Samsung M520 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Alfredo Padilla Published on April 07, 2008 Comment on this |
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Summary
Dialing numbers on the Samsung M520 is quick and easy and call features are solid. We were dissapointed, however, that you cannot use your own audio files as ring tones and the vibrate feature was pretty weak.
Dialing Speed (6.62)
We were able to dial a number on the Samsung M520 in an average of 3.02 seconds. As you can see from our chart below this equals the fastest time put up by our comparison phones and is significantly faster than the average time for all handsets. This is impressive considering you have to open the Samsung M520's slide mechanism before you can begin dialing a number. We found that the keypad was very comfortably to use, our fingers did not bump into the bottom of the upper part of the slide as is prevalent on so many slider phones, while the keys were large and easy to hit. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
The send and end buttons on the Samsung M520 are located with all the other control keys just below the screen and surrounding the D-pad. These are the lowest buttons in the collection, and this makes them a little awkward to access when the phone is closed. when opened they are comfortably accessibly from the keypad, which is what you want. The buttons are a little on the small side, and we would have liked to see more key travel and tactile feedback when pressed. They are well differentiated from surrounding keys, however, which should cut down on accidental key presses.
Call Management (6.0)
The Samsung M520's call history can be accessed in two ways. Like most phones you can hit the send button from the home screen to see a list of recent calls. If you want a more detailed list filtered by things like missed, incoming or outgoing calls you will need to go into the menu system and choose the call history options. We find this dual access approach with two separate sets of features to be a little annoying. We prefer for all call history options to be available when you hit the send key, perhaps with a tabbed interface so you can filter by moving left or right. There is no support for call timers, which is disappointing. During a call the left soft key is assigned to the mute function while the right soft key opens an options menu where other in-call features can be accessed. These include muting your keys, accessing contacts and other programs and three-way calling. We were also happy to see that recording your calls in a voice memo is supported, although the length of the recording is limited to sixty seconds. Still, this is a feature that not many phones offer. Apart form this it's pretty run of the mill. Overall call features could be better implemented but all the basics are there along with a nice extra or two.
Startup to Call (3.15)
It took the Samsung M520 an average of 31.76 seconds to go from being completely off until it has started up and we were able to dial a number. As you can see below this is slightly better than average compared to all of our review phones, and middling compared to our comparison devices. We've seen significantly better performance from phones like the Nokia 6555, but we've also seen significantly worse from phones like the T-Mobile Shadow. Waiting half a minute for your phone to start up so you can make a call isn't terrible, but it's not great either. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
To test ring volume we run through all of the ring tones on the device at maximum volume and measure how loud they get using a sound pressure meter. The Samsung M520's maxed out at 86.2 decibels, which is pretty low. You can see in the chart below that it's about fourteen decibels below our average for all phones and is the second lowest amongst our comparison phones. This means you may have trouble hearing your ring tone on the Samsung M520 if you're in a very loud environment.
The Samsung M520 does not allow you to use your own audio files as ring tones. You also can't use your own recorded voice notes as ring tones. This means if you want anything aside from the selection of ring tones provided on the device you'll have to pony up to Sprint and purchase them.
Non Audio Alerts (6.0)
The Samsung M520 vibrate alert is not very impressive. We were barely able to feel it in our jeans pocket, and if it's in a jacket pocket or bag you'll likely miss it. If you happen to be looking at the screen when a call comes in you are likely to notice it, however, as the whole screen lights up with some fancy animations. We did find it annoying, however, that the actual number coming in only shows up at the very bottom of the screen, making it more difficult to discern who is actually calling you.
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