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Samsung SLM Cell Phone Review

Alfredo Padilla Published on December 17, 2007 Comment on this

Intro Making/Receiving Calls Software Other Features

Tour & Design Messaging Battery Life Value & Comparisons

Audio Quality Organizer Connectivity Conclusion

Imaging Multimedia Hardware Ratings & Specs

The Samsung SLM, as its name would imply, is a slim entry level flip phone that is the first from AT&T to support their new Napster mobile service for direct downloads of Napster music to your phone. The service itself is nothing impressive, about the same as we've seen from other carrier music stores. Aside from Napster, the Samsung SLM is a solid phone with some nice features like good battery life but nothing that will wow you. It would be a good phone to get free with a contract, perhaps even up to $50 or so, but for the $130 that AT&T is currently asking for you can do significantly better.

The SLM feels like a well built device, if a little plasticky. The audio quality on the phone was decent but the 2 megapixel camera was pretty poor. We were able to type over forty words per minute on the keypad but we would have liked more key travel, tactile feedback and differentiation between most of the keys. We were happy with the Samsung SLM's talk and music playback times, but the web browsing time was a little on the slow side. The SLM provides a solid suite of software for a non-smartphone device, but considering you can get a lot of smart phones at the Samsung SLM's price we recommend you go with one if you actually need solid organizer features. All in all we'd wait for the price to come down to a more reasonable level before buying the SLM.

The Samsung SLM is available for $129.99 with a two-year contract agreement exclusively from AT&T.

Tour & Design - The SLM is a small and light phone, but does feel plasticky.

Audio Quality - The Samsung SLM did generally well in our audio tests, with the biggest concern that it might clip voice received.

Imaging - The Samsung SLM's 2 megapixel camera does not capture good photos, but the interface is nice.

Making/Receiving Calls - We were able to easily make a call on the Samsung SLM.

Messaging - The SLM lacks a true email client, but we like that there is a unified interface for SMS and MMS messages.

Organizer - The Samsung SLM provides a good selection of organizer features for a regular phone, but it won't replace a PDA or smart phone.

Multimedia - We found the Samsung SLM's music player to be solid, if a little unpolished, but there was nothing special about the new Napster mobile service.

Software - The SLM's interface is pretty easy to use, but we found many of the menus to be ungainly with too many options.

Battery Life - We were pleased with the talk and music playback times, but browsing time was a little low.

Connectivity - The Samsung SLM uses AT&T's high speed 3G network and has good support for Bluetooth profiles.

Hardware - We found the keypad and controls on the Samsung SLM lacked tactile feedback, key travel and differentiation.

Other Features - The Samsung SLM can be used as a Bluetooth modem for your computer.

Value & Comparisons - At almost $130 with a contract the Samsung SLM is not a good value. Wait for it to come down to a more reasonable price.

[page title="Tour & Design"]

Front Closed
From the front the Samsung SLM is pretty plain. The external display is small and square located in the upper half of the phone. Above it is an interesting rotating camera lens, which can point either forward or back. The only other features are the AT&T and Samsung logos.

Front Open
When the Samsung SLM is opened up you reveal the 2.4-inch display on the upper half. On the lower half of the phone are the controls and keypad, which sit on a single piece of plastic reminiscent of Razrs and common in the Samsung lineup.

Left
The only features on the left side of the Samsung SLM are the volume rocker keys located near the top of the lower flip.

Top
Unlike many flip phones the top of the Samsung SLM actually does have a feature, the rotating 2 megapixel camera lens that allows you to point the camera forward or back.

Bottom
The bottom of the Samsung SLM houses a loud speaker.

Right
The right side of the Samsung SLM holds both the slot for Micro SD cards and the proprietary data and headphone port. These sit right next to each other near the top of the lower half of the flip. Interestingly they both have plastic covers that rotate away from the center creating a "gate-like" effect.

Back
When looking at the back of the Samsung SLM you can see the rotating camera lens near the top with the Samsung logo beneath it. The bottom two thirds of the back is the cover for the battery.

Battery Out
When the battery is removed you can see the SIM card slot.

In the Box (2.0)
The Samsung SLM ships with a very basic set of accessories. A 512 MB Micro SD card is included, which is a nice starter, but other than that you just get a wall charger and manuals. Considering that this is AT&T's first Napster Mobile handset we don't think it would have been asking too much to ask for a stereo headset as well, or perhaps a cable to move music between the phone and a computer.

Handling (6.0)
The Samsung SLM is a small and slim handset that fits easily into your hand and won't tire your out if you have to hold it up for long calls. Our only concern about handling was that the plastic felt a little slippery, so you might find yourself dropping it.

Portability (8.5)
The Samsung SLM measures 3.96 x 1.99 x 0.51 inches when closed and only weighs 3.17 ounces. This is smaller and lighter than the Razr2 lineup and the Helio Fin. Users won't have any problems slipping this phone into even a tight pocket, much less a bag or jacket pocket. This is an eminently portable device.

Aesthetics (5.0)
The Samsung SLM is a very plain device. It is available in both silver and blue so you do have some choices for coordinating with your accessories, but the SLM is in no way a fashion phone. Don't get us wrong, it's not ugly, it's just not going to turn any heads.

Durability (5.0)
A combination of all plastic construction and moving parts give us pause when we consider the Samsung SLM's durability. Of special concern is the rotating camera lens. We can only imagine that at some point in the future the camera may stop working if you fiddle with this too much. The SLM lacks the much more solid construction we saw from the Razr2 V8 and Helio Fin.

[page title="Audio Quality"]

Any phone has to have good audio quality. To test this we use the same professional equipment and software used by many handset manufacturers. To simulate the human head and ear we use a Head And Torso Simulator (HATS). To analyze the quality of the sound we use Listen Inc's SoundCheck software. For more information on how we test see this article.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (7.49)
The chart above details the performance of the Samsung SLM when receiving audio from the other end of the call. This is how other people will sound to you. the blue line indicates the performance of the handset while the red lines are the limits against which we test. As you can see the Samsung SLM stayed within our limits for the most part, with only a slight deviation around the middle frequencies that shouldn't have too much of an impact. What might have more of an impact is that the SLM's performance drops off much to quickly at the higher frequencies, which could make some voices sound clipped. You can see below that the impact of this deviation is that the SLM put up the second worst score amongst our comparison phones.

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Razr2 V8 (on CARRIER)	LG Venus (on CARRIER)
Score	7.49	9.16	7.78
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Shadow (on CARRIER)	Sony Ericsson W580i (on CARRIER)	Helio Fin (on CARRIER)
Score	5.68	7.65	9.33
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (8.68)
In this test we measure the quality of the sound sent by the handset, so this is how you will sound to those on the other end of the call. The chart above indicates the Samsung SLM's performance with a blue line while the two red lines are the limits against which we test. You can see that the Samsung SLM performed very well in this test, with the curve falling squarely within our limits across the range of frequencies. This means the quality of your voice as heard by others will be very good. You can see below that the SLM put up the best score amongst our comparison phones in this test.

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Razr2 V8 (on CARRIER)	LG Venus (on CARRIER)
Score	8.68	7.46	7.24
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Shadow (on CARRIER)	Sony Ericsson W580i (on CARRIER)	Helio Fin (on CARRIER)
Score	6.40	6.17	8.25
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (8.25)
Side tone is the small amount of your own voice that is piped back into your ear so you can judge how loudly you're speaking. We test phones against a standard of -18 decibels. The Samsung SLM scored -19.75 decibels in our side tone test, which is a little on the low side but not significantly so. You can see below that a couple of handsets did better than the SLM on this test, but several others did significantly worse. In practice you may speak just a tad too loudly at times, but this should not be a pronounced problem.

Cell Phone	Side Tone Measurement	Score
Samsung SLM	19.75	8.25
Razr2 V8	15.42	7.42
LG Venus	18.98	9.02
T-Mobile Shadow	12.64	4.64
Sony Ericsson W580i	18.77	9.23
Helio Fin	21.25	6.75

[page title="Imaging"]

Resolution (0.88)
To test the Samsung SLM camera's resolution we take a series of photos of an industry standard Resolution chart and run them through the Imatest software. Imatest produces a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), which is a measure of how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned.
The Samsung SLM scored 444 lw/ph horizontal and 476 lw/ph vertical, which is pretty low. You can see below that the Samsung SLM scored significantly lower on this test than any of our comparison phones. In fact it's one of the worst resolution scores we've seen, especially from a phone with a two-Megapixel camera. You can expect photos taken with the Samsung SLM to have a blurry cast to them.

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Razr2 V8	LG Venus
Score	0.88	4.29	2.70
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	444/476	982/982	779.9/740.1
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Shadow	Sony Ericsson W580i	Helio Fin
Score	2.28	6.35	2.77
lw/ph horizontal/vertical	741/746	1195/960	793.4/839.2
Image of Resolution Chart (click to view)

Color (2.15)
To test the quality of the color produced by a phone's camera we take photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart, which displays 24 different colors. These photos are analyzed by Imatest, which produces the chart below.
This chart compares the captured colors to the original colors, as indicated above. Imatest also produces the chart below, which shows the ideal colors with a square and the actual captured colors with a circle.
You can see by the large number of long lines on this chart that the Samsung SLM did not perform well in our color test. Colors in the blues and reds seem to be significantly under-saturated while yellows and greens seem slightly over-saturated. About the only thing consistent is that almost everything is off. As you can see below the Samsung SLM put up the worst color score amongst our comparison phones, and not by a slim margin. So far we are not impressed by the SLM's camera.

Cell Phone	Samsung SLM	Razr2 V8	LG Venus
Score	2.15	4.41	6.00
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Cell Phone	T-Mobile Shadow	Sony Ericsson W580i	Helio Fin
Score	5.61	5.61	5.94
Color Checker Chart (click to view)

Noise (1.48)
To test the noise produced by photos from the Samsung SLM we take photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels, ranging from very bright to candle light. We then use Imatest to analyze the amount of noise produced at each level. Our final score take both consistency across lighting levels and total noise at each lighting level into account. The Samsung SLM performed pretty well in our noise test, the first good score we've seen in the imaging section. Although the total amount of noise produced at each lighting level wasn't spectacularly low, it wasn't terrible either (by camera phone standards), and it was very consistent across lighting levels. Even at the lowest lighting level, where we typically see a bump in noise, the Samsung SLM stayed pretty consistent. Of course "good" is relative. The Samsung SLM performed well for a cell phone camera, but as you can see below even this performance doesn't allow them to get up above a score of 2. The simple fact is that all cell phone cameras produce a lot of noise, even the best of them.

