UK mobile phone reviews - Samsung Pixon Review

Your Samsung Pixon M8800 Reviews

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Reviewer: Flaxvert - Grantham , UK
Date: 23rd Aug 2010

I have had this phone 2 weeks now & it's been good so far.

The screen lock button isn't an issue as I have put in a security code on the call button. (Settings, Security, Privacy lock, then tick Call log & enter 4 digit pass code, say 0000) This will stop the accidental calls!

Instructions are poor, but who reads them anyway? & the phone has tons of info on the web.

Speaker is 'LOUD' for music & calls, which was a big problem on my last phone the Toshiba TG01 windows phone.

It is a shame the flash can't be used as a torch, but recording a video can put the light on.

The screen is bright, even is daylight but I fully recommend a screen cover. Also getting a couple of extra batteries off E bay as their only a couple of quid.

Flaxvert.

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Reviewer: Elizabeth Hempstock - North Lincolnshire, UK
Date: 28th Jun 2010

I have had the phone for almost a year now. At first I was impressed with it, it was quite flash, & what appeared to be a good Samsung phone. However I keep having some re appearing faults. For example the camera cover often fails to close resulting in dust collecting on the lens which is very hard to clean.

Secondly, the Battery life is poor! It gets worse as time goes on.

Thirdly & the most annoying of all the LOCK BUTTON. It has been placed in the most ridiculous place, (side of the phone) which makes it easy to catch. This has resulted in wasting call minutes by calling various people in my phone book, browsing the Internet, deleting an entire phonebook & putting number on a block list. All from being placed in my handbag. This after awhile starts to wear thin, & now I feel as a lifelong Samsung customer, I am now growing to hate the brand & will not be buying another again! If you want your minutes for yourself & to keep your contacts I suggest you don't purchase this phone!

I am counting down the 8 months till I can upgrade & rid myself of this awful phone!

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Reviewer: Hannah - Liverpool, UK
Date: 3rd May 2010

This is my phone that I got around 15 months ago, & I think that it is a good solid phone although I do find that it unlocks a lot in my pocket too, if it wasn't that I wanted a BlackBerry because of other things, I would certainly keep this phone.

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Reviewer: Khalil - Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Date: 14th Apr 2010

My phone freezes & I am not able to use any of the services. Sometimes it is wrong icon responding. I cannot read my messages, open my phonebook or anything at all. What could be the problem & how do I solve the problem?

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Reviewer: Helen - UK
Date: 30th Mar 2010

I had this phone for 12 months & loved it. Was weary of touch screens but once I got used to it was great. My main problem was it was too easy to unlock & would often find when taking it out of my pocket I was on the Internet or phoning someone. Bought various cases to help with this but although not as bad the problem was not eliminated. To unlock, you just have to touch a button on the side, which obviously easily done. If it wasn't for this I would have kept the phone.

Always found texting fast but did have the apostrophe problem mentioned before.

All in all a great phone but let down by it unlocking too easily.

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Reviewer: Jo - London, UK
Date: 9th Mar 2010

This phone is rubbish, my first 3 months into using it the screen kept freezing on several occasions. Took it to T mobile to get it sorted & 4 months after same problem but even worse. Poor battery life, would not suggest anyone getting this phone.

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Reviewer: Paul Mountford - Stoke On Trent, UK
Date: 3rd Mar 2010

I like the phone, it looks sleek & modern but that's about it.

I've had it for 15 months now & gladly just took my upgrade. After about a year the battery had deteriorated dramatically & lasts until about 1pm after an 8 hour charge at night. The hold button does not work anymore & this is so annoying. I came back from holiday, turned my phone on in the airport, walked out & I had deleted all but 6 of my contacts while my phone was in my pocket. When the phone does eventually lock I can't unlock it, so when I get a message I have to take the back off, take out the battery & put it back in again. The battery is absolutely battered now & isn't helped by multiple start ups during the day. Nevertheless whilst it was working it served me well & it has a brilliant camera. The Internet viewing wasn't too bad but when compared to the iPhone you just can't move the screen & zoom in & out in the same way.

Brilliant phone but as I've seen in a lot of cases, they just go wrong after about a year.

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Reviewer: Noel Chua - Philippines
Date: 15th Feb 2010

It has good features but it lacks usability. It gets slower & slower, it can't process data as fast as you think it can. At first it was cool. But it's in Samsung's nature that design before usability, more or less.

Overall, it stands at 70%.

Note. I have no idea why Samsung denied the possibilities of changing the screen saver.

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Reviewer: Mara - Scotland, UK
Date: 12th Jan 2010

Having previously had the original Tocco, I upgraded to the Pixon about a year ago. I have found the phone bulky &, although it has a stylus, it doesn't have anywhere for it to be so just hangs loose from the phone. Find using the stylus awkward as, for some reason, I continually seem to tap the key next to the one I want & have to keep going back to correct it. The phone itself has some good features & a decent camera with a flash. The worst point has to be the battery life. I only use the Internet occasionally on the phone, probably have about 20 to 40 texts in & out most days & don't use telephone minutes every day but the battery needs to be charged up every single night. The hold button is on the left side of the phone & tends to get pressed when in a pocket. Often I have found I've phoned someone or deleted someone from the address book by accident. I also find the loudspeaker isn't very loud, it is awkward to get on when a call connects & I also have problems trying to select a keypad number during a call.

Overall, a decent phone but not the easiest to use. It is a bit bulky & awkward to use.

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Reviewer: Jean Louis Mutendela - Bujumbura, Burundi
Date: 11th Jan 2010

The screen has just frozen, I can't use my phone anymore.

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Reviewer: Andy - UK
Date: 18th Dec 2009

POOR TOUCH SCREEN.
The touch screen is fairly primitive & I find I have to use the stylus most of the time to get any sort of accuracy.

