Samsung N200 Phone (Sprint)

• Metallic-blue flip casing
• Web enabled
• Voice-activated dialing
• Up to 130 hours' digital standby time and 150 minutes' digital talk time
• Includes lithium-ion battery, desktop charger, and wrist strap

Samsung does a great job at making compact, feature-rich phones, and the N-200 is no exception. It weighs 4.4 ounces including battery, and measures just 3.5 inches high, 2 inches wide, and 1.1 inches deep when closed. It's easy to carry around and is small enough to ride in your pocket.

With the flip case closed, the keypad is protected and only the Menu, OK, and CLR buttons are exposed. The only real danger this poses is that you can accidentally dial your voice mail if the OK key is depressed for more than a second. Open the flip, and you'll find the usual standard keys, including Talk and End buttons. Volume control buttons are on the left side, and the headset jack is located on the top lip of the phone, near the extendable antenna.

The backlit, graphical display shows six lines of text (or Web content) and an array of status icons. You can choose from 24 different ringers, including vibration mode. The phone book stores 229 entries and 20 separate voice-dialing locations. Each phone-book entry supports up to 32 digits and 12 characters. Depending on which memory slot each number uses, it can be accessed with one-, two-, or three-touch dialing. Other baseline features include a T9 predictive keypad; 10-number incoming, outgoing, and missed call logs; calendar; to-do list; calculator; and data-sync capabilities (with Microsoft Outlook).

It was a cakewalk setting up voice tags and establishing a list of 20 friends and associates for voice-activated dialing. We never had trouble getting the phone (a preproduction model, even) to recognize names. We set the phone to prompt us for a voice tag as soon as we opened the flip. The other option is to set the Talk button as the voice-dialing prompt; simply press and hold the Talk button, and you'll be asked for a name to call.

As with other Samsung phones, the N-200's minibrowser is organized and functional. It features quick access to popular sites as well as news, weather, stock, and entertainment updates. Again, the phone's streamlined navigational controls made surfing a pleasure. This, matched with the amount of content available on Sprint PCS's wireless Web, makes the N-200 an estimable Web phone.

Like most phones, the N-200 supports carrier-dependent features such as caller ID, three-way calling, and call forwarding. It also offers standard security features. You can lock both the phone itself (to prevent outgoing calls, except to emergency numbers) and the keypad (to prevent accidental calls if the phone is in your backpack), set different call restrictions, erase your call logs, or store numbers in a secret location.

Its lithium-ion battery is rated for up to 150 minutes of digital talk time and 130 hours of digital standby time. Our sample N-200 held a call for over 2.5 hours and lasted for five days in standby mode. And it took just under two hours to completely recharge the battery. A rather chunky desktop charger is included, but frequent roamers should consider purchasing a travel charger for convenience.

Feature-wise, the N-200 rivals any other Samsung phone, except that it lacks a voice-memo recorder (if you absolutely can't live without such a feature, you can always voice mail yourself). We really like the N-200's design and overall performance, and think it would suit just about anyone's needs.

--Thom Arno

Pros:

• Great overall design
• Voice-activated dialing
• Excellent minibrowser
• Competitively priced

Cons:

• No voice-memo recorder
• Bulky charger