Cell Phone	Score
Samsung SLM	1.48
Razr2 V8	0.91
LG Venus	0.94
T-Mobile Shadow	1.23
Sony Ericsson W580i	0.36
Helio Fin	1.46

Live Preview (5.0)
The Samsung SLM offers users several options for the live preview, from a ratio view that only uses part of the screen but gives you a good idea of the actual ratio of the capture area to a full screen view. You also have the option to show or hid on screen icons and you can view or hide grid lines so you can better line up your shot. You can cycle through all of these options by hitting the pound button.

In terms of what you actually see on the screen the Samsung SLM's display seems a little pixelated, which isn't surprising given the low, 176 x 220 resolution. We also saw some blurring when panning. Color wasn't very accurate, but then the color of the final photos isn't very accurate either. The live preview gives you a good idea of what the photo is going to look like, but we wished it looked closer to the final capture.

Unlocked Standby to First Shot (5.41)
We were able to go from phone closed to a new photo on the Samsung SLM in 3.7 seconds. This is about average, you can see below that the Samsung SLM falls right around the middle of our range of comparison phones.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	3.7	5.41
Razr2 V8	4.56	4.39
LG Venus	4.57	4.38
T-Mobile Shadow	3.2	6.25
Sony Ericsson W580i	2.7	7.41
Helio Fin	6.2	3.23

Shot to Shot Time (6.30)
This test measures how quickly you can take a series of photos. This is important if you want to capture an action shot. When possible we use a burst mode for this test, and the Samsung SLM does have one. We were able to capture five photos in 2.4 seconds, which works out to 2.1 frames per second (fps), a very good score. Unfortunately the photos taken using burst mode are extremely small at 320 x 240, so although you'll be able to capture an action shot the photos are going to be pretty low quality. If you try to take a series of photos manually the Samsung SLM's speed plummets to 0.33 FPS.

Cell Phone	FPS	Score
Samsung SLM	2.1	6.30
Razr2 V8	0.58	1.74
LG Venus	0.36	1.08
T-Mobile Shadow	1.76	5.28
Sony Ericsson W580i	2.7	8.10
Helio Fin	0.19	0.57

Shutter to Shot Time (6.67)
This test measures how long it takes the phone to actually capture a photo once you've pressed the capture button. The Samsung SLM took 0.3 seconds, which is a pretty good time. You can see below that only the W580i performed better in this test than the SLM. This quick shutter to shot time means you won't have to hope your subject stays still for a long time.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	0.3	6.67
Razr2 V8	0.39	5.13
LG Venus	0.82	2.44
T-Mobile Shadow	0.9	2.22
Sony Ericsson W580i	0.12	16.67
Helio Fin	0.6	3.33

Interface (6.0)
The Samsung SLM's camera interface is pretty good. You have a selection of viewfinder types, as we discussed above, with the option to show or hide a variety of on screen icons that give you information about photo size, white balance mode, and others. When you go into the menu system it's a tabbed interface that drops down from the top of the screen and is very camera-like. The menus don't obscure the viewfinder completely either, so you can see what effect a change in settings will have. The left soft key brings up this menu while the right soft key takes you to the photo gallery. Overall, it's clean, simple and easy to use.

Photo Album Software Internal (3.0)
The photo album software on the Samsung SLM is basically just part of the "my stuff" file browser. Images are shown in a list, with a small thumbnail on the left and the name on the right. You can sort images by date, type, name or size and you can also move them about into other folders or create new ones for them. What you can't do is create a slide show, which is a shame.

Manual Control (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't offer you any manual controls when taking photos.

Zoom (0.0)
The Samsung SLM does have a digital zoom, but this is not available at the highest capture resolution. Given that all a digital zoom does is resize and crop the image the largest resolution is exactly where you want to use it, as such we won't be awarding any points to the Samsung SLM in this section.

Focus (0.0)
Like most camera phones the Samsung SLM has a fixed focus lens, which means what you see on the viewfinder is what you're going to get. We don't award points for fixed focus lenses.

Flash (0.0)
The Samsung SLM does not have a flash.

Metering (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't have any metering options, not even a manual brightness setting as most phones have.

White Balance (2.0)
The Samsung SLM offers you five presets for white balance, including daylight, cloudy, incandescent and fluorescent.

Image Handling (8.0)
Belaying it's general lack of imaging features the Samsung SLM actually has some pretty decent image handling features. You can apply an effect to a photo like black and white or adjust brightness, color and contrast. You can also resize, rotate, flip or crop photos. These are more options than the vast majority of phones offer, and we're glad to see them. Given that the Samsung SLM doesn't take particularly good photos you'll probably want to take advantage of some of these options before you show them to anyone.

