But I bet you can't set a custom message alert tone.

My lad bleats about having an 8M Pixel camera in his phone, yet he only ever looks at the images (as do probably 99% of people using a camera phone) on the phone's own display which is what? 77k pixel, or a similar resolution on line image.

Come on; VGA resolution would be an overkill.

Even then, what about the tiny bit of glass bead laughingly called a lens on most camera phones. Compare that to the lens of even a half decent budget camera.

As far as I can see, I get better results out of my old FX2800. Even when set to 1M Pixel esolution.

Someone, somewhere, is being taken for a ride.

This looks pretty damn good. This will be my new phone for christmas!

I think the Sony Ericsson C905 is a better phone but there are cheaper deals for the i8510 already and I am not sure which to go for...

I am also tempted to get the n96 - decisions, decisions.

BTW best deals for the i8510 I have found are here:

http://www.mobilechecker.com/compare_mobile_phone_prices.asp?phone=i8510

Can get the phone free, 600 anyitme mins and 500 texts per month with 5 months half price line rental.

Not sure if the fact this is a clearence deal means these phones aren't any good and people are returning them?

Does the camera still take forever to take a picture? When playing with a friend's Samsung, I couldn't believe how long the camera takes to start up, compared with my (ancient) SE K750i. The SE's camera is ready pretty much instantly on flipping open the lens cover, and there's no noticeable shutter lag. The Samsung, by contrast, took about ten seconds in total, effectively making the camera entirely useless. Is this fixed on this model?

This phone is S60, you can practically do what the hell you want with it custom-wise

"clearance" are returned handsets, either people didn't like them, or they were faulty, now fixed. Should be ok, just cant be sold as "new".

I would choose the C905 though, Similar prices, and i think much better.

well if you want 'proffesional' pictures, why are you even looking here???

these are mostly for family and play pics - and even then most compact cameras ahave a very similar lens!!!

what about all the OTHER features??

< insert obligatory pro/anti J-phone comment here>

how can the C905 be better than this phone? The i8510 is an S60 smartphone, not a crappy "dumb phone". Try running console emulators or making skype calls on the C905!

Paris, because even she knows S60 rules

why does it get 5% less points than the N95? what is is missing?

...having all those apps is great but integration is vital (that's where the LG Viewty fell down). It would be really good if three basic synchronisation tests were done 1) Windows 2) Mac and 3) Linux, yes for those pioneers out there will netbooks (Ubuntu would be a good base case).

How about it?

The N95 was ahead of its time. Hell, if you consider its feature it is still a pretty damn good phone. The Samsung i8510 improves over it.

why do people get so excited about a device that is designed to make calls and spends most of its time in your pocket irradiating your nuts?

I'm fairly certain that the c905 is a better phone. Most people dont use their mobile for making skype calls or for playing old console games. So for usual use, the c905 is better, as far as i am concerned. Most people will use their phone for making calls, sending texts, taking pics/vids, and for sometimes playing games. C905 will do all those things, very well, in the most simple way.

Of course the magic of S60 will definitely win over the "nerds", and i can totally understand why. If i wanted s60 though, i'd go for the Nokia N95-2 (black 8gb model).

I guess it just depends what you are looking for.

BTW i mean "nerds" as a totally endearing term.

My wife is always getting me to load her pics from her N95 (2mp camera) onto the PC for further viewing / editing / etc, and I know many other people who do the same (personally I don't bother with my pics because the camera on my phone is rubbish).

Never mind, it's easy to get it wrong when you base your opinion on a sample of only 2 people.

That is not quite so. If the underlying VOIP libraries have been deliberately vandalized like on the N78 there is bugger all you can do about it. While at it, this is what is missing from this review. Based on the OS and hardware spec this thing should be VOIP capable, however there is not a single word in the review on VOIP.

Does anyone know?

Wake me up when Olympus, Panasonic or whoever produce a 10mp, 18x optical zoom "bridge" camera, with a built in phone / gps / etc.

That'll be different and just as silly.

Page 2: plus Fring's VoIP and IM application</quote>

Granted, it doesn't say it *works*, but I think you can probably assume that ;)

Anton asked why there wasn't a single word on VOIP in the review ...

the review says

"There’s ... Fring's VoIP and IM application. "

Nuff said?

@Fluffykins

The display on the back of my Canon 400D is 2.5" and 230k pixels and I use it all the time for viewing pictures ... I then download the images onto the computer for further processing. I do the same with my cameraphones, and like on the D-SLR, I use the zoom function on the higher resolution pictures to see how sharp they are, to read text in an image etc.

Having said that, I'm happy with my E71 :-)

Not sure if generic sip voip calls are possible, I haven't tried that yet with my i8510. I do use Fring though which allows you to use Skype. I used truphone sip on my N95 but I belive they offer a standalone program which lets you to make voip calls from the actual program rather than from the shell of the phones o/s

maybe you should look at a dedicated phone review site???

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8510_innov8-2471.php

Well, OK, I'll wait to be corrected. Every other Samsung phone I've owned, as well as the iPhone, doesn't let you set a custom message alert... and I mean doing it out of the box, not having to jailbreak it or the equivalent, whereas Nokia and Sony Ericsson (in my experience) have allowed it for as many phones as I've had from them...

£465 PLUS a contract for the 8gb version??? And people bleated on about the cost of the iPhone!!

Can't see Sony or Apple looking very worried with it selling at that price.