Display

The SGH-D880 has a really stunning display. It is a TFT LCD with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and a colour depth of 262,000 colours. It is really sharp with vibrant colours for a screen that is 2.3 inches in size.

The display does fade quite a bit in the sunlight, which is made worse by its glossy finish. Fortunately, the screen has good contrast which allows the text to be readable, even when the colours are washed out.

Buttons & Microphone

The numeric keypad of the SGH-D880 is average on performance. Although there is reasonably good tactile feedback on these keys, they seem rather flat and are quite stumpy. It's quite ironic since the SGH-D880 is quite thick. There should be enough space to allow for a deeper key press. Incidentally, you can just see the SGH-D880's microphone at the lower right corner of the numeric keypad.

Fortunately, the d-pad and other (command, cancel, call and end call) buttons are great to press on. They are large enough to be used effortlessly. Due to the top slider’s thickness, making quick movements from the numeric keypad to the d-pad and other buttons on the upper part of the phone can be a little uncomfortable, especially when you are typing out a long SMS message.

Speaker

Like many recent Samsung mobile phones, the SGH-D880’s speaker is placed in the front, just above the display. The placement of this monophonic speaker is excellent for many reasons. When viewing videos and playing music through the speaker, it results in a louder volume and better directionality. For some reason, many mobile phones still have their speakers located at the back!

Even when you place the SGH-D880 on the table, you can easily hear it ring because the speaker is facing upwards. This is one of those little things that make the difference between a good phone and a great phone, I feel.

Battery

A lithium-ion battery with a whopping 1200 mAh of capacity powers the SGH-D880. This kind of battery capacity is usually seen in the higher-end mobile phones. Of course, its capacity would be needed in a dual SIM mobile phone like the SGH-D880.

When we used two SIM cards, the battery lasted for about 3 days with a daily usage of roughly 20 minutes of calls, 15 SMS messages and some music listening. You can expect a much longer battery life if only one line is used. Of course, that would make the phone's dual SIM capability quite pointless.

Needless to say, this high capacity battery is one of the reasons for the SGH-D880’s thickness. A good trade-off, in our opinion.