Fridae

OK Samsung, we give up. What the hell does Preston mean? We've Googled it, we Binged it, we hunted around on urban dictionary. At one point we thought it was the name of the cousin in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, but that guy's name turned out to be Carlton--a similarly preppy schoolboy name. So we throw in the towel, Samsung, you've beaten us this time. 

We don't mean to be too critical of the low-end features in the Preston and it's important to remember that this phone is about half the price of most of the touchscreens available at this time. The Preston is an entry-level phone, and the touchscreen is the feature that you get for your money. If you're new to phones without keypads then the Preston could be a nice, cheap way of testing whether or not it is for you. Needless to say, if you don't find what you need here the other phones in the Icon range might be better tailored to your usage patterns. 

In terms of hardware, the Preston packs a 2-megapixel camera with flash which we quite like. The dip in resolution over Samsung's 5- and 8-megapixel range is noticeable, but the pictures we've taken have been fine for reminiscing after a night out with friends, or posting the evidence on Facebook. 

Web browsing is decent with HSDPA (up to 7.2Mbps) and the screen does a good job of presenting the pages you'll visit. It's also quite a fast browser too, similar to the ones you'll find on today's best Web-phones, like Google's Android phones. However, if you surf the web a lot you might find the 2.8-inch screen a little small for prolonged sessions online. 

On the software side, the preinstalled suite of apps is pretty basic, with the exception of a few excellent touchscreen games. The Preston is capable of installing Java apps, though there is no app store to search, so you're left to your own devices in hunting down new tools. Multimedia playback lacks the full range of file format recognition you find in the i8910 HD and Omnias--there's no DivX or XviD--only MP4, H.264 and WMV video file recognition, and MP3, AAC and WMV audio. 

Samsung has included a few nifty gadgets though: There's the Fake Call tool we saw on the Samsung Ultra Touch; and there's Smart Unlock, a new function on the Preston. When you activate Smart Unlock you have the option to associate a letter of the alphabet to a small range of common tasks, like calling, contacts and the browser. Then, when the phone is locked, you can draw this letter on the screen to unlock the phone and take you straight to this function. It's a really nice idea, though the fact that you can assign letters to only about six apps weakens its usefulness.