Review: Samsung U800

Samsung U800 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: An ultraslim 3G phone available in Silver or Pink. The U800 offers a mid-range camera, video calling, a music player, FM radio, Bluetooth connectivity, 1GB of built-in memory plus the option to add a memory card. Similar in looks to the Nokia 6500 Classic, we feel that the U800 is a better phone and is highly recommended.
Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Dialaphone (Silver) or Dialaphone (Pink); or £68.46 on PAYG from Dialaphone (Pink).

The U800 is an ultraslim 3G phone with a classic-shape design. You could say that it's virtually a clone of the Nokia 6500 Classic, but actually it's a better phone.

Looks-wise, it's hard to tell the U800 apart from the Nokia. They are both ultraslim phones with nearly identical size and weight. Both have a high resolution screen (320 x 240 pixels) with 16 million colours and a large physical size of 2.0 inches. Both phones are fantastic lookers and are great to hold and use, with flat but ergonomic keypads. The colour choice is slightly different, with the Samsung being available in a choice of silver or pink. Another difference is that the Samsung has a front-mounted camera for making video calls.

The features of the Nokia and the Samsung are also similar, although the Samsung definitely has an edge. As well as the front-mounted video camera, there's a high resolution main camera on the back, rated at 3 megapixels with a power LED flash and digital zoom. This isn't the greatest camera available, lacking autofocus and high-end optics, but it's typical for a mid-range phone. The back camera can also record video.

The U800 has a good music player, capable of playing back most popular formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+ and enhanced AAC+, as well as full Digital Rights Management. There's an FM radio built in too. One way in which the U800 beats the Nokia is in the amount of memory available: not only does it have a 1GB of in-built memory (enough for around 250 MP3 tracks), but you can expand this by adding a microSD memory card for even more capacity.

The U800 has a good set of other functions, including email, a document viewer, Java games and a voice memo recorder. Connectivity options are Bluetooth and USB. Battery life is below average (as expected for an ultraslim 3G phone), but better than the Nokia.

The U800 is a very nice phone that beats the Nokia 6500 Classic on a number of counts:

• 3G video calling
• Better battery life
• Expandable memory

Most popular contract deals:

Share this page on Del.icio.us

Features of the Samsung U800 include:

• 3G video calling, fast downloading and streaming
• 3 megapixel camera with flash and 4x digital zoom
• Video camera (MPEG4 / 3GPP formats)
• Second video camera for video calling
• Display: TFT, 16 million colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.0 inches)
• Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+, WMA formats)
• FM radio
• 64-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones
• Voice memo recorder (up to 1 hour)
• Integrated handsfree speakerphone
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email (POP3 / SMTP / IMAP4)
• T9 predictive text
• 3D Java games plus downloadable games
• Flight mode
• Personal organiser functions
• Document viewer
• Memory: 1 GB plus MicroSD memory card slot
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB 2.0
• WAP 2.0, GPRS Class 10, EDGE, 3G
• Triband (900/1800/1900 MHz) plus 3G (UMTS)
• Size: 111 x 46 x 9.9mm
• Weight: 92g
• Talktime: 3.5 hours (3G) - 6 hours (2G)
• Battery standby: 290 hours (3G) - 320 hours (2G)

Samsung U800 Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 42 reviews:

Reviewed by Ian from UK on 4th Jan 2009
At first thought this was a great phone, but noticed that reception near my home (which is normally good on Orange network) was poor. Most of the time could not get a signal in my house, which normally on Orange I can. This phone must have a very weak antenna so unless you want to buy to LOOK at I suggest you spend your money on a different phone. Looks good, feels good, works badly!
Rating:

Reviewed by millie from england on 3rd Jan 2009
i got this phone after having a nokian70 and it is totally fab ! i reccomend anyone to get this phone
Rating:

Reviewed by SteveK from Uk on 30th Dec 2008
My first Samsung and im dissapointed, so much so im getting rid of it tomorrow to one of those buy your phone sites. Very slow keypad response, unpredictive texting (it doesnt suggest words) and you cant delete misspelt word from the memory, poor battery life, screen barely visible in daylight, but my biggest gripe...text and letter sizes, smallest I have ever seen on a mobile and contary to what people may tell you YOU CANNOT ADJUST THEM so dont bother if you need glasses to read. I also agree with the other posters about the instruction book, very very poor. A few pluses I guess..good looking phone, nice in the hand, customisable message tones..good quality sound from bundled headphones..er thats about it!
Rating:

Reviewed by Michael from Australia on 30th Dec 2008
After having an infuriating nokia n91 4gig (the first bad nokia iv had), decided to get the u800. On paper, much much better than the nokia. Supposedly better camera, HUGE internal memory with expansion, great brushed silver look, and menus are quite similar to nokia. Then after 2 days, the buttons came off! Not to worry I thought, got a prompt repair, and back on my way. Then it became almost infuriating. The speed of the phone is snail paced! average of 4 seconds for the phone to respond. The camera, for a mid range phone, is well, kind of a let down, considering the mid range sony erricson's great cameras. The texting. What a night mare. Half of the words are not in t9, when you add them, you have to scroll through 300 words just to get to it, whereas nokia will place your most common words at the front of the list. Then there is the issue of the phone stopping messages from sending if you slide it closed...what a stupid thing to do! after spending days reading the manual, and playing through all menus, i decided that its just not worth it. From a phone that I was really happy to buy, to just as bad as the nokia n91, i have to say, im not overly happy with. I will give samsung a go again, I just have to decide what model to try!
Rating:

Reviewed by Amjad from UK on 22nd Dec 2008
Had this phone for a couple of months now. Lower end phone which does exactly what it says on the tin. Excellent music quality. Only issue I got with this is when writing a text it comes up with predictive mode which is not what I wnat, so I have to change it. Next time I write a text, it defaults back to predictive..annoying.. is there anyway to make non-predictive the default? Good phone..reccommended.
Rating:

Reviewed by Paul from Thailand on 17th Dec 2008
Nice Phone. Just acquired it. for info, the keypad lock time can be increased or decreased by changing the Backlight time. Seems the functions are interrelated in terms of time.
Rating:

Reviewed by Lewis from England on 29th Nov 2008
Love it so far music good feels good everything u expct from a phone dont know about the battery yet, ignore what ppl have put down below there making stuff up none of that happens its just them, well worth getting especailly for the price it is , if i could put 10 stars i would
Rating:

Reviewed by Clara from U. on 27th Nov 2008
For delivery reports, in settings turn delivery reports to "off" and then when you compose a text (put it in your template) type: *0# leave a space and then type your message. The 0 is the figure 0, and not the letter. This only applies to the 02 network though. But this fone is brilliant, I love it, especially the theme creator. The memory is fantastic. Well done Samsung.
Rating:

Reviewed by toni from uk on 27th Nov 2008
i love my u800, the only problem i have is that i cant get a delivery report for my texts, does anyone know why? my picture messages send a delivery report but my text messages dont :( can any one help????
Rating:

Reviewed by Paolo from Italy on 20th Nov 2008
This phone has a fantastic design. It feels very, very good in hand. It has a very good camera. The display is clear and crisp. Audio quality is good.. a little thin as in many samsung mobiles. Battery autonomy is enough. BUT The sluggishness of the UI is unbelievable. I've also updated the firmware, only to obtain a slight improvement. This phone is so slow that you think you can make and drink more than one coffe while waiting for something to happen after pressing a key. My previous phone was a [now broken] sgh-p300.. ridiculously faster. I've made a gift for my sister of the u800, and bought a nokia 6300, maybe waiting for another p300 on ebay.
Rating:

Reviewed by anthony from ireland on 18th Nov 2008
i bought the samsung u800 after reviewing it on line. i first seen it in a magazine advert and liked it because of its looks - size -streamlined - slim... and stainless steel nice touch. its got good solid build qaulity, but thats not the only reason why i bought it, my old cell phone a nokia 3310 was about 8-10 years old, so it was due to be upgraded so i bought another nokia first of all but i found it was not as good as my old phone as i find a lot of nokias are at present, i find other people that i know have the same complaint some have said that thay would not buy another nokia again...but to be fair maybe it depends on witch model of nokia you chose. the main problem i find with some phones is poor qaulity reception on 3 counts first - limited volume on earpiece not good in noisy inviroment - poor qality audio - and poor reception in good reception area and even worse in bad reception area. anyway now on to the samsung u800... i personily find it a delight to use great comfort to hold feels great in the hand...first class reception even in a poor reception areas where i could'nt get a signal from another phone no problem with the u800 i dont know if it down to the electronics in the phone or the stainless steel body witch might help with reception but i find it works great, with good clean audio and good volume in noisy inviroments. when you speak to someone its like there standing next to you. also its easy to use, i cant complain so far... so if its a good mobile phone your after to make good clear calls then i cant recomend it enought 'great phone'
Rating:

