Sometimes a phone simply is a phone. Yes there are the S700s of this world that will attempt to make you replace your camera and PDA for one all-encompassing, all-empowering handsets and then there are units that simply just want to be a phone. The X450 is one of the latter category of mobiles. Small, compact, and basic, it's easy to see that Samsung is going for mass numbers here rather than mass features.

Our quick take

Surprisingly one of the best-kept features of this phone is the crisp screen. It's not 256k like the multimedia monster that is the GX30, but it is needless to say more than most other phones in this bracket, and it's a nice thing to be greeted with when opening the clamshell. The menu system is fairly intuitive and the keypad offers a host of options via the programmable D-pad to gain access to text messages, calendar and so on. With so many phones arriving in the pocket-lint offices recently this is a breath of fresh air, it might not have all the swings and bells on it, but then it admits that from the start. A nice entry-level phone for those who just want to make calls god forbid- so the X450's a handset which will probably more popular among parents than the teens everyone is obsessed with targeting.

Samsung X450 - 4.0 / 5

FORAGAINST
  • Small
  • 40 polyphonic ringtones
  • 65k screen
  • Lack of features
  • no Bluetooth
  • no camera
  • poor on multimedia front

The clamshell-styled unit is very small and had it not been for a rather long pointy aerial, a very compact package indeed. Aerial aside, the unit fits amply into a pack of playing cards. But of course there are drawbacks to an inexpensive and condense model.

For clamshell fans used to a second LCD display a quick glance will tell you that the black oval on the front carrying the logo is nothing more than a design feature. Likewise multimedia fans will soon realise that there is no digital camera present, music fans will notice that there is no radio or MP3, and headset and data users no Bluetooth capabilities either. So what does the phone offer apart from the ability to make calls (now there's an idea)?

Tri-band for starters meaning you can roam most of the earth making calls and with Samsung suggesting a 250 hour standby time (that's almost 11 days) and a talk time of two and a half hours you can suddenly see why some people might start enjoying the idea of no features to play with or, more importantly, drain the battery with.

No manufacturer in today's “extra this, extra that” market is going to release a phone that is just a phone and to combat the uprising that might occur Samsung has loaded the phone with a 40-chord polyphonic ring making the that all important ring sound pretty nice.

To recap

This phone sets out what it planned to do, however if you’re looking for a multimedia rich experience then you weren’t the target.