At A Glance:

The Samsung M7603 BeatDJ is a flat, oval-shaped device. It is similar to the M7600 BeatDJ, but when looking at the specs, we found that the UMTS capability in the M7600 is not mentioned in the specs for the M7603. The other thing is that the camera is a 3.2 instead of a 3.0 megapixel one as mentioned in the spec sheets.

In the box (prototype)
- Transceiver unit
- Charger

Exterior
The M7603 in itself resembles a biscuit or a cookie. It is fairly flat across the entire device, oval in shape and looks fairly nice. The front is almost a screen in its entirety, while the back is a check-like pattern on silver. The strip between both front and back is rendered in a beautiful electric blue, and this is where all the controls for the device are.

Buttons/Screen
The slider lock and volume toggle button are on the left side of the device, while the camera hotkey and microSD slot is on the other side. The primary control buttons are at the bottom of the screen but sadly they do not light up. The lack of illumination will force the user to squint at the buttons, at least until he or she gets used to which button does what.

The screen is delightful. It is really bright and clear, being a 2.8” 16M Full Touch WQVGA AMOLED screen. The font resembles the Comic Sans that is my personal favourite on Windows desktops, and the icons are all presented in a nice cartoonish form which was quite interesting, to say the least.

Hardware
The lack of a keypad will of course hinder text input, something that is already a cumbersome process with most Samsung mobiles. However, the text input is still better than that of the iPhone which keeps trying to prove to the user that it knows better by changing the text you key in as it pleases.

There are only 45 MBs of memory on the phone. The specs claim 50 MB, so that is close enough. However, in the era of 8GB music phones, this was below decent expectations. Granted, the microSD is specified at supporting cards of up to 16GB but anyone who has used a music phone can tell you that all that jiggling around tends to make memory cards go loose in the socket and then fail to respond.

Software
The UI is apparently a customised one that was created specifically for this phone. It serves to reason that there might be more music phones from Samsung if this one does well. The sales pitch focuses on the Bang and Olufsen amplifier, but the music software is where the M7603 differentiates itself from its rivals.

The Music Player, while it doesn’t quite encourage overlaying multiple sound effects at the same time, still gives wannabe DJs or bored desk jockeys the option of scratching their music and adding sound effects or certain spoken words to the music being played. It appears that you can also record the results of your labours when you feel like it.

Scratching, as used in the previous paragraph, refers to the act of pushing a playing musical disc slightly so that a particular segment of the music repeats itself. This is usually done a few times and then the song is left to play on as usual. With this phone, you can scratch a picture of a playing CD on the touch-sensitive screen.

Camera/Video
There is a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back and the video records at about 15 fps. This is fairly decent for most purposes, but do not expect to be doing serious photography with this camera.

Connectivity
As we mentioned earlier, UMTS specifications are not provided for this device. However, the quad-band network capability and EDGE data speeds are similar to the specifications for the M7600.

Bluetooth headset profiles are supported by this device, and an FM radio which we could not use because the headset was not provided with the device.

Games
There are numerous games in the device. There is a dice application that rolls a pair of screen die when you shake the phone physically. There is quite a wait when launching most of the Java programs. The remaining games in the phone are Brick Breaker, Diamond Twister and Pyramid Bloxx. Please note that these are marked as trial games so we expect them to stop working after a while until you buy the game. Diamond Twister is similar to the famous Bejewelled game that is available for various platforms out there.

Editor’s Opinion
The RRP that we were given is RM 1,499. This is pretty expensive for what is otherwise a music player with handset capabilities and a camera thrown in. True, it does look and sound really good but there is very little under the hood. For that price, most people would go for the Sony Ericsson W960 http://www.mobile88.com/mobilegallery/specification.asp?pg=spec&prodid=20625&cat=24 with 8GB of memory inside, and I say that they would be right to do so.

Conclusion: Impressive looking phone. For show and tell, but little else.

• Tags : Samsung Beat DJ M7600