Reviewed by ians from UK on 9th Nov 2008
Follow up from review on 9 October 2008 - After having this phone for 3 weeks the battery became a major problem, a full charge would only last 36 hours on standby and less than 24 hours when a couple of calls 10 minute calls were made and a few text messages were sent, I was originally told by network provider that this is what I should be expecting from a ultraslim G3 phone, I explained that this was far below the manufactures suggested standby/talktimes, eventually it was agreed that I could exchange this phone for the same model, however as it was not in stock I opted for something completely different (Nokia 6600 Slide). I did like the Samsung G800, however, like I said in my original review the metal case scratched very easily and after 3 weeks in my pocket this phone looked older than what it was.
Rating:

Reviewed by emily from england on 3rd Nov 2008
Good points: packed full of great features, camera is very good, i love how we can personalize the menu settings and all that, its got loads of memory, very good sound quality, good ringtones and all that, good signal, looks and feels great bad points: seriously not enough information on how to work certain aspects of the phone..and will take about a month to learn everything. But then again, this is hardly a reason why not to buy it! its a great, fun phone!
Rating:

Reviewed by Mike from Ireland on 3rd Nov 2008
Generally pretty nice and well manufactured phone, great materials quality, but: 1.PC Synchronisation doesn't work. Samsung’s customer care can not help in resolving the problem....so if you want to synchronise your phone with Outlook - go for Nokia. 2.no-preloaded games, 3.ridiculous keypad lock...it is being locked in every place of menu when it is on auto, so when you are browsing menu and you hesitate for few second, the key pad is being locked. When the keypad is locked and you receive call, the keypad becomes active so you can access phone functions, but after the call phone stays in the idle even though before the call it was locked. 4.Why when you connect phone with PC via USB you have to turn off Bluetooth? Generally.....great looking & stylish.....advanced functions even though some are not working....but next time I would go for Nokia again due to its functionality.
Rating:

Reviewed by Mike from Ireland on 3rd Nov 2008
Generally pretty nice and well manufactured phone, great materials quality, but: 1. PC Synchronisation doesn't work. Samsung’s customer care can not help in resolving the problem....so if you want to synchronise your phone with Outlook - go for Nokia. 2. no-preloaded games, 3. ridiculous keypad lock...it is being locked in every place of menu when it is on auto, so when you are browsing menu and you hesitate for few second, the key pad is being locked. When the keypad is locked and you receive call, the keypad becomes active so you can access phone functions, but after the call phone stays in the idle even though before the call it was locked. 4. Why when you connect phone with PC via USB you have to turn off Bluetooth? Generally.....great looking & stylish.....advanced functions even though some are not working....but next time I would go for Nokia again due to its functionality.
Rating:

Reviewed by rrrr from here on 1st Nov 2008
I've had this phone and it's strange.Bought it on 02 and i was chuffed.I made fun of my little teen brother as he has a nokia 6230 with just about nothing special.After 3 days the buttons have come off.I sent it back,they sent it back 'fixed'.If thats fixing i dont want to see them break a phone.The phone literally fell apart.The front came off with the buttons.I sent it back again.While i've had my U800 fixed,i've hda an old nokia as a courtesy phone.The one with only messaging and a clock which tells you the time on prompt.I've had the courtesy phone,longer than the Samsung.I'm asking for my money back as this is ridiculous.Especially as the 6230 nokia is still going:-(
Rating:

Reviewed by gary from uk on 29th Oct 2008
great phone fully reccomended.
Rating:

Reviewed by Chris from United Kingdom on 14th Oct 2008
Looks very nice, but unfortunately a very very poor UI lets it down. It's not very easy to use - you have to go through three menus just to get a symbol into a text message, for example - and multiple niggles have just driven me insane. The screen is poor quality, with colours looking very washed out compared to Nokias and SEs, and visually it's not very customisable. Nor are the features very customisable - for instance, the volume button can't be set to control the ringtone volume, just the keypad volume. It looks solid, but doesn't feel very much so. Keypad isn't very accurate, either. On the good side, it does look very nice, and comes with the nice little 3.5mm jack headphone adapter/handsfree, so that's to its advantage. Sound quality is very nice on the phone calls if you use 3G, and the camera is good for what it is, although lacking autofocus and the naturally second-rate LED flash which is useless beyond around 1m and will wash out your pics if it's used less than 50cm. But you can't expect much more for that! I'm changing it for the Nokia 6500 or one of the SE phones.
Rating:

Reviewed by ians from UK on 9th Oct 2008
As a devoted Nokia user I was reluctant to change to another manufacturer, however, I did make the change after considering the Nokia 6500 Classic, which is very similar in appearance and specification, however, the Samsung-U800 offered a better camera, expandable memory, radio, more talk time/standby and at the time of purchase the U800 was £30 less than the Nokia 6300 Classic on PAYG. The U800 is a well-built, slim and stylish handset, that can be carried comfortably in your pocket, it is straightforward to use, although some of the information in the supplied Samsung manual is sparse, the camera is as good as can be expected from a 3MP camera on a phone and the keys are comfortable to use, the only draw back is the shinny metal casing does scratch quite easily. Highly recommended.
Rating:

Reviewed by Gary parpy pants from Uk on 8th Oct 2008
Been a sony fan for years but fancied a change as the walkmans weren't really my thing. So i got the Samsung U800. This is at first semmed to be a great phone and the whole menu system alot easier to configure than previous samsungs> You can set your own message tones and ringtones as long as they are mp3, which is a first for samsung. The flat keypad was responsive enough and no problem to use. All in all i liked the phone alot. Until i noticed that the reception on mine was very poor with the bars dropping from 6 to 2 to 0 very often.Especially if the phone is in my pocket or i go into a shop, a mall being a big no no! Now i live in a high reception area and my sony K750i and my wifes D900 (both on O2) rarely drop the signal and if so its by one bar. So the O2 shop said this was not right so i sent my phone back to the catalogue and bought a new one from the O2 shop to check it wasnt a bad batch and this one is going back the same, it cannot hold a signal. I am very dissapointed as this is surely the main function of the phone and should be the most reliable. And yes i changed all the settings put it on 2G etc changed the sim, stood outside in different places and even though my old phone was fine this one struggled which also will not help battery life. So i cannot rate this phone at all, i dont want to be checking it all the time for messages and signal! I think that the manufacturers have lost sight of the basic functions of phones nowadays, mine is just a glorified mp3 player with no signal. I have looked on the web and cannot find this to be a problem on this handset apart from one other person, but then i wonder if its because it is still fairly new. Anyone else have this problem?
Rating:

Reviewed by Space Chimp from UK on 1st Oct 2008
Always been a Nokia man myself & my last one was a Nokia 6500 Classic, but then i saw this with it's 3 mega pixel camera & thought i'd give it a go. First of all it is very much like the 6500 in design etc just a few mm thicker & wider but not by much. It has 1 gig built in memory like the 6500 but accepts micro-sd cards of upto 8 gig. The options menu can be slightly slow when entering & leaving the menu, but not enough for it to become annoying. The built in ring tones are poor but nobody uses them anyway. It does come with built in wallpapers 6 of them & also a animated Living World wallpaper & Photo Slider which gives you the option of loading 9 of your fav pics to use as animated wallpaper which is very good. Stereo speakers would have been ideal but the speaker is adequate & can be heard easily & music plays though it just fine. Text messaging took some getting used to as it is slightly different to the Nokia the key you press to space your words is different as is the key for predictive text, other than that no problems. Overall a very good phone & very solid.
Rating:

