SlashGear

As the high-end multimedia and smartphone market hots up, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there exists a whole range of consumer-range handsets for those who don’t want or need touchscreens, DVD-quality video recording and push-email. And looking at the budget options now, it’s interesting to see how many of the advanced features that not long ago appeared only on the spec-sheets of top-tier handsets have now filtered down through the ranges. Last year, Sprint bust open access to its Power Vision EV-DO network to casual users with the Samsung M500 – a cellphone whose middling ambition was only slightly eclipsed by its blandness – and now they’re back to readdress the field with its successor, the imaginatively named M510.

First impressions are good, with the handset having grown a little in width (it’s now 2-inches wide, as opposed to the 1.8 of the M500) but made up for it in losing weight and thickness (down from 2.7oz and 0.7-inches to 2.93oz and 0.64-inches). It feels more comfortable in the hand, too, thanks to the curvier shape. Available in both the black we played with and a hot pink option that’s bound to appeal to lovers of neon-pigs, the front is notable mainly for the 0.76-inch square CSTN display that shows the usual range of signal strength, battery status, time and caller ID.

Inside, as well as a swoopy new keypad and blue colour accents, there’s a 2.1-inch TFT screen with 176 x 220 resolution. It’s decent enough for the price-point Sprint are aiming at, relatively bright and clear, and does well showing the Sprint TV service. Under the hood there’s a 1.3-megapixel camera, MicroSD card slot for saving pictures and video as well as storing music, speaker-independent voice control and, interestingly, GPS.

The M510 is being positioned as a multimedia handset, and Sprint is pushing the Power Vision network as ideal for downloading music from their own mobile store without needing access to a PC. Once you’ve got the tracks you can enjoy them via supplied wired headphones or, if you have them, cordless Bluetooth cans since the M510 supports the A2DP stereo profile. There’s even audio caller ID which interrupts your music to tell you if you have a call and who it is, which is ideal if the phone is in your bag or pocket. Sprint TV has a growing choice of 50 channels, including some live TV options, and although the experience isn’t as great as on handsets with larger screens, it’s still enough to entertain you on the bus.

As for the camera, it seems little changed from the M500; that means reasonable images, with decent colour-balance marred by some focussing issues and a dislike of bright lights. PictBridge support is still there, and will work either by USB cable or Bluetooth, or you can send pictures and video via MMS. Talking of messaging, there’s still no IM client so you’re stuck with SMS for casual chat.

Samsung have obviously been keeping abreast of online fashions, since what might have once been known as a voice recorder is now labelled “podcast recording”; the M510 is also proud of its ability to playback podcasts, though since they’re little more than lengthy (and often dull) mp3s I’m not so sure where the ego comes from. Editing features are notable by their absence, so if you’re looking for a mobile audio interview suite that can instantly upload to your blog, you might want to look elsewhere.

Battery life is fair, with the LiIon pack rated for up to 3.2 hours and our initial experiences indicating you’ll probably get near that with reasonable use.

Buyers of the M510 would seem to fall into two main categories: those who want a media phone with access to Sprint’s online catalogue (and who will need to have pretty deep pockets to keep buying tracks) and canny business types who want a simple phone they can tether to their laptop for EV-DO on the move. Neither will be disappointed by their choice.

For more details on the M510, check out Sprint’s website. For our full M510 gallery, click here.

You can read a review of the Sprint M300, also launched today, over at our sister-site SlashPhone.