Samsung U900 FlipShot Red Phone Verizon Wireless
Combining a cellular communications powerhouse with a powerful digital camera/camcorder, the uniquely designed Samsung Flipshot for Verizon includes a rotating display for optimal viewing while capturing still images and video clips on the go. Looking like a typical digital camera on the back with its round silver lens housing and flash, the Flipshot offers a 3-megapixel imager as well as a 10-step digital zoom, PictBridge printing right from the phone, and a wide variety of settings for capturing the perfect picture. Additionally, it’s compatible with Verizon’s V Cast Music service, which enables you to purchase songs through your phone and download them via Verizon’s fast EV-DO data network, as well as V Cast Video for streamed video clips from a variety of channels. Other features include Bluetooth stereo music streaming, mobile email and instant messaging, MicroSD memory card expansion, and a built-in GPS receiver for use with the optional VZ Navigator turn-by-turn direction service.
The Flipshot’s display rotates 180 degrees for optimal viewing in camera mode. |
Verizon Service
With support for the EV-DO high-speed data standard, you’ll enjoy fast access to the Internet and Verizon’s multimedia services (additional charges applicable), with average download speeds ranging from 400 to 700 Kbps and peak rates up to 2 Mbps. (Learn more about where EV-DO coverage is offered.) The V Cast Music service enables you to download songs instantly to your phone, or purchase music through your PC and transfer the files to your phone. If purchased from your phone, you’ll receive two copies of the song: a Windows Media Audio Pro Plus format at 64Kbps stereo is sent to your phone, and a Windows Media Audio 9 format at 160Kbps stereo is sent to your account in the V CAST Music online store for downloading to your PC. V Cast Music offers nearly 2 million songs, with more being added all the time.
With the V Cast Video service, you can stream or download video clips to your phone from a variety of news, entertainment, sports, and weather channels, including CNN, ABC News, E!, CBS Sports, The Weather Channel, and VH1.
Getting on the Internet is easy using Verizon’s Mobile Web 2.0 package, which allows you to read and send e-mails, exchange instant messages and view your favorite web content on your phone. Verizon’s Get It Now wireless download service is also fully compatible with this phone. This pay-per-download service features application downloads, games and productivity tools. You can also personalize your handset with ringtone downloads using the Get It Now service.
With this GPS-enabled phone, you’ll be able to access Verizon’s VZ Navigator service (additional charges applicable) for voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions, heads-up alerts, local search of nearly 14 million points of interest in the US (such as landmarks, restaurants and ATMs), and detailed color maps. And Verizon’s Chaperone service lets you easily locate your loved ones from your Verizon Wireless phone or PC in real time. After defining a zone, such as an area designating a school or summer camp, you’ll be sent an alert via text message when the Chaperone handset enters or leaves the zone.
This compact clamshell phone measures 0.73 inches thin and weighs 3.88 ounces. |
Phone Features
The Flipshot features a traditional clamshell design with a swiveling display that can rotate 180 degrees, enabling you to close the phone so that the large 2.2-inch internal display faces outward and activates the camera mode. This internal display has a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for up to 262K colors, while the external 65K-color screen offers a 128 x 96-pixel resolution (1.2 inches) and provides call information, signal strength, and a digital version of an analog clock. You can also change the display wallpaper and the clock style. The phone also includes dedicated play/pause music controls.
The 3-megapixel camera snaps pictures in eight resolution options from 2048 x 1536 (2 MP) to 160 x 120, and it includes a 10x digital zoom, three quality settings, brightness and white balance controls, multi-shot capability, night mode, spot metering, and ISO selection. For video capture, the Flipshot records clips in MPEG4 format in two resolutions–320 x 240 and 176 x 144 pixels. You can shoot video as long as your memory card has available space, and videos shot for MMS messaging are capped at 30 seconds. View your pictures and videos on your home theater system with the TV?#128;”out option.
This phone provides Bluetooth version 1.2 wireless connectivity, and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and audio/video remote control. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.
A messaging and wireless Internet powerhouse, support is built in for sending and receiving pictures, text, graphics, sound and video via messages. When used in combination with the phone’s built-in still and video camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. Instant messaging is also supported, and the phone ships with a built-in email client. The Flipshot also comes stock with a built-in web browser for downloads and mobile web browsing. T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for entering text on handsets, is built into the unit–a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.
The Flipshot’s internal phone book can hold up to 500 contact entries with five phone numbers and two emails per entry, while the phone’s picture ID system allows you to assign pictures to your most common callers. And the Flipshot’s voice dialing feature makes calling family, friends, and business associates as easy as saying their names. Other features include:
- MicroSD expansion up to 4 GB
- USB 2.0 connectivity with mass storage capability
- Compatible with 72-chord polyphonic ringtones
- PIM tools: Calendar with scheduler, note pad, alarm clock, world time, calculator, unit converter
- Stereo speakerphone
- Vibrating alerts and silent mode
- Supported digital audio formats: MPE, WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Pro+
- 2.5mm headphone jack
- Bluetooth profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BIP (for sending images to another device), BPP (basic printing profile for text, email), DUN (dial-up networking), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures), PBA (transfer contacts); note that this phone does not support all Bluetooth OBEX profiles
- Hearing aid compatibility = M3/T3
- TTY compatibility
Vital Statistics
The Flipshot weighs 3.88 ounces and measures 3.76 x 1.83 x 0.73 inches. Its 880 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.5 hours of talk time, and up to 250 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 850/CDMA 1900 frequencies for voice and Verizon’s EV-DO data network.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Not as great as I hoped for.
