Samsung Monte Slider E2550 - The second largest mobile phone maker in the world takes the Monte marque and slaps a QWERTY slider to its original Monte touchscreen monoblock but can claim little pedigree from it. The Samsung Monte Slider E2550 seems like a lite or mini version of the high flying S5620 Monte but shares little descendancy other than a cosmetic front fascia styling and a DNSe audio enhancer. Other than these, the Slider is a typical dumbphone slider with basic nearly minimalist features.
Basic Features at a GlanceThe Monte and the Monte Slider occupy the extreme ends of product sophistication. One wonders why Samsung has to affix the Monte name since the Slider can really stand on its own as a capable but severely compromised handset. Perhaps, it’s a marketing strategy to get the Monte image rub off to the Slider.
* Unlike the 3G Monte, the Monte Slider is just a 2G phone on the dual band GMS (900/1800). There’s no WiFi and local data connectivity options include Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0 for wireless and wired data synching and transfers, respectively.
* Its slider form factor gets a 98.5 x 48.5 x 14.4 mm elegantly styled body weighing a comfortable 85.5 g in you pocket. It gets a mere 2-inch TFT LCD screen with 256k colors and QVGA (240 x 320) resolution. Taking a nod to vidcam features people expect on even the cheapest handset, it gets a rudimentary 1.3 megapixel fixed focus camera with no other icing than a QCIF 15fps video recording.
* Phone memory gets a nearly 12 MB with a maximum of 1,000 entries on the phonebook, but you still get microSD expansion slot for up to 8 GB. A standard 800 mAh Li-Ion battery provides up to 6.6 hours of talk time and 16 days of standby time when fully charged.
* Competent media players for audio and video playback of popular media files and a stereo FM radio with RDS capable of broadcast recording make up the core of its entertainment features. You get speakerphones and Bluetooth A2DP support for wireless stereo listening but no 3.5mm headphone jack.
When it comes to social networking, the Samsung Monte Slider E2550 gets preloaded with the apps for live updates and instant access to your favorite social network sites like Facebook. It also comes with WAP 2.0 HTML web browser. You only need to contend with GPRS speeds on your data plan for online surfing.