BAD HOLD BUTTON
The hold button on the side of the phone was such a bad idea. One gentle press & that's your phone unlocked. If you carry your phone in a bag or pocket then all it takes is a little nudge & anything in contact with the phone has free reign over the touch screen. I regularly take my phone out my pocket to discover it has attempted to video call someone. Or worse, am presented with a dialogue box saying, really delete this contact?

CRAZY GYROSCOPE
Like many phones the Pixon's built in gyroscope allows it to perform certain functions, such as turn it on its side & the web browser switches to landscape view. This works reasonably well. However, they also decided to implement tilting to the photo viewer. So as well as dragging your finger across the screen to flick through your images, tilting the phone slightly to the left or right will cause the image carousel to scroll left & right respectively. Except, the sensitivity of this is absolutely bonkers. & worse, you can't turn the tilting feature off. So you spend a while browsing to the photo you want to show your mate, turn the screen ever so slightly for him to see it, then watch in horror as it scrolls off to infinity to some other random picture.

UNCONVENTIONAL KEYBOARD OVERLAY IN JAVA APPS
When using any java apps or games, the keypad overlay allows you to switch between 2 modes.
- Cursors, 4 buttons for up, down left, right.
- Number keypad
- But the number keypad is not the usual phone number grid layout you'd expect. Instead it is split over 2 rows. So row 1: 12345*
- Row 2, 67890#
This might save space, but makes playing most games impossible. Imagine using the cursors to move your character around, then quickly switching to number pad mode to use the fire button. Alternatively, you could try just using the number pad for all movement & firing, but the 2 row layout instead of conventional number grid makes the placement of up, down, left & right totally unusable. Also, this keypad overlay which takes up the bottom quarter of the screen has no hide option. So if you're using an app that's fully touch screen, you're stuck with the keypad eating up your screen real estate.

SOME GOOD FEATURES
The built in web browser is actually quite good & with quite a good screen size & T mobile unlimited Internet, there is a lot of enjoyment to be had from this phone.
The built in apps are OK, but you'll get bored fairly quickly.

I installed the free Java app Snaptu, which gives you an iPhone style menu screen with built-in mini apps for Twitter, Facebook, RSS Newsfeeds, Movie reviews etc. This totally gave the phone a new lease of life & I'd recommend to anyone who has this phone.
Also, a Goosync subscription keeps my Google calendar & contacts in synch with the phone & really boosts the overall usefulness of this phone.

As mentioned by others, the camera is good & video recording can be done at ultra high frame rate, allowing you to do some super slow motion replays of your mates falling downstairs & the like. Nice feature.

Overall, it's a half decent phone, but the down points aren't little niggles. They significantly impair on your enjoyment & usage of this phone. There's better out there.

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Reviewer: Alan - Chorley, UK
Date: 7th Dec 2009

I have had this phone on an O2 contract since May this year, the phone is OK, but the lack of applications & the lack of windows mobile OS makes it a bad phone, as most of my friends use icq messenger which uses the standard Windows operating system. I am missing out on all sorts of nights & days out. I contacted O2 who say its not their problem & I need to take it up with Samsung, who just laughed when I called them. I will never buy a Samsung mobile ever again.

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Reviewer: Lisa - Bournmouth, UK
Date: 28th Nov 2009

The phone is on the big side. There are many functions which I can't live without. I used to carry my phone, diary, pen & camera. Now I just carry the phone.

The down side of the phone is that is does not have Wi-Fi connection & the battery. I find myself charging the phone every other day. It also doesn't like my in car Bluetooth system.

I like the features but overall, I still prefer my old Nokia N95.

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Reviewer: Peter Gulotta - Watamu , Kenya
Date: 26th Oct 2009

My touch screen has now gone twice, Why?

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Reviewer: Mitchel - Manchester, UK
Date: 3rd Oct 2009

This phone is really nice & sleek, & Samsung Pixon strongly resembles LG's Viewty & Prada, & it's much slimmer than Viewty, has an 8 Megapixel camera, I have this phone, so happy to review it.

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Reviewer: Qaz - UK
Date: 25th Sep 2009

I have had this phone for a couple of months now & already the touch sensor has worn out. Battery life is shocking & the features within the phone are not enough, judging from the fact that the phone is a potential brick. I think I might use it as a brick in the garden because thats all its going to be good for. Don't buy this phone!

Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition is alright though.

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Reviewer: Danny - Lancaster, UK
Date: 17th Sep 2009

Well after having the phone for half a year now I have to admit it isn't exactly brilliant (Rather Boring).

The phone has some promising features such as.

- Good picture & video quality.
- Enough space for videos & songs etc.
- Design is nice (mine in grey).
- Web N Walk (T Mobile) is a handy tool!

Now for the bad features (IMO).

- Battery life isn't the greatest.
- No Wi-Fi (I believe this phone should of had Wi-Fi capability
- When sending a text you could accidently change the language & not realise .
- Sometimes the phone would unlock (too easy for my liking (phoning people when you don't want to).

The one thing that really annoys me with this phone is the fact that you can change the screen saver. What a joke this is, I know you may think I am being picky but would you fancy a nice flower screen saver when you can have a screen saver of your choice. There is no way to change this either!

Anyway if you can live with the problems above then you should be fine.

Dan.

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Reviewer: Lana - Jordan
Date: 17th Jul 2009

I had it for only 1 week, I was very disappointed so I sold it. The battery life is poor, the phonebook is not friendly, no sleeping mood, answer & end call buttons do not light, you can't know if you have missed call unless you activate the screen, the side buttons are protruding & sensitive so you accidentally activate their functions, no back, forward, backspace buttons for messaging, no visual emoticons (just symbols), there is no list option for messaging folder (its only in detail mode), if you make any change to the wedges from the setting then the wedges in the main screen goes back to default mode (very Annoying), if you put the alarm in off mode from inside the settings it also goes back to default mode, it is wide & not practical for a petite person (you can't handle it with one hand).

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Reviewer: Nik Foad - Windsor, UK
Date: 14th Jul 2009

I have been using the Samsung Pixon now for 3 months. It was chosen at upgrade time for its 8 Mega pixel camera. The camera is good, in fact very good. Works well, good options & has some fun bits added in for making some cool shots.

