Samsung Night Effect
Discontinued 23rd September 2008 NEW!
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If you like the words Emporio Armani
slapped all over your phone, then the Samsung Night
Effect is for you. If you don't.. well, the Samsung
Night Effect isn't for you.
Perhaps we're being a bit simplistic,
but the thing is that the Night Effect glows
in red, green or blue displaying the logo on one side..
and then it's on the back (where it conceals a speaker),
and also a little more discretely on the front. The
idea is said to be inspired by a Tokyo skyscraper.
Mobile Gazette readers might
remember that this is not the first time that Samsung
have partnered with Armani. A year ago, both companies
announced a dinky
little touchscreen phone that enjoyed some success.
This time, Samsung have dropped the "Giorgio Armani"
label and have gone for the more youthful (and cheaper)
"Emporio Armani" tag. No, we're not fashion
victims, we
just looked it up.
We
would dearly like to be able to tell you that the Samsung
Night Effect was some overhyped piece of rubbish with
a trendy logo plastered all over it. Annoyingly, the
Samsung Night Effect looks rather good.
Ignoring the label, the Night Effect
is designed to be a multimedia phone. It comes with
dedicated media keys (down the opposite side from the
Armani label), a music player that can handle MP3, AAC
(and variants) and WMA audio, plus an FM radio.
The Night Effect has a standard 3.5mm audio socket. Internal
memory is 120MB (which is about enough for one or two
albums) and the standard sales package includes a 1GB
memory card. The Night Effect can also play back a variety
of video types including WMV and MPEG4. There's a customisable
user interface, web browser, email client and RSS reader
plus a variety of specially selected ringtones.
It's
not all about music, the Samsung Night Effect has a
3 megapixel autofocus camera plus a secondary video
calling camera. The 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel display
uses Samsung's hybrid AMOLED technology which is meant
to give more vivid colours. Underneath everything else,
the Night Effect is a quad-band GSM phone with 3G and
HSDPA high-speed download support, which is pretty nifty
for a fashion phone.
The casing has a brushed metal effect,
and the handset itself is quite tall and slim at 115
x 47 x 12mm. There are also some rubbery bits and reinforced
glass to try to make sure that your phone survives its
first outing. Overall, the Night Effect looks pretty
good.. apart from the Armani labels, perhaps.
If you want to know what kind of market
this is aimed at, Samsung say: "We are
very confident that NIGHT EFFECT will redefine the mobile
experience of the fashion conscious, young professionals.
Welcome to a creative vision that transcends the boundaries
between fashion and technology, ushering in the new
era of high tech-chic." Yuck. Perhaps we'll
wait to see if Samsung come up with a Blue
Harbour range in the future.
Still, it looks like a pretty decent
music phone and if you're young and trendy enough then
you might want to know that Samsung say that the Night
Effect will be available in major European countries
from November, with South-East Asia and the Middle East
to follow before the end of the year.
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Samsung
Night Effect at a glance
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Available:
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Q4
2008
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Network:
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GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
|
Screen:
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240
x 320 pixels
|
Camera:
|
3
megapixels
|
Size:
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Medium
monoblock 115 x 47 x
12mm
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
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microSD
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Infra-red:
|
No
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Polyphonic:
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Yes
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Java:
|
yes
|
GPS:
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No
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Battery
life:
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Not
specified
|
|
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