Samsung i8510 INNOV8 Unlocked Phone with 8 GB, 8 MP Camera, International 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--International Version No Warranty (Black) Review

I just upgraded my k750i to this phone, the Samsung innov8.It's a great camera phone and the pictures and videos are fantastic.

People complain the phone is a bit sluggish.It's alot faster than my Sony k750i! Web browsing via wifi is alot faster than the Iphone (i had this phone over a year doing development).

The optical mouse works great web browsing.

The phone has stereo speakers, two cameras (one in the front for video calls), and a great card reader program.The program takes a business card and enters it into your contact list.It works pretty good - just line up the biz card at the four corners of the virtual corners on the screen and it automagically snaps an image of it and does some cool ocr to get the contact info off the card.

The one thing I don't like about this phone compared to my sony is that if I have one contact that has multiple numbers, I cannot easily tell by looking at the logs which phone the caller used to call me.All I get is the name of the person and an icon (with the sony, there are three icons: mobile, home, business, and others).

The other great feature of the phone is that it uses a standard 3.5mm jack!

Update: I've been using it for over a week and it's great! The pictures and videos are excellent, but sometimes you see the videos pause (as it's trying to catch up).I used the voice recorder to record one of the iphone tech talks and it had no problems recording over an hour.

If you're using it constantly throughout the day (and I mean heavy usage), only expect a day of battery life.My normal usage is about two days... I'm using wifi and bluetooth alot.

UPDATE 12/28/08: So I've been using it for a few weeks now.There seems to be issues with the phone displaying names associated with numbers.If my dad calls, I get the phone number instead of "DAD".When people call, you sometimes cannot tell who it is because you're expecting "John Smith" instead of 4081234567.Sometimes it works, sometimes NOT.I don't recognize half the number that come up because I just don't memorize phone numbers anymore.Also, the phone will hang sometimes.I'm sure a firmware update will fix these early production innov8's.

I ran out of charge so I put my sim back into my Sony K750i.That phone is so small and it is a bit easier to navigate and it always associate names with the caller id.I kinda miss the K750i, but the innov8 is so much better in terms of browsing (esp via wifi), pictures, and videos.Voice quality is also excellent.

Other than that, I still love the innov8, but it needs a bit of polishing and refinement.

Update: Jun 10, 2010
I still have this phone.My coworker got an HTC EVO 4G w/ 8MP camera yesterday.We had a camera phone shootout and the INNOV8 pictures were clearly better.His whites were yellow.He changed a few settings and the pictures turned out pretty good.The innov8 pictures looks slight better still.

Only issue I have with the innov8 so far is the reboot issues and the fact that caller ID does not map numbers to name on occasions.
Gary

Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung i8510 INNOV8 Unlocked Phone with 8 GB, 8 MP Camera, International 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--International Version No Warranty (Black)

Product Description:
Samsung INNOV8 is made for tech-savvy users who wants to enjoy the best possible multimedia entertainment with their mobile phone. With the 8-megapixel camera, pre-embedded 3D games, high speed data connections and much more other features will help users gain the true benefits of mobile entertainment.Recognized as Samsung's first ever 8-megapixel camera phone, the Samsung INNOV8 is ideal for users who want to capture and store precious memories in style with its 2.8? 16M color LCD. The 8G or 16GB Flash memory and external memory slot upto additional 16G provides sufficient contents storage. Supporting a wide range of video player formats including DivX, WMV, Real Player and MPEG4, users can enjoy an exciting pocket cinema experience. Its external dual speakers and 3D surround sound supported by DNSe 2.0, make every video clip and movie more realistic than ever. With an optical mouse and 4-way navigation key, users can enjoy PC-like browsing experience. Both HSDPA high speed Internet and WiFi connection offer convenient and seamless internet experience wherever users are.The phone is equipped with A GPS technology, offering navigation and geo-tagging service. It also comes with the Symbian OS V9.3, S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2.

Get 22% OFF

Want to buy Samsung i8510 INNOV8 Unlocked Phone with 8 GB, 8 MP Camera, International 3G, GPS, Wi-Fi, and MicroSD Slot--International Version No Warranty (Black) at other amazon sites? Click the corresponding icon below: