Thumbs Up:

Sexy 4.3 inch touch screen, gorgeous eight megapixel camera which lets you capture HD videos, has HDMI port, and has DLNA support, you can use this smartphone as a mobile hotspot.

Thumbs Down:

Camera is a bit sluggish, Motoblur software still not as good as HTC Sense, doesn’t have a front facing camera.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Motorola Droid X has a 4.3 inch capacitive display with resolution of 480×854 pixels. The phone is 65.5 mm high, 127.5 mm wide and 0.9 mm thick. Supported audio formats are OGG, MP3, eAAC+, eAAC, AAC+ and AAC. There are preloaded ringtones and wallpapers but you can download more if you want. The device has 8 GB internal memory and also comes with a 16 GB memory card. The card slot takes up to 32 GB of cards. The handset runs on CDMA 1X 800/1900, EVDO rev. A. There are three sensors on the phone – eCompass, ambient light and proximity. Supported image formats are JPE, GIF, PNG and BMP. The 1540 mAh lithium ion battery has rated standby time of 220 hours. Bluetooth profiles include PBAP, OPP, HSP, HID, HFP, AVRCP and A2DP. Supported video formats are MPEG-4, H.264, and H.263. The eight MP camera has image editing tools like Geo Tagging, rotating and cropping.

Razzle Dazzle:

Motorola Droid X is a really sexy phone and the big screen on the surface is the sexiest part about it.

Inside Dope:

A big 4.3 inch touch screen dominates the Motorola Droid X’s surface and it looks really gorgeous. A bigger screen gives you a bigger resolution and hence you have more real estate. We don’t get a lot of phones with such big screens in our labs and we were drooling a lot on it. Also remember that it is a capacitive touch screen so you dont need a stylus. The screen is very user friendly, just like your iPhone.

Motorola Droid X is running on revised version of MotoBlur so the experience will be different from Clique or previous Motorola phones that you might have used. There are some changes done here and we really like this new layout. Underneath the screen, there are four physical buttons and we thank the manufacturer for this. These buttons come in really handy at times because you have to go digging inside the touch screen sometimes. There are phones which have touch sensitive buttons here but we prefer hard buttons since they are easy to press. These four buttons are home, back, menu and search.

On the sides of the phone, there is a microSD card slot, and HDMI port. The latter lets you connect the phone to a large HDTV. We did try this in our labs and had a great experience. The eight megapixel camera can take 720p HD videos; capturing these clips and then watching them on a large screen was a lot of fun. Photos also looked great.

Speaking of camera, it comes with LED flash. There is no front facing camera so that is kinda bummer. We talked to Motorola about this and they said that there will be a front facing camera in future phones. But we were disappointed about the lack of this camera in such a high end phone. Also remember that this phone is no 4G capable.

On the other side, there is the volume rocker and the dedicated camera button. On the top, you have a power button and 3.5 mm headphones jack. Wit the latter, you can plug in any standard headphones without the need of any clunky adapter. Some phones have 2.5 headphones jack which we hate to see, especially in music phones.

The phone run on MotoBlur, it is going to launch with Android 2.1 but Android 2.2 Froyo will be coming later this summer to Droid X and Droid too. This will also bring Flash 10 capabilities to the phone. Other features on the phone include 3G, Bluetooth, all the wireless options, and GPS. You can also use the Motorola Droid X as mobile hotspot device for connecting up to five devices at a time. This comes at a fee though, you will have to pay $20 a month along with the $30 data plan.

For punching those messages, there are two options – the traditional (virtual) QWERTY keyboard and the Swype keyboard. The latter is really cool, you just have to drag your finger on the relevant button and the keyboard guesses the word that you want to type. We were first skeptical of this technology initially but after using it on some phones, it immediately became our favorite.

Motorola Droid X is made for multimedia enthusiasts, the big screen says this eloquently. Blockbuster apps are promised soon, which will let you rent and watch movies on the phone. Other offerings on the phone include Verizon services like VCast video, NFL Mobile, etc. This phone will be in the market from July 15th, it costs $199.99 with a two year contract and after a $100 main in rebate. It will be available at other retail outlets too.

Motorola Droid X is powered by 1GHz TI OMAP processor which keeps the phone powerful. It may not as powerful as Droid Incredible but we could still open lots of apps at a time and there was little delay. There were some frustrating moments though, for instance, when we went back to the home screen, the screen went black for a while before going back to normal.

Motorola Droid X is backed by 1,540mAh lithium ion battery. It has rated talk time of eight hours and the standby time is 9 days. We are still conducting battery drain tests on this phone so we cannot tell you about our lab times.

Nitty Gritty:

This is an excellent smartphone from Motorola and it will certainly give a tough time to Apple iPhone 4 in the market.

Thumbs Up:

Fast 4G speeds, eight devices can be connected to this phone for sharing the phone’s speed, has a front facing camera for video chats and eight megapixel camera records 720p HD video, the phone has HQ video player courtesy of YouTube, Android 2.1 along with HTC Sense, and also HDMI port. Big 4.3 inch touch screen display and fast one GHz Snapdragon processor is like an icing on the cake.

Thumbs Down:

Limited coverage for 4G network, you have to pay $10 compulsory for the data add on, doesn’t have support for voice activated dialing through Bluetooth, 4G drains the battery fast.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

TC EVO 4G has a 4.3 inches display and it gives a resolution of 800×480 pixels. Connectors on the phone include 3.5 mm headphones jack and micro USB port. Supported audio formats are AAC, MP3, WAV, MIDI, AMR, WMA, and AAC+. The handset has a 1500 mAh lithium ion battery. The eight megapixel camera of the phone can record 720p HD videos. There are various services included like Android Market, YouTube and Sprint TV.

Data/messaging features include Voice mail, Text messages, E-mail and Instant messages. Google talk IM is pre-installed on the phone and the handset runs on Google Android 2.1 Wireless interface options include IEEE 802.16e, IEEE 802.11 and Bluetooth.

Razzle Dazzle:

This phone is a mixture of soft touch black and gloss along with red accents. Most of the red accents are underneath the kickstand and also around the lens of the camera. The phone looks quite stylish but you will also notice how big the phone is. The big dimensions along with the sexy look will surely make heads turn.

Inside Dope:

HTC EVO 4G has an impressive specs list: 4.3 inch WVGA display, eight megapixel camera which can record 720p HD videos, WiMAX compatibility and HDMI-out jack. If this doesn’t impressive then the tag of being the first 4G phone ever surely will. To start off, we really liked the packaging of this phone. You might not care much about this but we still want to mention it here. The box looks a lot like microwaveable meal and feels like steam will come out of it, if you peel off the cover.

