Samsung Armani M7500 Review

After the highly popular Samsung P520 Armani, Samsung and Armani team up once again to make the most fashionable cell phone to ever hit the global market. The phone is indeed a very stylish and attractive one and even has a flashing light effect of the Emporio Armani logo.

Body Design
The M7500 Armani looks solid with the candy bar design and its clean lines. It has a physical dimension of 4.5 x 1.9 x 0.47 inches and weighs nearly 3.2 ounces. The phone is entirely made of plastic but still succeeds to keep the aura of exclusivity unlike other handsets. The display screen is surrounded by a glossy front panel while the keypad below it has a brushed metal effect. The phone feels pleasant to hold and provides a good grip owing to the soft rubbery back. The earpiece of the phone is just above the display screen along with the secondary video camera and the ambient light sensor.
This Armani phone has a 2.2 inch AMOLED screen that can display 262K colors at a maximum resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.
The black matte-finish keypad which is below the display looks stunning. All the keys are entirely flat but still very comfortable to use and have a great tactile feedback. The handset has a large round D-pad which can be confused for a scroll-wheel and it is surrounded by the two soft keys and the call and end keys. The 12 key alphanumeric pad is situated below the D-pad and looks stunning with its brushed metal finish.
The connectivity port which comes in the form of the standard microUSB connector sits alone on the left side of the phone. This time, Samsung has used the standard connector instead of their proprietary USB port. The Emporio Armani logo with flashing LED lights take up the rest of the space left.
The right side of the phone plays host to the music controls, volume rocker and the camera key. The three dedicated music keys (Play/Pause, Forward and Rewind) occupies most of the mid-section of the side and has the same backlighting as Armani logo stripes on the left. The volume rocker which doubles as the “zoom in/zoom out” keys while in camera mode is on the top while the camera shutter key is down. The 3.5 mm audio jack is situated just above the volume rocker.
The top and bottom of this stylish designer phone is left completely bare except for the lanyard eyelet on the top and the bottom part giving space to the microphone pinhole.
The back of the phone is hard to miss with the huge Emporio Armani logo. The 3 megapixel camera lens is just above the logo and right at the centre. There is also a loud speaker grill on the back which is not noticeable as it has been merged along with the Armani logo.
All in all, the Samsung Armani M7500 has a very good build quality and will be able to survive the every day wear and tear. The candy bar design lends to sturdiness of the phone. The M7500 is a unique phone and its unique selling point is its light effects. You can also turn off the light effects if you want to keep a low profile.
There is no choice in terms of color and is available only in black.

Multimedia
The Samsung Armani M7500 has a 3 megapixel with 4x digital zoom and auto focus and can capture an image a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels. The phone also has other features like photo editor, photo settings, photo gallery and a dedicated camera key which enables the user to manage the camera and its settings with ease. You can adjust the picture size, resolution, shooting mode and the color effects while taking a picture. Sadly, the phone does not have an LED flash which makes it somewhat useless in dark low-lit environments.
You can also record videos in the camcorder mode with this handset. However, the recorded videos are low in quality as it is shot in QCIF resolution at 15 fps and can only be used for the occasional MMS.
The integrated music player has an array of features. You can sort music tracks by artist, album, composer and genre. Tracks played recently are also grouped together. The music player gives you the option to make your playlists and insert album art for each song. The music player has 13 sound effect modes which includes dynamic, surround, wide, bass and megabass. The D-pad and the dedicated music keys help in easy access of the music player. The M7500 also has the Shazam ‘Find Music’service which is a music recognition feature and similar to TrackID.
The video playback features of the M7500 are scant but still have the essential features. The video player can play 3GP, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 codecs. You can watch fullscreen videos in landscape mo version 3.4de and rewind or fast-forward a video.
This stylish handset also comes integrated with an FM radio with RDS. You can store a reminder for a braoadcast you don’t want to miss and you can even set a program as a wake-up call instead of the boring ringtones.
The Samsung M7500 Armani is a 3G phone and you can browse through the web with its integrated version 3.4 NetFront Browser, which has the basic functionality but lacks important features like fullscreen views and have trouble in loading elaborate pages. The phone has POP3, SMTP and IMAP4 email support.
The inclusion of the Document Viewer application was a wise thought of the manufacturers, as now you don’t need to sit in front of a computer to view a PowerPoint or an Office file.

Memory
The phone has an internal memory of 120 MB, with which you can store 500 SMS and 1000 phonebook entries along with a few applications, videos, photos and music. You can increase the memory size through its microSD slot which supports expansion up to 8 GB.

Connectivity
Although, the M7500 is a collaboration phone, it does not have high end connectivity features except for its 3G status. There is no Wi-Fi or GPS on this phone. The phone comes equipped with XHTML and WAP 2.0 browser technologies and have, both 2G and 3G network connectivity. Users in 2G network can access the quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1700 while users under 3G network gets the UMTS 2100.
You can transfer files locally without wires with the help of its bluetooth version 2.0. Connection with other bluetooth enabled phones is made possible by this technology. The phone also has a USB 2.0 port which takes care of the wired connection with other compatible devices.
It also has the standard 3.5 mm AV jack which gives you the choice to use any standard headphones.

Performance
The phone has good call quality and reliable network coverage. There were no instances of dropped calls or alteration in the audio quality during a call. The battery life of the phone is very good as it has 540 hours of stand by time. This is particularly impressive taking into consideration its colorful light effect as it might be draining more battery than other regular handsets without it.
However, the music player of the phone is of average quality compared to previous Samsung handsets. The audio quality is not that impressive and the same goes for the video player. You can’t take pictures in dim areas as the phone does not have an LED flash. Wi-Fi and GPS are also absent from this phone.
On top of this, the Samsung M7500 Armani is an expensive phone and for its price you can get a far better phone with all the high end features.

Verdict
The Samsung M7500 Emporio Armani is not a phone for everybody. It is aimed at the people who takes pride in their image and style and also has deep pockets with big spending powers. This phone is not about having all the best features but about making a statement and telling the world that you are different. Yes, you can get a much better cell phone at the price, but you wouldn’t get the same reaction from the other one.
Buy it if you have the means and want to stand out in the crowd.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3/5