I saved up for a long time before springing for this phone, and chose it based on its appearance and photo ability.
The camera is nice, but still lacking in a lot of ways. The lag time between pushing the button and the photo actually being taken is still horrendous, and often results in a blurry photo or the action being missed. The exposure is not very consistent when using the automatic settings.
The touch sensitive buttons on the outside of the phone caused me a lot of headaches until I found out how to disable them, they were always getting bumped at random times and music would blare out even when the phone was on silent.
Had to purchase the cord for uploading data separately.
And the most upsetting thing is the text messaging.
The problems are in many areas;
The keys are inverted and slippery and many times will miss if you dont push just right on the center, very tempermental and un-user friendly for quickly typing a message.
The word function is missing a lot of common words, and as someone else mentioned, it holds the capitalization and punctuation of everything you enter in ABC mode, so you’re forced to cycle through even more words trying to get the correct one. There’s no way to add or remove from its word memory that I’m aware of.
Just because I capitalized a word once in a text doesn’t mean I need it that way in every single future use of the word.
If texting is important to you, go with a different phone. I cant wait to get rid of this one myself. Serves me right for not checking it out more before purchasing.
4 Stars found out…
well you all know that the front buttons are touch and if the slightest touch starts music there is a way to stop it. if you close the phone and press and hold the button with the three dots a little lock will come up in the corner next to the battery, therefor it locks the buttons outside the phone. and you can still open the phone and use it without the entire phone being locked. =) awesome idea who ever came up with that!!!
3 Stars Almost good.
I purchased this phone because I wanted to have a camera capable of taking decent, but not amazing photos on me at all times.
As a phone it works fine. The signal strength is good, battery lasts a long time, the sound quality is quite good. You can’t easily record your own ring tones, the speaker phone is basically useless. It has an attractive look, but in a month there are some places where the finish has already rubbed off. For some reason there are buttons on the outside that control music playback; these get hit accidentally all the time. This might be annoying if you used it for music, but I never do so it does not bother me.
Flipping the display around makes into a small camera with the same look and feel as 3 Mega Pixel point and shoot. For a camera embedded into a phone it has a surprising array of options that you might not even find in a normal point and shoot camera. Including, but not limited to: White balance, ISO (100-400), Metering mode (avg, center spot), Picture Mode (Portrait mode, night, macro, and more), Flash (Auto, On Off, once), Auto Focus (on/off), Timer. It supports up to a 4G micro SD card which will let you store 100s of photos at the maximum resolution and lowest compression level. The macro mode works well. When I’ve produced a good photo I’ve been able to print it out as a 4×6 sized photo on my Epson R1800 and it does look pretty good. Or use it as a desktop wallpaper.
The shutter lag is quite long; about 2 seconds or more. While you impatiently wait for the camera to do something you might hold down the trigger button. This inconveniently switches the camera from still mode to video mode. Even at the least compressed setting the photos produced seem to have slight compression artifacts, or perhaps this is sensor noise. Indoors, using the flash, produces photos which are far superior to other camera phones, but which are still too blurry compared with a regular point and shoot camera.
In conclusion, I would rather have this camera phone than nothing at all, but there are some problems that are very annoying.
2 Stars Nifty phone, with terrible texting
I’ve had this phone for about five months now. I’m not going to reiterate all of the good things about it.
The camera takes good photos, but the lag is terrible. It’s also not easy to get a self-shot.
Sound is decent quality. Speakerphone works.
However, the text messaging is abysmal. I mean really, really bad.
First, there isn’t a way to edit the dictionary, and words you add (by using them in Abc mode) come first. I once forgot I was in Abc mode and typed in “like”, which came out “jgjd”. Now, *every* time I try to type in “like”, “jgjd” comes up first.
Second, if you capitalize a word, it remembers that as well. So I put in a band name—let’s say “The Styx”. Now, every time I enter “the” it comes up as capital, no matter what mode I’m in. To get a lower-case “the”, I have to hit next. Every time.
Third, it tries to be helpful by learning your punctuation. What this means is that you can *never* rely on the punctuation that’s going to come up. If you’ve typed in “great!” before, and want to type in “great.” now, it’s probably going to come up with an exclamation point first.
Fourth, and what makes all of this so frustrating, is that it combines all of these. Capitals, punctuation—all of it. Here’s an example of trying to type in “good!”:
good.
home.
good?
home,
good@
good!
Texting has become a nightmare. I hate it—no, I loathe it.
I want a phone that doesn’t capitalize a word unless I tell it to, or it’s the beginning of a sentence. I want a phone where I can say, “I misspelled that—please remove it from your dictionary.” I want a phone where I know that if I hit 1, and then hit next five times, it’s always going to be a comma.
Other than that, and your standard Verizon crippling of the bluetooth and such, it’s not bad.
2 Stars Phone is crippled – maybe by Verizon
I just got this today for my wife. I have spent about 6 hours trying to transfer the phonebook from her old LG VX8300 to the Flipshot. I have tried 3 different programs over Bluetooth and all cannot connect to this phone. I can connect to the LG and my RAZR just fine but BITPIM, Futuredial and even Samsungs own PC Studio 3 cannot connect to this phone. I know it is the Flipshot because Windows XP can send/receive diagnostics to the phone just fine. It could be that Verizon has crippled the phone so that you have to buy their $30 USB connector – I wouldn’t put it past ‘em. So right off the bat this phone has been a major irritation. I’ll update if I get it to work otherwise it is getting shipped back in the morning….
Buy/More Info
