Samsung M520 Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on April 07, 2008 Comment on this |
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Summary
The Samsung M520's keypad is very comfortable for typing, but we were unimpressed by the small, low resolution display. We also weren't particularly fond of Samsung's proprietary port for data, power and headphones.
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (9.64)
The Samsung M520 supports T9 predictive text, allowing you to type more quickly than if you were using multi-tap, where you have to tap each key multiple time to get to the specific letter you want. We liked the Samsung M520's implementation of predictive text. Unlike some phones where if the software predicts the wrong word you have to know what the shortcut is to select alternate words the M520 gives you get a nice little popup that shows up to three words at a time and allows you to scroll up and down if there are more. This makes it much easier to get the alternate spelling for a word when using predictive text. Unfortunately the Samsung M520 doesn't support word completion, which tries to predict the word you are trying to spell and offers it to you before you finish typing it.
One-Handed Typing (8.56)
We know that many people usually type on their phone using a single hand so we do our words per minute (WPM) test using only one hand to both hold the phone and type. The Samsung M520 wasn't as fast typing one-handed as when we used two hands at 42.8 WPM, but this is still significantly above average. Once again only the Nokia 6555 performed better in this test than the M520. We found that one thing that slowed us down while one-handed typing on the Samsung M520 was that the phone is a little wide. Our reviewer has smaller hands so we had to stretch our thumb a little to reach the keys on the other side of the phone. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
The Samsung M520's keypad backlight does a very good job. The symbols on the keys are backlit in white light and are bright, well defined and evenly lit. There's no light sensor to automatically turn the keypad backlight on, however you do have timing controls in the settings with the option to choose off, 8 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds and always on when the slider is up.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (7.0)
We found the D-Pad on the Samsung M520 to be very comfortable to use. The size is a little on the smallish size, but we didn't have any problems with mistaken presses. The center select button is easy to find by feel, but is not so prominent you'll be hitting it accidentally. Our only real issue is that key travel isn't very good. This is a problem with most of the buttons on the M520, and as a result they feel very "clicky". Touch Screen (0.0)
The Samsung M520 doesn't have a touch screen.
Jog Dial (1.0)
The M520 lacks a true jog dial, but in some places in the interface you can use the volume keys to move up and down lists. This is true in the menus, where it comes in most useful. We will award one point in this section for this functionality.
Soft Buttons (4.0)
The soft buttons on the Samsung M520 are located just below the reflective part of the M520 flanking the D-Pad. We had a few problems with them. First of all they are rather small, they are also packed into a tight space with surrounding buttons, and in particular we found that the back and recent call buttons that sit right below the soft keys and are raised slightly above them were hit by accident quite often when we were going for a soft key. Finally they suffer from the same lack of key travel and clicky feel that other buttons on the M520 also exhibit.
Volume Control (6.0)
The volume control on the Samsung M520 is located on the middle of the left side of the handset on the lower part of the slide mechanism. The buttons is a standard rocker button, with a small dip between the upper and lower parts to help you distinguish them by feel. In practice this works fairly well, although we've seen better implementations. When you press either end of the button you get good key travel, in sharp contrast to most buttons on the Samsung M520, but we would have liked to see a little better tactile feedback. Overall it does a solid, if unspectacular, job.
Power and Standby (6.0)
The power button on the Samsung M520 is a secondary function of the end key. You press and hold the button to turn the handset off and then press it once to turn it back on. The button itself is on the smallish side and suffers from the same lack of key travel we see elsewhere on the M520, but this is less of a concern with a power button as you won't use it too often. More importantly the button isn't prone to be hit by accident so you won't find yourself turning your phone on or off by accident.
