Samsung P510

Samsung are sponsoring Chelsea football club this season, having shelled out around £50 million pounds in order to have their brand displayed on the team’s shirts. We think that the money could have been better spent on the internals of Samsung’s phones as although this, the P510 is well built and has several cool features, it’s pretty poor when it comes to playing games (which incidentally isn’t how you’d describe Chelsea FC).

If you want a reliable clamshell phone that’s not going to break the bank then the P510 will serve you well. With a small screen mounted in the back of the lid you can see what the time is, view your remaining battery life, check the network signal strength or see if you’ve got any messages waiting for you. Other external features are an infra-red port, a volume switch and a mysterious button… That, when pressed, opens the phone for you! It’s all very Star Trek – you press the button and the lid smoothly opens by itself, enabling you to speak, dial a number or take a picture with the built-in VGA digital camera. How long this feature will last before it breaks is uncertain – we disabled it on our model as it does drain the batteries faster – but it’s a great way to impress people.

Something that the gaming capabilities won’t do. Despite boasting a decent screen that’s bright and vibrant, the P510 is extremely limited in what it’ll play. That means you’re largely relegated to puzzle games where there’s not much happening on the screen. Play anything that’s even mildly lively and the action will slow down to a crawl, making pinball games and the like largely unplayable. Which is a crying shame as in all other respects, the P510 is a stunning little handset. The batteries last a fair old while (you even get a slightly more chunky extended battery thrown in), it’s comfortable to use and it’s not too big and heavy. A shame indeed.