Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani Review

Recently Samsung announced the forthcoming release of the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani. This is not the first Armani mobile phone from Samsung, in fact to date there have been three models released in conjunction between these two famous brands, with the B7620 being the third in the line up. The first device, announced back in September 2007 was a tiny, compact, touchscreen device, running on the then new Croix UI. With stylish looks and a decent build quality, the Armani phone was slim and compact, and made an ideal addition to a stylish outfit. It even managed to pack in a few decent features, such as MicroSD memory expansion, Stereo Bluetooth and 3 Megapixel camera.

The second Armani phone, announced one year later, was fully titled the Samsung M7500 Emporio Armani. It wasn’t quite so stylish to look at, but despite the rather bland, almost normal style, it packed a decent spec list, with a 3.0 megapixel camera with Smile Shot, large internal memory with memory card expansion, 3.5mm audio jack, Stereo Bluetooth, FM radio and dedicated music keys, amongst others. There was even a built in option for light effects, which came into their own when used with the music player.

It would seem that Samsung are keen to continue the tie-in with Armani, as they have once again, one year on, announced the latest Armani phone in their range, the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani. And once again, Samsung have delivered with a fine looking fashion device worthy of the Armani name, and including a high feature specification worthy of any Samsung device.

The Giorgio Armani device is capable of running on the latest incarnation of Windows Mobile, version 6.5, and the OS overlaid with the now familiar Samsung TouchWiz user interface. The B7620, to use the handsets official designation, incorporates a full, slide out QWERTY keyboard, with a tilting display, much the way the HTC Touch Pro II works. This makes typing on the handset a much more comfortable experience, and allows the device to double up almost as an ultra mini PC netbook. The large screen on the handset measures in at a comfortable 3.5 inches, with a resolution of 800 x 480, and supporting up to 16 million colours. This AMOLED display is a resistive touchscreen, which means it can be used with either finger or stylus. The new Armani phone is a bit of a heavyweight, coming in at 164g, and measuring 118.5 x 58.3 x 16.4 mm.

Available in a smart looking Black and Bronze colour, the new Giorgio Armani device delivers with features as well as in looks. Underneath the well crafted shell, we find the handset offers a 5.0 Megapixel camera, with features such as face and smile detection included. The camera has an LED flash, and utilises autofocus to bring better sharpness to captured images. There are also further features, including Wide Dynamic Range, image stabilisation and a panorama effect. The Armani has a built in GPS chip, which can be used to tag captured images with the location information of where the snap was taken, which can then be shared with friends online. The camera is also enabled for video capture, and video clips can be recorded at VGA resolution at 30 fps. Images and video clips on the handset can easily be edited, with the Armani phone offering an onboard photo/video editor.

The Giorgio Armani B7620 is a capable media device, and delivers a high quality media experience. To start with, the video players supports a wide range of file formats, including DivX and XviD, as well as supporting MP3, WMA and AAC music files, amongst others. The Armani phone also offers DNSe, Samsung’s audio enhancement technology, which helps to deliver a more realistic sound experience from the handset during audio playback. There is plenty of space available to store videos, images and music, as the Armani delivers with 8GB internal memory, which can be expanded by a further 32GB with MicroSD memory cards. And if that were not enough, the B7620 also includes a Stereo FM radio with RDS, too.

The Armani phone is a well connected handset, supporting all the major connection options. There is Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo support, as well as WiFi, 3G, HSCSD, GPRS and EDGE. The handset also offers excellent Mobile broadband options, supporting upload speeds of 5.76 Mbps, and download speeds of 7.2 Mbps. Connection to a PC is straightforward enough, thanks to the inclusion of a v2.0 Micro USB port.

There are some nice touches on the handset, with the inclusion of some Giorgio Armani fashion applications, a business card scanner, and the inclusion of Work & Life mode, which allows you to have a different set up on the device, for at work and at home.

Overall, Samsung and Armani have combined to produce a mobile phone that manages to deliver on looks as well as performance. With a smooth look and powerful specification, the Giorgio Armani will suit both the fashion conscious and power user.

Related Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani Links

• Compare the latest Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani deals
• Compare Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani pay as you go prices
• Read user Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani reviews