Full Review and Specification for the Samsung Armani

There's no escaping that we live in a fashion conscious world. Be it the tightness of your jeans, hairstyle or even your postcode, our fashion credentials are scrutinised daily. With the mobile phone industry having cottoned on to this fact, we're seeing an influx of designer mobile phones. Samsung has teamed up with Italian fashion giants Giorgio Armani to produce what they say will be the first of many collaborations together.

Samsung Armani fashion credentials

The handset itself is the size of a credit card and it's fair to say that you'll need your limit to afford this phone (although it is available free on contract) - yet as with all things Armani this is partly the point, a means of announcing that you are part of the well-to-do club. At a mere 85 grams, the Samsung Armani fits snugly in the palm of your hand and with its glossy black fascia, 2.6-inch TFT screen and copper back, Samsung has achieved its main aim, a truly gorgeous handset. Think a scaled down more attractive LG Viewty - no ugly duckling itself.

The centrepiece of the Samsung Armani is its touchscreen that takes up the near entirety of the phones front. The only buttons are the call and call end buttons found just below the screen, the volume key on the left hand side and the quick camera key and hold button (hold this to lock and unlock the phone) found on the right of the handset. Thankfully Samsung has included haptic response, first seen on the LG Viewty. This means that when you press a key on the screen you will feel a slight vibration under your fingertip to acknowledge your command.

Samsung Armani touchscreen

The release of the Apple iPhone changed the way in which we judge touchscreen interfaces for good. To the detriment of the other manufacturers it is effectively what all touchscreen devices are now compared to. The Samsung Armani is one of those that suffer. Response time is fairly swift and the sliding of your thumb at the bottom of the screen to shift between the clock and calendar works well enough. Pre-iPhone we would no doubt be singing its praises, but it just doesn't measure up to Apple's offering.

At the top of the screen are three shortcut keys. To make silent, press and hold down the speaker key, while the same process can be used to exit silent mode. In the top right hand corner is the icon that will open up the numeric keypad, while next to that is the icon that will open up the full menu interface. The numeric keypad itself, while the number buttons are spaced out well enough, some care is still needed to tap in the right digits, due to the lack of actual keys. When making a call, the handset cleverly locks itself to avoid any accidental button brushes. End the call and the phone reverts to being unlocked.

When in the main menu, twelve icons are neatly laid out leading to all the phones capabilities. As well as displaying the name of each function at the top of the screen, a horizontal and vertical bar meet highlighting your chosen icon. There's no real point to this other than it looks pretty cool, which lets face it is the main objective of the Samsung Armani.

Samsung Armani camera

Despite its slim body, Samsung has managed to fit the Armani with a 3.15-megapixel camera. Turn the phone horizontal and the large screen gives the device an authentic camera feel, though the screen feels a little cluttered with all the icons on display. There are enough camera features to play around with, with a rapid 15 shot burst mode and various white balance options, that helps improve the quality of pics. We found the camera to struggle somewhat with moving images, producing slightly blurred results. However, with a built-in flash and video capture at 30fps, the Samsung Armani's camera abilities are more than capable.

While the camera functions may tick all the right boxes, the same cannot be said of its internet browsing. Somewhat surprisingly for such a high-end handset, there's no WiFi or even 3G. The large colourful screen provides the perfect platform for displaying web content, but a degree of patience is required to move between sites, relying on the sluggish GPRS and EDGE connections. It's similar to a Bentley with no fifth gear.

Samsung Armani music player

The Samsung Armani provides a decent alternative to your iPod Nano. Boxed with a 1GB microSD card, there's a fair amount of storage space to keep all your favourite tracks. The media player itself is compatible with MP3, AAC and AAC+ formats, while you can also copy music files by synchronising your handset with Windows Media Player 11 on your PC. You can rate your tracks with one to five stars and can then create playlists accordingly. Come out of the media player and your music will continue to play with the albums artwork displayed at the bottom of the screen. There's no 3.5mm jack port, but the Armani does support A2DP stereo Bluetooth.

There's plenty of accessories that come boxed with the handset, nearly all with Giorgio Armani scribbled somewhere on it. The phone fits snugly into the provided leather case while still allowing you easy access to the side buttons. The front of the case makes it difficult to make phone calls with, but it certainly acts as a good way of avoiding any scuffs or scratches - the last thing you want on a handset of this artistry. There's even a Giorgio Armani emblazoned cloth to wipe away any unwanted finger marks.

Samsung Armani overall

The Samsung Armani is a thing of beauty. It's gorgeous both to look at and to hold. The touchscreen is far from perfect but is certainly one of the better interfaces we have used. The appealing camera and music player just about make up for the lack of 3G and WiFi, meaning Samsung and Armani's first outing together should go down well with the fashion conscious amongst you.