The phone & its usability is poor. Worse design fault is the key pad lock. It's a one button function not a combination lock.

If I put it in my pocket it will unlock with various outcomes, pocket dialling, deleting names, etc. This is a completely useless lock design. Just dialling a number is hard as the roll on the touch screen is at best unpredictable. Using the key pad during a call to activate the loud speaker or to delete voicemails is a complete pain & very hit & miss.

The screen in outside day light is almost un usable, you need to find shade to see exactly what you're doing. The screen also scratches up very quickly. I have this phone for 18 months & it frustrates me on a daily basis.

I love technology but feel this model hit the shops in a rush without proper field testing. Not a phone I would recommend.

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Reviewer: Paul - UK
Date: 29th Jun 2009

The fanciest looking, feature packed phone that you can't use!
I've had Sony Ericsson's for as long as I can remember, & decided to give the underdog a chance. It failed miserably. Texting is more than a chore due to the inability (to the best of my knowledge) to remove words from the T9 dictionary.
No Wi-Fi means awful browsing, for me, as I am used to linking the SE905C to the wireless hub at home.

Back on texting again, there needs to be a shift of the input language button. As it's located directly below the space key, I often find myself changing language by accident, as I have a fast texting speed. If you text slowly, & not very often, you can ignore that comment.

The speaker is loud enough, if the phone is laid flat, screen upwards, but for music on the go, no thank you. Why can I not press & hold the camera zoom keys to skip back & forward between tracks when the screen is locked & in my pocket? Getting the phone out, unlocking & tapping the screen is a minor irritation. More so if it's raining, & hey, this IS England!

Buy this phone if you like a big touch screen. Otherwise get a C905 for more or less the same price.

In my humble opinion :).

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Reviewer: Ady - Isle Of Wight , UK
Date: 22nd Jun 2009

Had the phone since January 2009 great phone easy to text with good for the heavy texter too as you can send & receive over 100 a day easily. But beware when this phone goes down its as useful as a bag with 10 holes in.

Mine has started switching itself off & back on comes up with no SIM mode & has to be re calibrated to be able to use any part of the screen (O2 said it's the SIM card) apparently too old for the phone. Still waiting for a replacement 2 weeks after complaining. NOT HAPPY.

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Reviewer: John Smith - Reading, UK
Date: 2nd Jun 2009

Awful. This phone is simply awful.

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Reviewer: Amy - London, UK
Date: 28th May 2009

This is a really nice phone it's the best phone I've ever had I had, A sidekick before & I really like this phone. The battery life is okayish if you turn the 3G off & turn the screen brightness down its fine.

It's hard to text on the go so maybe not for the heavy texter. I like it hope this helps.

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Reviewer: Daryl Fisher - UK
Date: 20th May 2009

Looks really smart but delve deeper & you will find this is not the phone you were hoping for & it is all down to the appalling battery. If I am lucky I get 2 days maximum out of the battery. We all know that the more you charge a battery, the performance will dwindle over time. Being tied into an 18 month contract I don't hold out much hope of the battery lasting the 16 months that I have remaining.

The 8MP camera takes fantastic pictures as long as you have a spare week to wait from the moment you press the button to the picture actually being saved.

All in all a really big letdown.

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Reviewer: Liv - Bristol, UK
Date: 20th May 2009

This phone is the best I've had. It's got all the features an ordinary person would want, plus more.

One downside is the locking button on the side. It unlocks so easily. I've looked in my bag to see that my phone is about to delete all my contacts because it's unlocked itself on my purse (or perfume or anything the button touches! )

The camera is amazing. Really clear picture & easy to use.

Another annoying thing, is when you tilt the phone when looking through pictures you've taken, SOMETIMES it decides to go a bit crazy & start scrolling through them all at 100mph. This is only occasionally, & can be rectified by pressing the cancel button repeated & panicking.

The handwriting option for text messaging is really good if you've got a relative who can't figure out texting. (My dad! ) Other than that, it's pretty useless for other people as it takes 10 minutes to write a short text & doesn't seem to like recognising a SPACE!

These are just a couple of bad point in a great phone. But nothing is ever perfect.

- Design, could be smaller? It looks like your holding a digital camera to your head when calling someone!
- Usage, above points let it down
- Features, everything I need. But maybe I am a simple girl.

Just wanted to add another comment about the battery life. At first I was well disappointed with how long it lasted. But over the last two months that I've had it, it's got a lot better. It's like it needs time to warm up. Mine lasts days after a full overnight charge.

Also a person made a comment about the texting being impossible. It's great when you turn the phone on its side, & text using the keyboard function. However it may be easier if you have long nails.

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Reviewer: Bazza - Scotland, UK
Date: 8th May 2009

I've had my phone a few weeks now & feel it's a case of what could have been, & all because of a battery!

I love everything about the phone but even with minimal use I cannot get a day from it for instance, I fully charged it took it out with me sent & received 6 text messages & I lost one bar & within the space & of 8hrs I had lost 3 bars. I also put the music player on last night with a full charge & it was out of battery in a little over 6 hours.

The battery is appalling & Samsung should really look at an extended battery for it of at least 1500mha instead of the 1000mha they put in, it would certainly up the appeal of a fantastic phone.

If you like a phone that is easy to use take great pictures & plays quality music then this is for you, just make sure to get used to charging it every day or carrying a spare battery.

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Reviewer: Kris Dennis - Leeds, UK
Date: 20th Apr 2009

The Samsung Pixon is a brilliant phone but it is so easy to break me on contract with this phone & I'm on my third the other 2 phones I dropped on grass & they smashed up.

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Reviewer: Len - Derby, UK
Date: 16th Apr 2009

Phone itself is brill, touchscreen, photos & video but I can't get the PC programme to recognise the phone on any of my 3 PC's (2 xp 1 vista) even by downloading it from the Samsung website. This is very important to me since I keep loads of contact info on outlook & I need to sync. Will be selling.

