Samsung i8510 Review

Samsung i8510 INNOV8 is truly a camera phone and has a 8 megapixel sensor to boast about. 5 megapixel camera phones have become standard, so Samsung decided to up the ante and unleashed this 8 megapixel monster in the market. It runs on latest Symbian OS which is an added advantage due to the huge library of application already developed for the platform.

Samsung i8510 INNOV8 specifications :

• Dimensions : 106.5 x 53.9 x 17.2 mm
• Weight : 136 g
• Display : 2.8″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Memory : 8/16 GB inbuilt
• Camera : 8 MP, autofocus, image stabilizer, flash
• Card slot :  microSD
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G
• WLAN : WiFi 802.11 b/g
• GPS : Inbuilt with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• OS : Symbian OS v9.3 , Series 60 rel 3.2
• Approx. price :  $800

Samsung i8510 INNOV8 isn’t the first 8 megapixel camera phone in the market but the first one you should seriously consider buying. It is equipped with Symbian OS which none of the others are and has a big screen screen along with loads of other features to make it a deadly device. In the retail package however, Samsung hasn’t included anything special and it contains just the headphone, DC charger, custom ear-buds,

Design and Display

The INNOV8 has a design that it simple yet elegant. Its dimensions are rather large and it is a bit bulky too. It comes dressed in all black and the matte finish at the back prevents fingerprints. The slider works perfectly smoothly without any creaking sounds. Above the display are the loudspeaker, ambient light sensor and the video-call camera. Display occupies the most of the space at the front and the rest is occupied by the six navigation buttons and the D-pad.

On the left side is the 3.5mm audio jack, volume rocker and the microUSB port. The cell phone can be charged via the microUSB port too.Volume rocker doubles up as a camera control for zoom function. On the right side is the microSD card slot along with the camera key.

The INNOV8 has a 2.8″ TFT display with 240 x 320 resolution. The display produces sharp and bright images and overall is a great experience. The movie playback is smooth and 2.8″ screen is just fine to stuff movies into its large internal memory. In bright sunlight, the display performs much better than its predecessors and now is quite visible, not as good as its Nokia counterparts though.

Keypad and User Interface

The keypad of the i8510 is flat but has good ergonomics. The keys are large enough even for big fingers and have enough space between them to prevent typos. They present good tactile feedback making it a SMS junkies phone. You hardly find such good keypads in slider phones.

The phone has the latest Symbian OS installed with Feature Pack 2. This is the same OS found in the latest offering from Nokia, however Samsung has customized it to make it look different. There are a couple of active standby modes you can choose from. It has built-in accelerometer leading to automatic screen rotation except in the main menu and the home screen. It has transition effects too while changing the orientation, a nice touch.

The task manager pop-ups at bottom and has improved graphics. The phone does have any hardware acceleration but while navigation you can not notice the difference. The Symbian OS has obvious advantages over other OSes due to its vast library of available applications and to a extent ease of use too.

Music Player and Camera

The Samsung INNOV8 is not only a powerful imaging house but a great multimedia device too. The music player is exceptional and has loads of features ranging from various audio formats support to displaying album art. The music player has support for a wide variety of formats, so just put your audio file on the device and fire up the music player! It support three different visualizations, album art and sorting songs by genre, artists, composer, tracks etc. It has a large number of preset equalizers along with the option to create a custom equalizer. The songs can be transferred directly or via the PC Suite application.

The camera, the main aspect of the phone outperforms other 8 megapixel phone cameras. The camera has autofocus but Samsung missed a cue by including Xenon flash for this monster.  The UI of the camera application is tab based which is easy to use. Help snippets are included with almost every function. There are plenty of manual settings to play around with which include Wide Dynamic Range, white balance, ISO, sharpness, contrast, saturation etc.  The image quality of the camera is exception for a camera phone and can easily give the dedicated ones a run for their money. The images produced are sharp, have depth and apt amounts of brightness and contrast.

Web Browser and Organizer

The phone has Symbian browser which is among the best available options for a cell phone. It offers full range of features right from a virtual cursor to a mini map. The pages fit beautifully on the screen and zoom levels can be adjusted in a flash. The browser has Flash and Java support unlike Apple’s Safari for iPhone.

Organizers have always been Symbian specialty and it helps you manage time with ease. Calendar can be viewed in three different modes : Monthly, Weekly and Daily. Tasks can be scheduled in four different types and show up on your active standby screen. Mobile Office is another great application to view Office files on the move.  Other useful applications include Zip Manager, business card scanner, unit converter, alarm etc.

Pros :

• Neat design
• Great display
• Ergonomic keypad
• Massive inbuilt memory with card slot too
• Symbian OS
• Good music player
• Excellent camera

Cons :

• Large and bit bulky
• No Xenon Flash

Final Thoughts

Samsuung i8510 INNOV8 is an excellent product from Samsung that does everything right. Packed with a 8 megapixel camera, Symbian OS, huge inbuilt memory and other stuff to make it an awesome device. It has the best camera ever on a cell phone. It is a bit large and bulky and absence of Xenon flash are its only two disadvantages. Go grab it as soon as you can!

Rating : 4.5/5