When Samsung’s lower league slider, the J600, crashed the prepay scene, it brought a much needed injection of style and guile to the affordable phone milieu. This skater stood out from the creak of its plastic workaday budget rivals with an attractive design and solid build.
Now, its successor - yes you guessed it - the J700, has to wow the style crowds all over again.
Instead of just tweaking the J600’s winning design formula, Samsung has decided to overhaul the J700’s look completely. OK, we’re not talking a radical makeover, but the new slider has clearly aped its gently curved torso from the five-megapixel toting G600 rather than its predecessor. Even so, we have to admit it’s still way swankier than other phones at this level.
The new look also means the J600’s front touch-sensitive soft and call keys have been binned and replaced with the familiar click of our mechanised friends. The keypad is also a tad plasticky but still sweet to thumb while the slider action has quality spring in its step. Samsung’s UI doesn’t throw up any operational curve balls either, so the J700 is a treat to handle and use.
Along with the design revamp we were also expecting some kind of feature hike but rather alarmingly, the J700 hasn’t moved on iota from the J600. This means you’ll have to make do with listless EDGE download speeds and a lacklustre 1.3 megapixel snapper, shorn of autofocus and flash. You do get a sprinkling of photos effects and white balance setting but nothing to elevate its picture quality above MMS and wallpapering duties.
Video is shot in a 176×144 pixel resolution straight from Planet Judder, so don’t expect your home movies to possess a Hollywood sheen. Similarly, the music player ignores standard artist, album and song sort options for an irritating playlist format. This grumble is exacerbated further when you realise it comes with some nifty music mods like a nine mode equaliser to bolster the audio and support for Stereo Bluetooth. Elsewhere, a built-in FM radio is also a welcome addition while all your multimedia valuables can lodge on a hotswappable microSD card.
Verdict
OK, so we have some feature quibbles but we’re pretty sure you find a classier looking handset for its bargain asking price.
Best features
Classy design
Spring assisted slider action
Quality build
Support for Stereo Bluetooth
Not so good
Average camera and video recording quality
Irritating playlist-based music player
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