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Reviewer: Gray - Midlands, UK
Date: 11th Apr 2009

Only got the phone for 6 hours. All in all it appears a good investment.

However.

- Unable to install applications, it was so easy on my N95. I suppose it's make the product more stable & have to use Orange.
- Does not have any File Explorer etc. I suppose it's to stop you messing about with the system.
- Cannot install themes? now this is really strange.
- Cannot find my phone number.
- No voice as to who is calling over ringtone.

These are just a few of my grips so far.

Maybe if you just want a touch phone then it's OK, but if you want to customise it, then forget it.

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Reviewer: Got - UK
Date: 7th Apr 2009

I have had this phone for a week. I previously had a Motorola V8. The touch screen is very responsive, which makes it easy to use. One minor grumble is that if you're not using the QWERTY keyboard it takes a while to add apostrophes to words.

The microphone on the phone is not as clear as the hands-free. I'd say the sound quality is similar to my old phone.

The camera is great, with lots of additional features. The large screen is lovely for looking back at your photos.

I've had no trouble using the software (PC Studio) with Windows Vista to add music & images to my phone.

Scrolling through the phonebook is easy if you use the toggle bar on the side of the phone, as other reviewers have mentioned. I don't plan to use the Internet from my phone very often, so I wasn't put off by the lack of Wi-Fi support.

All in all I am really pleased with my new phone!

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Reviewer: Gillian - Prestwick, UK
Date: 28th Mar 2009

Just got phone earlier this week so still getting used to it, keep hitting wrong buttons when texting but will get there!

When I am sending a text message it limits you to sending it to 10 people only at a time, surely I can send to more than that at a time plus it won't let me out of sending till it has finished which can take a little bit if its sending a big text. Can anyone help?

Camera is good & picture quality is fine for me.

CD that came with the phone to load onto computer for putting music on wouldn't work but managed to put music on another way, music quality is excellent.

By the way the mirror that is in widgets is freaky, have been scaring people no end with that one LOL.

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Reviewer: Kerry Pritchard - Bangor Gwynedd, UK
Date: 28th Mar 2009

After having major problems with Sony Ericsson C905 (6 handsets) Orange gave me a choice of 3 handsets to change to, all touch screen, so after much moaning I took the pixon, hated it with a vengeance, wanted to throw it out of the window, even went to get another contract, but the blackberry was out of stock, so went home & had to use the pixon for another week, but guest what I have come to love the pixon, it a doddle to text with on the qwerty, the Internet is brilliant & screen is fabulous! Plenty of extras love the widgets. Once you get use to using it & it does take more than an hour, you will love it. The only niggle I have with it is the locking key, but I have brought a cover with stitching down the side & that problem is near as solved. So the blackberry can wait because I will be sticking with the pixon for a while.

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Reviewer: Kevin - UK
Date: 24th Mar 2009

Simply rubbish. Worst phone I have ever had. EVER.

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Reviewer: John - Liverpool, UK
Date: 12th Mar 2009

I've always had a bit of a downer on touch screen phones, & I was sceptical about getting the Pixon, but now I've tried it I would highly recommend it. I've heard a few niggles about it, & from what I see, it's mostly people who haven't taken the time to learn how to use the menus, apps, features properly. Once you've found out all the shortcuts & the likes, it's actually rather simple to use.

It took me about an hour to get used to flicking through the menus, I'm used to buttons after 18 months with my old N95. I find it pretty simple to use, well laid out, & responsive. I've not used the camera extensively yet, but I've had a little play & it looks good to me. Sound quality is good, if a little quiet at times. I haven't used the GPS at all, so I'm afraid I can't comment on that.

I thought it would take a lot of getting used to texting on the touch screen, but it's been quite an easy transition. Texting is easy enough using the on screen number pad, & the QWERTY keyboard just makes it even quicker if you don't mind tilting your phone every time you want to use it. Battery life seems pretty decent once you've turned the screen brightness down a bit.

The stylus is pretty much useless, unless you've got chunky fingers, but it could definitely have done with being mounted on the case somehow, rather than have to live in your pocket or dangle from your mobile.

All in all, I like this phone very much, & I really didn't think that I would.

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Reviewer: Pete - Lichfield, UK
Date: 25th Feb 2009

I have had the phone above a month now & I wrote about a couple of original gripes but here are a few nuggets for you if you had any concerns.

To scroll through the phone list you may either slide your finger down the left hand side which a few people have grumbled about OR you can use the volume rocker switch on the side of the phone. It moves up & down a page at a time. It works with all the lists. Contacts, music titles, photo albums. It's very convenient. Better than going up & down an item at a time like most phones.

Another is GPS navigation. It does work but I have only had it working with the Google Maps application which IS inbuilt into the menus ad DOES download its map sections from the Internet in what seems like a similar way to the iPhone. I haven't had any 3rd party APS work on GPS but to be honest, now Google maps work I don't care. The package I have includes some Internet browsing so that will cover it.

The battery is still not as good as my previous Sony K800 but it came pre charged so someone else could have stuffed the initial charging instruction, I guess I will have to buy a new battery to find out.

PC studio is rubbish! I have installed it on Windows XP don't like it as it's too fragile with its connection requirements. I think I'll buy a SD card reader & copy files onto the phone using that & not bother synching with Outlook.

My view now is I think the phone is very, very good. It really suits me & suspect that it will also suit a good many others!

PS. Nothing ever gets 100!

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Reviewer: Emma - Kent, UK
Date: 24th Feb 2009

I have had this phone for about a week now I love it! Takes great pictures & for a touch screen it's very easy to use! Just wondering if it takes anyone else a long time for there text messages to send? But I'd recommend this phone to anyone, it nice & simple & it does as it says.

Brilliant phone great job Samsung! :D x.

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Reviewer: Fiona - UK
Date: 23rd Feb 2009

Changed from Sony Ericsson C905 (as had 4 handsets of that model with failing ear piece! ).

