Samsung S5550 Shark 2 preview, Price, pictures, Details, model specifications
Today Samsung introduced a new line of lower mid-range handsets, which should help them maintain their increasingly strong position in the segment. The three Sharks bring decent overall functionality to people that don’t have too great of a budget or any desire to jump on the touchscreen bandwagon.
Samsung S5550 Shark 2
We now have the pleasure of introducing you the Samsung S5550 Shark 2. The Shark 2 is the best spec’d handset of the newly announced carnivorous bunch but shares the aircraft-inspired design with the others..Still, idesoite its compact dimesnions, it’s relatively chubby and does look like a phone Samsung could have easily produced in the entry level segment a couple of years ago.
But you know, this stranger with a predatory name could be hiding more gems other than the one below its display so let’s have a look at the main features of the Shark 2.
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 at a glance:
- General: GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
- Form factor: Slider
- Dimensions: 101.8 x 48.7 x 14.8mm, 99g
- Display: 2.2-inch 262K color AMOLED display with QVGA resolution (240 x 320)
- Memory: 106MB integrated memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 8GB)
- UI: Proprietary Samsung UI with direct uploads to social networking sites and basic multi-tasking
- Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash, face detection, smile shot,wide dynamic range; QVGA video recording @ 30fps
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, proprietary Samsung connectivity port
- Misc: FM radio with radio recording, DNSe 2.0 (Digital Natural Sound Engine), document viewer, Palringo Instant Messenger (Gtalk, AIM, ICQ support), Fake call, Find music recognition service
- Battery: Li-Ion 960 mAh battery
As you can see the compact slider offers decent all-round functionality, without trying to blow your mind away. Of course, the 2.2″ display looks smallish when compared to some of the competitors but we hope Samsung will compensate for that with a lower price tag.
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 at ours
The Shark 2 was never meant to be a handset that will give you boasting rights in front of your friends. However its down-to-earth approach helps it get an excellent score on the bang-for-buck test and if you are a no-nonsense buyer that still looks on the mobile phones primary as a mean of communication that is what matters the most.
Usually with that kind of mobile phones the design and ergonomics is what counts the most so our traditional hardware inspection falls right into place at the beginning of the preview. You will find it after this short jump.
Unboxing the Shark 2
The Samsung S5550 Shark 2 comes in a standard package. In the box we find the phone itself along with a charger and a headset. The headset connects to the phone through a proprietary Samsung port so if you plan to use a pair of standard earphones you’ll have to get yourself an adaptor first. The next thing on the shopping list would be a microSD card since there is none coming with the phone.
Unboxing the Shark 2
Design and construction
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 comes with a nearly standard (for this class) feature pack so the only thing left to the midranger is to grab attention with design. Well, we have to admit we’re not really into that new design theme. The S5550 feels chubby and quite out of place in 2010 even in the lower midrange. We can’t quite see the point in this new design concept – the S5500 is far away from the elegance of last year Samsung sliders.
While the Samsung S5550 Shark 2 front doesn’t bring any novelties (save for the gemstone-like D-pad), the back is a completely different story. It seems heavily inspired by aircraft fuselage and the visual result is nice alright. The back cover is plastic though despite the initial impression it may leave. It’s also a fingerprint magnet.
If you still can’t imagine how compact the phone is, take a look at those couple of images of S5550 together with the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH.
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 next to the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH
The Shark 2 will first show up in black but reportedly a pink version should come out as well.
Right above the display, in the dead-center there is the triangular earpiece. Next to it, on the right, is the secondary video-call camera. And below the screen we find the diamond inspired D-pad surrounded by four other knobs (two soft buttons and Call/End keys). All of them are comfy and feature a nice tactile feedback.
Earpiece and secondary camera above the screen • the gemstone-like D-pad
The numpad is equally comfortable. Buttons are flat but well sized and solid to press, so typing on the Shark 2 is a real pleasure.
The comfy numpad
The left side of S5550 Shark 2 features only a volume rocker and a lanyard eyelet.
Samsung Shark 2′s left side view
The right side of the handset hosts the camera button as well as the proprietary Samsung connectivity port used for plugging in the charger, USB cable or headset. The port is treated with a small plastic lid to protect it from dust and dirt. We kinda miss the standard microUSB port here – we though Samsung have long gone for that one on their phones. Obviously, we were wrong.
The camera button and the connectivity port on the right
Backstage we find the 5 megapixel autofocus camera lens, accompanied by a LED flash. The loudspeaker grill is also here.
5 megaixel camera is at the back, along with the LED flash and a speaker
Removing the battery cover reveals the 960 mAh Li-Ion battery. It is quoted at up to 623 hours of stand-by and up to 11 hours 40 minutes of talk time but as you might have guessed, we won’t be able to comment on those numbers in this short preview.
And under the battery, right next to the SIM card slot is the microSD card slot which is ready to accommodate cards of up to 16GB of memory (even if the manufacturer claims that only up to 8GB cards are supported).
The Shark 2 is powered by a 960 mAh Li-Ion battery • the microSD card slot is under the battery
The unusual S5550 form improves phone’s ergonomics and gives a nice grip. The Shark 2 is very comfy to use – both for making calls or texting. The slider action is solid and smooth – it’s quite a pleasure to use.
The Samsung S5550 Shark 2 feels pretty good to handle right now
Brilliant AMOLED display
The Shark 2 comes with a 2.2″ 256K-color AMOLED display of QVGA resolution. The image quality indoors is commendable. However, under direct sunlight the situation changes – displayed images and texts are not as legible.
