Samsung i450 review – Operating System

We are continuing the Samsung i450 review, this time I will write about the software and the parts that we are not aware of, as S60 v3.1 has already been referred in few other reviews.

The Samsung SGH-i450 runs on Symbian OS9.2 with S60 platform v3.1 Feature Pack

Samsung replaced the Nokia logo by a customized “The Ultra Music” logo on booting. The theme really fits the phone. On NSeries, for me the themes don't seem to blend so well with the devices, but here the looks are just adequate, and the same goes to the icons.

Different icons aren't the only modification to the menu. If you have an application or a folder that its name is very long, the words will slide. It's the same as what happens in the NSeries music player.

Samsung tweaked S60 a bit to their choice, it's small but nice touches to the platform. Nokia ESeries S60 edition is different from NSeries, and it's the same here, only small but important touches to the overall software.

The first obvious addition is the Google Search toolbar to the active standby. NSeries have the Windows Live shortcut, but it's too slow. The Google toolbar also features in-line editing.

If you played with old versions of the N95's firmware you should remember that sliding the back platform activates the irritating multimedia menu. On the i450 it activates the music application. Closing the slider locks the keypad.

The navi-wheel only has one use, which is for scrolling the music lists and options, not even the contacts application benefits from the navi-wheel.

If there is no activity on the phone, the display backlight dims. This happens with NSeries as well. On the settings, there are small intervals for display brightness so that you can get it set just the way you like it. Remember that more brightness means better quality, but uses more battery as well.
One of the disadvantages is that there is no screensaver, so for example, to check the time, you will have to press a key.

A functionality that was dropped in NSeries was to choose either to have HSDPA while on 3G or not. Samsung kept this option, which conserves battery power when connected to the internet if you disable HSDPA.

One of the most important (and simplest) features of a phone is to lock the keypad. Closing both sliding platforms locks the keypad, and you can set it to automatically lock after a determined time interval, both in standby mode and while running applications. To unlock you need to press the left soft key and the centre key. I failed to find a key combination to lock the phone, and as usual, I didn't bother to check on the instructions manual.

I'm not going to go in-depth with S60 platform as I already spoke about on previous reviews. Let's move on to the new applications:

• Voice signal: enables you to write commands and the phone to read them and execute them. For some reason this feels absolutely useless.
• Quickoffice and Adobe LE: Important office suite applications that are included, although you cannot edit files, only read them.
• Video editor: Edit videos, make photo movies and storyboards.

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