Other Buttons (2.5)
In addition to the buttons discussed above the Samsung M520 has a couple of additional buttons. On the right side of the handset is a button that will launch the Pictures menu, where you can launch the camera or access your photos. To the right of the D-Pad and between the right soft-key and end key is a back button, which is used to go to the previous screen in the interface or as a backspace when typing. Both of these are very useful, although they don't have secondary functions and can't be reassigned to another function. To the left of the D-Pad, mirroring the position of the Back key, is a button that when pressed basically just copies the functions of the send key. In this it is completely useless, but when you press and hold it it launches the voice command software, which is more useful. We only awarded this button half a point as its main functions are pointless.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (4.0)
The Samsung M520's screen resolution is 176 x 220 pixels. Although standard for phones a year or so ago this is pretty low resolution for a modern cell phones, where QVGA (240 x 320) resolution has stepped into the mainstream. We understand that the M520 is an entry level device, but we'd still like to see a higher resolution display here.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| Samsung M520 |
176 x 220 | 4.00 |
| Nokia 6555 | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 176 x 220 | 4.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 320x240 | 8.00 |
| Sony-Ericsson W580i | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (7.0)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of how densely pixels are packed into the display. Higher pixel density means a sharper display and richer colors. Low pixel density can cause items on the screen to seem pixelated and washed out. The Samsung M520's pixel density is 140.9 PPI. You can see below that this is less than the average for all phones and only the Samsung SLM performed worse amongst our comparison phones. This poor showing is mostly due to the low resolution of the M520's display.
The Samsung M520's display measures 2 inches diagonal. Once again we're disappointed with the spec here, given how much real estate there is on the device we would have liked to see at least a 2.2 inch display, if not a 2.4 inch one. The M520's screen is swallowed up by the surrounding plastic, making it seem even smaller than it actually is.
To measure screen brightness we turn the display brightness up to maximum, point the web browser at a blank white page and use a lux meter to measure how bright the screen gets. The Samsung M520's screen measured 73 lux in our tests. This is just about average and as you can see below we've seen both worse and better scores from other phones. The Samsung M520 offers five brightness levels and timing controls for the screen, but it does not sport a light sensor to adjust brightness automatically.
To see how the Samsung M520's screen held up in bright light situations we shined 3000 lux of light on it, equivalent to a bright sunny day, and judged how legible the screen was. We found that the M520's performance was middling to poor. We could discern some text and icons on the screen, but it wasn't clear or easy to get around. We think most people will probably have to go find some shade if they want to navigate the interface if the sun is shining onto the display.
Color Depth (8.0)
The Samsung M520's screen is capable of displaying 262 thousand colors. You can see from the table below that only the Nokia 6555 is capable of displaying more colors while several other comparison phones are capable of displaying as many. The color depth on the M520 should be sufficient that you won't have much trouble reproducing true color on the display for any photo or graphic you are viewing.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| Samsung M520 | 262 | 8.00 |
| Nokia 6555 | 16,000 | 10.00 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 65 | 6.00 |
| Samsung SLM | 262 | 8.00 |
| Razr2 V8 | 65 | 6.00 |
| Sony-Ericsson W580i | 262 | 8.00 |
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (2.0)
The Samsung M520 uses Samsung's proprietary port for both data and power. We're not particularly fond of proprietary ports. We much prefer phones that use a standardized port like Mini or Micro USB. As it is you'll have to get your accessories from Samsung.
Headphone Compatibility (5.0)
Samsung also uses it's proprietary port for headphones as well. We're even less fond of proprietary headphone ports than we are of proprietary power and data ports and normally we wouldn't award any points for it. Samsung has, however, included an adaptor so you can use 2.5mm headphones/headsets with the M520, which means we'll be awarding half points. On the plus side the Samsung M520 does support wireless stereo Bluetooth headphones so you can do away with the wires entirely if you wish.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The Samsung M520 has 16Mb of internal memory. We don't expect much from cell phones, but 16Mb is pretty small even by those standards. It should be just enough to store your contacts, calendar info and text messages, but if you take even a few photos you'll fill it up quick.
Expansion Slot & Format (7.5)
The M520 does offer you an expansion slot for more memory via Micro SD cards. The phone ships with a 64Mb card, which helps with the limited internal memory at first, but if you want to store any amount of multimedia like music on the phone you'll want too invest in a larger card. High Capacity Micro SD cards are supported up to 4GB, although we're starting to see 8GB cards available for sale as well. The Micro SD slot is located on the right side of the handset near the bottom. There's a tethered cover protecting it that nicely rotates out of the way so it doesn't annoy you when you're trying to get a card in or out.
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