So yes, give us something that works and works well. Let there be sufficient fun features for ringtones and personal pictures. How about a user interface that's easy to text with? Finally, a handy size seems to be the operative word among our female friends who fancy unobtrusive terminals. So for the money, and based on the earlier criteria, these top 10 choices (in no particular order) make the final cut for what women want.
Whether you like it or not, there's no denying that Motorola's Razr series was a hit with the general crowd. Since the first Razr was introduced in 2004, several iterations have been released but they remain largely similar to the original. To the layman, it appears that the company is milking its worth with the series.
Subsequently, the Motorola Razr2 was launched at a time when the company was facing sharp criticism from the industry and it spurned off speculations that if Moto wants to regain its footing, it has to come up with something more than just another rehashed Razr.
And that's where the Razr2 comes in.
The latest series comes in two flavors, the V8 and V9. There's also a V9m but that's for the CDMA market which we'll not talk about here in Asia outside of Korea and Japan. When we compare the differences between the V8 and V9 (the V9 is everything the V8 is but with HSDPA connectivity and a microSD card slot), it's almost a no-brainer that we should get the V9. So it boils down to the price difference when the pair becomes available.
Design-wise, the Razr2 V8 still doesn't break out of that familiar Razr shell, but it scores points for beauty and a slimmer profile. When the technical set arrived in our office, we had to admit we liked what we saw. The bulge at the bottom of the unit, which was used to hold the antenna in the earlier Razrs and which some call the chin, is no longer there. Plus the glossy steel casing gives the V8 a high-quality feel.
Although the V8 is 2mm slimmer than the original Razr V3, we didn't find it any more difficult to flip open the clamshell due to the groove between the two connected pieces, unlike what we experienced with the Nokia N76. The edges of this Razr2 are made from a grid-like mesh that improves the grip of the phone. If you look at it from the bottom edge where the onboard speakers are, it actually resembles the front grilles of a car, which is pretty nice to look at.
We had the prototype with us for a few days and one of the things we noticed about the V8 was the buttons on the sides of the unit which are flush with the body. So it may be difficult to blindly feel for the keys when the phone is to our ear. Fortunately, the handset releases a short vibrating pulse when the buttons are pressed, so that the user will know when he hits one.
The 2-inch external display is also a huge improvement, making the outer screens on earlier Razrs seem miserable, and has the potential of putting the main LCDs on other phones to shame. When we're listening to music on the V8, this LCD morphs into a touch-sensitive panel so we could pause, fast forward or back-track a song. A common complaint about touchscreens is the lack of tactile feedback. Motorola appears to have answered that by including a vibration feature when the keys are punched. It's not breakthrough technology but we think it's a well-implemented one.
Uses of the external display, however, are rather basic. It works primarily for the music player although we could also read text messages as they were delivered to the inbox and send a quick reply with default messages in the Templates folder. When the 2-megapixel camera is activated via the internal screen, the display doubles as a viewfinder for self-portraits. Like we said, there're very limited uses with this screen, but it's still a good start on Motorola's part to include such a feature.
One of the biggest differences between the Razr2s and the earlier Razrs is the missing bulge at the bottom. We got mixed opinions on this. For some people, the bump actually helps them hold the phone better, but removing the said part gives rise to a larger keypad. The keys are flat, which is not surprising in order to retain that familiar Razr feel, but the larger buttons mean ease of typing. It's a joy to be able to use our chunky thumbs to punch the keys instead of at an angle and on a smaller surface area.
The quadband Razr2 V8 runs on the new Linux/Java platform similar to the ROKR Z6. We liked the user interface on the Z6 and we feel the same with the new V8. What's disappointing is that the V8 uses a micro-USB port instead of the more common mini-USB. The bundled cable connects directly to the port which is fine, but the charger requires an adapter (included in the package) before we can connect it to the unit; a step we felt was totally unnecessary.
Other features on the V8 include an Opera 8.5 Web browser, Bluetooth stereo and Exchange ActiveSync capabilities.
According to Motorola, there are two versions of the Razr2 V8 worldwide. One is the 512MB (approximately 420MB are available to the user) version which we have right now for testing and the other is a 2GB model. The V8 with 512MB of onboard memory will be available in Singapore in July and across the region in the coming weeks. The 2GB model will be available in selected markets this fall though Motorola was unable to advise which countries this would be offered in.
The good: Contoured; clean lines; sits beautifully in hand; 3-megapixel camera with autofocus; feature-packed for its size; solid build quality.
The bad: No flashlight; headset port awkwardly positioned; sound quality affected by speaker vibration; so-so camera snaps.
The bottom line: It's simple to use, it's elegantly tiny, it has real buttons, and it's no small fry in the features department. Oh, yes, it doesn't look like any Samsung or any designer phone out there for that matter. What's not to like?
