Review: Stylish Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Sprint recently took the wraps off a snazzy new entry level mobile phone, the Samsung M300. The M300 is aimed at the casual end user and is packaged as a compact and lightweight clamshell with only the bare necessities for everyday use. Its ergonomic design and sleek outside aesthetics make this phone quite the looker, but does the M300 have the guts to perform when put through our tests?

The M300 is a stylishly designed handset that definitely stands out from its field of competitors. With its attractive mirrored finish and slender body, the M300 is reminiscent of higher end mobile models. The device's reflective flat front is surrounded with dark silver trim. The back is encased in black plastic. Underneath the M300's mirrored top lies the phone's hidden external 65k color, 96x96 pixel display that provides information on inbound calls or messages, as well as provides the time and battery status. The only bad thing here is that the mirrored front tends to attract many fingerprints. Also on the front flip is the phone's VGA camera's lens. The M300's volume buttons are located on its left side, with its headset and charging port on the right. The phone's camera startup button also sits on the right edge.

On the inside of the M300 you will find a bright 1.9" color TFT, 128x160 pixel display for reading messages and viewing photos. The phone's display handled itself surprisingly well when out in the harsh sun and kept glare to a minimum. The phone's glossy alphanumeric keypad is mounted flush to the phone and at times could be a bit slippery when messaging. Typing was decent overall, though, because of the large, well spaced keys. The M300 has easy to find talk and end/power keys, two large softkeys, and the back key that lies just above the 2 key, which I found to be a little too small. The phone's silver, circular d-pad may annoy potential users because there are no icons indicating directional shortcuts. To remedy this, the manufacturer supplies wallpaper for the phone's main screen that reflect shortcuts for the navigational d-pad. For those curious, left brings up Messaging, right Sprint's Internet service, down My Content, and up Missed Alerts.

The Samsung M300 works on Sprint's CDMA voice network and uses 1xRTT for data instead of Sprint's faster EV-DO 3G service. The Samsung M300 is capable of web browsing, which I gave a try and found to be painfully slow. Even with great reception, the device seemed to timeout too often for my liking. The device gave us great voice reception, though calls at times lacked volume and had noticeable squelching. The phone's speakerphone held its own but is best if used in short distance situations. The M300 supports Bluetooth, which will allow you to connect wirelessly to Bluetooth enabled headsets, car kits, and will even allow you to use the handset as a modem with the DUN profile, though I don't recommend this due to slow data speeds. The Bluetooth system also supports the OBEX profile; swapping contacts back and forth with my Vista PC worked easily enough. Pairing was simple with my Jabra JX-10 and offered a good quality connection. For added handsfree support, Sprint also offers Voice Signal's handy speaker independent voice dialing system.

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint

Samsung M300 for Sprint