The Samsung SCH-u700/u550 (more commonly known as the Samsung Gleam) is a 3G

EV-DO Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO, EVDO, etc.) is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. EV-DO is an evolution of the CDMA2000 ( IS-2000) standard which ...

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

available in the United States. Phone features include

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

MP3 player A portable media player (PMP) or digital audio player (DAP) is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. Normally they refer to small, battery-powered devices ...

, video player, recording and messaging. It comes in black with blue, gold, and purple sides.

Messaging

The Samsung SCH-U700 contains many types of messaging features, including

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

EMS Ems or EMS may refer to: Places and rivers * Domat/Ems, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Grisons * Ems (river) (Eems), a river in northwestern Germany and northeastern Netherlands that discharges in the Dollart Bay * Ems (Eder), a river o ...

, and MMS. This phone also has support for

E-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

and

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

(IM). The IM services that the phone supports are

AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger (AIM, sometimes stylized as aim) was an instant messaging and presence information computer program created by AOL. It used the proprietary OSCAR protocol, OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow us ...

Windows Live Messenger MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...

, and Yahoo! Messenger. The SCH-U700 device contains the Mobile IM Version 2.0.1.34.

Connectivity

The Samsung SCH-U700 contains

connectivity. The phone can connect to a computer through a

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard, developed by USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), for digital data transmission and power delivery between many types of electronics. It specifies the architecture, in particular the physical ...

cable. It can also connect through

Wireless Application Protocol Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is an obsolete technical standard for accessing information over a mobile cellular network. Introduced in 1999, WAP allowed users with compatible mobile devices to browse content such as news, weather and sp ...

(WAP) and it contains an HTML version of an Internet Browser.

Important features and applications

Personal information management

This phone contains features to manage personal information. These features include a calendar, a scheduler, a

to-do list Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities—especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency and productivity. Time management involves demands relating to Employment, work, I ...

and an

alarm ALARM (Air Launched Anti-Radiation Missile) is a British anti-radiation missile designed primarily to destroy enemy radars for the purpose of Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). It was used by the Royal Air Force, RAF and is still used by ...

. The contacts list in this phone can hold up to 500 entries.

Tools

The Samsung SCH-U700 contains other features, such as a world time clock, a unit converter, a currency converter, a calculator, a notepad, and a stop watch.

Other features

This phone contains a music player, a music library, a video wallpaper, video Messaging, video Recording, video playing, mobile printing, voice memos and voice mails, speakerphone, voice commands, and external memory. External memory can be inserted in the phone through a

microSD Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary hardware, proprietary, non-volatile memory, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of port ...

card.

Reception

Kent German of CNET gave the SCH-u550 variant 3 out of 5 stars, positively noting its 3G and stereo Bluetooth support but panning its "dull" design, "poorly designed" media controls and "disappointing" multimedia experience stating in the bottom line "The Samsung SCH-U550 doesn't offer the performance or design that we'd expect from a 3G Verizon Wireless cell phone." PhoneArena was a little more positive, giving the u550 a 7 out of 10, praising its "excellent call quality" its support for microSDHC cards up to 8GB and its customizable themes, but deriding the phone's "small" external display, mono speaker and the WAP browser that, according to them, "has problems displaying large HTML sites". The SCH-u700 variant was more positively received with CNET giving it 3.5 out of 5 stars citing its attractive design, gorgeous internal display and good call and music quality but negatively mentioning its "average" call and video quality, its speakerphone and voice dialing which "don't fare well in noisy environments".

References

External links

Samsung SGH-U700 tech specs
— official webpage

CNET News, October 5, 2007

U700 Mobile phones introduced in 2007 {{Samsung-mobile-stub