Samsung Memoir T929

The design of the Samsung Memoir certainly walks a very thin line between camera and phone. The ergonomics are uncanny the shutter button and zoom controls are on the top, the camera lens and flash are positioned in a way so that your fingers are unlikely to block them, and the touch screen interface acts as a giant view finder all like a regular camera. That small area where you would wrap your right hand fingers when taking a photo?

It's clad in faux leather separate from the rest of the phone, presumably for better grip. If it were not for the telltale call keys and the T-Mobile branding, we would've thought the Samsung Memoir was a camera and not a phone. Is it a camera or a phone? The Samsung Memoir mimics a camera very well. Be it camera or phone (or both), the Memoir is one svelte, elegant device.

Measuring 4.2 inches long by 2.1 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, the Memoir is clad in black with silver on the sides, and it's one of the slimmest high end camera phones we've seen.

Dominating its entire front surface is a 262.000 colors 2.6 inch touch screen display that looks simply stunning. The display is vibrant with vivid colors and sharp looking graphics.

You can adjust the backlight time and brightness, and you can personalize the display with wallpaper and a greeting message.

While you can adjust the font type, you can't change the font size. Like other Samsung touch screen handsets, the Memoir has haptic feedback, meaning the phone vibrates to let you know your touch has registered. You can adjust the intensity of the vibrations if you want. The touch interface is pretty responsive and intuitive, but it did take us a little while to get used to the sensitivity of the screen, even after calibration. We would occasionally launch a program when all we wanted to do was scroll through the menu. We imagine this is something you learn to adapt to with time, but newcomers to touch screen handsets might find it frustrating.

Also, the Memoir has an internal accelerometer that automatically changes the display's orientation from portrait to landscape mode when you hold the phone horizontally. This only happens with certain applications like the Web browser and the messaging interface, and it only rotates clockwise by 90 degrees.

On the default standby page, you'll find four icons at the bottom row of the display. They represent the phone dialer, the phone book, the Web browser, and the main menu. The phone dialer has a virtual keypad with large alphanumeric keys, plus there are also shortcuts for the call log, voice mail, the messaging menu, and the phone book.