Samsung’s dual-SIM phone - Take Two!

In the Philippines, most mobile phone users now carry two mobile phones because one TelCo decided to give unlimited call and text messaging services.

This gave users the freedom to chat more which they can’t do with their previous mobile carriers.

Last year, China produced a mobile phone that can carries two SIM cards. This seemed an advantage to locals since it eliminates the use of two mobile phone units. These "dual-SIM" capable phones became an instant trend in the Philippines.

But the durability of these dual-SIM phones became an issue.

Then Samsung came up with their own dual-SIM mobile phone. The first dual-SIM phone from Samsung was the D880 Duos, and now comes the D780.

Although a bit big in size, and a bit heavy, too, the D780 is slim that’s solid to the touch. This, in my opinion is a a plus since most China-made, dual-SIM phones are constructed with materials that are less durable than those made by branded phones.

The D780 has a 2.1-inch LCD and has a keypad that feels just right as you use it. Same goes for the navigation keypad and the selection keys. It has 2-Megapixel camera at the back of the phone while its dedicated camera button is located at the phone’s right side.

Below the camera button is the charger/handsfree port. On the left side is where the volume button, the SIM management button, and the microSD card slot. Look at the bottom side of the phone and you see the phone’s built-in speaker.

Behind the battery, you see two SIM card slots where you can use either one or both. Once your SIM cards are in, turning on the phone will prompt you to register or assign names for each SIM card so always take note which is which.

From here, the phone displays the active SIM cards at the bottom middle of the standby screen and you’’ll continue to see this unless there’s no signal for the carriers. Pressing down on the navigation keypad and the contact list will be displayed.

On this menu, you’ll see that a contact is stored on SIM 1 or SIM 2 as indicated on the bottom portion of the screen. Try to dial a few numbers and what the phone does is it displays the contacts that contain them.

Apart from capable of carrying two SIM cards, the D780 has a lot more to offer. It has a 2-Megapixel camera, with 1600x1200 resolution that can take photos and videos. It can play MP3 audio files as well as a built-in FM radio.

Not to miss out is the phone’s simple organizer that has a calendar where you can appointments, dates, anniversaries, etc. There’s also the document viewer which is quite handy in case you need to view document files such as Excel or Word. And the addittion of a PDF viewer makes the D780 more versatile.

I almost forgot about the voice recorder which is a good alternative for taking down notes.

In case you want to be entertained (if the music player and the camera were not enough), you can play the several pre-installed games.

The one thing that bothers me with this phone is when you are changing the primary SIM. Although you don’t have to take out the battery and switch the two SIM cards (all you have to do is press the SIM management button), the phone will restart automatically.

There are some China-made phones that may outshine the D780 in its dual SIM feature (plus some). But to also consider durability and style, my vote would go to Samsung. The Duos D780 is not an entirely new breakthrough in the mobile phone world but it definitely gets the job done.