[Samsung's first Palm OS-based smartphone reviewed by WAPsight.]

by Jean Panke -- The SPH-I300 debuted at CeBit last year and was recently released by Sprint PCS for its circuit-switched CDMA network in the US. I was very interested in how this handset performed in comparison to other smart phones I had been using in both Europe and the US.

First, I was delightfully surprised by the form factor and how comfortably it fit in my hand. With the handset powered on it makes a very good first impression with its large 256 color display. This large display makes it much easier for viewing web pages in comparison to most web-enabled phones with their small screens. With its sleek styling it appears at first sight to successfully integrate the benefits of both a PDA and a wireless phone.

This handset has been developed with Palm(tm) and is wholly compatible with all Palm-OS based applications which I tried. It has a single button to the right of the handset with a quick single-key access to the phone function. On the top of the handset is an infrared connection, and a small mini-display with roaming, power, time and caller id indicators. This makes it easy to identify an incoming call if you have the device in your pocket or clipped to your belt

It also provides Palm character recognition called Graffiti(tm), while a speaker phone provides hands-free conversation. It also features an address book, scheduler, to-do list, memo pad, calculator, clock and PC synchronization allowing Palm applications to be downloaded into the handset.

Data capabilities include web browsing, web clipping, e-mail, and short messaging service. The SPH-I300 has 8 MB of memory for user data and applications. It features voice dialing up to 20 numbers, speed dialing up to 99 numbers, and a categorized phone book, one touch vibration converting, call logs, any key answer, power save mode, 3 emergency numbers, call restrict, and a variety of ring tones.

It has a retractable antenna and battery capacity for 120 min of talk time and 18 hours of standby time, dimensions are 4.5(125mm) H x 2.28(58mm) W x 0.82(21mm) D. I noticed that the color display is power hungry and the extra battery that comes with the phone should stay charged and in your travel bag for those times when you need to do some heavy data access.

After checking out the features of this handset, it was time to give its data capabilities a test run. First the SPH-I300 has two browsers. One is from Phone.com labeled "Sprint Web" for accessing WML(WAP) pages and the "Blazer" browser from Handspring which is capable of rendering WML(WAP) as well as HTML(WEB) pages. Both browsers offer encryption for transmission of sensitive data.

From the initial phone start up menu press the Home icon which brings up the Palm top page. From there scroll to the browser of your choice and tap it with your stylus. Follow the prompts on the wireless web portal. At the top of this page appears a red phone icon with a tiny '01' indicating your data connection has been established.

To bring up a URL of your choice click on the folder icon which prompts the entering of a new URL making the system quite open. The URL can be entered using Palm Graffiti characters. Next press OK and the home page of your chosen site appears

After using both browsers, I preferred the Handspring browser features for two reasons. It remembers previously entered URLs so only the first one or two letters need to be entered before the entire URL appears. Also, it has short-cut strings like "www." and ".com" for entering URLs quite painlessly.

Strengths of the SPH-I300: It is easy to download personal programs and you can also write your own custom programs to suit your personal or company needs. It is currently the ultimate in customizability in the American market in my opinion. Like other Palm OS based devices, its ability to synchronize with Outlook is a killer advantage. The integration between phone and Palm means a single database allows calls to be made out of the Palm Address Book. In other words, the address book which you maintain in your desktop Outlook can be fully available on your I300. No need to maintain multiple address books anymore. The display is very readable versus other web-enabled phones. The circuit switched 14.4KB connection seems adequate for most applications.

Weaknesses of the SPH-I300: The circuit-switched connection does not allow the answering of voice calls if you are connected using a data application. Voice calls here revert to voice mail. I would like to see a future version of this phone supporting packet switching over GPRS or 3G to resolve this problem. I think a tri-band GSM/GPRS or CDMA 1X 3G format would make this a killer product.

A negative feature for developers is that the Samsung SDK is not yet available (as of 18Jan2002) so integrating phone functionality with WAP will have to wait. Although Palm has a fine SDK available, Samsung has not yet documented how a developer would access the phone functions from an application.

Overall the SPH-I300 receives excellent ratings in design, integration of phone and PDA functions, and easy readability. The phone receives good ratings for accessing caller id, phone numbers and other data convenient to have at your fingertips when making calls.

The SPH-I300 is being marketed in the US through Sprint. Sprint's plan offering 3000 minutes for $29.95 and Wireless Web for $4.95 is a fairly decent deal. From Friday at 9 PM through Monday at 7 AM there are 2800 minutes including nationwide long distance and data access. The remaining 200 minutes are for use between 7 AM to 9 PM Monday through Friday. With such a generous allotment of weekend minutes, there is plenty of time to relax while on-line getting to know your I300 without having to worry much about the minutes ticking away.

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