There are no moving parts inside the cell phone and this makes the device quite light. But we had one gripe with the quality of the build. When the capacitive touch screen buttons light up, the bottom edge of the phone suffers from leakage. You might not notice this in bright environments but will be apparent in low light surroundings. The light leakage definitely makes the phone look cheap. This is not a deal breaker but HTC could have done this better.

On the edges, the HTC EVO 4G is quite simple. Just like Nexus One, there is no discrete camera button and the volume rocker has been moved from right to left side. The rocker feels good to press and your thumb will find it easily while you are busy on the call. On the bottom, there is a microphone hole, micro-USB and HDMI port. The latter is used to view the 720p videos that you shoot from your camera on a big HDTV screen. We would have liked if the manufacturer gave an HDMI cable as well because there are little chances that you might have one at home.

On the top, of the HTC EVO 4G, there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack with power button on the right. The power key is quite flush and thus it is quite hard to press it. You will have to look hard for it on the phone every time you want to reboot. Maybe HTC did this to prevent accidental switch offs. On the phones back, there is a kickstand which lets you place the phone on a table and watch your videos handsfree. The kickstand is really strong, it has a built in spring and is made up of solid metal. So you don’t need to worry about breaking it.

In order to open the phone on the back, all you have to do is flip your finger. There is no slide mechanism like most phones. The card compartment is located here and it supports up to 32 GB memory. We were looking forward to checking out the eight megapixel camera of the phone because you don’t get such good resolution camera phone everyday in your labs for testing. The still had noise and splotchiness but they were still great when we viewed it on our computer monitor. The shutter lag for this camera is also impressive. The still is captured as soon as your click the button.

In terms of video quality, we won’t call it 720p simply because the videos are not that good. No the bright side, you can toggle between H.264 and MPEG4 modes but when you transfer the file to the computer and then play it in QuickTime, you will realize that HTC EVO 4G has drastically compressed the file. We won’t recommend you to give up your camcorder just by looking at the 720p tag.

HTC EVO 4G runs on Android 2.1, which is the latest iteration of the operating system. The phone also has a 1 GHz processor which keeps the phone quite fast but we did have to restart the phone twice during our tests. Apart from the OS, the main attraction, in terms of software, is the YouTube HQ and Sprint’s Hotspot app. There is another add-on here – Qik powered 2 way video chat through the camera on the front of the device. But we didn’t get to test this feature because it wasn’t ready at the time of writing this review.

Nitty Gritty:

This is an excellent smartphone and it will be always remembered as first 4G phone ever. Right now, we don’t recommend purchasing it since the price is quite high and 4G network isn’t spread out yet.

Gorgeous and gigantic 4.3-inch capacitive touch-screen; speedy 1GHz processor; 5-megapixel camera with dual flash and auto-focus; HTC Sense user interface.

Thumbs Down:

The smartphone is large and clunky. It uses Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system and not sure that it will be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 series or not. The performance was less than that of its unlocked version due to maximum applications.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM

Band: Quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Phone Design: Candy bar

Caller ID: Yes

Other Features: Microsoft Office Mobile, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, 5-megapixel camera

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The HTC HD2 is powered with 1GHz snapdragon processor and Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. It has a micro-SD card slot that accepts up to 32GB.

4.3 inches capacitive touch-screen has 480×800 pixels WVGA resolution that features multi-touch, pinch-to-zoom, accelerometer, and proximity sensor. 5-megapixel camera features dual LED flash, video-recording, and auto-focus.

The additional features are Mobile blog, HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, and Mobile-email. The preinstalled applications are Microsoft Office Mobile, Barnes & Noble e-reader, Windows Media Player Mobile, Internet Explorer 6 Mobile with Flash Lite, and Opera browser.

The connector set includes 1×3.5mm stereo headphone – mini-phone, and 1×USB. The HTC HD2 has 1230mAh lithium ion battery that has a life of 360 minutes talk time and 480 hours of idle standby time. The supported audio formats are WMA, MIDI, WAV, QCP, MP3, AMR, and AAC.

Accessories supplied inside the package are user manual, wired stereo headset, 16GB micro-SD card with preloaded “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” movies, USB cable, and charger.

Razzle Dazzle:

The HTC HD2 is 4.74 inches tall, 2.64 inches wide, and 0.43 inch deep and weighs 5.54 ounces. The smartphone is not a pocket sized device and it is handful while holding in the hands. Its body is made up of the stainless steel and provides a soft-touch finish.

Inside Dope:

The HTC HD2 is now available through T-Mobile and features 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5-megapixel camera, and 4.3 inches capacitive touch screen. Not only this, but the T-Mobile has also added a lot of applications that makes it awesome. The HD2 uses the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, while the Window Phone 7 series has also been announced. So, does the HD2 will worth its price tag? Currently, the HTC HD2 costs $199.99 with two-year T-Mobile contract and you can also buy it for $449.99 with Even More Plus Plan that does not need any annual contract. According to us, the HTC HD2 will worth its cost by its great performance and high-end features. It is not sure that the HD2 will be upgradeable to the Windows Phone 7 or not.

4.3 inches capacitive touch-screen of the HTC HD2 has 480×800 pixels WVGA resolution. The display is enough sharp and vibrant to display the colorful images and text. It remains visible in most lighting environments. We appreciate the T-Mobile to add several applications to take the benefit of such a gigantic and gorgeous display. The touch-screen features inbuilt accelerometer to rotate the display on tilting the phone, proximity sensor to inactive the display during a call, multi-touch support, and pinch-to-zoom feature. In email, photos, browser, and other applications, the latter “pinch-to-zoom” feature allows zooming in and out with a tap on the screen

In addition, the virtual QWERTY keyboard also takes the advantage of large display. The keyboard rotates in both landscape and portrait mode on tilting the phone.  If you are habitual of working on physical QWERTY keyboard, then you can try this virtual keyboard. It is quite spacious and has large keys to provide better typing experience. What’s more – T-Mobile also provides a Swype keyboard with this default virtual one.T This Swype keyboard allows to drag the finger on keyboard from one letter to another instead of tapping each button individually. You can circle a key to input that letter twice. That’s why we think that it is quite amazing to work with the Swype keyboard. While testing, we were quite surprised with the speed and accuracy of this Swype keyboard.

The navigation array sits underneath the display and includes Talk key, Home button, Start Menu shortcut, back button, and End key. The volume rocker is located on the left side, whereas the micro-USB port and 3.5mm headset jack are on the bottom. The camera lens with flash sits on the back, while micro-SD card slot is behind the battery door.

The HTC HD2 is the first smartphone to support the BlockBuster On Demand – video download application that allows previewing and downloading movies on a mobile handset. After downloading, you can watch the movies on connected devices including PC via BlockBuster software, Blu-ray player, and TV.

The HTC HD2 smartphone also comes with a 16GB card preloaded with “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” movies. Both of these movies are already optimized as per the display. You will also get 30-days trial of MobiTV that provides On-demand and Live television from channels including CBS Sports, ESPN, Comedy Central, NBC, and MTV. As usual, the Windows Media Player Mobile and YouTube app are also available. The Windows Media Player supports video codecs of 3GP, AVI, MPEG4, and WMV as well as music tracks of WMA, WAV, AAC, and MP3.

Need more – the HTC HTD2 comes with Barnes & Noble e-reader application with access to more than million magazines, newspapers, e-books and pre-downloaded content from Barnes & Noble account. This app turns pages as you swipe the finger on the screen. It provides better e-book reading experience than that on Apple iPhone.

5-megapixel camera of the HTC HD2 features auto-focus, dual LED flash, and video-recording. We captured some pictures and recorded few clips through the camera for testing. The overall picture and video quality was awesome. The colors looked brighter in the outdoor and remained good in the indoor shoots. The recorded video was good for a mobile camera.

The HTC HD2 urns on the Windows Mobile 6.5, whereas the better Windows Phone 7 Series has already been scheduled to launch in this holiday season. It is not sure that the HD2 smartphone will be upgradeable to the Windows Phone 7 or not. In contrast, the HTC Sense user interface performs a great job to make Windows Mobile 6.5 smoother and better. We hope that the HTC or T-Mobile will make some announcement for upgrading the HD2 with Windows Phone 7 Series operating system. However, you have to make decision whether or not to buy the HTC HD2 with dead-ending Windows Mobile 6.5.

The essential feature set of the HTC HD2 includes text and multimedia messages, conference calling, voice command, smart dialing, speed dial, a speakerphone, and quad-band world roaming. The contact page will show all the call & message history as well as social networking Web sites updates. You can directly call the recipient or the sender of an email or message with single tap on the onscreen phone icon. However, this feature is only available for the saved contacts. In similar way, you can make a conference call with multiple persons in email thread.

The additional highlights are Internet Explorer Mobile 6 with Flash Lite, Opera Web browser, integrated Wi-Fi, 3G support, Bluetooth and GPS with TeleNav Navigator for turn-by-turn directions. The extra applications are HTC Twitter application, Peep, six-months free of in-flight Wi-Fi courtesy of Gogo InFlight Internet, Activision’s Guitar, and Slacker Radio.

We made few calls through quad-band based the HTC HD2 via T-Mobile for testing. The overall call quality was only good. There was a bit muffling, crackling and background noise at our end, but we were still able to continue the conversation. The callers received good sound at their end without any problems. The speakerphone call quality was good with loud volume, but there was a bit voice distortion. We did not get any problem for pairing the Bluetooth headsets with the smartphone.

We also visited some Web sites on the browsers after connecting the HD2 with EDGE network. The Techsoft.org and GSMcellulars.com loaded in 5 and 10 seconds respectively in Opera browser; while a YouTube video buffered instantly in the Internet Explorer and played beautifully. The multi-touch and pinch-to-zoom support was useful while browsing the Web sites.

We played preloaded “Transformers: Revenge of Fallen” and it provided the rich watching experience. While playing some music tracks, the sound quality on the speakers was good. However, the sound quality was better on the included wired headset. The smartphone worked good to launch the applications. In contrast, the unlocked version of HTC HD2 delivered fast performance due to less number of applications. Still, the HTC HD2 for T-Mobile is one of the fastest Windows Mobile smartphones.

The battery life of the HTC HD2 is 6.3 hours of talk time and 20 days idle standby time. It’s digital SAR rating 1.09 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

The HTC HD2 provides a gigantic touch-screen, speedy processor for fast performance, and high-end features, but it uses Windows Mobile 6.5 and not sure that it will be upgradeable to the Windows Phone 7 Series.

Need a fast smartphone and can overcome above only one drawback; the HTC HD2 will be a great selection to purchase.

Top-notch call quality; good feature set; solid built; rugged design.

Thumbs Down:

Poor photo quality from camera; 2.5mm headset jack instead of standard 3.5mm one; missing camera shutter on exterior; lacks dedicated Back key in navigation array.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: iDEN
Band: iDEN for Sprint Nextel
Phone Design: Folder type
Caller ID: Yes
Other Features: Push-To-Talk, Bluetooth, Retractable Antenna

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Motorola Brute i680 is an iDEN based handset for Sprint Nextel. It has 180MB internal memory and micro-SD expansion slot that accepts up to 8GB. The cell phone is compatible to hearing aids.

The external display has 160×120 pixels resolution and supports 65,000 colors. In addition, 2.2 inches internal display has 220×176 pixels resolution. 2-megapixel camera of Motorola Brute i680 features 4x digital zoom, self-timer, and video-recording.

1750mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 350 minutes talk time. The Brute i680 can withstand weather, shock, and dust.

Razzle Dazzle:

Motorola Brute i680 is 3.92 inches tall, 2.09 inches wide, and 1 inch thick and weighs 5.63 ounces. The cell phone is covered within strong plastic and rubberized skin. Its hinge is sturdy enough to withstand multiple opens and shuts at a time. The handset feels very solid while taking in hand. It gray and black color scheme gives an industrial look.

Inside Dope:

The iDEN based cell phones are limited in the United States. However, the famous manufactures are still launching handsets to capture the iDEN mobile market. There is a new member in this line – Motorola Brute i680 for Sprint Nextel. It is rugged and tough handset that offers Bluetooth, 2-megapixel camera, and satisfactory call quality. The Brute i680 is available for $119 with service contract from Sprint Nextel. It is military certified to withstand the elements such as salt fog, low and high temperature, vibration, shock, and dust. We dropped it on bricks and threw it on the marble floor, but there was no effect or scratch on it. We also dropped the i680 phone in water for 20 minutes and it still worked without any problem.