Reviewed by Steve from England on 30th Sep 2008
This is my first Samsung always had Motorola phones before, i have just one word for it, EXCELLENT. I'm not a photographer so 3mp is plenty for me. The quality of the sound and picture is great. Go and get one.
Rating:

Reviewed by Brenda from Wales on 23rd Sep 2008
I have had this phone since Sunday 21st Sept 2008. So far I am very impressed. Absolutely gorgeous to look at. Very good quality sound on phone calls and music. Easy to transfer files from pc. Lots of memory. I am very happy and would recommend it to anyone.
Rating:

Reviewed by Elena from UK on 22nd Sep 2008
I like it - looks 80's and after having an LG Chocolate which looked amazing but was terrible as a phone - i am very impressed with this Samsung U800! Only had it 2 days, but i can't stop looking at it's brushed silver finish. Must be something to do with being born in the 80's. Kind of like a retro calculator/watch. I admit i am only commenting on the look - i'm fickle. : )
Rating:

Reviewed by celik from tr on 18th Sep 2008
its ust perfect OK? just close ur laptop and run to a store and get it... best phone ever. user friendly and stylish... five stars
Rating:

Reviewed by kathryn from Northern Ireland on 18th Sep 2008
this phone is amazing! The screen is so clear, as is the sound quality, camera's brill. Also like the theme creator, very cool! 5/5 definitely!
Rating:

Reviewed by Mike from England on 11th Sep 2008
Had my U800 for a while now, and I like it. Changed from a Sony Ericsson k850i after having countless problems with this phone! Very impressed with U800 so far, camera's fine, I reate it better than the k850i, but maybe I didn't have that set up right. Internal memory is a massive bonus, and the computer software provided by Samsung is much better/easier to use/quicker than the Sony programme. This is my first Samsung, and I definitely think it's the best phone I've had to date, and I've had a few!! Lack of games is a downfall, there are only demo's available, and I find texting a bit difficult as this is my first flat key-paded (is that a word?!) phone, but I'm getting used to it! Bit randomly, if automatic keylock is on, it locks when you're typing a message if you don't type for 10secs, and being easily distracted this happens alot, but you'll be able to change it in settings. All in all a good phone, with no software issues and only loses 1 star as a result of lack of gam es/auto-focus, but minor details in comparison to what this phone can do!
Rating:

Reviewed by Martin from England on 11th Sep 2008
I just bought my U800 from O2 on PAYG and is beautiful,so slim and stylish. Practicality is my main gripe with modern phones.Some have very dodgy touch screens some are far to heavy in the pocket but most try to be everything you want while falling short on being "just a good phone" so to my delight i have found my "soul mate" no pun intended LOL ... The phone is pure class,no gimmick's it does what its meant to do make phone calls and send and receive SMS and MMS messages. However things get better because it takes a decent photo to. Its 3.1MEGA pix camera is very good for snapping pix at parties or functions without making the phone heavy in the pocket.Also a Mp3 player with 1gig mem + a 2gig micro SD card (bought separately) gives you plenty of space to store tracks and pictures. Sounds good too. All in all this phone is stunning to look at and a joy to use it also feels like a quality product.. Well done Samsung after going through Sony Ericsson's and Nokia's products like a fat kid in a cake shop and chucking my LG VIEWTY at the wall i finally found the phone i was looking for. CLASS PURE CLASS...
Rating:

Reviewed by Lorna from England on 11th Sep 2008
I just got this phone in pink, its so much better than i thought it would be, i just upgraded from the U600, that phone was terrible, it was perfect until the touch buttons broke and predictive text broke but the U800 is perfect so far, i love all the themes you can create and its smooth sleek design and its sturdy and strong, the only down fall is i cant find clipart in the messages :(
Rating:

Reviewed by Carson from United Kingdom on 8th Sep 2008
Just got this phone as an upgrade and it is a very nice, sleek and sexy phone. The materials used makes it feel very high-class and it is solidly built. The menu are not slow at all. I think its because networks load their softwares onto it making it considerably slower. If you are lucky to get one without the network stuff, the menus are swift and easy to use. The ringtones are indeed very naff like simon said although the 1GB of internal memory definitely makes up for this big time. Camera quality is good for daylight photography but at night time it is just rubbish with a lot of noise, even with the flash. Your photos turn blue, so don't throw away your dedicated camera just yet as it cannot compete with standalones. All in all a very good looking phone and easy-to-use with a lot of features to play with!! Recommended x
Rating:

