Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Simple, easy-to-use features, good design

Thumbs down: Lacks Bluetooth, and the call quality again isn’t any thing next to spectacular.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Looks like Samsung is all set to reach out to the masses. After the huge array of smartphones that we were treated to in the last few days, Samsung hits back yet again with a basic and simple phone which claims to provide a pleasant call making experience. This one is basically all for communication. Anyways let’s move ahead and see if this could really be the next primary phone which would make the buyers go into a tizzy.

Razzle-dazzle: There is no denying the fact that this bears some resemblance to the earlier ones by Samsung i.e. the SGH-T329 and the SGH-A237. Its got a nice slick design to itself with curves on the sides and opposite ends. At 3.6 inches by 1.85 inches by 0.75 inch this one easily fits into the pocket and also because of the curves this one has a nice feel I the hand. At just 2.9 ounces this one is definitely a lightweight one.

This one has got the flip design and the hinge is pretty much sturdy. I personally didn’t like the plastic skin just for the plain reason that this one wouldn’t be suitable for rough users, and most of the times the people who opt for such phones are the ones who use their phones in a rough manner. Its got a 2.5mm headphone jack which is pretty much alright, basically because this isn’t supposed to be a phone for the music fans. This headphone jack along with the MicroUSB port is situated on the right of the phone and the left spine houses the volume control rocker.

Like the SGH-T329 this one also has a vertical external display. Though it looks classy but then the alphabets and the numbers on it are damn tiny. And anyways M240 doesn’t have a camera so let me not get into photo caller id’s.

Its got a 1.75-inch display which supports 65,000 colors and has a resolution of  160×128 pixels. It doesn’t lose any points when it comes to brightness but then the graphics are not sharp and enough. It also offers quite a few customization options  and the menus are also simple to use. Well I don’t think anyone could ask for more as far as the display is concerned on a low-end phone like the M240.

The navigation array has a hexagonal toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys and talk/end buttons. Keeping in mind the size of the phone, this one offers a nice roomy keypad. The keys have been comfortably placed and I hardly encountered any mispresses while using them. The have a nice rubbery feel to it and are kind of flat. The backlighting is bright enough and the numbers on the keypad are large enough.

Inside Dope: This one comes loaded with a 500-entry phonebook which can have several phone number entries along with an e-mail address, an IM handle, a street address, a birthday, a job title and company, and notes. The callers can easily be categorized into groups and the each entry can be paired with a polyphonic caller tune entry.

The other features that tis one offers are a calculator, alarmclock, vibrate mode, currency calculator, notepad, voice memo recorder and voice dialing. The major drawback for this one is that it doesn’t come along with Bluetooth facility. Being a phone basically for communication I expected this one to have Bluetooth compatibility atleast for talking when driving.

For sheer entertainment this one comes loaded with demo versions of three Java games primarily the Downtown Texas Hold ‘Em, Brain Exercise, Super Street Fighter.

The call quality offered by this one is pretty much decent though not really astounding. The call quality was mediocre and the sound was natural enough. Though there was a lot of static this one did not exactly ruin the experience. At times I really had to strain myself to hear the conversations when in closed places. The calls on the speakerphone were pretty average again.

The M240 has a rated talktime of  6.5 hours which is decent enough for a phone of this caliber.

Nitty- gritty: Being a basic phone I expected this one to offer spectacular call quality atleast. But that again turned out to be average. Its got some simple and easy to use features, but then again that truly doesn’t make this one any better. Frankly this one could truly be called a dampener in the true sense.

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