The Samsung S5550 Shark 2 isn’t the first among company’s affordable feature phones to sport an AMOLED display. Let’s remind you that theM7600 Beat DJ, S7220 Ultra b and the S5050 also pack brilliant screens like Shark 2′s and all of them are already available across the globe.
The Samsung Shark 2 display is gorgeous, at least indoors
Typical Flash-based Samsung UI
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 comes with the classical Samsung non-touch Flash-based user interface. The usual suspects are here – animated backgrounds on the main menu and home screen, lively colors and stylish icons.
The user interface is well familiar
The user interface layout has remained intact since last year’s Samsung Ultra b, except for the new shortcuts toolbar at the bottom of the homescreen. It’s not something we haven’t seen before – the CorbyTXT and Emporio Armani have it – but it’s surely a handy thing.
The shortcut bar has 15 customizable slots and you can assign almost anything there. Links to the most popular social networks, messaging and Google are the default assigned shortcuts, but you can change them anytime.
The shortcut bar • settings • application switch
The so called Application switch is also on board and lets you quickly toggle between calling, texting, browsing and running Java Apps. The Java apps section allows you to run several Java titles simultaneously – so it’s a basic task switcher.
Samsung S5550 comes with the standard Google services, Palringo IM client, RSS reader, a bunch of trial games, FM radio with FM recording plus Image and Video editors.
Social networking integration stretches even further to having a dedicated item in the main menu called Communities. It automatically downloads the upload settings for a set of your favorite social networking sites and even allows you to store you login details so you don’t have to enter them each time you access those websites through the Communities or try to upload content from the file manager – the S5550 Shark 2 stores your credentials for you.
The Communities section
The Communities item gets you links to websites such as Facebook, Picasa and Flickr and the ability to directly upload files. You can also preset your login details so you don’t have to.
Image gallery is passable
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 picture gallery is an inherent part of the file manager and not a separate application. It displays the pictures as a list with a small thumbnail next to each filename. You can sort imaged by date, type, name, and size.
As the S5550 doesn’t have an accelerometer, you can toggle portrait or landscape viewing modes by pressing the confirm key.
Portrait and landscape modes are available for the gallery
Music player is good enough
The S5550 Shark 2 music player is a pretty decent application that hasn’t seen much change either. It allows filtering tracks by author, album, genre and composers. You can also choose to play either the tracks you’ve recently listened to, or the ones that you’ve played the most. If that doesn’t seem enough, you can create your own custom playlists.
The music player does the job
You can activate various sound effects courtesy of DNSe 2.0 (including Megabass, Bass enhancement, Stereo widening, Dynamic sound, Surround effect and Music clarity) and there is a choice of three different visualizations, two of which include album art. They all look pretty nice but are hardly anything revolutionary.
5 megapixel camera
Samsung S5550 Shark 2 is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1920 pixels.
The camera interface very much resembles that of the last year’s Ultra b. It is decently user-friendly but still needs some time spent getting used to it. However, the available settings are quite a lot so we are willing to forgive the somewhat complicated menu.
The camera interface
Some of the more important settings are picture size, shooting mode (single shot, multi-shot, mosaic, and frame), scene (normal, portrait, landscape, night, etc.), effects (black and white, sepia, negative etc.), white balance, exposure metering and ISO settings.
The additional camera settings include wide dynamic range and anti-shake.
The D-pad offers another set of options including focus mode (auto-focus, macro or face detection), flash on/off, exposure compensation and shutter timer.
The face detection feature itself works relatively well but is not capable of recognizing several faces so you might have issues focusing on group shots. The smile shutter however which automatically takes photos when a smiling face appears.
The picture quality of Samsung S5550 Shark 2 passes the line, but didn’t meet our expectations. The produced detail is enough to satisfy most of the users, but the noise levels are just irritating and definitely need some more work. Colors and contrast are just fine.
Shark 2 camera samples
As far as video recoding is concerned, Samsung S5550 Shark 2 is pretty much a disappointment. The best it managed to pull out are QVGA videos at 30fps, which is quite unimpressive by our books.
Web browser seems fine (for the segment)
The Web browser of Samsung S5550 Shark 2 is decent for its class and usually renders pages pretty well. There are some exceptions the Net Front browser struggles with but those are hardly frequent enough to bother you. However if you don’t stick to the default page size things can get uglier and rendering errors are way more frequent.
The browser offers landscape and fullscreen views and also some nice features like mini map and the virtual mouse pointer. If you browse elaborate pages, the desktop view mode is more appropriate, while for simple sites it’s better to use the smart-fit view.
The browser offers fullscreen and decent page rendering
The web browser lacks proper Flash support and though it can handle some basic Flash banners, Flash video is a no-go.
First impressions
The new Samsung Shark line is the non-touch analog of the already highly successful Corby family. It offers distinguishable design, varied form factors and low to mid-range functionality.
The top dog among the Sharks – the S5550 Shark 2 has an AMOLED display, a 5 megapixel camera plus tons of extras and 3G connectivity with HSDPA support. The specs list packs everything you may want for a mid-range phone targeting again the social networks fans.
We admit the design is certainly not our cup of tea, but taste is a personal thing, Only time will tell whether the Sharks will bite off some new market territories, but given the right price and proper marketing campaign, the new product line just might turn up as successful as the Corby one.
