Many take the F480 as Samsung firing back at the Apple iPhone with its brand new all-touchscreen device sans keyboard. But that would be the wrong way to look at the F480, as Samsung was first to this market and generally its solutions are going in a different direction. In this case, it is a fashion-savvy keyboard-less device taking a whole lot of cues from the Samsung Armani. But whereas the Armani had this “fashion” bit in its very name, the F480 doesn’t have this trait, although it sure isn’t second to its brother in arms price-wise. The reason, as strange as it sounds, is in the Armani itself – had they launched a less expensive, yet a more feature-rich solution, the Armani would’ve been all but buried, and the truth is, it’s not doing great even these days either. That’s why they have added some extra pounds to the F480’s price tag on purpose, not allowing it to spread all over the market. As far as fashion-conscious handsets go, it is not a failing by any means, but rather an essential criterion. Apparently, Samsung is not recognized and praised as much as Nokia in this sense and its solutions are less fashionable on top of that. Within Samsung’s own line-up, the F480 is more of a stand-alone offering, being rather a first stab at the touchscreen market, a bridge connecting their old range with the one that’s already on the threshold.
The handset measures up at 95.9x55x11.5 mm and weighs 103 grams. The leather case it comes packaged with sure adds a couple of millimeters to its girth, but all in all, the F480 is very compact and may well drown in your palm. The front fascia houses the forward-facing camera along with three hardware buttons. The bad thing about it is that it’s a finger-print magnet and don’t hope it will make some effort to hide them – it won’t. The rear is made of textured metal and doesn’t tend to pick up scratches with ease.
The optical stabilizer allows you to avoid getting blurred shots when your hands are shaking a little. But it is not a stellar performer by any means.
The Mosaic mode downgrades resolution to the lowest possible (the resulting image makes 320x240 pixels in size), so that you could get a grid consisting of 4 pieces (2x2). Generally speaking, it’s a mode for days when you feel like taking some fancy shots.
While in the Multi shot mode, the camera snaps really fast, which makes it possible to get 6 pictures at a time (everything happens is an eyewink), in case this is not what you’re looking for, there is a slower mode as well (gap between shots – one second or a bit less). The modes with 9 and 15 pictures taken in rapid succession are also available. I’ve already said this and will repeat it again: this feature works fine for photo-finishes at tournaments etc., but in real life it won’t be of much use – if you happen to shake the while shooting in this mode, most of the shots will get blurry. The image resolution in this mode switches to 320x240 pixels.
The Panorama mode found in the F480, unlike the Samsung G600 and other phones available on the market, is automatic. This means you just pick the number of pieces you will be splicing together – 3, 4, 5 or 6 shots. Then you point the camera at the first object and take a picture. After that, you don’t need adjust this image to fit the previous one, all you need to do is move the camera to the right, so the phone will make another shot automatically. However the resulting image is not always flawless – if someone happens to pass by in front of the lens, get ready to start the whole thing all over again. Depending of how many pieces you have chosen, your panorama’s resolution will differ.
All photos are stored in the Album, where you can view detailed data on every picture. Any image found in the Album can be assigned to a contact in the phonebook or set as a wallpaper outright. The slide-show mode and a basic editor (allows applying emoticons, frames and special effects) are at your disposal in the F480.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment