The Samsung Innov8 i8510, a hefty and feature-packed slider available unlocked in the U.S., is superlative in more ways than one. Its 8-megapixel camera trumps our reigning favorite, the Motorola Motozine ZN5. And with an average unlocked price of $600, it’s also one of the most expensive multimedia phones you can find. It’s sleek and well-spec’d, but the lack of 3G data support in the U.S. might be a deal breaker for some.
Design
The price for packing an 8-megapixel sensor into a phone is that it’s large and heavy for a phone. At 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches and 3.2 ounces, the i8510 could pass for a dedicated camera in a blind test. It certainly dwarfs the ZN5, which is 0.5 inches thick at its thinnest point. The sturdy sliding action reminds us of the Motorola Z9, another slider that stands out for its long, heavy form. Like the Z9, it also has a flat keypad, only with raised metal lines separating the rows instead of metal nubs beneath each key. They keys themselves glow white when the phone is turned on.
The front face of the i8510 has a bright 2.8-inch screen. Beneath it is a five-way, square-shaped navigational pad, flanked by twin soft keys, Answer and End keys, and two dedicated buttons for accessing the menu and media. Tapping the button in the middle of the navigational pad lets you scroll quickly through lists.
The back of the phone has a matte black finish, and the lens protrudes slightly at the top. A small flash is in the upper left corner, and a small red logo in the upper right corner showing that the camera has an 8-MP sensor. This logo, and the fact that the back side is otherwise empty, makes the phone actually look like a point-and-shoot camera whose sliding lens cover is closed.
On the left side of the i8510 is a 3.5mm headphone jack, twin volume keys, and a mini-USB port. The right side houses a microSD Card slot, camera-launch button, and a three-way toggle for selecting playback, movie, or photo mode.
Interface
The i8510 runs on Symbian, a colorful (with three themes) and easy-to-navigate OS. When you turn on the phone you’ll see a thin column of icons on the left, with associated options listed to the right. Navigating these options is intuitive; just highlight a category on the left, then press the right side of the navigational pad to enter the menu.
We like that these options—shortcuts, calendar, music player, FM radio, and personalization—are so accessible. But having a clean desktop would be a nice option, were it possible to personalize the phone by cleaning up the welcome screen.
Turning off the phone requires holding down the end button, after which you have to select Switch Off from an on-screen menu that appears, an extra step that seemed a nuisance.
