:
The left side is crowded with a key, Samsung’s standard connector and a MicroSD slot. The latter two are covered by two lids…aah, it’s a Samsung after all (:)):
Finally, here’s a shootout showing the devices stylus next to a few others:
In the end, the Samsung i780 is a device without any glaring flaws. It can be used. Period. Unfortunately, development in the QWERTY candybar phone segment is now so far that usability is not enough: other manufacturers have gotten very close to perfection. The rinky-dink keys and the toothpick masqueraded as a stylus are relicts from ancient times…which have absolutely no space on a device being sold in 2008…
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