The external display sits on the front lid and has 160×120 pixels resolution that supports 65,000 colors. It shows recently called phone numbers and photo caller ID. You can also use it as camera viewfinder. The camera lens with flash is located above the external display. There is no dedicated camera key on the exterior, but we will prefer to have the same on the lid of a flip handset.

You will find standard Nextel button to access recent calls list, 2.5mm headset jack and speakerphone button on the top. Push-to-talk (PTT) button and volume rocker are located on the left spine. A combined micro-USB port for USB cable/charger is on the right spine, which is covered with a rubber flap. We will prefer the manufacturer to include a 3.5mm headset jack, especially on a iDEN handset. Micro-SD card slot is located behind the battery cover that is secured by locking mechanism.

You have to flip open the phone to access the numeric keypad and internal display. 2.2 inches internal display has 220×176 pixels resolution that supports 65,000 colors. This resolution is a perfect match for a rugged handset. You can customize the backlight time and text size for the internal display. Motorola Brute i680 has one-page menu interface in both icon and list style.

Navigation array sits underneath the internal display of Motorola Brute i680. It consists of two soft keys on the top and four-way directional pad with center select button in the middle. The menu key and Talk button are in the left side of toggle, whereas camera key with End/Power button sits in the right side. We missed a dedicated back button on the navigation array. When phone is in standby mode, the up direction shows Settings, down displays recent calls list, and side buttons allows navigating through shortcut icons. Numeric keypad has tactile, backlit and spacious buttons.

Motorola Brute i680 can store 600 contacts in its phonebook. Each entry can save seven numbers, one email address, and notes. You can organize the contacts to caller or PTT groups and pair them with one ring-tone and photo for caller ID. The basic feature set includes date-book, alarm clock, 20 polyphonic ring-tones, call timers, memo pad, multimedia and text messaging, and vibrate mode.

Being a Sprint Nextel phone, Motorola Brute i680 offers all Direct Connect PTT services including Direct Talk for out-of network PTT chat, Group Connect for in-network chat with up to maximum 20 users via PTT at once, and International Direct Connect. The additional highlights of the i680 are voice playback while browsing menus, voice recorder, PC synchronization, USB mass storage, GPS, application manager, and stereo Bluetooth. For GPS, there is Sprint TeleNav service to get local search and real-time directions.

2-megapixel camera features video recording, 4x digital zoom, auto-focus, geo-tagging, and self-timer. The image editing options include seven resolutions, two shutter sounds, four color tones, macro mode, white-balance, exposure control, and two quality settings. The flash remains lit when you are in camera application. The photo quality of Motorola Brute i680 was average white testing. The shots were looking dim with little image noise even in bright lighting. You can record the videos in two modes: 1 minute for MMS and longer in normal mode.

You can access the simple interface of music player at both displays. It features album art, equalizer with nine settings, shuffle and repeat modes. Music player interface can be personalized with numerous visualizations and themes. You can transfer music from memory card, Bluetooth, or USB cable.

Motorola Brute i680 comes with one game titled “Family Guy Uncensored”. You can personalize the phone with wallpaper, color themes, and clock formats. More options, Java games and ring-tones can be downloaded using WAP 2.0 browser.

We made few calls through Motorola Brute i680 via Sprint Nextel service for testing. The overall call quality was good. We received clear, loud and natural sound at our end with little background hiss. The callers received loud and clear sound at their end, but they could tell we were calling through a cell phone. The speakerphone call quality was the best with loud volume at both sides.

We also made Direct Connection PTT with another Brute i680. The call had very little audio distortion, but both of us were able to hear clearly even in loud environment.

Motorola Brute i680 has a battery life of 5.8 hours talk time. Its digital SAR is 0.59 watts per kg in accordance with FCC radiation tests.

Nitty Gritty:

If you need a rugged iDEN handset with top-notch call quality and functional feature set, then buy – Motorola Brute i680.

Samsung Jack has fresh look, better processor, excellent call quality, updated camera and more memory as compared its predecessor BlackJack series. The smartphone offers GPS/A-GPS and Bluetooth

Thumbs Down:

The operating system is same as that of BlackJack II. Samsung Jack still has proprietary charger/headset port, so you cannot use standard headset/USB cable.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: WCDMA (UMTS)/GSM
Band: Quad-band of WCDMA (UMTS)/GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Phone design: QWERTY candy bar
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: Bluetooth, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1, Instant messenger and support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP email protocols.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Samsung Jack has 528MHz processor with 256MB ROM and 256 MB RAM. The internal storage is 96MB and it has a microSD expansion slot to support 16GB cards. The built-in operating system is Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition.

The inbuilt application software includes Microsoft Office Mobile Suite, Microsoft Office Outlook Mobile, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, Microsoft Voice Command, Microsoft Direct Mush, XpressMail, Adobe Flash Lite, ActiveSync and Bluetooth. The basic features of Samsung Jack are currency converter, calculator, world-time, stopwatch, scheduler, calendar, clock and alarm. The Jack has 3-way conference capability. Its wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 and IEEE 802.11 b/g.

The advanced features are HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution), GPS, A-GPS, Mobile Email and support for POP3/IMAP4/SMTP email protocols. The inbuilt messengers are Windows Live Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo! Messenger.

Samsung Jack has 3.2-megapixels camera that supports video formats of MPEG4, WMV and 3GP. The supported audio formats are MIDI, WMA, WAV, QCP, MP3, MMF and AAC.

2.4-inch LCD display has 320×240 pixels resolution to support 16-bit (65,000) colors. Samsung Jack has two connections – 1×USB and 1×headset jack. The smartphone has 1480mAH lithium ion battery. It comes with reference material, software disc, 3.5mm headset, USB cable and AC Adapter inside the package.

Razzle Dazzle:

Samsung Jack is little different from Samsung BlackJack and BlackJack II. The Jack has QWERTY candy-bar form and weighs around 3.5 ounces. It is 4.4-inch tall, 2.4-inch wide and 0.5-inch thick. Windows Mobile smartphone has round corners and sharp edges that give it a look quite similar to BlackBerry Curve 8300. The Jack has mirror-chrome look.

Inside Dope:

Samsung Jack is the successor of its BlackJack series. In addition to changed name, this smartphone has better camera, faster processor, more memory, new features and fresh updated look. The Jack also has better email support and productive applications as compared to its predecessor. It gave excellent call quality. Samsung Jack costs $99.99 with two-year contract from AT&T. However, we recommend you Nokia E71x from AT&T as this phone has the same price with very good look, better user experience and more features. The Jack has some issues that you might want to know before purchasing it. Let us have a look on new Samsung Jack from AT&T.

