Samsung M3200 Beat s review

Samsung introduced the Samsung i450 Beat some time back that was primarily a music phone and loads of other features. Samsung M3200 Beat s is a toned down version of that cellphone, aimed towards the budget category consumers. It features Samsung-style shake control, full blown music player, 3.5mm jack, music recognition application, mood based track-sorting etc.

Samsung M3200 Beat s specifications :

• Dimensions : 96.5 x 46.9 x 16.9 mm
• Weight : 109 g
• Display : 2″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD
• Bluetooth : Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• Camera : 2.0 Megapixel
• Ports : USB v2.0, 3.5mm
• Accelerometer, Motion control,Music recognition, FM recording
• Radio : FM Radio with RDS
• Card slot : microSD upto 8GB
• Approx. price : $400

Samsung hasn’t really concentrated on music cell phones and the Beat series is here to change that. The Samsung i450 Beat gave music a new dimension and M3200 Beat s is here to make a mark in the budget category music phones.

Design and Display

The M3200 is a slider phone with a 2.0″ display. Smaller display is a major drawback which might lose Samsung quite a number of customers. The small display leaves a lot of space on the front panel. Only the earpiece finds room above the display and three dedicated music keys take up the space just below the display. There are two keys on the front panel apart from a D-pad.

Volume rocker is on the left side and a music player key. The two speakers have been placed at the top and on the right side. The universal port and the camera key cover up rest of the space on the right side. Both the top and bottom are free from any ports or keys.

The display has good clarity but for a 2.0″ screen it does not make much of a difference. The sunlight visibility is good but not great like Nokia displays.

Keypad and User Interface

Sliding the phone up reveals the alphanumeric keypad. It also has the Call and End keys as well as Clear button. All the keys are separated from each other and have substantial amount of space between them. The keys offer good feedback and it is a SMS junkie’s phone. The well spaced layout of the keys eliminates typos.

The user interface of the M3200 is a non-smartphone user interface by Samsung. The user interface is nowhere near to that offered by Nokia S40 phones. The main menu displays the icon in a grid format. The deeper sub-menus are also fast and responsive but have limited eye candy. Home screen does not offer much except for the standard battery and signal strength.

Dialing animations can be changed too. The installed themes are quite good and go well with the overall design and pattern of the phone. It also offers you the option to create your own themes in Easy and Expert modes.

Music Player and Camera

Music is where the phone excels at! It has a lot of music oriented features already mentioned in the beginning of the review. The music player has three dedicated keys right below the display which also launch the music player from anywhere. The M3200 has stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack, bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, shake control etc which glorify this music device.

The music player is powered by a Band & Olufsen ICE power chip and also takes advantage of Samsung’s DNSe technology. These lead to better sound quality at reduced power consumption compared to other handsets. But still the audio quality of the handset is not the best. The music player interface also has two separate themes. The interface otherwise is simple and easy to use.

Motion Play feature uses the built-in accelerometer to change tracks, pause/play songs, mute player etc by the flick of the hand. Motion Play can also be used during an incoming call. Overall a nice feature which is great to show off. Mood-based track sorting has been implement in quite a few Sony Ericsson phones. It works in collaboration with the desktop application to sort the tracks according to various moods.

Auto-EQ is another great feature which selects a pre-defined equalisers based on the genre of the track. Shazam which recently acquired fame due to its iPhone music recognition app, has provided the same application for this phone too. It works great in finding songs after listening to a part of the track.

The camera is a big disappointment as the 2.0 MP camera has not been supplemented by either autofocus or the LED flash. This makes the camera a below average performer. The interface is very simple but has many settings to tweak. Portrait mode is the only way of using the camera.

The image quality is below average and lacks detail. The colors appear washed out in the images. The video quality is sup-par with QCIF resolution at only 15fps. Overall the camera department of the phone is below average.

Web browser and Organiser

The browser bundled with the M3200 is NetFront v3.4 which has basic functionality. It is good enough for casual browsing as it lacks advanced features found in most of next generation browsers. Mini-map and in-page search are the two features it does support. Most of the pages are rendered fine and overall performance of the browser is good.

The organiser has a good calendar which can manage yours tasks well. In the alarm clock, upto five alarms can be set up. Other organiser applications include voice memo recorder, a calculator, unit converter, countdown timer and stopwatch. A good organiser bundle for a phone in this budget.

Pros :

• Good keypad
• Awesome music player
• Good organiser

Cons :

• Small display
• Poor camera
• Average browser

Final Thoughts

The Samsung M3200 Beat s is a music oriented phone in the budget category. It has excellent music features which give you a worthwhile music experience. But that is the only great thing about the phone. In other departments the phone is pretty much average. The camera neither has autofocus nor flash. The display measures just 2.0″ and browser is average. If music is your only concern then you can consider buying this.

My Rating : 2.75/5