Review:
Pictures simply do not do the E590 justice. It's when you clap eyes on it the very first time that you realize how truly tiny it is in hand. And despite its deceptively sparing (read: sparse) looks, Simple Simon it ain't. There's a lot more going on inside this wee 66g camera-phone than meets the eye. More importantly, we've waited a long time for Samsung to break away from its customary mold to surprise us. And, at last, it's done just that.
| Editors' note: According to Samsung, the SGH-E590 is expected to debut in Asia in the third quarter of this year. |
Design
 |  The E590 comes with a Bean Bag pouch that doubles as a camera tripod. (click for larger image) |
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The only concessions to its designer roots are the decision to name the colors Noble Black and Snow Silver, and the odd bundling of a Bean Bag which serves as a camera tripod. It's certainly an interesting accessory, though one that's likely to end up as a phone holder on your desk.
Features
So what do we get for shelling out S$400 (US$311.38) (without a plan)? Quite a bit considering its price and size. Having refined the science of throwing everything but the kitchen sink into its Ultra Edition series, the E590 is great value in the pocket, provided you're not a mobile geek who likes your handset bursting with functionality at every button press.
There's triband support, GPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 and a USB 2.0 port. An internal memory of 90MB is supplemented by a microSD card slot. The E590's media player can support MP3, AAC, AAC+, e-AAC+ and WMA formats. There's also a voice recorder, FM radio, Java and browser. For gamers, note that the E590 has no dedicated games folder. Instead, we found this under Applications in the Java World folder.
|  The E590 is available in black and white color options. (click for larger image) |
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Here's where we understand why Morrison has thrown in a Bean Bag tripod--there's no photolight. So low-light settings will require some tripod assistance. And in keeping with the clean lines, there's no lens cover or self-portrait mirror; the latter's hardly worth nitpicking over unless you're overly fond of your own mug.
Needless to say, the screen remains true to its Samsung heritage. At 262K colors, the TFT 220 x 220-pixel screen is big, bright and clear enough for a phone this tiny. However, under bright sunlight, we barely made out the display, although the super-huge fonts helped some.
Performance And Battery Life
It's all very well to have a great-looking phone, but can it deliver? First thing, we made a call. Voice quality was great through the handset, although if you are using the speakerphone, note that the sound box tends to vibrate on high volume settings, which tended to have a grating effect on sound quality.
|  The E590 features a 3-megapixel camera with half-shutter autofocus. (click for larger image) |
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What's nifty is this Samsung's ability to channel the radio through to the speaker, although remember to keep the headset plugged in as it does double duty as the FM antenna. As for the radio, this automatically called up the various stations, and we were able to tune in effortlessly. There are useful little features inside such as program reminders and setting as alarm.
On the music player front, Samsung users should be familiar with the interface. It's easy enough to load up and play, with four-equalizer settings (rock, classic, jazz and normal), and sounds fairly decent though the bundled headset. There were a couple of bum raps, however. Firstly, the headset port is located awkwardly mid-point on the left edge with the cable pointing down--not great if you're listening to the radio or music player with your phone in your pocket. Additionally, as the headset shares the same port as the USB charger and cable, you won't be able to charge, transfer files and plug into the E590 at the same time.
It was quick enough navigating through the menus, with a joystick stub that was nicely responsive for shortcuts and directional movement. Our only peeve was that clicking down on the joystick brings you to the WAP browser. Sony Ericsson users will find it trying at first as their joystick tends to cut straight through to the main Menu.
The E590 faltered a little when it came to texting with key sounds on. Here, we found a slight lag between keypresses and the words appearing. However, disabling the sound seemed to resolve the issue.
This being a camera-phone, we naturally expected it to zip through its paces. Holding the shutter button down brought us into camera mode, while there were enough iconized settings to play around with, from macro to ISO. The panorama mode allowed us to snap off three shots before it automatically stitched these into one seamless image. Oddly, for a handset that it's branding as a camera-phone, Samsung has been remiss in bundling in some digital imaging software.
In fact, you'll need a third-party digital imaging app. With the images transferred to a PC, we found the focus tended to be centered, with the edges appearing somewhat muffled. We also had to experiment with the White Balance setting to get the best color balance as the indicated WB did not always perform as expected.
What we sorely missed was an LED photolight or even a Xenon flash. That said, most camera-phones work best in brightly lit surrounds as even the highest-resolution sensor and autofocus aren't going to perform miracles in dim settings. Remember to at least wipe the lens free of oil and prints before shooting as there's no lens cover to protect the glass.
The E590 comes with a 3.7v Lithium-ion battery. Manufacturer claims put talktime as 4 hours and standby as 8.3 days (200 hours). In our tests, it went through the rigors of playing music, taking photos, listening to the radio, and chitchat and maximum brightness setting over one day before a charge-up was needed. Considering the wagonload of features it has to bear in such a compact size, this is to be expected. Fortunately, the charging plug is the same one used in Samsung's Ultra Edition series and some of its latest mid- to high-end phones, which means you can share chargers with other Samsung users in your office.
Conclusion
As a non-designer designer phone, not everyone will be a fan of the E590. But for those looking for a second phone or a fuss-free candy bar you won't even notice in your pocket, the E590 might well be to Samsung what the iPod is to Apple--minimalist, simple and fun to use.