Only had it few days so am giving myself time to get used to it. Can anyone tell me where the emoticons are when sending texts? I love them, & can't seem to find any!

Few niggles with the phone.

- Unlocks far too easily.
- Apostrophes in texts way too difficult.
- Column on left hand side, what is this for? Thought it was a shortcut thing, but nothing happens when I press them!

Any help on emoticons much appreciated! Thank you!

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Reviewer: Neil - York, UK
Date: 23rd Feb 2009

I have two minor gripes with the Pixon. I have had it for 2 weeks now & have found the phone to switch itself off whenever it decides to, even though I have plenty of power left in the battery. This happens on an irregular basis & is still bearable enough to put up with for a couple more weeks to see if it can iron itself out, before I send it back to the shop for review or replace.

Secondly, the camera itself, or rather the time it takes from the moment you take the shot, to the moment it responds. This can be up to 5 seconds or more, & for still shots it is fine, but for snap shooting it is not.

I also have the same problems with the PC software that comes with the phone as some of the others do, regarding it doesn't work on Windows Vista. It loads onto the PC, but fails to recognize the phone.

Overall, I am very happy with the phone, its features & its usability & would recommend it to anyone that wants one.

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Reviewer: Eric - London, UK
Date: 23rd Feb 2009

Hi, I used Nokia N95 & now I have got Pixon. It's still time to send it back. What on earth is going on with the microphone? It sounds like old mobiles VGA recordings. Really nothing to compare with N95. The microphone is rubbish, it even produces boozing sounds (horrible). So, I can record DVD quality videos with VGA quality sound. Was it too difficult to put a better mike into this expensive & elaborated device? the rest is good, & Pixon is very handy.

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Reviewer: Katrina - UK
Date: 18th Feb 2009

Hi, I have got this phone & think it is a good phone but I agree with a lot of people about not being able to customise the screensaver & other things.

Also a bit disappointed with the text messaging. Disappointed about emoticons not showing up & no animations. Also the predictive text where you can add a word is annoying me because I have added words 2 it that I don't use very often or that I have spelt wrong & there is no way of removing them. These words always seem to appear as my 1st option on predictive instead of the most popular or common words. An example, I added hr in & now when I want to write is, hr always comes up! Does anyone know of away 2 delete these unwanted words!

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Reviewer: Mark - London, UK
Date: 12th Feb 2009

This phone has one terrible weakness, you cannot search for a contact by typing any letters into a search box. To find a name in the phone's address book, you have to manipulate a fairly unresponsive touch arrow slide to reach the first letter & then scroll through all the contacts beginning with that letter. It's an incredibly slow & laborious way to do things & astounding that Samsung removed an easy search feature that is present on all the M8800's predecessors!

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Reviewer: Ian - Croydon, UK
Date: 11th Feb 2009

I have had this phone for a week now & overall am very pleased with it.

As a personal media player it is fantastic, music sounds great, even through the supplied headphones, & Xvid & Divx & MP4 videos up to 720 pixels wide play very well through it, I have tested that. The colour depth of 262K is a very slight drawback, I have seen better screens on mobiles for movie viewing, but its not a major complaint.

As a digital camera, I was very pleased with the quality of stills & movies. One major complaint is the equality of the onboard microphone, loud sounds get very distorted. Such a shame they didn't provide a good one. Don't go to a rock concert with this! For family recording it is superb though.

As a GPS device I have used the onboard Google Maps to locate venues with great ease, seems to work very well & quickly.

Lastly, as a phone, it is fine once you get used to the interface. No major niggles. Have ordered a screen protector & rubber sleeve for it as it is slippery (I have the grey silver version).

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Reviewer: Stanley - Rushden, UK
Date: 8th Feb 2009

A great phone but quickly letdown by the following points.

- Phone unlocks too easily in your pocket as the lock key is a single push to lock & a single push to unlock. As a consequence it unlocks & locks itself at random in your pocket. A software delay.I.e. Hold button for 5 seconds would resolve this or a double button click to unlock & a single click to lock!

- How do you text in silence apart from putting phone in silent mode. I have found no way of turning the keypad tone off! Please help me.

- I have not yet managed to load the software on either of my 2 PC's at home to the point where it works. Please Samsung sort this out quickly.

Apart from this the phone is great & I would recommend it to one & all.

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Reviewer: C Britton - Bristol, UK
Date: 6th Feb 2009

Having been a Nokia user for the last 10 years I thought I'd try a change. I had the N95 & there isn't enough of a change in the N96 to make it worth upgrading to. So I chose the Pixon after reading reviews & it had most of the things I wanted.

I love the QWERTY texting & find easy to use & the touch screen seems very responsive. The camera seems to be very good though I haven't used it enough yet to really know. Shame it didn't have Wi-Fi & I am not sure why they missed this function out.

My only problem with this phone is the Touchwiz OS. Why not stick to Windows mobile or S60 so the user has some flexibility? I am finding it impossible to install any Java apps on this phone & it seems to be a common problem. The one thing I loved about my N95 was the ease at which you could install an app. Bluetooth it to the phone, click install & it's done. All I get from the Pixon is invalid file errors, even though the file type is correct & supported! Installing apps should be as easy as sending to the phone or downloading & clicking install!

I am also having no luck with the New PC Studio software on Vista which is highly annoying! I've had to dig out an old XP PC just to be able to use this software. The updates make no difference & just get a stopped responding error when you launch it.

This could have been a great phone but for me has been let down by some basic operations that don't work. Maybe they can sort it out in an update.

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Reviewer: Ben - Glasgow, UK
Date: 4th Feb 2009

BIG phone, big in the hand, difficult to hold & text with one hand & texting is a nightmare on the touch screen! Arrgh! An alphabetical search in the phonebook is tricky, you need to use both hands! I wasn't impressed with this phone at all, the big round camera lens at the back isn't a good look or one that I am not keen on! Pretty annoying phone all round. I have changed for the Sony Ericsson C905. LOL I hear you all already. It's the only other decent handset out at the moment & it's insured so it will go back if there is any problems & it looks better & has buttons that I can feel when I text etc. Fingers crossed the C905 has won me over. Used Sony Ericsson for over 4 years & better the devil you know, if it freezes, cringe & turn off & on LOL.