Video

Overall Video Score (4.0)
The quality of the video produced by the Samsung SLM isn't terrible, but we've seen much better. The first problem is that video is only captured at 176 x 144, which is pretty low. When we looked at captured video on a computer screen it looked fine at this small size, and it should look fine on a cell phone too. When we enlarged it at all, however, it started to get pretty blurry. We didn't see a terrible amount of pixelation or artifacts, but when you go full screen it gets very, very fuzzy. Color fidelity is pretty decent, though.

Video Resolution (2.23)
To test the resolution of video produced by the Samsung SLM we take video of the same industry standard resolution chart we use for still photos. We then take frames from this video and use Imatest to produce a line widths per pixel height (lw/ph) score, which judges how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned. The Samsung SLM scored 155 lw/ph horizontal and 144 lw/ph vertical. This is a pretty low score, although not as bad, comparatively, as the Samsung SLM's still resolution score. It's still the lowest score amongst our comparison phones, though.

Cell Phone	lw/ph horizontal/vertical	Score
Samsung SLM	155/144	2.23
Razr2 V8	168/217	3.65
LG Venus	237/247	5.85
T-Mobile Shadow	155/168	2.59
Sony Ericsson W580i	122/108	1.32
Helio Fin	214.1/217.7	4.66

Video Compression (4.0)
The Samsung SLM allows you to shoot video in both Mpeg-4 and 3GP formats. It's nice to have choices, although the quality of the Samsung SLM's video means this choice is less important. If you're running out of storage and want a more efficient capture format though, it's nice to be able to switch to 3GP.

Interface (4.0)
The Samsung SLM's camcorder interface is very similar to that of the camera, with the exception that you don't have as many options for the viewfinder. You're basically stuck with just using about half the screen as a viewfinder. The menu system is just as good and easy to use, however, with a very camera-like interface.

Manual Control (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't support any manual settings for video capture.

Zoom (1.0)
The Samsung SLM offers a digital zoom up to 3x for video capture. Of course all digital zoom does is resize and crop what you're capturing and the fact that the video you capture on the SLM is already pretty small makes this of very limited utility.

Editing (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't offer any editing options for videos.

Modes (4.0)
The Samsung SLM offers a pre-set for MMS video capture as well as several white balance options. Like the stills camera there are no metering options available.

[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]

Dialing Speed (6.62)
It took us an average of 3.02 seconds to dial a number on the Samsung SLM. This is a good, but not great time. You can see below that the only phone to do better than the Samsung SLM on this test was the LG Venus, but the differences amongst the phones are just a few hundredths of a second. With any flip phone like the SLM you're going to be slowed down by the time it takes to open up the phone. We found the keypad on the Samsung SLM a little difficult to get used to as well, it seems like it takes up less space than it could so we expect it to start higher than it actually does. These are minor issues though, and on balance it's easy to dial a number on the Samsung SLM.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	3.02	6.62
Razr2 V8	3.45	5.80
LG Venus	2.64	7.58
T-Mobile Shadow	3.44	5.81
Sony Ericsson W580i	3.66	5.46
Helio Fin	3.64	5.49

Talk and End Buttons (4.0)
The talk and end buttons on the Samsung SLM are located to the left and right of the dedicated back key, below the D-Pad and above the Keypad. Like all of the Samsung SLM's buttons we found that they had very little key travel and tactile feedback when pressed. This is due to the single piece plastic construction of the controls and keypad, but it's bad even taking that into consideration. The Razr2 has a similar setup and their buttons had significantly more key travel. Although the buttons are differentiated by raised ridges, which is certainly an improvement compared to the Helio Fin that lacked any differentiators between keys, we still found them difficult to find by feel. They are two of the larger keys on the device so you probably won't hit another button by accident.

Call Management (6.0)
The call history on the Samsung SLM can be accessed by hitting the send button from the home screen. By default you get a chronological list of all calls. When you have an item selected it expands to show you the contact name, time and date in addition to the phone number. Hitting the center select button will take you to a call history specifically for that number. Pressing left/right on the D-Pad allows you to see filtered view of the call history including missed, made and received.

During a call the right soft key is assigned to mute while the left soft key opens a menu. From here you can put a call on hold, access your address book, send a text message or initiate a video share. As with the Helio Fin, which is also made by Samsung, the SLM has a whisper mode, which increases the sensitivity of the microphone so you can speak more quietly. About the only feature we were missing was the ability to record a phone call.

Startup to Call (3.32)
In this test we are trying to find out how long it takes for the phone to start up from being completely turned off and then make a call. This is important if your phone happens to be off and you then have to make a call. The Samsung SLM took an average of 30.1 seconds to start up and make a call, which is a little on slow side for a regular phone. You can see below that the worst offender on this test is the T-Mobile Shadow, who's score is typical of smart phones, but all of our other phones have times below 30 seconds. This makes the Samsung SLM the slowest phone on this test amongst our regular comparison phones.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	30.1	3.32
Razr2 V8	27.72	3.61
LG Venus	25.11	3.98
T-Mobile Shadow	78.36	1.28
Sony Ericsson W580i	19.42	5.15
Helio Fin	28.18	3.55

Ring Volume (8.39)
The Samsung SLM's ring tone gets up to 83.9 decibels. This is a little on the slow side, but only by a couple of decibels. You can see below that there's a remarkable amount of consistency in ring tone volume across phones. We would have liked the Samsung SLM's ring tone to be a couple of decibels higher, but this shouldn't make too great a difference unless you're hard of hearing. To test ring volume we use a sound pressure meter from a distance of two inches and run through all of the ring tones on the phone at maximum volume.

