Samsung marketed the device as "the world's slimmest mobile phone", and as a competitor to the Motorola SLVR L7.

The phone uses GPRS and EDGE for mobile Internet, and contains Bluetooth v1.2 for close range wireless connectivity.

The device holds a built-in, roughly 2-megapixel digital camera, thus taking pictures with a maximum resolution of 1600×1200 pixels.

[1][2] The major deficiency turned out to be the phone's case design, which was weak enough to allow the device to break into two parts with little effort.

After the release of X820, the world's slimmest mobile phone record has since been surpassed by Samsung's Ultra Edition II 5.9mm (U100).