Samsung Solid Immerse review

A tough, no nonsense candybar phone for clumsy people - but short on features

The definitive Samsung Solid Immerse review
The definitive Samsung Solid Immerse review

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Samsung Solid Immerse review: Media

The music player is very basic. Album art seemed to be a problem, with the handset refusing to pick any up from our microSD card. You can also use the 15MB of internal memory for music storage.

Samsung solid immerse

You've got playback controls on the centre pad buttons, as well as shuffle, repeat and playlists.

Among the very small number of tweaks available is an auto off setting, which can be configured to 30 minutes, an hour or two hours, so you could go to sleep to music and not fear waking up to a flat battery. There is also an equaliser with a fair number of settings.

The built-in speaker delivers a fairly tinny rendering of tunes, but volume goes quite high and certainly high enough to annoy anyone on the same bus as you.

The headphones, though, are a disaster. They share the same side-mounted microUSB slot as the mains power adaptor and PC connection cable, and they are flat in-ear buds. This style is notorious for not staying firmly in all ears, and because of the microUSB connector, it is tricky to swap them for a better set.

Samsung solid immerse

As a slight salvation there is an FM radio, which will auto tune stations into 30 preset slots. You can set up reminders for particular programmes, which is a nice touch, but other than that the radio is a standard offering.

Maps and apps

Samsung solid immerse

Built-in GPS can be used in conjunction with a Java version of Google Maps, but it is a far less sprightly experience than using it on a smartphone, and Google Maps itself is buried away in the Apps folder on the Main menu.

The remainder of the apps on board is rather close to what you'd expect from a candybar handset from yesteryear. So, for example, there's a voice recorder, timer and stopwatch. Plus there's an image editor, which can be used to warp, blur and otherwise automatically change any photos you may have taken. It's fun, but given the quality of photos the handset shoots, not good for a great deal.

Samsung solid immerse

For outdoorsy types there's also a pedometer and a compass, the latter of which we discuss in the Battery life and connectivity section.