Cell Phone	Volume (decibels)	Score
Samsung SLM	83.9	8.39
Razr2 V8	85.5	8.55
LG Venus	85.8	8.58
T-Mobile Shadow	85.4	8.54
Sony Ericsson W580i	85.5	8.55
Helio Fin	85.6	8.56

Ringtone Customizability (5.0)
The Samsung SLM does allow you to use your own music files as ring tones, it recognized our AAC, Mp3 and WMA files as potential ring tones. There is a size limit however, our full length songs were not accepted but a short thirty second clip was. You can also use voice recordings you make on the phone as a ring tone. There's no software on the phone to create your own ring tones from music files. Despite this last omission and the limitation on the length of music files you can use as ringtones we were very happy to see that the SLM allowed you to use your own files instead of forcing you to purchase any ringtones form AT&T. Still, given the size limitation for files we're only awarding the SLM half the points we normally would for letting you use your own music files.

Non Audio Alerts (10.0)
We were very happy to see that the Samsung SLM's vibrate alert was very strong. We were easily able to feel it in our pants pocket and it should also be noticeable in a jacket pocket. You'll probably even be able to hear the vibration if the phone is in your bag. When a call comes in the small exterior display lights up with a ringing phone graphic and shows you the phone number that's calling. Given that many phones we've reviewed have poor vibration, the SLM's good performance in this category is very notable.

[page title="Messaging"]

Supported Email Services (0.0)
Like most regular phones the Samsung SLM lacks a true email client. Instead it uses a java based client that doesn't work unless you have access to the network. What this means in practice is that you can't check your email when you don't have a signal, like on a subway or a plane. We don't award points for email clients that are dependent on network access like this, there's really no difference between them and just browsing to the mobile email interface for your particular service on the phone's web browser. As such the Samsung SLM will receive zero points in many of these sections.

Push Email (0.0)
No email client.

Multiple Email Accounts (0.0)
No email client.

HTML and Attachements (0.0)
No email client.

Email Customizations (0.0)
No email client.

Time to a New Message (0.0)
No email client.

Email Auto Complete on Address (0.0)
No email client.

Email Usability (0.0)
No email client.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
Like most AT&T phones we've reviewed the Samsung SLM allows you to access instant messaging services AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo Messaging. You can only access a single service at a time however, which is a little bit of a letdown. Also a letdown is that AT&T charges your for a text message for each instant message you send or receive, even if you have an unlimited data plan. We don't think its fair for companies to charge consumers twice for the same service, as such we don't award points for instant messaging clients that charge you for a text message.

MMS Support (8.0)
We found MMS support on the Samsung SLM to be very good. Not only was it well integrated with the camera and gallery, but we were very happy to see that the SLM doesn't make an unnecessary distinction between MMS and SMS messages. There' a single interface that is used for both, if you want to send an MMS all you have to do is add media to the message and off it goes. This is a relief compared to other phones like the Sidekick LX that divide a whole set of mailboxes between the two message types.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (2.0)
The Samsung SLM does not interpret smiley faces into their graphical equivalents, instead they are left in text format. There is a nice selection of smileys that you can insert into your message from a menu, however.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
The interface for SMS/MMS messages on the Samsung SLM is exceedingly simple. When you open the messaging interface the first item you see is a shortcut to create a new message, which uses the same interface for both MMS and SMS messages. Below that is your inbox, which is also shared by the two message types. You can also find your sent items folder, outbox and drafts here, interspersed with shortcuts to other messaging related items like email and IM.

When you create a new message the interface is also simple. There are only two fields, the first allows you to enter a phone number while the second is where you type out your message. The right soft key opens another interface to add additional phone numbers or finally send your message, which was a little confusing at first. The left soft key opens a menu with a plethora of options to add content to your message. This is how you turn a simple SMS into an MMS. We appreciated the unified interface for both SMS and MMS messages and appreciated how easy it was to create and view our messages even more. That being said we did find the multiple sub-menus and the left soft key "send to" function a little confusing at first. Still, despite these issues the Samsung SLM's SMS/MMS interface should be straightforward for anyone to master.

Time to a New SMS Message (13.51)
The Samsung SLM took a very short 0.74 seconds to get to a new text message dialogue. This is because "up" on the D-Pad is assigned to exactly this function, so all we had to do was open the phone and press up. As you can see below this is the best time amongst our comparison phones. This is a great feature for anyone who likes to text a lot.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	0.74	13.51
Razr2 V8	1.99	5.03
LG Venus	3.36	2.98
T-Mobile Shadow	1.98	5.05
Sony Ericsson W580i	1.54	6.49
Helio Fin	3.4	2.94

[page title="Organizer"]

Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Samsung SLM does not come with any software to synchronize your device with a computer. As such it will receive a zero in this section.

