Nerd Fact Sheet:

Interface:

The really cool thing that I liked the Samsung F480 for, is the TouchWiz interface. This interface has a widget page for its home screen. There is a sidebar (much like a Vista sidebar) that contains little widgets, such as a clock, music controls, birthday reminder or a picture slideshow. These can be dragged onto the main screen in any position the user likes. During my second expericen with the F480, I decided to be silly while stretching the F480's limits. I tried placing about 5 widgets onto the main screen and realised that it started to lag... big time.

I was scared that I crashed the handset, but luckily I didnt cross the limit of the hardware and was able to place some of the widgets back onto the sidebar before a Telstra salesperson caught me messing around.

A very interesting and convenient feature that I recently discovered, is the F480's ability to multi-task. Im not sure of the reliability or usability of this feature as the F480 already suffers scrolling through menus and playing around with (too many) widgets. I only know it allows you to get a shortcut to messages, internet, music player, make a call and to the home screen.

The only disappointment in this is the inability for the F480 to do full multi-tasking as you are restricted to only the tasks mentioned above. The Viewty has the ability to multi-task by running any several programs of your choice (such as a running game along with messaging, web browser, calculator and... another different game).

Texting/typing:

I underestimated the ability for the F480 to text well. While we are beginning to enter a technological age where touch is being an increasingly popular input method, I always had my doubts with texting and typing accurately.

The F480 had dealt with the problem well, as the large on-screen numpad was extremely easy to type with and I had hardly any mistakes when I tried to type "Hello, testing the texting on the Samsung F480". Texting was also really cool because there is haptic feedback. Haptic feedback is a little vibration that the phone makes whenever your press the screen. This provides the user feedback to confirm that a button has been pressed.

A review (I forgot where from) said that texting was a problem because the space button was directly above the OK/send button and was sometimes accidently pressed, causing much frustration. Samsung has solved this problem and move the space button away from the OK/send button.

Multimedia/Camera:

The F480 also throws in a 5 megapixel camera which seems to have a mixed character. GSM Arena's review has its photos with an odd red tint along with a lack of fine detail, especially in foilage. But in the review in www.letsgomobile.com, the red tint is absent, and there is a tad more fine detail despite still showing a disturbing blur in foilage. I suppose the review, in the latter, had a model of the F480 with newer firmware.

I was slightly disappointed in the lack of fine detail, but otherwise there is excellent colour in the photos, as they are very vivid. Also, this is only a camera phone... so you can't expect too much out of it. Compared to other 5 megapixel shooters out there, such as the C902 and N95/N96, I would place the F480 around the average mark... or maybe a pin's head below average.

Also for all those camho's out there, there is also a front calling camera. This is useful for me because I always like to check if my hair is stuffed up... and yes... I also do take photos of myself to put on facebook. Social networking freaks will love the front calling camera.

When I first walked in, Telstra had put on some Pink music video on. I was watching it to see what the playback was like, and it seemed fine. The framerate wasn't exciting, but it was enough to make watching a whole movie enjoyable. Then again, it couldve just been the video quality (that it was playing) that could've been really craphouse... since it was Pink.

Other choices/Availability:

As I have compared earlier, the KU990 Viewty is an alternative to the Samsung F480. Im not sure of the outright price for either of the phones, but the Viewty is $299 on pre-paid locked with Virgin. This is a phat-load cheaper than if you were to get the Samsung F480 from Telstra, even though they have recently dropped the price.

Another alternative (one that I like better) is the LG KF750 Secret which is also very stylish, with a carbon-fibre back and is one of the slimmest 5 megapixel phones, that also performs quite well.

An inferior alternative is the LG KF700Q, also from Telstra, but has specs that is not worth comparing to the Samsung F480. The only advantage of the KF700Q is the physical keypad, but unless a physical keypad is the factor that concludes your desicion, I wouldn't choose the KF700Q over the F480.

The 1337 verdict:

Overall, I think the F480 would be worth its money (especially now that Telstra has lowered the plan) for its great design as long as you are not bothered by the problem with the underpowered hardware which causes some lagginess.

The interface is intuitive and is fresh to Australia and is fun to play around with (as long as you dont mess around with too many widgets). This phone is worth getting.

Reviewed 8th November 2008

Editied and Updated 27th Janurary 2009