The Samsung SGH-U900 (marketed as the Samsung Soul) is a slider mobile phone from

Samsung Telecommunications Samsung Mobile Division is one of the five divisions within Samsung Electronics, belonging to the Samsung, Samsung Group, and consists of the Mobile Communications Division, Telecommunication Systems Division, Computer Division, MP3 Business Te ...

. It was introduced at

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...

on 11 February 2008. It is a member of Samsung's fashion-focused "Ultra" line of handsets and the company's flagship at the time. The Soul initially came in two colors: Platinum Silver and Soul Gray, later also coming in Pink, Silver, and Black and Gold. It is made of a metallic body and the slider has

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

mechanism. There is a second, touch-sensitive

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

display below the main 2.2-inch display which shows different navigational functions, tailored for the current software operation (as previously appearing on the E950 model). Samsung dubs it as "Magical Touch". There is a 5-megapixel camera with

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

flash that can also take videos at 30 fps in

QVGA A display resolution standard is a commonly used width and height dimension (display resolution) of an electronic visual display device, measured in pixels. This information is used for electronic devices such as a computer monitor. Certain com ...

(320x240) resolution. There is

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunic ...

support, and it is a "global" 3G phone supporting all major frequencies: GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, HSDPA, UMTS 850, UMTS 1900, UMTS 2100. Audio playback makes use of a digital amplifier from

Bang & Olufsen Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish high-end consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures Sound recording and reproduction, audio products, television sets, and telephones, originally from Denmark, founded in 1925 by Peter Bang (enginee ...

, although there is no 3.5 mm headphone jack, relying instead on a proprietary Samsung connector. Despite its flagship status, the Samsung Soul does lack several key features like Wi-Fi,

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...

, or

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

software. These were instead implemented on the Samsung G810, announced at the same time. The "Soul" name stands for "The Spirit of Ultra" (referring to

Samsung Ultra Edition Samsung Ultra Edition is a former series of mobile phones from Samsung Electronics that were designed to be extremely slim and minimalistic. The first range was introduced in June 2006 which included the Samsung SGH-X820, X820, dubbed the "world's ...

). The U900 Soul name is an extension of the U900 FlipShot, a clamshell/swivel multimedia phone announced for

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

in November 2007.

Reception

Publisher ''S21'' said that the camera of the U900 Soul is "very good", but just below the "best" ones namely

Nokia N95 The Nokia N95 is a smartphone produced by Nokia as part of their former Nokia Nseries, Nseries line of multimedia mobile phones. Announced in September 2006, it was released to the market in March 2007. The N95 runs S60 platform, S60 3rd Editio ...

and

Sony Ericsson K850 The Sony Ericsson K850i is a high-end mobile phone when released in October 2007. It was announced in June 2007 as the flagship product in Sony Ericsson's K ("Kamera") series, with a 5 megapixel CMOS camera sensor. The K850 was the first Sony Eric ...

. The review concluded calling it a "fabulous" phone. ''Wired'' called the touch-sensitive navigational pad "one of the coolest, most efficient" touch interfaces they have seen on a handset. ''TechRadar'' called the U900 Soul "extremely stylish with a quality camera", but criticized the battery life.

References

{{Samsung phones U900 Mobile phones introduced in 2008 Slider phones hu:Samsung SGH-U900

Reception

See also

References