The Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani is the third fashion cell phone made by the Korean manufacturer. Supposedly, it is designed by Giorgio Armani himself. True or not, at least the smartphone bears the fashion designer’s name in big letters on the front. With the Fashion Weeks in Milan, Berlin and Paris in mind, I have been taking a closer look at the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani. My conclusion: This is definitely not a phone for a bag of bones on the catwalk, but rather for a techie or a show-off who likes to spend his or her money before it burns holes in his pocket. With purchase prices beginning at 580 bucks without contract at German web stores, the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani is almost as expensive as the Apple iPhone 3G S – with AMOLED touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, UMTS/HSPA, WiFi and 8 GB internal memory which can be expanded by further 32 GB with microSD memory cards it is even more powerful than the iPhone.

Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani, Pictures: Phone Guide Germany

Actually, there seems to be no smartphone feature that the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani does not support: It allows for fast mobile data transfers thanks to GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSPA with up to 7.2 mbps (download) and up to 5.76 mbps (upload) and for free internet access at hotspots at home or on the way thanks to integrated WiFi (b/g). It is well-crafted and features a great low power consumption 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels which does not only show patterns of cloth as wallpaper but also other content sharply, contrasty and in bright and strong colors. The touchscreen can be tipped up so that looking at it is more convenient. The Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani has a great physical QWERTZ keyboard which constitutes a good compromise between compactness and user handiness. It runs on the current Windows Mobile version with many more applications that can be downloaded from the Windows Marketplace of from other download portals and on which Samsung has put its own TouchWiz 2.0 user interface with different homescreens and widgets. And battery life is quite impressive.

The 5-megapixel camera features an autofocus, a LED flash, an image stabilization, a face and smile detection as well as geotagging. The camera shoots good quality pictures at daylight and video clips at VGA resolution at 30 frames per second. For editing images and videos on the handset, the Samsung Armani phone offers an onboard editor. The media player supports video file formats such as MPEG4, H263, H264, DivX and XviD as well as audio file formats such as MP3, WMA and AAC. There is also an FM radio with RDS and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo support. Sound quality is quite good with little background noise. The Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani features 8 GB internal memory which can be expanded by 32 GB with microSD memory cards.

The touchscreen is big enough for web browsing and GPS navigation and due to the integrated accelerometer content is automatically shown either in portrait or in landscape mode. The Samsung smartphone is suited for mobile data transmissions with DSL-like speeds of up to 7.2 mpbs. In addition to the web browser Internet Explorer the Opera Mobile 9.5 is pre-installed on the smartphone. For writing messages or emails the user can choose between the physical or a virtual QWERTZ keyboard. Since the Armani phone is equipped with Office software, users can read and edit Word, Excel and Powerpoint files on the way.

So, what could Samsung and Giorgio Armani have done better? As all Windows Mobile smartphones the Samsung B7620 is very slow when booting, it might also take some time to start certain applications, and the resistive type touchscreen is recalcitrant at times.

In the end, there are two reasons for you to spend a small fortune for the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani: You want to get a smartphone that sports a broad range of up-to-date features or one that bears the fashion designer’s brand in big letters on the front side. And besides: With 164 grams, the Samsung Armani smartphone is much to heavy for models being all skin and bones anyway.

Specifications of the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani:
Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.5 with TouchWiz 2.0 user interface
Processor: 800 MHz with 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM
GSM Networks: 850, 900, 1,800, 1,900 MHz
Data Transfer: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 7.2 mbps, HSUPA 5.76 mbps, WiFi (b/g)
Connectivity: Bluetooth, Micro-USB
Screen: 3.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen with 480 x 800 pixels resolution and 65,536 colors
Keyboard: real QWERTZ
Camera: 2,560 x 1,920 pixels resolution
Other: Media Player, A-GPS, TV-Out
Storage: 8 GB + 32 GB microSD
Size: 118 x 57 x 16 mm
Weight: 164 g
Speaking Time: 11.5 hrs (GSM) or 6.5 hrs (3G)

This video has been shot with the camera of the Samsung B7620 Giorgio Armani: