Samsung smartphones' history isn't a very memorable one. Rarely you will see someone with such a device in South Africa. I've seen none: no Windows Mobile powered devices nor S60 phones by Samsung. The most common smartphones in South Africa seem to be NSeries and HTC.

The international progression for Samsung's S60 devices seem to be slow as well. They aren't much discussed about on the internet, what I mean by this is that they are certainly not as hyped as NSeries, for example. Samsung doesn't seem to be getting far with platforms that aren't theirs. In my opinion, this is a marketing failure. Samsung S60 phones are excellent devices and their external appearance is very attractive to the average consumer, well, besides the i450. The reason why this company doesn't go far with these items has to be the lack of marketing push. The only adverts I see from Samsung are the D500, D600, D900, F250, and U700. Of course there are others, but this is what we mainly see on the streets, and on the TV.

Someone asked me once: “Meraj, what phone do you have today?” I received new phones every week as I review them, so my friends usually are curious on what I'm playing with during that time. I replied: “A Samsung i450.” I wasn't surprised when I saw their wondering faces trying to figure out what the i450 looked like, but they probably never saw one in their lives! I honestly do not understand why there is a lack of advertisement for this phone here in this country, maybe Samsung thinks it won't sell well...I would agree and after you read the entire review you might agree as well, it's quite subjective.

Along the S60 history there have been 9 Samsung phones: D720, D730, i520, i400, i450, i550, i560, G810, and the recently-announced L870. [Source: S60]

It's never easy to fit a smartphone in a specific category. You would want to do this so that you can compare it to the competition, to see what other phone you could buy so that you get the same deal for a better price, or even better features. The i450 is a smartphone that looks like a toy, and it's focused on music. The dual-slider form factor quickly reminded me of a Nokia N95, hence I did a comparison between these two phones. The features reminded me of a Nokia N81. From the Sony Ericsson side, the W910 might be the one who can compete against the i450 as it's a smartphone.

The N81, W910 and the i450 all have a 2 megapixel camera. Only the N81 and the i450 have a multitasking-enabled operating system so can perhaps single them out. The N81 has a navi-wheel while the i450 has a sort of scroll-wheel as well. There is a variant of the N81 which has 8GB internal memory, but the other version has a memory card slot like the i450. Both phones run on Symbian OS9.2 with S60 v3.1 User Interface, but the N81 has NGage gaming platform which gives it a boost in terms of rating. Another highlight of the N81 is WLAN, but the i450 has HSDPA which the N81 doesn't have. From this point of view, the i450 is beaten by the competition, but not by far.

Samsung SGH-i450 full technical specifications:

Besides South Africa, you will be able to use the i450 in countries that allow GSM 900, 1800, 1900, and HSDPA 2100 bands.

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