All the phones on the market these days are like bricks! Are we going backwards? Touch screen is not the way forward though! :( for me anyway! Rant over :P.

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Reviewer: Shay - Dublin, Ireland
Date: 4th Feb 2009

Considering buying one. Anyone tell me what is the story with the GPS on the phone. Is it a full sat nav with stored maps or do you have to download maps, software, etc?

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Reviewer: Ian - Ashford, UK
Date: 3rd Feb 2009

I have had this phone for about a month now & it's fantastic!

I previously had Motorola's & wanted a change, I reviewed quite a few phones & eventually chose the Pixon. WOW. My son has the Tocco & it just blows that away :-).

Yes the battery does not last that long but have bought a car charger & have the plug & the PC connector to use as well.

For those that have problems loading the PC Suite from the disc, just go to the Samsung mobile website & download the program. It works first time.

I think I'll be sticking with this gem for quite a bit, brilliant phone.

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Reviewer: Di - Norfolk, UK
Date: 1st Feb 2009

This is my first touch screen phone. I've had 2 camera phones before, a Nokia then a Sony & I agree with comments that the LED flash on the Pixon isn't a patch on the Xenon flash on the Sony. But in bright sunlight the Pixon's photos are really good. It's not the quickest phone to text with, & it IS very fiddly to get an apostrophe, but a lot of phones have really small keys now so using the stylus on the touch screen makes life much easier once you've got used to it. However you can't really text with one hand.

Annoying features, the hold button on the side that locks the phone is easy to accidentally turn off in your bag. Sometimes the QWERTY keyboard appears when you don't want it to, if you accidentally turn the phone slightly towards the horizontal & then you can't get back to the other keyboard very quickly. The scrolling feature to access names in the phone book isn't brilliant. It's too easy to call someone by accident when you are searching for someone else. Those are the bad (ish) points, but apart from that it's a good looking phone, not too heavy, easy to learn to use, fun, & provided the touch screen continues to work OK I'll be happy to keep it for the next 18 months. The instruction book could be better, but it's quite easy to find your way around the phone. Does anyone know where I can get a cover for it as some reviews say the screen scratches easily?

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Reviewer: Lau - Morecambe, UK
Date: 1st Feb 2009

I've had mine since November 30th. I actually really like it. & being someone who's never had a touch phone before, I am impressed with its ease of use & intuitive design.

In response to other's issues with apostrophes, I seem to be quite fortunate as my phone seems to understand them! But, as for adding them to the dictionary, the easiest way by far (& yes it seems very daft & convoluted, but this works, which is why I am typing it! ) is to turn the phone 90 degrees, so that you get the QWERTY display, the apostrophe is there as standard, so you can correctly punctuate until your heart's content! Hope that helps!

The only little nitpicky thing for me is the non display of emoticons. Come on Samsung, my Nokia from 2006 could display them, so surely a higher spec, newer phone can!

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Reviewer: Pete - Lichfield, UK
Date: 30th Jan 2009

I have had the phone for a few days now. I really like the design. Size wise it's about right for a touch tablet. The camera is excellent in the day but only just acceptable when in darker situations. The video recording & playback are very good. The touch screen is responsive & the PIM is OK. The music player seams OK, not as flash as say the iPhone's but the sound quality is very good. It sounds great on my Bluetooth car set compared to my old Sony K800i which I thought did an OK job.

If I have a gripe. There is no onboard GPS software. It has a built in GPS receiver but only for data tagging photos. I am hoping I can get a 3rd party piece of GPS software to work without having to keep connected to the Internet for downloading the maps. The forums say I am not the only one trying it, if I knew for definite that say tom tom mobile worked, I'd buy it tomorrow & say it was what the iPhone should be (except no Wi-Fi of course).

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Reviewer: Craig - London, UK
Date: 30th Jan 2009

Beautiful phone, couldn't get better. Maybe Wi-Fi?

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Reviewer: Frank Pogorzelec - Dundee, Switzerland
Date: 30th Jan 2009

Not a review, just a request for info before I upgrade from my G800. Is the PIXON plagued with, (as Miss X from OZ put it the skin colour) the single choice of Orange & Black? If it is I will go for a different Manufacturer as being stuck with those colours spoilt the G800 for me.

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Reviewer: Hail - UK
Date: 28th Jan 2009

Great phone but I can't get the software to install properly on my PC, checking round the net this seems a common problem. PC Studio won't recognise its own drivers after install & therefore won't connect to the phone. Also it's certainly not a phone for heavy texters. It's really irritating that it's so unnecessarily complicated to include an apostrophe, you have to turn T9 off a lot (to type stuff like people's names to get a capital, or a single letter that's not the first one it chooses etc) & of course no emoticons or animations.

I am waiting to hear back from Samsung re software problems but am probably going to exchange it in the next few days.

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Reviewer: Geordie Mick - St Helens, UK
Date: 25th Jan 2009

I bought this to replace my ailing Samsung U600 which I loved, even though I had four of them in a year because the screens kept failing on them, but the features, camera & layout were good.

Had my Pixon a week now & in general I am very impressed but like most things, the things that let you down are silly little things.

When I am texting it's impossible to have an apostrophe, for instance to text I am or I'll or we'll etc. When you go to add a word into the T9 dictionary, the apostrophe isn't in the options, really daft & frustrating. So now you have to type I, forward space, back space, select symbols, scroll through symbols, select apostrophe, then LL, just crazy.

The touch screen seems to be damn more accurate than my iPod touch & the vibrate feedback is a good gauge of accuracy.

Little foibles accepted it's a great phone & camera.

