Samsung Solid Immerse - Review

“If you’re willing to up the budget, there are durable smartphones that offer more substance as well as just bulk”

A fairly neat design overall

In the age of the smartphone, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to touchscreens littered with more apps than you can shake a stick at. But for those who want a device that can take life’s knocks and weather the elements, most smartphones have little to offer by way of robust qualities.

With this in mind, Samsung have created the Solid Immerse - the latest in a line of “ruggedised” handsets which promise to withstand damage better than most. Just like its sibling the Samsung Solid Extreme, this phone is unmistakably aimed at adventurous outdoor types.

It’s sturdy to say the least, but for quite a large handset - it’s longer but less wide than the iPhone 4S – it isn’t too heavy, weighing in at almost 25g less than the latest iPhone. And for an affordable phone with heaps of protective padding, it doesn’t feel excessively plastic.

Sadly, where the Solid Immerse falls down is on features. It boasts a handful of neat little touches but much of what we nowadays expect as standard - camera, web browser and music player - are all a little underwhelming in one way or another.

Whether the phone is right for you depends on what you use it for. If you’re looking for something robust with which to make calls and send texts, it’s a good buy at less than £90 sim-free. But if you’re willing to up the budget, there are durable smartphones that offer more substance as well as just bulk.

Galaxy S2(black) £0.00

100 min Unlimited texts

£18.50

Ready for adventure

Practicality and ruggedness

The Samsung Solid Immerse comes complete with scratch and shock protection, and keeps itself clean and dry thanks to dust and water resistance. Everything about it has been designed with the adventurer in mind.

From its large, convex buttons - comfortable and responsive even with gloved hands - to the almost impenetrable battery cover - you need a pointed metal implement to open it - the Solid Immerse is built to survive mountains and waterfalls, taking bumps and scrapes in its stride.

But beyond its sturdy outer casing, the Solid Immerse has relatively little to offer adventurers in terms of software. A pedometer and compass - which is hard to trust without a flat surface, so not ideal if you’re dangling off a mountainside - seem like afterthoughts. One very handy addition, however, is the torch button to the right of the screen, which can be used even when the phone is locked.

Hard to bruise, easy to use

Probably the best thing about the Solid Immerse is its simple, no-nonsense layout, with menus familiar to any Samsung owner past or present that has used the mobile manufacturers own SHP operating system before.

There are tons of ways the home screen can be personalised, but there’s never any need to get bogged down with settings if you’d rather just switch on and go.

Sending texts is made easy with a predictive dictionary that’s pretty good at its job, while voice calls are by and large very clear in terms of sound quality. In fact, it’s hard to find fault with the core phone functions of the Solid Immerse.

And the battery life is impressive – the review model lasted a full weekend with heavy use of the camera and web browser. It may not suffice if you’re camping in the outback for weeks on end, but it certainly puts the smartphones to shame.

For the less tech-savvy among us, it could be the ideal purchase - it’s simple to use and with that kind of body armour would probably outlive its owner. But for anyone looking to do more with their mobile, the end result is likely to be frustration.

Lacking in depth

Camera is only 2 megapixels

The 2” main display, while perfectly adequate for thumbing through menus and writing messages, the screen size can cause problems when browsing the web, for example. Even the most agile of tools, like Google Maps, are difficult to use.

The Solid Immerse’s camera is also a bit hit and miss. Sure, it’s a low-cost handset, but the outdoor types it’s aimed at would probably appreciate more than two megapixels to play with. Breathtaking views could be reduced to a grainy snap unfit for the photo album.

Having said that, it’s very user-friendly and there are some nice after-effects to play around with. So for casual camera users, what’s there is no doubt enough.

The camcorder is similarly down to earth, though one cool feature allows you to pause while recording to resume filming from a different angle - so you get that “edited” finish without sweating it out in the cutting room.

Strength and weaknesses

The Samsung Solid Immerse is an excellent specimen of mobile technology in terms of durability. A robust design and no-frills interface make it ideal for an affordable substitute when you don’t want your iPhone to get wet or fall down a ravine.

However, for those looking to take high-quality photos or make regular use of the internet, the Solid Immerse has its flaws.

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