Samsung SCH-E490

Samsung E490 is an elegant GSM mobile phone with various call, and multimedia features. The differences from the predecessor, the E480, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Samsung SGH-E490 features stylish curves and shapes and thanks to the very customizable faceplates, will probably fit in both girls’ and young men’s hands.

The front panel looks spectacular – housing an oblong piece of high-quality glossy plastic (which plays host to the lens of the built-in camera with self-portrait mirror and the external display) and interchangeable plates, which look adequately, if made of cheap plastic, all thanks to good finishing. And the rear, on the contrary, has quite moderate and cheap looks to it – coated in silver it appears to be exposed much to wear and tear. However for this panel, as the developers assure us, there will be extra plates finished in different colors as well. As regard the interior of Samsung SGH-E490, the black edition of the handset, utilizing matte plastic, comes out on top here – it looks luxurious and feels good on the fingertips.

The quality display embedded in Samsung SGH-E490 enjoys TFT technology at a resolution of 176x220 pixels (35x43 mm) and shows up to 65 K colors. The viewing angles were a bit of a disappointment, though, due to being pretty small, however it wasn’t much of a hassle to interact with the handset. In the sun the screen does pretty well and washes out to a minor extent, but the information remains readable. While dialing a number (at the smallest font settings) the display accommodates 5 text and 2 service lines and when looking at the menu there will be 6 list items, section’s title, current time line and service buttons; as regards messages, if you have selected the small font size, then the screen will present you with up to 7 text and 3 service lines. Beneath the screen are two symmetrically placed stereo-speakers.

E490 has external stereo-speakers included I had been looking forward to seeing a decent music player in here, but eventually I was deceived with these dreams. The bundled player supports .mp3 and .aac formats and is incapable of working in background mode, thus after launching the application all you have got left to do is close the clam and enjoy your favorite tunes. Standard playback modes are enabled on the E490 – sequential, random playback and shuffle. At that it presented me only with a single playlist, which is very manageable though (track order may be changed manually). Both equalizer and presets are missing on the handset, but in return it empowers with an ability to send tracks over Bluetooth onto other devices and set them as ring tones.

Features:

• 2G Network GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
• GSM 850 / 1800 / 1900
• Dimensions 94 x 49 x 15.5 mm
• Weight 83 g
• Display Type TFT, 65K colors
• 176 x 220 pixels, 35 x 43 mm
• Second external mono display (128 x 32 pixels), 32 x 8 mm, backlight in 7 colors
• Ringtones Type Polyphonic (40 channels), MP3
• Amount 30 preset
• Customization
• Vibration
• Stereo speakers
• Memory Phonebook 1000 entries, Photocall
• Call records 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls
• Card slot microSD (TransFlash)
• 22 MB internal memory
• Data GPRS Class 1
  

  What comes in the box

  
  
  • Samsung SGH-E490 Handset
  • Samsung Standard Battery
  • Samsung Travel Charger
  • Samsung Headset
  • Samsung User Manual