Alerts (4.0)
You can set alerts on the Samsung SLM for both calendar appointments and tasks. We were very pleased at the flexibility of the alert system on the Samsung SLM. Not only can you set an alert to go off at any time before a task or appointment but you can also choose which ringtone to use for each individual item. We were less impressed with what happens when an alert sounds. All you get is a the alert with the appointment title and the only option you have is to dismiss it. There's no way to snooze the alert and you can't even choose to go view the appointment.

Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
No synchronization software.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (5.26)
It took us an average of 19.02 seconds to add a new contact to the Samsung SLM. This is about average, you can see below that the Razr2 V8 and the LG Venus were faster than the SLM here, but it was faster than the rest of our comparison phones. To get our average time for this score we find out how long it takes to add each of five different test contact names and their phone numbers.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	19.02	5.26
Razr2 V8	13.33	7.50
LG Venus	14.38	6.95
T-Mobile Shadow	21.88	4.57
Sony Ericsson W580i	22.74	4.40
Helio Fin	22.02	4.54

Looking/Sorting/Search (1.5)
The Samsung SLM organizes contacts by first name, you can assign a different display name if you wish, but it will always be sorted alphabetically by the display name. There are no options to sort by business, last name or group. The search features are also very limited, you can only search by using multi-tap on the keypad and searches only match if you start with the first letter of the first name. This means a contact named "Joe Bob" could only be searched for if you started typing "J". If you tried to search for "Bob" it would not be a match. We were not very impressed with the sorting and search options on the Samsung SLM, they're just about as basic as you can get.

Fields (6.0)
When you create a new contact on the Samsung SLM you do have a decent selection of fields to choose from. The basic contact card has ten fields, which include things like IM, ringtone, group and note. In addition there are twenty fields that can be added to any contact, including additional phone numbers or email addresses but also more esoteric fields like birthdays and a tone for messages. It's not as many fields as we see from smart phones like the T-Mobile Shadow, but its a good bit better than the dozen or so basic fields we see from most regular handsets.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (2.33)
The Samsung SLM supports speed dial but does not support any form of voice dialing.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (4.57)
It took us an average of 21.9 seconds to add a lunch appointment for the following day to the Samsung SLM. This is definitely on the slow side, you can see below that the SLM put up the slowest time amongst our comparison phones and several phones did significantly better than the Samsung SLM. We found that on the SLM we were slowed down by the fact that the calendar program is buried in the menu system and that once you're in there you have to navigate overly complex menus to create a new appointment. Our time is calculated starting with the phone closed and ends when we have saved our appointment. We also add a reminder 15 minutes before.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	21.9	4.57
Razr2 V8	15.28	6.54
LG Venus	18.87	5.30
T-Mobile Shadow	9.46	10.57
Sony Ericsson W580i	14.04	7.12
Helio Fin	14.1	7.09

Calendar Views (4.0)


The Samsung SLM supports three different calendar views: day, week and month. The monthly view just shows you the current month with days that have an appointment highlighted by a small indicator in one of the corners of the date depending upon the appointment type. The week view is a typical grid with days along the top and hours on the left. Appointments are blocked out during the time they are scheduled. What is less typical is that if a day has an appointment it has a blue marker on it just like the month view. Although not super innovative, it is a nice touch that may keep you from scrolling up and down searching for an appointment that is not there.
The day view is a simple list of appointments on that day with title, start time and indicators if the appointment has an alarm or recurs. It definitely provides the most information at a glance of any of the Samsung SLM's calendar views and is likely where you will spend the majority of your time if you use the SLM's calendar. In addition to these views the Samsung SLM's calendar allows you to view appointments by certain preset categories like important or holiday. This view is a simple list just like the daily view and we found it redundant. We would have much preferred the ability to simply filter a given calendar view by a category rather than create a whole new view for categories.

Fields (9.0)
When you create a new calendar appointment you are first asked what type of appointment to create, which includes five options from a regular appointment to an anniversary, holiday or private event. Once you've selected the type your additional fields are constrained depending upon the appointment type, for example a holiday doesn't allow you to set an alarm and only allows you to set annual recurrence. The standard appointment has the most fields so that's the one we will score on.

With appointments you have a pretty good selection of fields. In addition to title, start and end times you can also add notes for the event, a location, alarm and set a recurrence pattern. The alarm allows you to control exactly how long before the event it will go off and the recurrence option is similarly customizable, allowing you to set up complex daily, weekly or monthly recurrence patterns. Given that these last are features that not even all smart devices have we were very happy to see them on the Samsung SLM.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (4.83)
It took us an average of 20.7 seconds to add a new task to the Samsung SLM. This is not a particularly impressive time, as you can see below. As with calendar appointments we were slowed down by the fact that the tasks program is buried in the menu system. We also had to enter both a title and details of an appointment before we could save a task, which added an extra step compared to most phone's task programs. To get this score we time how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have added a new task reminding us to pick up groceries. We do this five times and take the average for our score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	20.70	4.83
Razr2 V8	14.74	6.78
LG Venus	n/a - no tasks	0.00
T-Mobile Shadow	14.62	6.84
Sony Ericsson W580i	16.56	6.04
Helio Fin	11.58	8.64

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)
The Samsung SLM does not support categories for tasks so you can't filter tasks by category. You can prioritize tasks, however, and you can sort them by done, due date or priority.

