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One of the plus points of the Solid Extreme's media capabilities is the decent performance it pumps out from its music player.
Outdoors types who like a bit of music on their rain-soaked adventures may find it appealing. Its user interface is similar to higher-ranking Samsung devices, and it's easy to use. It's controlled by the D-pad, and can be played in the background and operated on the standby screen.
With less than 10MB of internal user storage, you will need to invest in a MicroSD card if you want some music on the phone. There's no card or USB cable supplied in-box, so you may also need to source a USB cable if you want to copy tracks via (optional) Samsung PC Studio software or sync the phone's music with Windows Media Player 11 on a PC.
You can transfer tracks via Bluetooth, however, or load them onto a MicroSD card and simply slot it in. Unlike some Samsung lower level handsets, this one refreshes its music list automatically and sticks tracks from memory cards under the appropriate category headings listings without any fiddling required.
Typical track categories include artists, albums, genres, podcasts and playlists, plus recently played and most played headings, and the phone supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA file formats.
Standard-issue average Samsung stereo earbuds are provided in-box, fitting into the side mounted proprietary multi-connector. There's no 3.5mm socket or adaptor for your own ear-gear upgrade.
However, sound quality was more than acceptable for this grade of handset. Audio came across clearly through the headphones with a decent dynamic range and acceptable amounts of bass. It may not be audiophile quality, with some harshness at higher volumes, but it does the job more than adequately for a water-proofed portable tune-playing phone.
A selection of effects settings can be tweaked too, so you can alter the sound a little, though we wouldn't bother with it. The loudspeaker on the phone is better than most mobiles at relaying sound without the usual mobile brittleness – although it is still lacking any real bass.
As well as loading your own tunes, you can listen to free entertainment via the radio. As usual, it requires a pair of headphones being plugged in so they can act as an antenna, but you can still opt to play it back through the speaker. It's simple to set up with a quick auto tune, or you can manually tune it, and there is as much room as you need to store dozens of frequencies. You can also record clips from the radio to play back later, which is a handy extra.
