Samsung SGH-Z320i sliding handset reviewed

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Manufacturer: Samsung
Web: Samsung Mobile UK
UK supplier: O2
Price: £299.99 prepaid; free on contract
Verdict: Easily resistible

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THE MOTIVATION for reviewing the Z320i from Samsung was to check out O2's current adverts for its i-mode service. These boldly proclaim that you can keep in touch with eBay from your handset. A status check, however, is all you get.

The Z320i is a 3G phone, so in theory it should access i-mode a great deal faster. This shows up in the speed of downloads but not much else. Its main advantages are that it's small and being a slider, doesn't give you any problems with accidentally dialling numbers.

There's no point in beating about the bush - the INQ simply didn't get on with the Z320i. This started when this particular handset failed to make a video call to an ancient NEC phone as expected. See Video phone incompatibility exposed.

The Z320i tries to be a high end handset. It's got a pretty decent 1.3 megapixel camera and Flash facility. Plus there's 120 MB of user memory built-in. But there's no removable memory card option. The biggest surprise was that it supported Polyphonic ringtones rather than Truetones - which frankly made the handset sound very dated.

The biggest surprises came when trying out the handset's i-mode capability. Why has O2 allowed this handset to lose out on single button access to the mobile Internet - in favour of a common menu system? So you now have to click twice. That's madness.

Another disappoint was the browser (from Access). Why on Earth is it not possible to set up a bookmark when the handset has no access to the cellular network? That's exactly when you need a bookmark facility, to save yourself time when you're online.

And eBay access? Well, it basically lets you view the progress of any bids or sales you have active. You can't initiate a sale from the handset. Worse still, the INQ found that the 'forgotten your eBay password' option generated a continuous loop. It sends you back to a help file and never connects with eBay to generate a help request.

The greatest sin the Z320i committed was to download a video file from O2's i-mode portal. The file was in a 3GPP format and consequently wouldn't play on this particular handset. That's disappointing since the whole point of i-mode (as a superior technology to WAP) is to prevent consumers wasting time, effort and money downloading something that won't run on their particular make and model of handset.

In summary this handset falls between a rock and a hard place. It also doesn't do i-mode any favours. Avoid it.µ