New Samsung SGH-E830 mobile phone

Ok 2 depressing rants in a row brings me down. I also just had some sobering political talk around the dinner tablelast night which left me in a bit of a reflective mood. But I shan’t shove my depressing opinions down your throats. Instead, I’ll tell you all about my NEW TOY that I just bought yesterday!

Remember I talked about my stupid phone dying on me? Remember I twittered about falling in love with a new Samsung even though I’m a bit wary about switching mobile phone brands?

Yesterday, while browsing through the newspapers, I came across a little feature that pegged the recommended retail price at RM899 for the Samsung SGH-E830. “Hey, that’s within my budget!” I exclaimed! No, actually I didn’t say that. What I did say was “Yesyesyes! This phone is so going to be mine!” :D 

So today, I strolled down to Sg. Wang Plaza to check out the new Samsung E830. This is a picture of the brochure I was given earlier. The picture shows a gold case. That was what caught my eye. The problem however, is that this gold case is not yet available in Malaysia. The dealers don’t know when it’ll be available. Bummer!

What they have is a colour called Titanium Silver. Its just a nice way of saying dark grey in my opinion. The sides are a smooth dark grey colour which contrasts a little with the black of the front panel. After looking at it, I figured having it in Titanium Grey was probably better than in gold for I was concerned about the gold rubbing off after a while. Aiyah… bit of consolation la….

I went straight to the official Samsung booth at Low Yat Plaza when I got there. What I can tell you is that I’m glad I knew the recommended retail price for this phone because I got quotes ranging from RM1130 to RM950 for just the phone only! When I challenged them in my broken Cantonese by saying that it was printed in the papers that the recommended retail price was only RM899 and that their prices were crazy high, they somehow found it in them to check their price lists and tell me that they were mistaken. I THINK NOT! So, make sure you know your retail prices before you go phone shopping.

One booth quoted me RM900 for the phone including a 1GB Micro SD memory card. I dithered for a bit over that. You see, I wasn’t sure I wanted to make that big switch over to Samsung. Also, this is the first time I was planning to buy something without doing extensive research online about it first. I tried but there wasn’t much information about this model - its too new. But there are times in your life when you just have to take the plunge and pray for the best. This is one of those times.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I eventually bought this phone at RM880 including a 1GB memory card and a free little pouch thrown in. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do with the pouch but hey, its free!

The E830 is similar in design to the Samsung D900 except the edges are rounder which gives it a softer look. Its a slider phone and operates by sliding the front panel upwards to reveal the keypad. My brother has the D900 so I had been playing around with his. What I did not quite like about the D900 was that I found the slider “sticky”. It didn’t slide smoothly, was my complaint. I’m happy to report that the E830 does not have that sticky feeling. It slides very smoothly indeed.

There is a bit of a lip in the middle of the front panel just above the keypad that you can push with your thumb to open the phone. I felt that they made it easier to use this time.

The E830 isn’t a very big phone. I’d say its slightly smaller than the D900 and definitely smaller than the Razr which is great for me, as it fits into my small hands. Its slim but not so slim that it gets hard to handle. The screen is large which is again great as it makes for easy viewing.

The phone automatically locks when you close the slider so there is less of a danger of you accidentally making calls by pressing the call button. You can unlock it and make calls without sliding up as well which is nice.

The keypad is slightly different from the D900 because its totally flat. There are no discernable buttons. That takes some getting used to especially when writing text messages. It also makes text messaging on the go a tad difficult as I keep hitting the wrong keys. I used to be able to text message without looking at the phone. Now I’m not so sure that will be possible. However, I found that the keypad seemed to be better spaced out than the D900 as the top row and bottom row keys were easy to get to. In the D900 I found it hard to reach the keys in the top and bottom rows as my fingers would bump against the top and bottom lips.

The text messaging format did get to me a little as I’ve never had a phone ask me so many questions before sending a message. I have to confirm my recipient and confirm that I want my message sent before it gets sent. Good because there is a lower risk of sending messages to wrong people and bad because it takes up a lot of time. Also, another feature that irks me is that it does not automatically save your sent messages. You have to tell the phone to do so.

The built in camera has 2.0 megapixels with no flash but I’m not too fussed about that. For me camera phones are just for fun, never for serious stuff. There is also an FM radio function that I’m not sure if I will ever use.

I don’t like that the ringtones that come with it are very limited and really quite bizarre. But you have the option of using MP3 songs as your ringtone. Alas however, the message tones are only 4, 3 of which can barely be heard. So boo!! Samsung has also incorporated their vibrate + ring function with this phone which is great and more in line with how other companies operate.

Most of the functions are self-explanatory. The phone comes with a theme which is Samsung’s uGo interface that displays a landmark picture of the city you are in, adjusting the picture to the time of day or night. In Malaysia, you get the iconic KLCC Twin Towers. Fitting because I’m staying in Kuala Lumpur, but a bit odd if you are staying somewhere else like Penang for example. I’m told that in London, you get Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Cool eh?

In the day, the sky is blue and there are birds flying across. Receive a message an you’ll get a plane flying past. At night, the sky turns dark and the lights of the buildings come on. Receive a message and there are fireworks! So fun! Under the theme, the text format is that of a fountain pen scratching across a page as you key in the number you are dialing. I might get tired of that soon so I’d probably turn it back to the usual numbers which you can change the colour and background colour if you like.

For those into mobile phones and their spcifications, GSMarena has a list of the specs of this Samsung E830.

Like all Samsung phones, this comes in a box with a standard battery, charger and a set of headphones. I’ve only had it for a day, so I’m not quite sure yet how I like or dislike it. I may update in a couple of months. For now, like a little kid with a new toy, I’m all over it! So, send me a message someone so I can see planes and fireworks!

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