Samsung Jack has 2.4-inch LCD display which gives a 320×240 pixels resolution and supports 65,000 colors. The display is bright and clear, but gives same look as that of RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900. You can change the background images and themes of the Home Screen.

Samsung’s Jack does not have touch-screen unlike its Epix. The navigation array is located beneath the screen. It has a Talk key, an End Key, back button, Home shortcut, two-soft keys and four-way direction pad with center select-key. With a long press, the Talk key will activate the speakerphone and the End key will lock the handset. Samsung has added new feature – Turbo Scroll to allow you scroll quickly through entire page by pressing the down arrow on navigation array. However, a light press will allow scrolling through text simply. The layout and size of controls on the smartphone are easy to use.

We found that QWERTY keyboard was user-friendly with a nice look, but there were some problems while using it. Samsung Jack has oval-shape rectangular keys like Samsung Propel Pro. There is no spacing between the buttons, but they have a good size. Unlike Samsung BlackJack II, the keys on Jack are easy to press, due to which there are little mishits during texting and dialing. The only problem is that the A button is located little below, which requires a firm press. Whenever we pressed the S key during text, it typed A before S. After some practice, we typed accurately without repeating that mistake.

Both volume rocker and power button sit on left side of Samsung Jack. The speaker, self-portrait mirror and camera are on the backside, whereas the microSD card slot is behind the battery cover. Samsung continues to include proprietary headset/power port on the Jack. It is quite annoying that you have to remove the battery cover to access the card.

Samsung Jack has Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition as inbuilt operating system. The manufacturer has announced that it will offer Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade when it is released. You will not get updated e-mail and organizational applications from Samsung BlackJack II. The advanced features of the Jack includes RSS reader, to-do list, instant messengers, support for POP3/IMAP/SMTP email protocols, Microsoft Office Mobile Suite and Direct Push Technology for real-time Outlook sync. Like Samsung ProperPro, the Jack has AT&T applications such as AT&T Navigator, AT&T Video, My-Cast Weather, Mobile Banking and e-Bay.

Samsung Jack has 3.2-megapixels camera that is an upgrade to 2-megapixels camera of BlackJack II. The photo and color quality was good, but the recorded video looked little dark and blurry.

The basic features of the Jack are voice commands, conference calling, three-way calling, speed dialing, speakerphone, quad-band roaming, threaded text and multimedia messaging. After paying $4.99 per month to AT&T, you can do video calls through AT&T Video Share service if the recipient has video-share compatible phone. Bluetooth 2.0 is on board with features of personal area network, object push profile, hands-free kits and support for mono-and-stereo Bluetooth headsets. You can also setup the Jack as modem through Internet Sharing application.

Samsung Jack supports 3/3.5G that helps in streaming media services like AT&T Video and AT&T Music. It also has integrated Wi-Fi to help in connectivity when 3G or 3.5G connection is not available. You can use the built-in AT&T Wi-Fi utility to access the 17,000 Starbucks and AT&T hot spots. We received “Coming soon” message while trying to use this utility, but we did not get any problem while accessing Wi-Fi through Jack.

Samsung Jack has A-GPS/GPS with inbuilt AT&T Navigator’s Global Edition and domestic version. You can receive real-time tracking, voice guided directions, data and other navigation tools through this location-based service. AT&T Navigator is free for 30 days and after that, you have to pay $9.99 per month for domestic version and $19.98 per month for Global Edition.

We made some calls through Samsung Jack using AT&T service. The overall call quality was excellent. We received loud and clear sound on our end without background noise, which leaded to uninterrupted conversation. The callers also received good sound quality at their end and they could not tell that we were calling through cell phone. The speakerphone quality was good with loud volume. We paired Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller to Samsung Jack without any problems.

Samsung Jack has better 528 MHz processor and more memory 256MB ROM, 256MB RAM and 96MB internal storage as compared to BlackJack II. As a result, the Jack is a faster device that can handle more tasks without problem and delay. GPS was quick to search our location and AT&T Navigator provided accurate real-time directions.

Samsung Jack has 1480mAH lithium-ion battery that has a life of 7 hours talk time and 12 days idle standby time.

Nitty Gritty:

Samsung Jack has various upgrades to previous BlackJack series and Samsung has announced to provide upgraded Windows Mobile 6.5 on its release by Microsoft. However, we recommend you to consider Nokia E71x for its better design and user-experience.

Thumbs up: Simple, easy-to-use features, good design

Thumbs down: Lacks Bluetooth, and the call quality again isn’t any thing next to spectacular.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Looks like Samsung is all set to reach out to the masses. After the huge array of smartphones that we were treated to in the last few days, Samsung hits back yet again with a basic and simple phone which claims to provide a pleasant call making experience. This one is basically all for communication. Anyways let’s move ahead and see if this could really be the next primary phone which would make the buyers go into a tizzy.

Razzle-dazzle: There is no denying the fact that this bears some resemblance to the earlier ones by Samsung i.e. the SGH-T329 and the SGH-A237. Its got a nice slick design to itself with curves on the sides and opposite ends. At 3.6 inches by 1.85 inches by 0.75 inch this one easily fits into the pocket and also because of the curves this one has a nice feel I the hand. At just 2.9 ounces this one is definitely a lightweight one.

This one has got the flip design and the hinge is pretty much sturdy. I personally didn’t like the plastic skin just for the plain reason that this one wouldn’t be suitable for rough users, and most of the times the people who opt for such phones are the ones who use their phones in a rough manner. Its got a 2.5mm headphone jack which is pretty much alright, basically because this isn’t supposed to be a phone for the music fans. This headphone jack along with the MicroUSB port is situated on the right of the phone and the left spine houses the volume control rocker.

Like the SGH-T329 this one also has a vertical external display. Though it looks classy but then the alphabets and the numbers on it are damn tiny. And anyways M240 doesn’t have a camera so let me not get into photo caller id’s.

Its got a 1.75-inch display which supports 65,000 colors and has a resolution of  160×128 pixels. It doesn’t lose any points when it comes to brightness but then the graphics are not sharp and enough. It also offers quite a few customization options  and the menus are also simple to use. Well I don’t think anyone could ask for more as far as the display is concerned on a low-end phone like the M240.

The navigation array has a hexagonal toggle with a central OK button, two soft keys and talk/end buttons. Keeping in mind the size of the phone, this one offers a nice roomy keypad. The keys have been comfortably placed and I hardly encountered any mispresses while using them. The have a nice rubbery feel to it and are kind of flat. The backlighting is bright enough and the numbers on the keypad are large enough.

