Samsung Memoir T929 – first U.S. phone with 8MP camera
Thumbs Up:
Top-notch picture quality; impressive feature set; great performance; Samsung TouchWiz interface; stylish and slim design; 8-megapixel camera with Xenon flash and lens shield.
Thumbs Down:
Lacks Wi-Fi; average Web browser; touch-screen needs acclimation; limited widgets
Inside the Trunk:
Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
Band: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone Design: Candy Bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Bluetooth, 8-megapixel camera, 3G support, GPS/A-GPS
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Samsung Memoir T929 has internal 100MB memory. It has 8-megapixel camera that features 16x digital zoom, Xenon flash, self-timer, face and smile detection, and video recording. The scene modes are Backlight, Sunset, Beach, Indoor, Sports, Landscape, and Portrait.
2.6 inches touch screen has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 18-bit (262,000) colors. It also works as viewfinder for the camera. The additional features are full HTML browser, EDGE, GPRS, mobile-email, Bluetooth, 3G support, and GPS/A-GPS.
The Memoir has battery life of 330 minutes talk time and 300 hours of idle standby time.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Samsung Memoir T929 is 4.2 inches tall, 2.1 inches wide, and 0.6 inch deep and weighs 4.4 ounces. Its design has a thin line between a digital camera and cell phone. The zoom controls and shutter buttons are on the top; while the camera lens with flash are so located that your finger will not block them. The place to grip the phone while taking pictures is clad in faux leather.
Inside Dope:
The Samsung Innov8 and the Motorola Zine ZN5 were the top-notch camera phone with 5-megapixel. Now, the Samsung Memoir T929 for T-Mobile has changed the situation and becomes first U.S. cell phone with 8-megapixel camera. Its picture quality is excellent and camera features are well-comparable to a digital point-and-shot camera. What’s more – it also offers uploading the pictures to Photobucket and the Flickr. $249.99 priced the Memoir T929 has music player, GPS, 3G network, full HTML browser, and Samsung TouchWiz interface. Its design is almost similar to a digital camera. Only T-Mobile branding and call keys notify that it is not a camera, but it is a cell phone.
2.6 inches touch screen of the Samsung Memoir T929 has 240×400 pixels resolution that supports 18-bit (262,000) colors. It also works as gigantic viewfinder for the camera. The display is enough vibrant to display sharp graphics with vivid colors. The Memoir T929 provides haptic (vibration) feedback that notifies your touch. You can adjust the vibration intensity, brightness, backlight time, greeting message, font type, and wallpaper. The display features inbuilt accelerometer to rotate the display while tilting the phone; but it works in certain app like messaging and Web browser.
The bottom row has four icons in default standby page: main menu, Web browser, phonebook, and phone dialer. The phone dialer will show virtual alphanumeric keypad with large keys along with shortcuts for phonebook, messaging menu, voice mail, and the call log.
The Samsung Memoir T929 features TouchWiz interface like the Omnia and the Behold. It includes widgets tray on the left side that leads to numerous applications are music player, clock, weather, and more. You can add/remove these icons on the home screen just by drag and drop. We are disappointed that the Memoir has only limited available widgets. There is also a camera widget that allows uploading the pictures to online Web sites like Photobucket and Flickr.
There is a virtual full QWERTY keyboard that appears in landscape mode. It has spacious keys and provides haptic feedback on tapping. You can also press the T9 On button to use the alphanumeric keypad. This keyboard will also show a dedicated “.com” key in the Web browser.
There are three physical keys located beneath the display that includes Back button, Talk key, and End/Power key. You will find the charger/headset jack and micro-SD card slot on the left spine; while the camera lens with Xenon flash is on the back side. The volume rocker, screen lock key, and camera shutter button are on the right side.
The Samsung Memoir T929 can store 2000 contacts in its phonebook. Each contact can save four numbers, four IM screen names, notes, a street address, anniversary and birthday date, and one Web URL. You can organize the contacts into caller groups and pair them with one ring-tone and a photo for caller ID.
The basic feature set includes a unit and currency converter, a stopwatch, a timer, a world clock, an alarm clock, a task list, a notepad, a calculator, text and multimedia messages, a calendar, a speakerphone, and a vibrate mode. The additional highlights are stereo Bluetooth, GPS support, 3G support, instant messengers, Web email (Comcast, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail, and more), PC synchronization, and voice command. We do not like that there is no integrated Wi-Fi, but the best selling point of the Memoir T929 is camera and photo capabilities.
The 8-megapixel camera of the Samsung Memoir T929 features 8x digital zoom, Xenon flash, geo-tagging, inbuilt retractable lens cover, self-timer, and video recording. However, there is no self-portrait viewfinder. You can use the volume rocker as the zoom control for still capture and video recording. The still capture options are nine fun frames, 12 scene modes, three shutter sounds plus silent option, mosaic host options, three quality settings, seven resolutions, white-balance presets, and color effects. There is also anti-shake mode, Smile shot, and blink detection. Want more options – you can also add business card frames to the captured pictures. There is a Panorama mode that allows auto-stitching of pictures after capturing seven still photos in one row.
You can record the videos in two resolutions in three modes: slow motion video mode @120fps, 30 seconds recording for multimedia message mode, and normal mode. The other editing options are quite similar to that of still capture.
We captured some still pictures and recorded video clips for testing. The overall photo quality was excellent. The images looked sharp with accurate colors and there was no image noise. You can store the pictures on micro-SD card or internal memory. You can share them by email, SMS, and uploading to four Web sites- Snapfihs, Photobucket, Kodak Gallery, and Flickr. This uploading feature is a great one to use as there is no need to resize the pictures and you can upload the original captured picture.
The music player of the Samsung Memoir T929 has simple interface. It features six equalizer settings, shuffle and repeat modes, and play-lists. You can upload the music via USB cable and set the player in background while working with other tasks.
The Samsung Memoir T929 has full HTML Web browser that is quite similar to other Samsung mobile browsers. It features bookmarks, QWERTY keyboard with .com button, zoom in/out using volume rocker, and full-screen mode without controls. However, the Web browser is not like that of iPhone, but works good.
You can personalize the Samsung Memoir T929 with available ring-tones, alert-tones, wallpaper, and more. It does not come with any game. You can download more personalization options from T-Mobile t-zones store.
We made few calls through quad-band based the Samsung Memoir T929 via T-Mobile for testing. The overall call quality was good, but not the best. We received natural, clear and loud sound at our end without any static. The callers received good sound at their end with some background noise. The speakerphone call quality was also good, but the callers received some echo. We received clear and loud sound with tinny sound.
The music playback quality was good. The external speakers provided a bit hollow sound, while the headset provided better quality. The 3G network speed was good. We loaded CDMAcellulars.com in 10 seconds and uploaded 1MB photo on Facebook in 50 seconds.
The battery life of the Samsung Memoir T929 is 5.5 hours of talk time and 12.5 days of idle standby time. Its digital SAR rating is 0.618 watt per kg in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.
Nitty Gritty:
If you need a 8MP camera phone with top-notch picture quality, 16x zoom and Xenon Flash, and can work without Wi-Fi; then buy – Samsung Memoir T929.