Fields (5.5)
When you create a new task on the Samsung SLM you only have a few fields to choose from. There's a title and detail area, both of which must be filled in before the task can be saved. There's also start and due date, alarm and priority. With the alarm you can set the date and time that it will go off as well as choose the particular ringtone for that task.

Notes

Adding Notes (2.19)
It took an average of 22.8 seconds to add a new note to the Samsung SLM. This is a very slow time; as you can see, our comparison phones below did significantly better than the SLM. Not only is the notes program on the SLM buried in the menu system, you actually have to go one level deeper than tasks or calendar. Once in the program, however, the interface is simpler. Unfortunately we were also slowed down by the fact that we had to manually change the text entry method to T9 each time. To get this score we time how long it takes to go from phone closed until we have added a simple test note. We do this five times and take the average for our score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	22.8	2.19
Razr2 V8	13.66	3.66
LG Venus	18.86	2.65
T-Mobile Shadow	14.76	3.39
Sony Ericsson W580i	12	4.17
Helio Fin	15.3	3.27

Note Interface (2.0)
The notes interface on the Samsung SLM is exceedingly simple. You have a simple list of notes with the left soft key assigned to a menu where you can create new notes or manipulate existing ones. Only simple options like sending a note or deleting it are available under the menu. When you have a new note interface on screen you just have a blank canvas to type into. Notes are limited to 100 characters and the only options you have are to change text input methods. Big points on ease of use, but anyone who uses notes a lot and likes to have powerful options will be very disappointed.

Note Formatting (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't offer any formatting options like changing font type or size.

Voice Memo (5.0)
Like all other organizer features the voice memo program is buried in the menu system. The interface is very simple, you can record notes and then do things like set it as a ring tone or send it via MMS. You can set the time limit for notes to anywhere between one and sixty minutes, and there's also an option to limit it for MMS. Voice notes are saved in the audio folder on your phone and aren't directly visible from the notes program, but there is a menu item that will allow you to view them. All in all very simple functionality but we like the flexibility to use voice notes as ring tones and the fact that you aren't unduly limited in the length of your voice notes.

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Accessing Music Software (7.41)
It took an average of 2.7 seconds to get a song playing on the Samsung SLM. This is a very good time, you can see below that only the Sony Ericsson W580i, another music oriented handset, did better on this test than the Samsung SLM. We were able to achieve this speedy result because of the dedicated music key, although this doesn't take you directly to the music player but rather to the music menu. You then have to hit the center select key on the phone a couple more times to get a song playing. Once it is playing you can control playback form the home screen. For this test we time how long it takes to get form phone closed until we have a song playing. We do this five times and take the average for our score, each time turning the music player off completely and starting from scratch.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	2.7	7.41
Razr2 V8	5.86	3.41
LG Venus	3.62	5.52
T-Mobile Shadow	4.9	4.08
Sony Ericsson W580i	1.56	12.82
Helio Fin	3.98	5.03

Dedicated Music Controls (2.5)
While music is playing you can control it from the home screen using the D-Pad. The center select key is remapped to play/pause while left/right are remapped to next and previous tracks. The volume keys also do their thing. When the phone is closed, however, you don't have access to any music controls, which forces you to open the phone to control your music. As such we are only awarding half the points we normally would for dedicated music controls for all but the volume keys, which are available when closed.

Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.60)
The Samsung SLM does support playlists synchronized from Windows Media Player or created on the device. It didn't recognize our standard .pls or .m3u playlists. You can edit playlists on the device. The Samsung SLM recognized tags for both our test Mp3 and WMA files but not for our test AAC files created in iTunes. Music can be organized by title, artist, album or genre. There's no support for rating your music or a search feature. Album art is supported for some file types but not for our test album that has the album art in a separate file in the folder.
We were pleased to see that the music library was automatically updated with all the music files on the device or the memory card with no effort needed on our part. We were also happy to see that you could play music in the background and access other phone functions while doing so. There is also an equalizer with presets that you can edit. You can't create your own brand new preset, however. All in all we found the Samsung SLM's music software to be well featured, if a little unpolished.

Online Song Downloading (7.0)
Now we come to the Samsung SLM's key feature. It is the first AT&T handset to support direct downloads of music to the device from the Napster music service. This is a second direct download service in addition to the already existing partnership with eMusic. Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Helio, all have had music download services for quite awhile. We have to say that we have been less than impressed by existing music download services. Verizon's VCast service is overly busy and difficult to browse large selections while Sprint's music software is unpolished and requires a proprietary java interface to play any music you purchase. AT&T's Napster and eMusic services don't do anything to change our minds about mobile music services in general.
Like V Cast AT&T's music store is browser based, so when you launch the music store the web browser opens up and takes you to a page where you can access various music services from AT&T. We found this to be confusing, which makes sense when you think about it as AT&T's whole mobile music strategy has been somewhat spastic. In addition to direct downloads from Napster and eMusic they also support side loading subscription services from Napster as well as streaming music from Pandora. It's no wonder that we found ourselves on the main web page for their mobile music services wondering where to go next? We decided to click on a link for a free month's service for Napster mobile and that got us on our way.