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Reviewer: Hail - UK
Date: 28th Jan 2009

Great phone but I can't get the software to install properly on my PC, checking round the net this seems a common problem. PC Studio won't recognise its own drivers after install & therefore won't connect to the phone. Also it's certainly not a phone for heavy texters. It's really irritating that it's so unnecessarily complicated to include an apostrophe, you have to turn T9 off a lot (to type stuff like people's names to get a capital, or a single letter that's not the first one it chooses etc) & of course no emoticons or animations.

I am waiting to hear back from Samsung re software problems but am probably going to exchange it in the next few days.

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Reviewer: Geordie Mick - St Helens, UK
Date: 25th Jan 2009

I bought this to replace my ailing Samsung U600 which I loved, even though I had four of them in a year because the screens kept failing on them, but the features, camera & layout were good.

Had my Pixon a week now & in general I am very impressed but like most things, the things that let you down are silly little things.

When I am texting it's impossible to have an apostrophe, for instance to text I am or I'll or we'll etc. When you go to add a word into the T9 dictionary, the apostrophe isn't in the options, really daft & frustrating. So now you have to type I, forward space, back space, select symbols, scroll through symbols, select apostrophe, then LL, just crazy.

The touch screen seems to be damn more accurate than my iPod touch & the vibrate feedback is a good gauge of accuracy.

Little foibles accepted it's a great phone & camera.

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Reviewer: Sean - UK
Date: 16th Jan 2009

Hi All, I have had this phone for nearly a week now & I have never been happier it does everything it said it does & if not more it is fantastically amazing.

Would recommend to anyone who is after a smart phone, I mean I have had Blackberry Storm which was a load rubbish I had to send back in less than a week.

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Reviewer: Matt - UK
Date: 11th Jan 2009

Poor battery life (full to flat after 6 hours, send approximately 20 texts, 5 minutes on call & taken about 12 pictures. Plus Bluetooth etc switched off & backlights set to dimmest settings).

You need to be slow with scrolling down phone books etc.

I can't change the screen saver, so stuck with the preset images of flowers. Great, Not!

Every time I switch the phone off & back on & then go to the text message inbox it shows the number but forgets the name associated to the number (I.e. 07777777777 girlfriend) although still correct in phonebook (both when on phone or SIM).

VERY disappointed, sending back to get a Sony instead as my last one lasted 18 months, still going stronger than the Pixon already.

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Reviewer: John - UK
Date: 9th Jan 2009

PETER, DON'T GET the C905 I HAVE GOT IT I am HAVING PROBLEMS WITH IT, the EAR PIECE KEEPS GOING & ON MY NINTH ONE NOW I am VERY disappointed WITH THIS PHONE IF YOU WANT A NEW & BETTER PHONE WHY NOT GO FOR the Nokia N96?

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Reviewer: Peter - Liverpool , UK
Date: 8th Jan 2009

All the makings of a decent phone, got it yesterday & have to say am very disappointed. The battery life, if using for Internet, music etc won't last a full day. The touch screen makes texting incredibly difficult, changes languages as right next to space bar. Am sending it back tomorrow & getting the C905.

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Reviewer: Andrew H - Manchester, UK
Date: 30th Dec 2008

I bought this phone really solely for its much hyped camera. I am a keen photographer with several cameras from a high end SLR to a digital point & shoot, & wanted something to take out & about for everyday snaps rather than serious photos. However, even at that level of expectation, I am really disappointed & would like the people who say the camera is virtually as good as their digital point & shoots to tell me how they have managed to take such good photos on the Pixon or what is wrong with their ordinary cameras! The camera seems to use a very slow shutter speed & therefore the images are not sharp at all & unsuitable for printing out. Even the sports scene mode only used 1 to 50 a second! The only way I got it to do 1 to 100 a second was to set the ISO to 1600 but the photo is impossibly noisy. Outdoor shots a better due to the light but nearly all the indoor shots are grainy, noisy & lack sharpness. Either I have a duff Pixon whose software does not set up the camera properly (which I doubt) or this just goes to prove that even a high end camera phone camera is still a long way off a reasonable digital point & shoot camera. & for all those people obsessed with their megapixels, this also just goes to prove what photographers have long said, within reason it is not the number of megapixels that count, it is the quality of the lens & the set up of the camera. I have some brilliant shots with my very first digital camera, which was 5 mp, which are far better than anything this 8 mp camera will produce. I mark down the usability just because, as someone else remarked, it is too easy to press buttons unintentionally & the hold function is not adequate.

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Reviewer: Kerry A - UK
Date: 19th Dec 2008

Hi its almost Christmas & I have panic bought 2 of these handsets for my teenagers, they love phones & were asking for new ones for Christmas but I gave them the credit crunch story (all parents will now know this line, times are hard kids we can't be spending loads on Christmas gifts). Anyway these phones are just what I wanted, this site helped me to decide after reading loads of positive reviews, OK with the odd moans but I can cope with that and told be best places to get them. Got 2 Pixon Samsung phones from dial a phone & they are gorgeous, I scored them a little lower on features & usability as I have only had a look at them & tested the camera, music & browser, the important things to kids these days. My kids will love me until at least the New Year. Really pleased I found this site, my son told me about it when I was moaning about my LG phone, another story. Better get back to work, but would really recommend getting one of these for older kids or even yourself, so much more than a mobile phone. Merry Christmas All. Kerry.

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Reviewer: Chantel - UK
Date: 17th Dec 2008

Super, cool, best, amazing, stylish & all mine, that sums up the Samsung Pixon.

If it is pictures, video & the very best images you want, well there is no other phone than this to suit your needs. I have tried loads of camera phones & this is totally the best of the bunch.

I was a Sony fan & then switched to Nokia, I must say Sony are the easiest to use but this is my first Samsung & after the first few weeks of getting used to the settings, controls & camera options then this is the best phone I have used by far.

Enjoy your Pixon, I am getting ready for my works Christmas lunch, bet I take some good snaps there :).

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Reviewer: Ian Phillips - Devon, UK
Date: 10th Dec 2008

I used one in a shop the other weekend. It felt plasticy compared to my LG Prada, although the camera shutter is quick very quick & would say it out perform many digital cameras.

