January 11, 2005
Samsung P207
InfoSync World previews the Samsung P207 and writes - 'Outside of the speech to text capabilities, the P207 still has a few tricks up its sleeve. For one, it is one of the first Samsung phones to support EDGE high-speed data, such as that offered by Cingular here in the States, and works on the 850, 1800, and 1900Mhz GSM bands. Inside there is a 262k color TFT display that looked quite nice, and outside a good 65k TFT sub-display can also be found.'
Update - Mobile Tracker announces that the Samsung P207 is now shipping with Cingular
PC Mag reviews the Samsung SGH-p207 and has the following buying advice - 'The SGH-p207 doesn't quite win our hearts away from the Motorola V551: We believe Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and a standard headset jack outweigh the advantages of VoiceSignal's new dictation technology. But this is still an attractive, interesting phone, especially for its price.'
Jon at Mobile Tracker has a comprehensive review of the Samsung P207 where he recommends - 'In the end I enjoyed this handset, but would not purchase it for myself. Bluetooth is a dealbreaker for me, especially when there are features like a camera and MP3 ringtones. If there was an updated version made with Bluetooth, it would be a killer mid-tier phone. The display and design are the two selling points to the phone, with the speech-to-text stuff being a bonus.
If you're the type that buys a lot of accessories, the P207 might not be the phone for you. Since the P207 doesn't have a standard headset jack, you're going to have to get a headset built specially for it. But if you're after a stylish phone without paying a premium, the P207 might be your jam.'
Features of the Samsung P207:
- Speech-to-text technology that allows text messages and emails to be spoken.
- 176 x 220pixel 262K color display
- EDGE
- VGA camera with video
Matt from Gigacom writes a review of the Samsung P207 and reports - 'I’ve spent the last four days toying with the Samsung P207, and it has convinced me that soon I will never physically type another text message again. Otherwise an unremarkable EDGE-capable, $79 clamshell phone—the Samsung P207 comes bundled with some innovative voice recognition software that translates speech into text, promising to take the pain out of text messaging via mobile phones. Amazingly, the speech recognition technology works. Very well. Developed by VoiceSignal, a Massachusetts based startup, the P207’s software is easy to set up, and even easier to use. First I calibrated the phone to recognize my voice, and speech patterns. To do this, I spoke a series of 122 words and phrases into the receiver while holding down the camera button on outside of the phone—this button activates a “talk” feature, much like using a walkie-talkie. As instructed, I spoke slowly, leaving hard pauses between each word, giving the software time to recognize each word. The whole process took about three minutes, after which I was told the P207 could “recognize” my voice.'
SmartPhoneToday.com reviews the Samsung P207 and writes, " What's new is that it also lets you dictate text messages to send via the cellular operator's short message service (SMS). It translates your spoken words into text on the screen as you speak. This is a terrific boon if you're a heavy SMS user, and the speech-to-text technology - VoiceMode from VoiceSignal Technologies - works reasonably well, though far from perfectly. But for reasons we can't quite fathom, VoiceMode is only enabled on the p207 for text messaging. It's not available for composing e-mails or for entering data in the phone book or for anything else other than command and control. Since e-mails tend to be longer than text messages, it would have been at least as useful for mail as SMS."
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Posted by Darren at January 11, 2005 05:49 PM
