There have been quite a number of comparisons made between the E720 and the D500. Except for an obvious distinction in the design format (the E720 being a clamshell phone, while the D500 falls under the slide-up category), it is safe to say that these two phones were created with one person in mind ─ the jet setting individual.

To start with, “form factor” plays an integral part in the whole packaging of the E720. It weighs a petite 80g, a few shaves off the D500 at 99g, which makes it, literally, easy on the pocket without the unsightly bulge.

There are no major changes in the design as it carries the same flip-type, clamshell figure which Samsung has perfected by now. There are, however, a few additions (or buttons, if I may say) to support some of the features that go with this model.

For instance, the external display screen speckled with 65K colors shows a digital or analog clock (whichever you prefer), network signal and battery consumption so much so that you don’t have to open the clamshell to check on these bits of information.

Just below the external screen are three buttons: one for rewind, another for forward, and at the center is the play/stop key.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this phone is equipped with an MP3 Player supported by AAC/AAC+ formats which is actually good news to people who are passionate about music and long drives!

On the upper portion of the screen is the high resolution megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and flash. For self-portraits, a camera button has been placed on the right side of the phone which, when pressed for a couple of seconds, will reveal options for taking pictures.

That’s just for starters… and you haven’t even opened the clamshell yet.

From the external specs, let’s now get down to MORE serious business.

A subtle comparison between the D500 and E720 was mentioned earlier. If you’ve used the D500, chances are, you’ve noticed a handful of similarities linking these two models.

To be specific, the two share a video recorder which can chronicle up to a full hour of video clips; 64 voice polyphonic and MP3 ringtones (which means you’ll never have to use the same ringtone more than once as along as you update your playlist); an 80 MB shared memory with more than enough space to store videos and MP3 tracks, images and other data; WAP 2.0, GPRS class 10, email client, Java games, and a phone book capable of saving 1000 entries, to name just a few.

Needless to say, the differences all boil down to statistics… such as the E720 has an extra 8.5MB memory for games, mail, MMS and SMS, a high resolution video recorder of 352 x 288 pixels as compared to D500’s 176 x 144 pixels (although the D500 is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera and 7x digital zoom which is so far the best there is in the local market); 200 hours standby battery life for E720 and an extra 100 more hours for the D500; connectivity is almost the same (Bluetooth, USB and SyncML) except that D500 also has Infrared connection.

If I may add, the E720 has a superb video playback minus the grainy or pixilated images, as well as a brilliant internal TFT display which is always to be expected from Samsung.

Perhaps, one can say that these two phones are an improved version of the other ─ the E720 compensates for the lack of or shortcomings of D500 and vice versa. As they say, you can’t have your lunch and eat it, too!

It’s just a matter of preference… whether you go for a slide-up or clamshell, one is guaranteed to get the same (high) quality of mobile services and value-added specs which Samsung is well known for.