The iPhone from Apple has started the madness by screens touchscreen (touch sensitive) and followed the other phones - some with just the touch sensitive screen and the other with the touch sensitive screens and keyboards physical. Now that Samsung has launched a phone with touch screens that use its new technology Smart Wiz with many multimedia features. We were curious to see how these new features added to the usability of the phone, so we are happy to assess the Samsung SGH-A867 Eternity.

The Eternity is part of a whole family of phones with the same type of design. Each is tied to a particular telephone company cellular (the U.S.).The models Eternity, Beholder and Instinct are all similar, but each is available in a different operator (U.S.) and has its own unique characteristics.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the orange and white box contains a charger, a small Quick Start Guide and a CD with interactive tutorial. The Samsung Eternity itself, shown in Figure 2, is also included.

The enclosed CD contains an interactive tutorial and a copy of user manual. The tutorial, except for a small error will be noted later, was quite enlightening.

The Eternity is the look of a smooth bar of chocolate. The phone is wrapped in a beautiful glossy black plastic and chrome metal that surrounds the phone gives it a solid appearance, resistant. Measuring 11 x 5.6 x 1.3 cm, The Eternity is slightly smaller than the iPhone. Weighing 110 grams, is lighter than the iPhone.

Although only a little smaller and lighter than many other instruments cell,the Eternity is a very good size. He seems much lighter in the pocket and fits comfortably in the hand well. The 3.2 inch screen, sensitive to the touch of Eternity has a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels and 262k colors. It is clear and sharp and, like many other phones of this type, the image on the screen will run automatically when rotated to landscape view.

The Eternity is built of light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the screen based on the amount of ambient light the screen can be viewed in light of all circumstances, even with direct sunlight. This automatic adjustment is an excellent resource. Actually, it works so well that you can not even be noticed, but adds much to the functionality of the phone.

The touch sensitive screen to respond quickly and effectively and deliver a tactile vibration to confirm that your command was received. Another feature legal.

As seen in Figure 3, there are three buttons below the touch-sensitive screen vertical. The Talk / Send (Talk / Send) allows you to make or answer a call and access your call history. Press and hold this key to access voicemail, not to add a new contact, as shown in the interactive tutorial. The Back button returns to the menu, screen or web page before.The Power / End ends a call, and also makes the phone back to the main menu. You can hold this key for three seconds to turn the phone off. You can also press it twice to get to the bottom of screen.

At the top of the phone there is a button to press, as seen in Figure 4.This key is used to lock and unlock the screen sensitive to touch. It is easier to use than the method of the iPhone (slip of the finger across the phone to unlock it) because you can unlock the phone without having to look at the screen. It is easier to press a button to put your finger on one spot on the screen when you're in a hurry.

The left side of the phone, as shown in Figure 5, has a button, to touch or voice volume during a call. When a call is coming, pressing this key mutes the ringtone, which is a useful feature. In Figure 5 you will also see the interface of the connector that allows connecting a charger or other accessories. The Samsung USA its proprietary port for this connection.

The other side of the phone has a dedicated key for the camera, which can take a photo quickly. The 3-megapixel camera has some good options, including photo sequence, scene, detection of smile, mosaic and painting.He also records videos. The options include a video camera adjustments and presets for white balance to daylight, incandescent light, fluorescent lighting and cloudy day. You can change the quality of photography and settings as brightness. The camera has a timer, but lacks a flash. The images are usable, but not exceptional.

Above the button is the camera button on the Quick Access, which opens a mini menu that controls some of the main functions of the phone, as shown in Figure 7. The options in the Quick Access menu are: Call, Player of Music, Main Menu, MediaNet (Internet), messages, and Back. After using the phone for some time, we really want to customize this menu, but it is not possible. There is a standard phone to exit on top of this side of the phone.

The quality of audio in the calls was excellent, but the audio input was sometimes slightly truncated. Unable to identify if this failure was caused by whoever was across the line by poor connectivity or the hardware itself.However, this happened only rarely. The sound quality of speakers was adequate. The Samsung says the phone offers 5 hours of conversation. We feel that this limit when using the Edge network (slower), but this time was reduced when using the 3G network (faster). The Eternity of battery capacity is higher than the Samsung Beholder, 1300 mAh vs 1000 mAh and the battery life was good. This was partly due, however, the fact the phone has no Wi-Fi connectivity, a feature that would like to see included.