Inside Dope: This one comes loaded with a 500-entry phonebook which can have several phone number entries along with an e-mail address, an IM handle, a street address, a birthday, a job title and company, and notes. The callers can easily be categorized into groups and the each entry can be paired with a polyphonic caller tune entry.

The other features that tis one offers are a calculator, alarmclock, vibrate mode, currency calculator, notepad, voice memo recorder and voice dialing. The major drawback for this one is that it doesn’t come along with Bluetooth facility. Being a phone basically for communication I expected this one to have Bluetooth compatibility atleast for talking when driving.

For sheer entertainment this one comes loaded with demo versions of three Java games primarily the Downtown Texas Hold ‘Em, Brain Exercise, Super Street Fighter.

The call quality offered by this one is pretty much decent though not really astounding. The call quality was mediocre and the sound was natural enough. Though there was a lot of static this one did not exactly ruin the experience. At times I really had to strain myself to hear the conversations when in closed places. The calls on the speakerphone were pretty average again.

The M240 has a rated talktime of  6.5 hours which is decent enough for a phone of this caliber.

Nitty- gritty: Being a basic phone I expected this one to offer spectacular call quality atleast. But that again turned out to be average. Its got some simple and easy to use features, but then again that truly doesn’t make this one any better. Frankly this one could truly be called a dampener in the true sense.

Thumbs up: Brilliant camera, sturdy design, decent battery life, good connectivity options.

Thumbs down: Display looks a bit drab, will burn a hole in your pocket.

Inside the trunk:

• Product Type Smartphone With two digital cameras / digital player / FM radio / GPS receiver
• Width 2 in
• Depth 0.7 in
• Height 4.1 in
• Weight 5.3 oz
• Body Color Indigo black
• Technology WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM
• Band WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
• Phone Design Dual slider
• Antenna Internal
• Wireless Interface IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g , Bluetooth 2.0
• Additional Features aGPS , TV Link , Push-to-talk mode , Built-in FM transmitter , Built-in stereo speakers , Radio Data Service (RDS) , Text-to-Speech (text recognition)
• Supported Email Protocols POP3 , SMTP , IMAP4
• GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Yes
• EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution) Yes – Class 32
• Internet Browser Yes
• Platforms Supported CLDC 1.1 , Java MIDP 2.0
• Included Services Video Call
• JAVA applications Yes
• HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) Yes
• Messaging / Data Features XHTML Browse

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: The Nokia N86 8MP phone could be called as just another smartphone with a high resolution camera. Infact, the manufacturers even claim that this one could easily replace the best of the cameras. Well I definitely don’t agree to this totally, but this one is definitely worth a shot. This one when unlocked comes at a price of $500.

Razzle-dazzle: My first reaction when I saw this one was “bah… not again”. This one is no different from the rest of the Nokia Nseries phones. However, on closer examination it does offer a few improvements over it does offer a few improvements which include metal edges and tempered glass. Its got a nice solid feel in the hand. at 5.2 ounces this one definitely weighs more than the others N85 but then again this one seems to be more sturdy and reliable. In the closed state it measures 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide by 0.6 and easily fits into the pocket. This one is again a slider like the N85 and the N96, however the slider mechanism in this case is more sturdy and stronger.

Sliding the phone reveals the keypad. The keys have green and white coloring and accompanied by bright backlighting, this one is easy to operate in the dark. The keys are raised and are comfortably spaced making typing on the keypad a pleasant experience. Below the display we have the navigation control standard soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a main menu shortcut, a back button.

Its got a 2.6-inch Active Matrix OLED non touch screen. Though this one isn’t a touchscreen, the AMOLED screen displays some bright and vibrant pictures and it doesn’t drain much power as well. This one has a built in accelerometer which changes orientation when the phone is rotated.

The power button along with the 3.5mm headset jack and the micro-USB port is situated on the top of the phone. On the left side there is the slider lock switch and on the right there is the camera activation and volume rocker button. The micro SD expansion slot is behind the battery slot on the right side.

Inside dope: Let me start of with the main attraction on the N86,i.e the camera. Though not an industry first, this one is the first in Nokia’s range. This high end camera offers features like the Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, dual-LED flash, 20x digital zoom, and video recording at up to 30 frames per second. However this one doesn’t offer features like face and smile detection. It would have been nice to have them on this one especially since it claims too replace the regular digital camera. The images were bright and sharp with no display of noise whatsoever. During the nighttime however the images appeared to be a bit grainy, but then again this one has decent image quality considering that this one is a camera phone. Also the video quality was decent enough with no interferences in between. The pictures can also be edited using the photo editor and then stored on the phone. This one comes loaded with an inbuilt memory of 8GB and can be expanded upto 16GB.

Moving ahead, this one supports other features as well like mobile web, productivity tools and voice capabilities. It runs the Symbian OS version 9.3 using S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 with a fairly intuitive interface. This one looks a bit outdated than the other smartphones and also I didn’t like the multitasking options.

The N86 supports the IMAP4, POP3, and SMTP email accounts and also offers a full attachment viewer. It also comes with a wizard which helps in synchronizing the users inbox and the mailbox. The phone contacts memory depends on the available memory and the SIM card offers an extra 250 contacts. Each entry can store multiple numbers, email addresses, birthdays and other similar information.

When it comes to connectivity this one supports 3G and Wi-fi. The browser has a mini map option which provides a page overview and by zooming on the page the user can view the page. It comes loaded with GPS/A-GPS and a few preloaded Nokia Maps along with a built in digital compass.

The built in media player supports MP3, AAC, eACC, eACC+, and WMA files. It also supports the FM radio, however for taking advantage of this feature the user will have to plug in the earbuds which are provided because the tuner is built into them. The N-Gage service also offers a lot of gaming options to keep the user entertained.

The call quality of this one was pretty much OK. There was some amount of static at times and also the voice got cut a couple of times. However on the callers end they had some excellent feedback to give, and most of them could not differentiate between a normal call and a speakerphone call.

This one offers a 1200mAh lithium-ion battery with a rated talk time of 6.3 hours (GSM)/3.9 hours (3G) and up to 13 days (GSM)/11 days of standby time which is pretty much decent enough for a phone from all perspectives.

Nitty- Gritty: This one surely has an excellent camera, but with a price tag of  $500 there are many others which could offer the same features for a better price. Still if you’re a fan of Nokia phones and possibly can’t adjust with a phone from any other manufacturer then you could go for this one.

