Samsung Emporio Armani Night Effect Review (M7500)

Less expensive than the Motorola Aura, but still not cheap, Samsung’s fashionable offering is a little bit more mainstream and fits in with the market attracted by Giorgio Armani’s ‘youthful’ brand.

Called the ‘Night Effect’, the phone is a candy bar that is lightweight and built with a soft-touch plastic back, with large Armani logo, and a brushed-metal front with flush fitting keys.

On the edging is where the phone gets its name; a clear stripe that lights up in a range of colours (blue, red or green). Now is that tacky or stylish? Well, you must decide right now because it’s probably going to be the sole reason you choose this phone, or avoid it like the plague. If you're not sure for now, you can turn the external lighting off, or turn down the brightness for those occasions where lighting up like a Christmas tree isn’t welcomed. The lights also turn off automatically in silent mode, which possibly demonstrates just how ‘loud’ the lighting is.

Nocturnal activities

As a phone, the ‘Night Effect’ (or M7500 as it’s also known) is, lights and logo excluded, inoffensive and with a pretty decent specification. The 3G handset has a front facing video calling camera, a 3-megapixel camera on the rear (but no flash) and dedicated music control buttons (play/pause, forward and rewind) on the side.

For any candybar phone a keylock is a necessity, but it kicks in far too quickly here. You must then hold down the * key for a couple of seconds to unlock, proving patience is a virtue. I’m sure you’ll quickly become frustrated by the amount of times you need to unlock the phone. Turn off the auto-lock feature, though, and you’ll run the risk of forgetting to lock it and start phoning people in your pocket.

Using the phone is very straightforward and the D-pad is easy to use and responsive. It’s almost impossible to press something by mistake – even if you select an option in the menu and press back before selecting save, you’re reminded to save automatically instead of losing the changes. The choice of themes isn’t particularly awe inspiring (in fact, they’re merely the same theme in different colours to match the outer lighting), but the real disappointment comes from the wallpaper image. It’s easily changed on the standby screen, but the menus will always remain dull looking.

The standby screen has a row of shortcut icons, not too dissimilar to a Nokia handset, and no less than two on-screen clocks! When you start the media player, you can also view the track you’re listening to on the standby screen and select on-screen icons instead of using the side buttons. The phone has a headphone jack, which is good because the internal speaker is nothing short of shocking. The camera isn’t bad, although there’s no autofocus and fairly limited settings beyond white balance and picture resolution. Although my test photos averaged around 800KB, there was still a noticeably blurred look.

Decent performer

All in all, the phone is easy to use and the battery holds up very well too. It has 3G support, a web browser and email. There’s also an FM radio and media player, 1GB memory card, Emporio Armani branded wrist strap,plus in-ear headphones for the headphone socket (or a separate adapter with integrated mic that goes in the micro-USB socket). So you are getting something more than a bit of bling for the near-£300 you'll be paying SIM-free for the phone.

It's a real shame that Samsung didn't do more with the themes on the M7500, but if you want a decent enough phone with some fashionable branding, the Night Effect is quite stylish.

VERDICT

Front on, the Emporio Armani Night Effect looks quite conservative, but that would never do for Giorgio Armani's youthful fashion label. A quick turn to the side shows you what the phone is all about, with in-yer-face lighting in three bright colours; red, green and blue. If you're not put off by this, you may well have found your dream phone here – and the good news is that it's very easy to use and packed with a decent set of features. Good camera, good media playback, music control buttons, headphone socket, 3G and a 1GB memory card thrown in the box. The battery is good too, so if you fit the demographic then you'll probably love this number.

RATINGS (OUT OF 5)

PERFORMANCE: 4
FEATURES: 4
USABILITY: 5
OVERALL: 4