As noted earlier, many of the features of the phone are controlled by physical buttons on the front, top and sides of phone. The main menu, as shown in Figure 9, is a banal screen with icons.

Beyond the Quick Access menu, this phone is the Samsung TouchWiz interface gives widgets that you can move the screen. The TouchWiz is accessed from the main screen the background of the phone. He is hidden until you place your finger on the small tab on the left side of the screen and drag it to the right. The screen TouchWiz is shown in Figure 10. You can drag any icon from the bar TouchWiz to the main screen. It is a great idea, but unfortunately there is not very useful in its current state. First, the icons are spread in small widgets when you drag to the main screen.Although this is a great idea, two or three widgets fill the entire screen, making it impossible to place all the widgets you would like the main screen.In addition, the icons in the bar TouchWiz not include many of those who would like to see and you can not customize or add widgets. Maybe in the future Samsung add more functionality and ability to customize the unit.

The Eternity has some features not found in many other phones. First, the keyboard type phone in vertical mode switches to a QWERTY keyboard when in landscape mode. Is also available to handwriting recognition. So if you're willing to spend some time to learn it, you can actually write the letters with your fingers. There is a screen with scores of buttons and a screen emoticoms. It is easy to disable the predictive text and also easy to switch to the menus in French and Spanish.

The Eternity is not really a smart phone (smart phone), strictly speaking, since it does not have an operating system like the iPhone or the G1 or theBlackberry. Instead, he says with the telephone operator cell. Furthermore, in many cases, you must pay additional fees for additional services by the operator.

The e-mail will only work in Eternity if you use some electronic mail services. The device has support services from AOL, AIM, Windows Live Hotmail, AT & T Yahoo!, Bell South, Comcast, EarthLink, Mindspring Juno and NetZero. While this list covers a large number of people, businesses and users who use other services like Gmail will not find this phone useful.

The Eternity is the usual address book, calendar, calculator, note pad, task list, alarm clock, world clock, stopwatch and currency converter. However, it does sync with Outlook. The Instant Messenger works well, but you are limited to services from AOL, MSN or Yahoo. The stereo Bluetooth has a profile that works very well. It also has a recorder, voice, but unfortunately does not have voice command.

Browse the Internet using the Eternity is a reasonable experience, but not all web pages are loaded properly. You can zoom in and out the image using the volume control, but it is not as easy as some other phones.

The main specifications of mobile Samsung SGH-A867 Eternity are:

• Network: GSM Quad-band with global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS dual-band American 3G (850/1900 MHz)
• Dimensions: 10.9 x 5.6 x 1.3 cm
• Weight: 110 grams
• Battery: Lithium-Ion of 1300 mAh
• Battery life: 5 hours of talktime, 10 days in standby mode (stand-by)
• Touchscreen: touch-sensitive screen of 240 x 400 pixels
• Camera: 3 megapixels, video
• Music player: MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV, RA
• Memory Slot: microSD / microSDHC
• Bluetooth: 2.0, Bluetooth stereo
• More information: http://www.samsung.com
• Price: In the U.S., will depend on the package contract with the operator of cellular telephony.

The Eternity has great looks, footprint and response. It has good call quality, a useful camera, a player for music and can even display television.So it is a good multimedia device, but without Wi-Fi support and e-mail only partial, will be incomplete for many.

Positive points:

• Visually attractive
• Excellent size and shape
• Sensitive to the touch screen (touchscreen) with clear and good answer
• Good player for music
• Good camera and camcorder
• Good battery life from
• Physical button to lock and unlock the phone
• Easy to unlock

Negative points:

• Has no call with voice recognition
• TouchWiz and menus are not customizable enough
• Support limited to email and instant messaging
• Does not have Wi-Fi
• The camera has no flash
• Many services require additional monthly fees
• The SD card is not easily removable