Reviewed by Mark Lawton from United Kingdom on 3rd Sep 2008
This phone isn't bad at all. It has plenty of memory in it, plus you can extend it with the help of an additional memory card. It also has quite a good camera 3Megapixels, and is also really loud, you'd be surprised how loud it is. The only downside I can find to this phone, is that because of the material it is made of, the back tends to mark really easily, after having the phone 4 days I found the back marked. But you can't have everything!
Rating:

Reviewed by simon from uk on 2nd Sep 2008
just received my u800 as an upgrade. Ive only had a couple of hours checking it out but am a bit disapointed so far! I had a motorola K1 before which came loaded with lots of ringtones & wallparers to start you off untill you figure out how to load up your own. this thing comes with a few naff ringtones & NO wallpapers. The instruction booklet is hopless too a lot of stuff just isnt mentioned & you have to fiddle about for ages yourself. EG how to copy your contacts from your old SIM to new. I have 7 days to try this out but I may return it for something better. This IS the 1st samsung Ive had so maybe I should give it a chance? The interface isnt anything like as easy as Nokias or motorolas tho!
Rating:

Reviewed by Joe K from UK on 31st Aug 2008
This phone is very good.. i used to have the u600 and upgraded to this one.. i love it,.,. nice and easy to work but i would like to use the camera on the front to take a photo but dont know how too :(
Rating:

Reviewed by Paul W from UK on 27th Aug 2008
Having been loyal to sony ericcson for a while i feel i took a risk in switching to a samsung model in buying the U800. The camera is very good and is far better than the sony ericcson K550i camera. The menu isnt slow, despite what other reviews say and i found it relatively easy to transfer from my speedy sony ericcson. The sound quality is also very good.
Rating:

Reviewed by ian from uk on 27th Aug 2008
Just got the phone 2day so far so good. Camera quality is good,had the U100 before so glad this one has a memory card slot. Will add more after a few days.
Rating:

Reviewed by Samantha from UK on 25th Aug 2008
Got it in pink.Excellent phone.With good features!.A good buy.Recommended.User friendly.But i cant seem to get the network thing of the main screen :S
Rating:

Reviewed by Ashraf from Bangladesh on 25th Aug 2008
Excellent !!!
Rating:

Reviewed by Lucy from UK on 19th Aug 2008
This phone is absolute rubbish. I thought this was the only attractive phone out at the moment so upgraded to it without a second thought but what a mistake. There is a delay every time you press a button, the system is rubbish, do not get it.
Rating:

Reviewed by Ramu from India on 19th Aug 2008
this phone is bad....camera sucks,music stinks!! UI is bad and I mean bad!! And I paid extra to get it shipped to india!! SheesH Keep away!!
Rating:

Reviewed by Cat from UK on 18th Aug 2008
Amazing Phone Great Camera Nd Nice To Hold, Not The Best But GREAT Value For Money
Rating:

Reviewed by Clair from UK on 18th Aug 2008
I got this phone delivered on wednesday (13th Aug) and I am very pleased with it. I chose to get it in pink, and its a very nice baby pink. The menues etc are pretty dtraight forward and it's easy to use. The only thing that I see as a down point is that it is quite slow to responde, for example if you are in your messages and press "exit" button it can take a few seconds for this to happen, thinking the phone has not registered the "exit" press I press it again, this exiting the messages and then taking me into the phonebook. Over all I am pleased with the phone.
Rating:

Reviewed by Phoenix from UK on 10th Aug 2008
Had this phone for 3 days and so far so good - HSDPA not too bad although not as fast as you would expect (could be due to network and atmosphere though!) - camera is as good as any top end 3 mp phone. It is neat and stylish so it fits in the had nicely. Screen is very clear and unlike some samsungs there are a few more colours other than black and the horrible orange they seem to put on every phone. The only grumble really is that the loudspeaker sounds 'tinny' but I think this is a samsung trait!
Rating:

You can read more Samsung U800 reviews at RecommendedBuys UK.

Samsung U800 links