Introduction & Design
Can a mobile phone be too thin? Samsung deems determined to find out, as they keep pushing the envelope when it comes to building feature-rich mobiles that are as thin as possible. While the 8mm thin T-Mobile exclusive "Trace" SGH-T519 isn't Samsung's thinnest phone - that title currently rests with the X828, a 6.9mm thin model - it's darn close.
Samsung packed a solid feature set into the Trace, including a 1.3 MP camera, audio player with mp3 and AAC support, microSD removable memory card slot, and compatibility with myFaves, T-Mobile's new multi-network unlimited calling plan. Debuting at a retail price of just $99 with a two-year contract, the Trace is one of the first hi-tech fashion phones aimed squarely at the middle of the market.
Once you get past that astonishingly thin profile, can the Trace measure up? Let's take a deeper look at this ultra-thin mobile.
Quite similar in appearance to Samsung's SGH-X820, the Trace is a long, wide, wafer of a phone. At 113 x 50 x 8mm, this handset looks much like a flattened-out version of your standard candybar phone. The Trace is also a featherweight, "tipping" the scales at a mere 71g. The back panel bulges out slightly at the top, where the camera sensor and speaker are housed, giving the phone the look of the top panel only of one of Samsung's thin slider phones.
The front panel of the Trace is split about 50-50 between the 1.8" screen (and it's substantial black border) and keypad. Large Samsung and T-Mobile logos flank the display on the top and bottom, and a cut out for the earpiece is visible just above the upper edge of the display panel. The keypad is quite roomy, and features large buttons that are nearly flush to the phone, giving a high-tech appearance similar to that of touch-sensitive controls. Above the standard 12-button dialing layout are six large control buttons laid out as three columns: left softkey and Call, a four-way directional pad with center-mount OK button, and right softkey and End/power. All buttons are labeled in an almost-black dark grey, save for the traditional green Call and red End keys.
While the flush mount keys look nice, they do have a downside. Since there's literally not much room for tactile feedback amongst the buttons, it's easy to accidentally press the wrong key or multiple keys. I had trouble with the navigation pad, in particular, as the delineation between the four directional keys, the center OK button, and the clear key just below is blurry in a tactile sense.
As mentioned, the top of the rear panel bulges out to house the camera sensor and speaker, and is labeled with a "1.3 Megapixels" logo. The rest of the panel is blank save for an embossed Samsung logo in the middle and the new T-Mobile myFaves logo at the bottom edge. The bottom portion of the panel acts as a battery cover, and slides off to reveal the battery and SIM card slots.
On the left side of the phone, we find a rocker switch used to control volume and a covered port used to connect the included AC charger and wired headset. The right side of the phone features a covered slot for microSD removable memory cards and a single programmable button labeled with a camera logo and, for some odd reason, a red stripe. As you might guess, this button is used to access the camera features.
The dimensions of the Trace felt great in my pocket but rather odd in my hand. While such a slim phone is a joy to carry around - particularly for someone like me who often keeps his mobile in a front pants pocket but hates having it visibly bulging out - it made for somewhat awkward use. The Trace is so slim as to be a little awkward to use for one-handed dialing. Akin to an overly-light tennis racquet that twists in your grip upon impact with the ball, I found the Trace a little "wriggly" when I tried to push its buttons. Whereas thicker candybar phones stay put in the center of my hand, the Trace's longer, wider footprint meant I had to grip it with my fingers cradled around its side panel, causing the phone to hover somewhat above my palm. This meant that the phone wasn't braced against my hand and so moved around some when I pressed the keys with my thumb.
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