Samsung DuoS (SGH-D880): two SIMs
in one phone
Discontinued 8th October 2007
At first glance the Samsung DuoS looks
nowhere near as interesting as the recent Serenata
or Armani
phones, but you'd be wrong.. because as far as we know,
the Samsung DuoS (or SGH-D880) is the first mobile phone
two support two different SIM cards simultaneously.
At the moment, if you want two SIM cards
in your phone then it's awfully tricky. The process
often involves cutting SIM cards down or somehow squeezing
in an add-on bit of hardware. The Samsung DuoS gets
around this by having two SIM slots in the back, and
both SIMs are active at the same time.
Now, you probably either see the plus
points of this dual-SIM arrangement straight away,
or you don't. Just in case you don't - the advantage
is that one phone can act as a home or business device,
or perhaps the second SIM card can be on a network from
a different country that you visit often, or perhaps
the tariff on one SIM card is designed for data and
the other for voice. Or maybe you're a secret agent
or something, but if you find yourself carrying two
phones for whatever reason, then the SGH-D880/DuoS might
be exactly what you need.
The
SIM cards can be on different networks, and even for
different countries. Bear in mind that this is only
a tri-band GSM phone, so data rates are limited to GPRS
and EDGE and there are no 3G capabilities.
Samsung have designed the interface
to be as simple to use as possible and users can name
each SIM whichever way they like, so they don't have
to stick with "SIM 1" or "SIM 2".
This switching isn't just for voice calls, but it allows
separate ringtones, text messages, email configuration
and other settings.. so the DuoS really is like having
two phones in one. The DuoS even has two signal strength
indicators.
Apart from the two SIM card slots, the
Samsung SGH-D880 / DuoS is a pretty decent phone. There's
a 2.3" 240x320 pixel display, 3 megapixel camera
with autofocus, FM radio, stereo Bluetooth, microSD
expandable memory, a multimedia player and USB 2.0 connection.
Because the dual network connections draw more power
than a single one, the battery in the SGH-D880 is a
large 1200 mAh (milliAmpere hours) rather than a more
typical 800 mAh cell. It's a pretty normal size for
a phone at 104 x 51 x 19mm, although we don't know how
much the D880 weighs.
At the moment, the Samsung DuoS / D880
has only been confirmed for release in Russia later
this month. It's a relatively expensive device at 18,000
rubles (around £350 or €510) before tax. Expect
to have to pay the full price without any discount,
because no carrier will want to subsidise a handset
that another carrier will use and locking the device
to a single network would be pointless.
We think that the Samsung DuoS is a
very clever idea, and are frankly a bit surprised that
it has taken a manufacturer this long to come up with
something like this. It's quite possible that the SGH-D880
will be a very popular phone when it hits the market,
and perhaps we will see more dual-SIM phones emerging
during 2008.
|
Samsung
DuoS (SGH-D880) at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
900 / 1800 / 1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EGDE
|
Screen:
|
240
x 320 pixels
|
Camera:
|
3
megapixeks
|
Size:
|
Medium
slider 104 x 51 x 19mm
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
Not
specified
|
|
|