Thumbs up: Sleek design, brilliant camera, impressive battery life.

Thumbs down: Lack of  3G and Wi-fi, no GPS.

Inside the trunk: Price at launch :£120.00 Connectivity :3.5mm Headphone Jack, USB 2.0 Dimensions: 46.2 x 108.8 x 11.7 Weight (g): 96 Bluetooth :Ys Built-In Camera: Yes Camera Resolution :3.2 Digital Zoom; 8 Display Size: 2.2 Display Type; TFT E-mail Client: Yes EDGE :Yes FM Radio :Yes Flash :Yes GPRS :Yes Handsfree Speakerphone :Yes Internet Browser :Yes Max No of Colours (million) :16.7 Memory Card Compatibility :MicroSD Mobile Phone Frequencies :GSM900/GSM1800/GSM1900 Playable Formats :AAC, AAC Plus, eAAC Plus, H.263, H.264, MP3, MP4

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: This one isn’t a high end  dainty phone but can be very well be called the successor of the 6300. In short this  one could be just like the girl next door, simple yet adorable. Anyways all my superfluous metaphors aside, this one has a lot to offer if your looking forward to a no-nonsense, highly functional phone. The Nokia 6303 weighs a decent 95g making it quite lightweight and at 08.8(h) x 46.2(w) x 11.7(d)mm its quite lightweight which makes it easy to slip it into the pocket. This one is available in two colours black and silver, though I personally liked the look of the black one. The curves give it a nice quality touch. This one resembles a slider phone as the navigation keys and the display are raised above the keyboard. The navigation array has a OK button in the centre surrounded by the talk and end buttons. The numberpad beneath the navigation array has well placed keys. They provide sufficient room for a comfortable typing experience. Its got a 2.2-inch, QVGA (320×240 pixels) resolution, with support for around 16.7 million colours. The display is bright and the images on the display add a touch of life to the display. On the curved edges of the phone, there is the volume rocker key and the on/off keys. At the base of the phone there is a charger jack, a 3.5mm  headphone jack and a separate MicroUSB port. The back of the phone houses the loudspeaker, the camera and the dual-LED flash. Being a basic phone this one doesn’t offer any of the touchscreen high jinks. It uses the Korean manufacturer’s tried and tested Series 40 user interface. When in the standby mode this one has two softkey options i.e. Go To and Names along with D-pad shortcuts.  The menus have been conventionally design and as always I guess Nokia decides too keep it clean and simple with easily scrollable lists. This one provided a lot of options as far a s the phonebook is concerned. It can store phone number, postal address and email details through to birthday, nickname and web addresses. Also it can store images and video clips for the caller ID. In the contacts menu if you open the Windows Live messenger, you could easily see your friends online status. Its pretty much simple and at the same time offers more than just the basics. Making calls from this one is just an incredible experience. Absolutely no static, interference, background noises just plain brilliant voice quality. The sound quality of this one is good enough. Also the callers had no complaints as well with most of them not able too make out that I was using a cell phone. The 6303 supports text messaging, Multimedia messaging, instant messaging and email. It automatically converts a text message into a multimedia message whenever any media is added to the message. Since this one supports Email, the user can easily use regular web-based email or internet service provider accounts on the phone. It supports POP3, IMAP4 and SMTP. This one doesn’t support 3G or Wi-Fi and solely relies on GPRS and EDGE for connectivity. It has a full Nokia browser and a Opera Mini mobile browser. It’s got a 3.2-megapixel camera along with autofocus and an LED flash. Images taken in bright light are pretty crisp and vibrant with hardly any kind of noise. The images were were well balanced and even toned. It deals well with colour rendition and details. However in the dark the images appear to be a bit blurred and murky. The music and the video player supports the MP3, AAC, MP4, AAC+, eAAC+, H.263, and H.264 formats. Content streaming can be done easily otherwise data can be easily transferred using the USB cable. Its got 17MB of inbuilt memory and there is a 1GB memory card which comes along with it. the memory can be extended upto 4GB. It supports FM radio as well. I was pretty much impressed with the amazing battery life that this one has under its hood. Nokia estimates optimum battery life between charges of up to 450 hours standby or 7 hours talktime.

Nitty- gritty: This one is definitely a reliable performer and functions really well as a basic phone with a few extra goodies added here and the. And at  £120.00 this one is a pretty good bargain.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Vibrant display, 8GB storage, nice set of features, 5MP camera.

Thumbs down: Funny headphones, disappointing battery life.

Inside the trunk:
Price at launch £499.99
Bluetooth Yes
WiFi Yes
Ringtones MP3, WAV
HSUPA Yes
Internet Browser Yes
Vibrating Alert Yes
Memory (GB) 8
Built-In Camera Yes
SMS Yes
Display Size 3.2
HSDPA Yes
Memory Card Compatibility MicroSD/TransFlash
EDGE Yes
Playable Formats eAAC Plus, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, RA, WMA, WMV
MMS Yes
E-mail Client Yes
Camera Resolution 5 Dimensions 56 x 11.9 x 115

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: With the Galaxy, Samsung has finally joined the league of  Android phones. The Galaxy comes in with a brilliant feature set and is being offered by O2 in the U.K. Anyways lets go ahead with the review see if this could truly survive in the android game.

This one truly fits into the sleek phone category at a thickness of  11.9mm thick and it is quite light at 116g and easily fits in the pocket. The screen of this one is around 3.2-inch and it supports the OLED technology. Thanks to the OLED technology the display of this looks absolutely stupendous with bright and vibrant images.

This one could definitely remind a few of the Samsung Jet with its kind of similar layout on the back.  Below the screen we have the search button and the home key which is conveniently placed between the terminate and the back buttons. However most of the space below the screen is eaten up by the OK button, which in all honesty doesn’t require that much of footage plus the home button could have surely used up some of this place.

On the left side of the phone we have the up/down keys to control the volume, adjust the brightness of the screen without actually having to use the touchscreen  slide bar. The top of the phone houses a 3.5 headphone jack along with a micro USB port. The right side has a small button for the lock key and the camera shutter button. At times however the small button could get a bit irritating.

O2 offers this one along with a nice case for the Galaxy. Other than that there’s a 3.5mm headset inside the box along with a Samsung New PC Studio CD for connecting it to the PC and a micro USB charger. Obviously when Your paying £240 for a phone on contract, you expect it to be packaged well.

