Samsung S7350 Ultra

The Samsung S7350 Ultra s is a pretty obvious successor of the Samsung S7330. What sets the two apart is that the new slider has ditched the touchpad. Also, the S7350 Ultra s has a higher-resolution, bigger 2.6" WQVGA screen, a GPS receiver with Samsung Mobile Navigator (by Route66) and a more modern styling in tone with the latest Samsung lineup. There's also the 5 megapixel auto focus camera.

The Samsung S7350 Ultra s is easily another Soul offshoot, though the real successor of the U900 Soul is the already announced S8300 UltraTOUCH.

Samsung S7350 Ultra :

General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, GPRS/EDGE class 10, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps Form factor: Widescreen slider Dimensions: 109.0 x 50.5 x 12.6 mm Display: 2.6-inch TFT, WQVGA resolution (240 x 400 pixels) Memory: hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB) Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus camera with dual LED flash, and WVGA video@30fps Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS and navigation software by Route66 Misc: FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD video support Battery: 880 mAh battery

Being a quad-band phone with HSDPA support, the S7350 Ultra s has the usual Bluetooth and microUSB connectivity, lacking only Wi-Fi. Among the nice extras that more and more Samsung phones are featuring are turn-to-mute, music recognition and smart search.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s shares quite a number of design elements with the S8300 UltraTOUCH and S7220 Ultra b. One of the most obvious features is the finely brushed metallic frame around the display, which extends to cover the top part of the phone as well.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s design and construction The black frame around the display of Samsung S7350 Ultra s has a sort of brushed metallic finish, while everything else is made of matt plastic. The display is large and bright but its legibility suffers a bit in the bright sun.

Over the display there is only the video-call camera and the loudspeaker grill.

The four keys under the large screen share one flat bed, but their press and tactility are excellent. The large D-pad with confirming center is quite user-friendly too.

Sliding the phone up reveals the keypad with its well defined rows of keys. The rows are well sized and typing is quite comfortable never mind there are no borders between keys within the same row.

The left side houses the volume rocker key and the lanyard eyelet, while the right side features the microUSB port and the camera key. The latter is small but very tactile, and the distinct half press for auto-focus is commendable.

Our only issue with the camera key is that, much like the Samsung Armani Night Effect, it also accommodates the basic Task Manager - the so called application switch, which lets you quickly toggle between calling, texting, browsing and running Java apps.

The back of the phone is neat and clean with no functional elements. The 5 megapixel AF camera lens gets revealed after you slide the phone up. Right next to is the dual LED flash and the self-portrait mirror.

We are very glad to find that Samsung have finally given up the thin sliding parts that end on a fat camera module - didn't look nice at all. Now the sliding section has the same thickness from edge to edge. You will notice that the Samsung S8300 has the same styling.

Removing the cover reveals the battery and the two slots: the SIM holder and the microSD card compartment. Unfortunately, handling the memory card requires the phone to be switched off and the battery removed.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s is an unusually tall phone, about the height of a compact candy bar phone. This is due to the big 2.6" display. The phone fits well in hand and is quite easy to control, but we understand that might not be how everyone feels about Samsung S7350 Ultra s.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s user interface The user interface graphics look very good, especially with the new Flash-based themes onboard, while most of the features and functions remain the same.

Much like the Samsung S7220, Samsung S7350 Ultra s is among the first Samsung handsets to have a flash-based UI (which is kinda similar to the Sony Ericsson interface). The new Samsung user interface differs from the one on previous models by its rich colors and new background animations.

Unfortunately, only the home screen and the main menu are animated. If you go deeper in the menu, you'll see the old and well known menu structure (which isn't bad by any means).

Unfortunately, third-party themes are still not supported, but the device comes with a few preinstalled. Here's what some of the different themes look like.

One of the most intriguing features of Samsung S7350 Ultra s is its GPS receiver and the Samsung Mobile Navigator application, which is made by Route66 and offers turn-by-turn navigation and various maps and location-services.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s also has a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with maximum image resolution of 2560x1920 pixels and dual-LED flash plus self-portrait mirror.

The camera uses the usual non-smartphone interface and follows the current trend of displaying settings with icons in a toolbar at the top of the screen, while options appear as drop-down menus.

Face detection and geotagging are among the more interesting camera features of S7350 Ultra s. The rest, as usually, includes picture size, shooting mode (single, smile shot, continuous, panorama, mosaic and frame shot), color effects (black and white, negative, sepia, etc.), white balance, and resolution setting.

The camcorder user interface is the same. The video recording is the key camera feature - the S7350 Ultra s captures at WVGA (720x480) resolution with 30fps. Unfortunately our unit couldn't record video clips, beacuse of its beta status.

The S7350 Ultra s produces good quality images with balanced color and mild sharpening. Noise reduction is very gentle, which favors image detail. In macro mode you can take very sharp and "clean" images. The dynamic range is very good too

Except for the digital maps and of course the video player, the other applications that put the large WVGA display to good use are the built-in trial-versioned games. You can enjoy the Brick Breaker Revolution, Pyramid Bloxx and Who Wants to be a Millionaire games.

Samsung S7350 Ultra s takes aim at the mid-range with a nice pack of features and elegant exterior. Despite the lack of Wi-Fi, which seems to be missing on all Samsung feature phones, there's hardly anything to hold against the device at this point.

We are delighted by the ergonomics and build quality even at this pre-release stage, the 2.6" WQVGA display is amazing and quite unusual for a non-touch phone. And finally, a GPS receiver with a mobile navigation solution is a real treat on a feature phone.

Truth is we can see prosperous future for S7350 Ultra s and we really hope it keeps up the high standards when it hits the shelves.