Samsung M520 Cell Phone Review - Value & Comparisons
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Alfredo Padilla Published on April 07, 2008 Comment on this |
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Value (5.0)
The Samsung M520 is available exclusively from Sprint for $49.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Without a contract the device will cost you $249.99. At this price the M520 provides a reasonable, but not astounding value. You can get handsets that provide you with a better interface, much better camera and more capabilities for the same or slightly more. That being said the M520 is not a bad value. It's a solid little phone with a few nice extras like GPS functionality. It's not going to serve you significantly worse than any other budget handset.
Comparisons
Nokia 6555 - The Nokia 6555 is another budget handset from AT&T that isn't significantly better or worse than the Samsung M520. Both handsets have excellent keypads for typing and their both fairly small, although the 6555 is a flip while the M520 is a slider, so that might be an issue for you. The 6555's camera was better than the M520's, but that's not saying much as both are pretty bad. We did like the Nokia 6555's software interface a little better and the screen is higher resolution, but the M520 makes up for this by providing you keypad shortcuts in the menus that make getting around as fast or faster. The M520 also has GPS functionality the 6555 lacks and the battery life is also better on the M520. Overall we'd say the M520 is the better buy, but it's close.
T-Mobile Shadow - The Shadow is a powerful Windows Mobile smart phone from T-Mobile that's going to provide you with better features and functionality than the Samsung M520 almost across the board. There are a few exceptions, however, as the M520 has GPS functionality the Shadow lacks and it's battery life, especially for music playback, is superior to the Shadow's. If you need a smart phone definitely go with the Shadow here, but if that doesn't matter to you the Samsung M520 is a good choice and costs $100 less to boot.
Samsung SLM - Like the 6555 the SLM is a flip phone from AT&T. Both the SLM and M520 have the same Samsung interface so it's a wash there and both have terrible cameras. The SLM has a nicer look and feel but the keypad and controls suffer from lack of differentiation making it difficult to type and control the phone. The M520 by contrast has controls and a keypad that are fairly comfortable to use. Battery life is comparable between the two, and both have excellent music playback times. Really it's a matter of which carrier and which form factor you like better here. Oh, that and the fact that the SLM is twice the price of the M520.
Razr2 V8 - The V8 was the best of the Razr2 handsets we took a look at and it's a very capable device. The camera on the Razr2 V8 is significantly better than the Samsung M520 and we liked the exterior touch sensitive controls for music playback. The organizer features on the V8 are also better than the M520's as were the multimedia features. You're going to suffer on battery life with the V8 versus the M520, however, and you're also going to suffer on price as the V8 costs $200 compared to the M520's $50. We don't think the better camera and touch controls are worth $150 more here so unless you're in love with the Razr2 V8 go with the Samsung M520.
Sony Ericsson W580i - The W580i was one of the best regular cell phones we reviewed last year. Not only was it's camera very good, for a cell phone, but it's Walkman music player was excellent and the device does an overall solid job. Like the Samsung M520 it has a slider design, although it's design is more toy-like compared to the professional finish of the M520. The W580i's talk time and browsing times are both better than the M520's, but music playback time is much worse, which is a consideration if you want to use either device as your principal music player.
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