We also don't like the pay model for AT&T's new service. On the one hand they don't gouge you as much as Verizon, which charges between $2 and $2.50 for each song but they also haven't adopted the more standardized 99-cent per track pricing model that Sprint and most other music stores use. Instead you will need to pay $7.49 up front for up to five tracks. With Napster mobile the first five are free and after that you are charged the $7.49 each month, which entitles you to download five more tracks. Additional tracks cost $1.99 per song. With eMusic there's no free trial available. We're frankly tired of mobile operators trying to get customers to pay more for mobile purchases of music. We implore them to simply adopt the standard 99-cent per track pricing and let their services succeed on the merits of their software, selection and ease of use.

Of course this might be exactly what they're afraid of. We mentioned above that AT&T's mobile music service doesn't do much to improve on the generally lackluster experiences we've seen from other providers, it's a little prettier than Sprint's music services and easier to use than Verizon's, but not incredibly so. The Napster mobile service is a tabbed interface that's fairly straightforward to use. The first tab is the front page with deals and popular music. The second tab allows you to search for music. The search functionality is fairly basic, allowing you to search by artist, album or title and produces results no better or worse than other music services. The next tab allows you to view the music you've already purchased and re-download it, which is a nice touch. The final tab is a help interface. We found the tabs pixelated and the fact that they're unlabeled means you have to do some experimentation to figure things out.

The eMusic interface is slightly better. Instead of tabs, you have a single front page with featured items, links to browse by different types and a search box. It also looks a little nicer than the Napster Mobile service. What we like about eMusic is that the music you get is DRM free, but that also means the selection is a little limited. Napster mobile offers a much wider selection, but you get it with DRM, in this case Microsoft's PlaysForSure. We guess this is somewhat standardized DRM and is better than the proprietary DRM you get on Sprint and Verizon music, but in a time when DRM seems to be going the way of the Dodo we wish that AT&T had gone with all DRM-free music for all their services.

Our verdict is that AT&T has now achieved parity with other mobile operators that have been offering direct to handset downloads for quite awhile. AT&T's services are neither better nor worse, just different and perhaps a little more confusing given their partnerships with different services.

Streaming (0.0)
The Samsung SLM does not support streaming music in Mp3, Windows Media or Real format. AT&T does offer some pay services for streaming music, including the excellent Pandora radio and XM radio, but we don't award points for pay services.

Podcast Support (0.0)
The Samsung SLM doesn't include any software to download or organize podcasts.

Music Sync with PC (0.0)
The Sync does not ship with a data cable, which means that moving music onto the device from a computer has to be done by pulling out the memory card and using a card reader connected to your PC. We don't award points for phone's that don't allow you to move music directly from your PC to the handset. We feel pretty strongly that any music oriented handset should come with a data cable out of the box.

Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
The Samsung SLM supports Mp3, AAC and WMA music files and also supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, which is used by Napster and many other music stores.

Music Interruption (10.0)
The Samsung SLM handles interruptions of music playback by calls pretty well. The music is immediately paused when the phone starts ringing and starts playing again when the call ends. There is a call summary screen but unlike other phones such as the LG Voyager the music starts playing even when this screen is displayed, so you don't have to figure out how to get back to the music software to get your music playing again. About the only thing we would have liked to see is a nice fade in/out feature like the iPhone has.

Video

Video Software Access (3.57)
The Samsung SLM took an average of 5.6 seconds to get a video playing. Although not the worse time we've seen, you can see below that we've seen a lot worse, it's also not particularly speedy. This is likely due to the fact that videos are buried in the menu system, lacking the on key access that we had with music. As with most of our speed tests we time this starting with the phone closed and stop when we have a video playing. We do the test five times and take the average for our score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Samsung SLM	5.6	3.57
Razr2 V8	7.3	2.74
LG Venus	9.12	2.19
T-Mobile Shadow	8.92	2.24
Sony Ericsson W580i	3.42	5.85
Helio Fin	4.2	4.76

Video Controls (6.0)
When a video is playing on the Samsung SLM you have a pretty basic set of controls. The center select key is used for play/pause while left/right will skip between videos with a single press or fast forward and rewind the currently playing video when held down. Up and down on the D-pad control volume, which is a little redundant since the volume keys fulfill the same function. We would have preferred these buttons to do something like toggle fullscreen mode.

Video Software & Organization (1.5)
The video software on the Samsung SLM is very basic. It's part of the My Stuff interface on the phone, which is basically a file browser. Videos can be found on the device or on your memory card in the Video folders. There's no automatic organization but you can create folders and move files around. Full screen playback in landscape orientation is supported, and this is accessed via the left soft key menu when a video is playing. There's no support for background play, playlists or search.

Video Sync with PC (0.0)
As with music there's no way to easily synchronize video with your computer. You have to pull out the memory card and stick it in a card reader to get content onto the Samsung SLM.

Video Formats (1.0)
The Samsung SLM did not impress us with the video formats it could play back. The only videos it could handle were vanilla Mpeg-4