BIOS: Technology Means Business

Although heavy on features, Samsung's SGH-E720 is light on the pocket at only 90g. A compelling choice for those seeking a feature-rich mobile with a built-in digital music player, megapixel digital camera, video camera and Bluetooth in a clamshell design, the SGH-E720 is let down by below average call quality and a relatively small main display.

Pros: Two displays; excellent MP3 player and camera; Bluetooth
Cons: Poor call quality; no memory card slot or infrared port

Samsung's new clamshell tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) mobile phone is one of the highest specified models around, excluding some smartphones and 3G phones. Designed more for consumers rather than business users who need to stay connected with the office, the smart-looking SGH-E720 (91x45x23.3mm, 90g) includes most of the features required by early adopters, such as a 1-Megapixel digital camera (1152x864 pixels), video camera (352x288 pixels), microphone, MP3/AAC/AAC+ player, WAP 2.0, GPRS Class 10, and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

The stylish black-and-silver SGH-E720 is based on the design of the SGH-E700, Samsung's best selling handset to date. In addition to 64-voice polyphonic ringtones, the SGH-E720 also supports MP3 ringtones, so you no longer have to make do with the high-cost drivel offered by most download services. Ringtones, Java games, video and images can be downloaded to the phone from MMS or via a connected computer, and with a choice of USB or Bluetooth wireless connectivity it's a snap connect the phone to your computer.

Audio buffs will benefit mostly from Samsung's latest offering. The SGH-E720 has dedicated Play/Pause and skip track buttons on the front of the phone which can be used without opening the phone - once you've opened the supplied MP3 application. Pressing Play instantly starts a song through the headphones (if attached) or the SGH-E720's loudspeaker, and the external screen shows the equaliser during playback.

The sound quality is really good too, and you could easily use the phone as your main MP3 player, aside from the fact that there's no removable card slot and the phone only has 88.5MB of memory available to the user (enough to store up to around 30 MP3, AAC or AAC+ audio files, or 1 hour of voice).

Another major highlight of the SGH-E720 is its excellent 1-Megapixel camera, which offers features such as multi-shot, effects, frames, timer options, flash and 4x digital zoom (along with crazy zoom sound effects). Together with a built-in camcorder, you can shoot relatively high quality MPEG4s on the go and record up to 60 minutes of video, with playback in full motion and with good quality sound. The SGH-E720's Bluetooth wireless technology also means that you can print and share your favourite photos directly with another phone or printer.

The handset has two bright displays. The external display is an energy-saving 1.25in. OLED LCD that supports up to 65K colours at a resolution of 96x96 pixels, and shows a clock screensaver together with network information. Open up the clamshell handset and you'll then see the brilliant internal 176x220-pixel TFT display (262K colours), which is also one of the best displays on any phone today - albeit a little small at just 1.75in.

The SGH-E720 is all about multimedia. The still and video camera quality is excellent and the MP3 functionality surpasses virtually every other phone on the market. The menu system is also really easy to use, with menus and sub-menus being both logical and intuitive. The main 5-way navigation control is large enough to use single-handedly and the keypad shouldn't pose any problems. The keys are also backlit, which makes using the phone in poor lighting conditions more comfortable.

The phone has its shortcoming though. Most critical is that the quality of both incoming and outgoing calls are relatively poor, with both people sounding like they're talking in a box. If you want a nice looking phone to mainly use text, imaging and audio functions, the SGH-E720 is excellent. If the quality of phone calls, as well as Web browsing and e-mail features are more important, the SGH-E720 is disappointing.