Samsung Armani review
Not only is the Giorgio Armani mobile phone a stylish device, it is also delivered in style. The black box has a silky feel, like the cover of the user’s guide. A leather pouch that folds out comes with the phone to protect it. When you shut the cover, it shuts down the cell phone. You can also choose to use the included pouch made from soft material. Naturally a battery charger, USB cable, earphone and software CDs are included in the box. An original addition is the soft cleansing cloth, marked with the Armani logo, which serves to wipe the Samsung P520 clean.
The Samsung P520 has a businesslike and classy appearance also thanks to its durable, black housing carrying the Giorgio Armani logo. The dimensions of 3.5x 2.1x0.4 inches make the cell phone extremely compact and the full touchscreen enables optimum management. Thanks to its compact design you hardly notice the cell phone in your trouser pocket. On the front there are only two buttons available; the 'numeric key pad' and the 'on/off' or 'close menu' key. At first the Armani cell phone reminded me of a smartphone, also because of the visible agenda in standby mode, but as far as functionality is concerned, the Samsung P520 is a regular mobile phone. Buttons to operate the digital camera and to key lock are placed on the right side of the phone while the volume buttons can be found on the left side. Logically, the digital camera is found on the back of the Giorgio Armani cell phone.

The 2.6 inch 262,144 pixels colour TFT touchscreen dominates the front of the Samsung P520 Giorgio Armani phone. It is a heat-sensitive monitor functioning without stylus. The colours are clearly reproduced and while photographing, details are clearly visible thanks to the large monitor. The special sunlight mode enables you to see what's rendered on the screen even in bright sunlight without having to move into the shade in order to decipher your received text message. In general the monitor responses fast, but the model we tested seemed to have a less sensitive right side compared to the rest of the screen, which made it hard to select the scrollbar. At times I also had trouble touching the right buttons; although this might be a matter of simply growing accustomed to it and aiming well.

Straight from the standby mode you can switch the Giorgio Armani mobile phone to the silent mode and get access to the call screen or the main menu. The main menu has its very own style in the colours yellow and black. Two bars, a horizontal and vertical one, lead you along twelve icons, divided in a 3x4 grid. As we have come to appreciate from Samsung, all the menus and the submenus are logically arranged and everything is easy to find. Some menus have a scrollbar at their disposal but it is also possible to 'slide' your finger from the centre to the bottom of the screen to scroll through the menu. The quick access buttons that offer direct access to the call log, MP3 player, messages and contacts are accessible from every menu by pressing the small square.

The Samsung P520's MP3 player features the same graphics as the main menu and the basic functions can be operated by two bars. When you slide the vertical bar, you wind or rewind a song. To adjust the volume you have to slide the horizontal bar. On the crossing of the two bars the play/pause button is positioned. This neat, original reproduction makes it a joy to arrange your music. Furthermore you can repeat songs automatically, create playlists and sort music to artist, album genre and composer. The MP3 player remains active in standby mode providing you set this mode in the play setting menu. The headset as well as the loudspeaker produces a reasonable sound.

With the aid of the common agenda you can manage your dates, remember birthdays and tick off tasks. The four available alarms and an alarm clock give you no excuse anymore to oversleep, unless of course you press 'OK' instead of 'Snooze' when the alarm wakes you. That way, I can assure you, the alarm will not go off again! In addition, the Samsung P520 offers a timer, notebook, world time and a calculator. The speech recorder has the same beautiful graphic effects as the main menu and the MP3 player. A unique extra feature is the possibility to view Excel, Word and PDF files through the File viewer. You can also use the 'find' function to find certain specific words inside a document. Moreover, the Bluetooth connection lets you connect directly to an external Bluetooth printer.