Coming to the interface, let me warn you beforehand itself that this one does not offer much in terms of customization. Its got the standard 1.5 OS platform ahich kind of loses it charm when compared to the HTC Sense UI and Motorola’s MotoBlur. The look of the homescreen can be easily changed with the help of the three swipeable options, which means that the user just has to drag the widgets he wants on the Homescreen and simply drop it on the screen. The built in Google Gadgets for the home screen are pretty decent as well. Though this one cant match upto the Sense UI, its got some really nice options to fiddle around with. However I was a bit disappointed by the responsiveness of the screen. There was quite a lag at most of the times and it really took some efforts to get this one working.

Well there is definitely something weird about the 3.5mm headphones because whenever I tried to plug it in it made a beep sound which was halfway played through the sspeaker and then through the headphones. Also as soon as you plug it in, it initiates the music player. Possibly it kind of mimics the handsfree functionality. Anyways I hope the makers fix it up soon.

Its got a nice huge contacts list and the contacts interface is really simple which makes it a delight to use this one. The contacts application handles all the aspects  of the calling system including the dialing, call history, contact list and favourites.

Coming to the call quality, this one offers a decent call making experience for sure. There was no static or interference for the most part of it. in crowded areas however the volume was a bit low. On the callers side too, they were pretty much satisfied and hardly had any complaints. The size of the phone is pretty much adequate for the face size which makes it really comfortable to use the handset for talking.

It supports text messaging and the messages are displayed in the threaded form which makes it easier to view the conversations with different people.

Browsing using the Android browser has always been a pleasant experience and thankfully the browsing on Galaxy is also satisfactory. The internet on the i7500 Galaxy will give easy access to full HTML options, and the phone has a similar smart-fit ability to the HTC Hero, with text being shown in the correct column even after zooming in to a massive size.

The music player sorts songs according to the artists, albums and tracks. The music player interface is pretty nice. The sound through the speaker is not al that great but anyways since it comes  equipped with a 3.5mm headphone jack the user can easily plug in his favourite pair of headphones.

However the major disappointing point about the Galaxy is the battery life. This one could easily win the Worst Battery life title easily. This 1500mAh battery could hardly 3 hours of life even when it was hardly being used.

Nitty- gritty: The design of this one is really nice and probably one of the best designs in the Android market, accompanied with a brilliant screen and awesome set of features. However the battery life is what hits this one hard. I would say that Samsung really hasn’t done much to the Android OS in a way that anyone could probably go gaga over it. Plus for the price at which this one is being offered I would surely expect much more. Though this is just the start of the android journey for Samsung I sincerely wish that this one had something more to offer.

Thumbs up: Nice display, sleek design, comfortable keyboard.

Thumbs down: Speed of the EV-DO isn’t that great, navigation keys are a bit cramped, microSD slot is located behind the battery cover.

Inside the trunk:
Network: CDMA 800 / 1900
Form Factor: Slide
Dimensions: 108 x 53 x 17 mm
Weight: 140 g
Antenna: Internal
Navigation: QWERTY Keypad / 5-Way Keypad
Battery Type: 960 mAh Li-Ion
Talk Time: 5.00
Standby Time: 300
Memory: 128.0 MB
Expandable Memory: microSD / TransFlash

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: After the Samsung Gravity, Samsung Rant and the Recently launched dainty Samsung Rogue, this one from Samsung is yet another messaging phone with the slider form factor. This one isn’t exactly a high end phone like the Rogue, it’s a basic phone with a few multimedia features. It’s quite light on the pocket as well at $29.99 for a charcoal grey version from Verizon and the Red one could be obtained for absolutely free from Verizon’s online store.

Razzle-Dazzle: It looks like any other candy car phone in the front view. Its got a nice sleek design with a matte soft-touch plastic feel to it. Measuring 4.25 inches long by 2.08 inches wide by 0.65 inch thick, this one is quite compact and lightweight as well.

It’s got a 2.1 inch display with 262,000 TFT colors and a resolution for 176×220 pixels. The display is quite bright and animated and works out pretty well for the animated graphics and icons. Below the screen is the navigation array, with two soft keys, a OK key, a speakerphone key and a clear key. The send and the end/power keys are on both the sides of the array. These keys are quite curved but then they are a bit cramped up. Below the navigation array is the keypad. The keys on the keypad are well spaced out and are quite comfortable to use with hardly any mispresses.

Sliding the phone reveals a four row QWERTY keyboard. The sliding mechanism is pretty nice as well and I hardly experienced any problems with it. The spacing of the keys on the keyboard is really nice.  Though it isn’t as good as the Rogue its spacious enough for comfort.

On the left side it houses a 2.5mm headset jack ,a volume rocker, and a charger jack and on the right it houses the voice command key and camera key. On the back we have the camera lens, self portrait mirror and external speaker. The Micro SD slot is located behind the battery cover.

Inside dope: This one has got a 1000 entry phonebook with room for around five phone numbers, two email addresses, a street address and notes. The contacts can also be saved in the phonebook with a caller Ring tune and caller picture ID. There are a few basic features in it which include the speakerphone, vibrate mode, calculator, calendar, a stopwatch, a notepad and a world clock.

Being a messaging phone, obviously this one supports text and multimedia messaging. its got a threaded messaging feature as well which makes viewing the messages as conversations even more easier. The intensity supports e-mail via mobile email and mobile web email. Using mobile email all your mails are directly delivered to your inbox and the mobile web email delivers email through the regular browser.

This one comes loaded with an inbuilt music player which supports Verizon’s  V chat music with Rhapsody service. But here again since the Intensity doesn’t support the high EV-DO purchasing and downloading of songs is very difficult. However the songs can be easily downloaded on the PC and then uploaded directly on to the Intensity. The interface of the music player is pretty much simple and easy to use with the usual settings like repeat and shuffle.

It’s got a 1.3 megapixel camera and it supports taking of pictures in around 5 resolutions. However the photo quality is pretty much mediocre and the photos appear to be blurred and have a slight pinkish tint to it.

Coming to the call quality of this one, it is pretty much impressive. There was no static or interference. the callers voice was audible and loud but at times it was a bit too harsh. On the callers end however they had a few complains of static and echo. Using the speakerphone was a better option than using the headset.

This one offers a battery life of five hours talktime and 12.5 days.

Nitty-Gritty: This one is a basic messaging phone with a few multimedia goodies. Also it’s pretty much affordable and would be a nice choice for anyone who is looking out for a nice easy to use affordable phone.