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Reviewer: Kelly - Manchester, UK
Date: 10th Dec 2008

Simply an amazing phone.

I recently went down to London for a holiday & took both my 10 megapixel camera & my Samsung Pixon, in the end I ended up using the phone for taking photos as the difference in quality was hardly noticeable & it was easier to just carry the one thing about! The quality of the pictures is seriously good & it's tempting to hang up my 10 mp camera for good!

The phone looks stylish & very sleek & slim, I looked at the LG phone but didn't like how it looked. I think it's also the thinnest out of all the 8MP camera phones.

The phones features overall are excellent, & in my view the phone is easily the best on the market at the moment, it has all the usual things you would expect with a phone of this calibre & then a little more. The touch screen is very responsive & impressive.

The only downsides to this phone I have found since I have had it (2 weeks) is that it has no Wi-Fi, also the phone unlocks to easy in my opinion as you only have to slightly catch the button on the side & its unlocked. It becomes quite annoying when you just slide the phone in your pocket locked & put it out & it its deep in the menus somewhere!

But still the benefits outweigh these minor flaws.

Buy it! Kelly.

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Reviewer: Dave - Edinburgh, UK
Date: 8th Dec 2008

Had the Pixon for a couple of weeks now & I am very impressed, I bought it as I wanted a large touch screen mobile for Internet & viewing pictures as my last mobile was the LG Viewty, I also wanted a mobile phone that would be a good camera, MP3 & phone in 1 & this does all 3 brilliantly, there was quite a big difference from the quality of pictures from the Viewty which took great pictures when it was released a couple of years ago, the Pixon's camera functions really do compare to a proper 8MP digital camera, I was worried about the LED flash on it as it isn't xenon flash like the Viewty for example but it was better than I expected as it seems to be more powerful than most LED flash's on mobiles, the smile & blink detection on mobile is great fun to use too, the MP3 player is easy to use & the speaker sounds clear & loud, it's a very solid mobile & you can feel the quality by just holding it, the only thing that you have a problem with is the lack of Wi-Fi which I wasn't bothered about as I have a laptop for that & I get free unlimited Internet access on mobile from 02 network anyway, & also the lack of GPS, it is GPS but only for geo tagging photos, this lets you know for example the location of a restaurant you eat in years ago, although Google map works very well with the Pixon & it also has GPS location on it, the looks of the phone, well my opinion is that the mobile side looks cool yet when you turn it over it actually looks like a digital camera, the Pixon fits well in my pocket as it is the slimmest 8MP camera mobile in 2008, this mobile also has very cool functions & features like widgets for customising your desktop, I love this mobile & would recommend if you are after same things as I am.

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Reviewer: Gary - London, UK
Date: 7th Dec 2008

Marvellous, get one!

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Reviewer: Tony - Somerset, UK
Date: 5th Dec 2008

Love this phone, although think Samsung have made a big mistake by not including Wi-Fi, as this would have made it unbeatable, Surround sound is amazing especially when connected to HiFi or computer speakers, Camera is nearly on par with my SIR, which I will probably sell now, Browsing web is fast even though I live in a poor signal area, & option to edit photos is brilliant.

& Ele, London, Comments yes you can put capital letter in middle of sentence or words just tap the middle centre button & pick appropriate option, & scrolling is not a problem if done slowly & not flicked, or you can use side up & down button. Why would you want a screen saver when backlight goes off when req.

Have one small gripe why put stylus attachment at bottom of phone causes problems with new types of Flip phone cases have to completely remove stylus attachment to remove phone.

Like the widget to get new widgets.

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Reviewer: Lch - Birmingham, UK
Date: 1st Dec 2008

Had this phone for 9 days & must say find it just brilliant! Recently have owned both the Samsung innov8 & LG Renoir but the Pixon just suits my needs better.

Agree with other post that more customisation of the screen would be better but sadly not possible. With reference to the alarm & message tones you can download & use any music tone or sound you require. Excellent phone get it.

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Reviewer: Ele - London, UK
Date: 27th Nov 2008

Just got the phone yesterday & so far so good. Review above is accurate although 2 things frustrate me. When scrolling through the contacts, pictures & menus it isn't always that great as it can be a bit slow you keep selecting things when you are trying to whizz through them so takes AGES to locate the one you want! It's like the iPod touch or the iPhone in that you whizz your finger up the screen to scroll through & it isn't always accurate.

Second if anyone else has this phone please help me! When texting HOW ON EARTH do you put a capital letter in the middle of the sentence? So if you wanted to say My friend James, how do you get the capital J for James? You can change to capitals, select the J then change back to lower case but then you have to type ames separately to the J so it won't save it as a word! So annoying! With my Samsung Soul you just hit the bottom left button to make the first letter of any word capital & the rest of the letters follow in lower case but don't know how to do this on the Pixon.

Apart from that I am a bit disappointed that the only customising you can do is changing your wallpaper. You can't have different themes or screen savers & you can't have the menus in list form instead of that grid form either which you could do with the Soul. You also get 1 alarm tone that you can't change & minimal options for built in message tones.

The camera is amazing & the sound is brilliant too. I am getting more used to using it but it still hasn't sold me completely. Trying to decide if I want to swap it for the Sony C905. have 7 days to decide if I want to keep it & I am 50 50 at the mo. If I am missing something on any of the above please tell me!

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Reviewer: Callum - Redcar, UK
Date: 23rd Nov 2008

Is this phone better than the LG Renior? Because I don't know which one to buy?

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Reviewer: James - UK
Date: 3rd Nov 2008

This phone looks fantastic, with an 8 meg camera & the touch screen. I'll be getting this phone as soon as it comes out! Does anyone know if the camera is easy to use & what it is like to use when browsing the Internet with it?

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Reviewer: Nick - Bolton, UK
Date: 23rd Oct 2008

I want this phone as soon it is released. Does anyone own one from overseas?



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