Vodafone (Samsung) 804SS

Available now
23rd January 2006
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The Vodafone 804SS is a 3G phone made by Samsung for Vodafone Japan. It's a lightweight and slim 3G phone at just 105 grams and 14.9mm thick - only 1mm thicker and a few grams heavier than the Motorola RAZR V3i.

When you look at the Vodafone 804SS, you really can't help thinking about the RAZR line of phones. Although it's roughly the same size as the RAZR V3 and V3i, the styling is very close to the 3G RAZR V3x. You can't help but think that Samsung have been somewhat cheeky in the styling of this phone - but it's not really a copy of the Motorola handsets.. it's more a case of Samsung saying "look - this is how it should be done".

Inside, the 804SS has a 320x240 pixel TFT display in 262,000 colours (similar to the one in the RAZR V3x), has a 1.3 megapixel camera (similar to the RAZR V3i, but not as the 3G RAZR V3x), it has an impressive 140Mb of internal memory, but this is not expandable (both the RAZR V3i and V3x have expandable memory). Unlike the Motorola handsets, the Vodafone 804SS comes with external media controls.

On top of this, the Vodafone 804SS comes with a web browser with support for Adobe Flash, email client, secondary video camera, twin speakers and Bluetooth. It can also view a variety of Microsoft Office formats, which is handy when used with the email client.

It's a WCDMA 3G phone with 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM. This means that the Vodafone 804SS can be used worldwide. Although the initial release of the 804SS will be in Japan, there's a good chance that it will make it into Europe. However, it is extremely unlikely that the handset will retain the "Vodafone 804SS" name, because of the unfortunate connotations of "SS". Also, "804SS" doesn't fit in with Samsung's naming conventions.. possibly this will be called the Samsung V804 if it hits Europe. Added: this handset will be released in Europe as the Samsung Z540.. which we've covered before. Sorry.

This is an impressive achievement by Samsung - a fully featured 3G phone that's almost identical in size to the RAZR V3 and V3i. The major drawback here is the lack of expandable memory, but the 140Mb supplied internally is pretty good.

The Vodafone 804SS should be available from March 2006 in Japan. Availability in other regions is not yet known.

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