Samsung M880 - Key Entry and Google Map

Today's entry will be on usage experience for the M8800.

There are many available applications, but I will write on two features that are a bit different from most phones in the market, at the moment.

The first is on the text input experience in using M8800. Since this is a full touch screen device, its important to estimate the ease of use if you are purchasing the device.

It has several options for text input :

a) Alpha-numeric virtual keypads
b) QWERTY virtual keypads
c) Sectioned handwriting recognition (slower experience due to the recognition task)
d) Full screen handwriting recognition (slower experience due to the recognition task)

My personal experience, the first two options are very friendly and accurate and it provides easy usage for my messaging and browsing needs.

I have a video on the text entry experience as follow :

Text Entry



M8800 has an internal GPS function. With that function, the Google Map application is pre-installed. How does Google Map fare in comparison with Nokia Maps and Garmin XT?

Here is a snapshot of how the application works.

Google Map application



Note : The Google Map streams data off the internet. So, its best to be on the unlimited data rate plan or you will be served with an interesting bill amount in your monthly statement.

Google Map Navigation

Here are snapshots of my usage experience


I was at Ampang Point, and hence, started the route from there, to Ampang Jaya towards Jalan Dedap. At the touch of the End point, an address was requested.. I keyed in Jalan Dedap and the google search provided some suggestion. After selection the appropriate location, I hit the show directions button and ...


Details of the route was presented.


Navigational instruction pops up.

This is a snapshot of me meddling the roadmap of Kuala Lumpur.

Just as a show of the data usage, look at the blue rectangular ticker that appear on the top right corner. The map is streamed straight from the web (constantly).

A video capture of the Google map on mobile :



As show above, the application is VERY data intensive. It loads the map as you progress.

Interesting feature :

a) Map or satellite view option
b) Address or location search is online

Some things for further improvement :

a) The Map navigation will provide a specific route, if you move off the route, Google Map does not re-route you accordingly (unlike Garmin or Nokia Maps)
b) There is no voice navigation feature
c) Despite easy location to destination input, it still requires many input steps

Other notes :

a) With the internal GPS, this phone allows for Geo-tagging function
b) Location info tagged to the photo snaps

Apart from the above review, all other functions and applications are pretty much similar to most mid-range to high end phones.