Phone rating: 
In a nutshell: The Samsung Giorgio Armani phone is a truly compact touchscreen phone. It doesn't have the ease-of-use of Apple's iPhone nor the high-end features of the LG Viewty touchphone, but it looks amazing. If you can get used to the touchscreen interface, you'll find that it's a beautiful phone that can also take photos, record video clips and play music.
Best buy: *Free* with half-price line rental from Dialaphone.
We loved last year's LG Prada, so we were really looking forward to reviewing the Samsung Giorgio Armani. Samsung plus Armani is such a fantastic combination, that success is guaranteed, right? Well not necessarily, because a lot has changed since the Prada phone of 2007 - the Armani now has to complete with the iPhone and the LG Viewty. Let's put the phone through its paces and see how it shapes up to the competition.
The first thing to say is that if you love Armani, then stop reading now and just go and buy the phone. It's a beautiful phone, and you can call and text with it, OK? Seriously though, it's a stunning phone to look at. It's really tiny and weighs hardly anything, at just 85g (the iPhone weighs 135g!). It's the smallest and thinnest of all the touchscreen-driven phones currently on the market. The finish is much nicer than our photo here conveys - it's finished in a combination of aluminium and stainless steel. It also comes with a specially-designed leather pouch to protect it from scratches. Apart from the send and end keys located beneath the screen, the Armani is entirely touchscreen controlled, and this is the secret to its good looks and also the cause of most problems.
The device is smaller than other touchscreen phones available, and that means that the screen is smaller too (2.6" compared with the iPhone's 3.5"). It also has a lower resolution. Inevitably this makes the touchscreen interface harder to use, although Samsung have done their best with the award-winning Croix user interface which uses touch and audio feedback and specially-designed graphics and icons. The bottom line is that it isn't as easy to use as an iPhone or a Viewty, especially for texting.
Just like the iPhone and the Prada phone, the Armani phone isn't at the cutting edge feature-wise, but it does everything that most people will want. It takes reasonably good photos with a 3 megapixel camera (with zoom & flash), records video clips and plays music. The internal memory of 60 Mbytes is enough for around 15 music tracks, but you can easily expand this with a memory card. Battery life isn't great, but it's acceptable at around 2-3 days of normal use. The phone supports Bluetooth, including Bluetooth wireless headphones. You can also browse the web and send emails, if you really must.
Technically, the Armani can't compete with the daddy of touchscreen phones - the 3G LG Viewty - nor does it have the ease of use of the Apple iPhone. What it does have is the Armani brand, to-die-for looks, a truly compact body, and enough features to satisfy 90% of users. It's about expectations - don't buy this thinking it's the best phone ever, or has the most impressive spec available, because it hasn't. Buy it because you like the style and are willing to compromise on ease-of-use and high-end features.
