Samsung Metro 3500

Overview

User Friendly Bar Phone

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Metro S3500 is a candy bar style phone with a slide up keypad. It is made out of premium brushed stainless steel, which gives the phone an elegant and high end look.

User Interface and Comfort of Use

You will find the user interface to be typical of a Samsung-based basic phone. There is a main screen with icon-based grid set0up. And after that, there are subsequent numbered lists of sub-menu options. It is straightforward to operate and use.

Telephony and Phonebook

You will be able to store up to 1000 contacts on your S3500. In addition, the phonebook gives you the ability to add pictures to each of your contacts.

Messaging and Emails

Because the S3500 does not have a QWERTY keyboard, you will have to rely on a keypad for your texting and email needs. The keypad itself is well-positioned and responsive. It’s as good as it gets on this style of keypad.

Gallery, Photo Viewer, and Video Player

Because you are able to expand the memory via the microSD slot, you will have the ability to save many pictures on the S3500. It’s a fairly generic gallery that simply stores all the pictures you may take. The video player supports H.263-AMR and MPEG4 + AMR.

Still Camera and Image Quality

Armed with a 2 mega-pixel camera, the S3500 can take decent quality shots. It has options such as digital zoom and Single/Multi-Shot/Mosaic/Panorama shot mode. You will also be able to find a multitude of photo effects and auto/daylight/incandescent/fluorescent/cloudy/white balance.

Music Player and FM radio

There is an FM radio with RDS built into the device. You will be able to play back music that uses MP3, AAC, AAC+, and MIDI. For this grade of handset, the audio performance is reasonable. There is no 3.5mm headphone socket, as Samsung only allows for a proprietary headphone connector.

Connectivity Options

This device is meant to be run on a 2G GSM bands including 850, 900, 1800, and 1900. Unfortunately, there is no 3G support. You also have Bluetooth connectivity, USB and PC Synch.

Organizer and Utility Tools

There is a large amount of additional tools that are available on the S3500. Features that are included are clock, world time calendar, currency converter, and calculator.

Web Browser and Applications

The browser on the S3500 is based on WAP 2.0/xHTML. You are able to download java-based applications such as Sudoku, Tetris and Jump Boy.

Google Maps and GPS

One area that the S3500 lacks is built in GPS. Given that this device is considered a basic phone that is not huge surprise.

Value for Money

Priced at ?6900 (approx., may vary), the Samsung Metro 3500 has your budget in mind. As a basic phone offering, this price point is a value for what you get.

Verdict

The S3500 performs as a solid, reliable voice calling device. It offers a 4 hour talk time and up to 400 hours of standby. This phone appeals to those who are looking for the basics. For those of you who are, you will get a solid performance device with some added bonuses such as the classy look, solid camera, MicroSD card expansion, and a decent music player.