Quick review of Samsung's M630 Highnote

Samsung SPH-M630 Highnote

Samsung SPH-M630 Highnote

Samsung SPH-M630 Highnote

Samsung SPH-M630 Highnote

The Samsung M630 Highnote is one of the latest music focused phones to show up in Sprint's lineup. The Highnote has all of the basic phone features covered, including a 2 megapixel camera and Sprint's new One Click standby screen interface. But with a focus on music, it is no surprise that the Highnote also supports the Sprint Music Store and comes equipped with a microSD memory card slot for storage expansion.

In terms of basic design, I'm a bit at odds with the Highnote. The phone is solidly built, and the dual slider mechanism works very well, but the look of the device just doesn't do it for me. It could just be a matter of the paints used, I'm not sure. But apart from that, I really like flat 12 key alphanumeric keypad that is hidden by the slider mechanism. The keys have a nice feel to them, and offer good tactile response. The d-pad might be a bit difficult to get at, at times, due to the ring of buttons that surrounds it, but the fact that those buttons also function as a scroll-wheel device more than makes up for that. It's quite handy.

Sliding the device in the down direction reveals the dedicated music speaker and also brings up the media menu. The speaker is sufficiently loud and offers great treble response, but lacks any real bass that would make the phone truly adequate for use without a speaker system of some sort. Luckily, the Highnote can easily be connected to a speaker system since the phone sports both a 3.5mm audio jack port as well as Bluetooth Stereo.

The new One Click UI that Sprint is rolling out is a nice step forward for the company. The carousel of icons is easy to reorganize, and the information bubbles that can be added to the default home screen are neat. You can get a better feel for how it works in the video. For those that prefer things the old way, a regular menu is also found on the Highnote.