Samsung Comeback SGH-T559 – Comeback From What?

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Good camera and music features, great browser.

Thumbs Down:

Bad design, a bit thick.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: Folder
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: AGPS

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The Samsung Comeback SGH-T559 has two displays, the outer display is 1 inch OLED color display and has resolution of 128 x 128 pixels, the inner display is 2.7 inch TFT LCD color display of 240 x 400 pixels, 18-bit (262000 Colors)

The music player can read WAV, MP3, WMA and Real Audio formats. The video player can read formats of H.264, H.263 video and AMR audio, MPEG-4, 3gp
The phone has 72 polyphonic ring tones.

The phone has 2 MP camera which can take maximum resolutions of 1600X1200.

You can store 1000 entries on the phone book of the handset and there is memory for 90 entries each for missed calls, incoming calls and dialed numbers. The phone has internal memory of 75 MB

960 mAh lithium ion battery has 330 min talktime and 300 hours of standby time.

Razzle Dazzle:

There is nothing sexy about the phone but then this is not a phone for the youth generation but for business people who need lots of messaging features. The looks have been sacrificed to give good features on the inside. You would look geek if you flaunt this phone around. The phone is 4.6 ounces and it is definitely not too heavy considering all the hardware that has gone in to it. It does feel comfortable while holding the phone in the hand but might be a problem when slipping in to your pocket because it is a bit thick.

Inside Dope:

Comeback SGH-T559 has those geek looks, which will be clear from the exterior of the phone. The outside screen is tiny 1.0 inch PMOLED display which has 65k colors. There is a secondary screen on the inside and this one is just for quick access. On this screen you can adjust the backlight time, brightness, color theme and dialing display which color of the background and the color and type of the dialing font. For the display you can change the wallpaper and also the alert and ring tones. You can always buy more through the built in phone browser.

Below the display is the numeric keypad which has two soft keys, camera key, square navigation button with OK button in the middle, talk and end keys and the back key. The end key is also the power button for the phone. On the navigation button the up and down buttons are shortcuts for contact list and call log. The left and right buttons are short cuts for audio postcard and new SMS.

They numeric key pad was quite roomy and we feel the segregation of the buttons is the reason behind this. You can type easily on this because the buttons are raised enough from the surface of the phone.

If you tilt the phone and open it you get beautiful interiors with 2.7 inch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard. The display has 240X400 resolution and 262 colors. The interior screen is miles better than the screen on the outside, you can read the text and photo viewing is quite clear on this screen. There are five icons on the home screen which are shortcuts to applications like link to the T-Mobile account, application menu, web browser, inbox for messaging, and MyFaves.

The QWERTY keyboard is good for typing but we didn’t like the design of the capsule like keys much. The buttons are segregated from each other so there are absolutely no chances of mishits but we felt the distance between the keys is a bit too much so you have to stretch when reaching from one end of the keyboard to the other. The keys are a bit smaller so you start growing nails now but we have little to complain, if the keys had been bigger it would have taken more space on the board and hence mis hits would have been common. The four way navigation button is located on the far right which we thought was bad from the ergonomics point of view.

The phone has a 1000 entry limit for entering your contacts and a single entry can take 4 e-mail IDs, 4 numbers, 3 IM screen names (Windows, Yahoo and AIM) anniversary date, birthday, street address, notes and web URL. Normal features like tagging a contact with a photo, custom ring tone and grouping of contacts are all available in this phone. Other features on the phone include vibrate mode, calendar, speakerphone, unit converter, stopwatch, time, multimedia and text messaging and alarm clock.

We found the browser one of the best features on the phone. The browser supports JavaScript and also has FlashLite so you can play vides on sites like YouTube. Playing videos was a bit miserable on this tiny screen. Apart from this, the volume rocker buttons let you move up and down in the pages. For zooming you need to go in to the options, which is a pain in the neck. We would have liked the four way navigation button to take care of moving the pages and the volume rocker could have served as the zoom button but Samsung thinks otherwise.

The comeback has a built in multi media player which has quite a lot of settings. It supports organizing songs by albums and artists and you can edit and create play lists. You can minimize the player and work on other applications in the phone, multi tasking is supported. The player supports music formats of MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AAC+, MIDI and Real Audio formats. We were quite impressed by the features that the music player had to offer especially the star rating that we are used to seeing in iPods. For video, only MPEG4 format is recognized. For storing your video files, the phone supports cards up to 16 GB and has just 75 MB internal storage.

Camera of the phone is just 2 MP but again impresses us with the onboard options like smile shot which clicks when you smile at the camera. We would have liked at least a 3.2 MP camera, still the 2 MP has good photo quality. For video recording, the maximum resolution is 320X240, the quality of videos is aw full, and the videos were shaky even when we held the device still while shooting.

The phone comes with built in games like Monopoly Here & Now andNeed for Speed Undercover which are both demo version, you will have to pay for full versions.

There are also features like stereo Bluetooth, GPS, RSS reader and USB mass storage. Instant messengers like AIM, Yahoo and Windows Live are preinstalled in the phone.

Call quality was excellent on the Comeback but there was occasional interference or crackle which our friends reported while they were talking to us. Other than this, we could hear our friends’ voices quite clearly.

The Comeback has 960 mAh lithium ion battery which gives a talk time of little over five and half hours and stand by time of 13 days.

Nitty Gritty:

We think Samsung Comeback SGH-T559 is made for the business men but it makes a ‘comeback’ for the youth with great music player and camera options. Still we will recommend this only to business users who need a comfortable keyboard for messaging. This phone has good features and the youth might like it but the design will certainly turn them off.