Measuring 93.5 x 45.7 x 23.6 mm and tipping the scales at just 99 gms, the D500 is the latest head- turner from Samsung. A tri-band GPRS mobile phone, the D500 boasts of features like a slide-out keypad, MP3 playback, external speakers and a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash. Encased in a beautiful, glossy black casing, the device sports a 176 x 220 LCD that can display 262,144 colours. Apart from the screen, the front facia includes a four-way navigation key with a centre-click button, two soft keys, Send and Call End keys and a Cancel button. The left side of the phone has a conjoined volume control key and an IR port, while the right side has a dedicated camera key and a port to connect the external speaker. The bottom of the phone slides out to reveal the backlit 12-key numpad and the camera at the rear. You also find a self-portrait mirror and the flash next to the camera at the rear. Unique features include support for seven Indian regional languages: Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and Kannada. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, USB and SyncML, apart from Infrared. Three Java games—Forgotten Warrior, Freekick and Arch Angel are pre-loaded. Memory capacity is 96MB, shared dynamically between applications. You cannot expand the memory, however. The 1.3 megapixel camera can capture stills at 1280 x 1024, 1152 x 864, 640 x 480, 320 x 240, 176 x 144, and 128 x 96 resolutions with three quality settings. The shooting mode can be set to Single, Multi, Mosaic or Night. ISO setting can be kept at Auto or set to speeds of 100, 200 or 400. The flash can be switched Off or set to Auto, Permanently On or Shoot Only. Video can be captured in 3gp format at 176 x 144, 160 x 120 or 128 x 96 resolutions, with three quality options. The phone provides a standard icon- based menu, accessible using the soft-key and the navigation button. The size of the keys is a bit of an issue, though, and you will need to use the tips of your fingers to operate. The slider can be operated using one hand. MP3 playback is decent with the inbuilt speaker, and even better with the external speaker module. The supplied speaker is a tiny conical device that plugs in to the side of the phone, and is also a speakerphone. On the whole, the phone is great for users who want a sleek camera phone with high flaunt value.
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