Samsung Messager II SCH-R560- Outperforms Its Older Sibling For Sure

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Good keyboard, attractive feature set, decent call quality.

Thumbs down: No flash and self portrait mirror, bad video streaming.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Looks like Sammy learnt quite a few lessons from the launch of the Messager and thankfully came up with the refined Messager 2. This one is not only more attractive but also has an appealing feature set. So lets go ahead and see what Sammy has to offer with this latest one…

Razzle-dazzle: I ain’t going to start with my rant on the Messager but I just can’t move ahead with the review of this without mentioning the fact that its older sibling was almost mistaken for a toy. Thankfully the Massager 2 looks and feels more sturdy and has a got a nice flamboyant aura around it. It isn’t all that attractive but then again it isn’t down right ugly.

It’s got a 2.2 inch display which supports a 262,000 colours which is quite vibrant and bright. The images look innate and pleasant. The menus are user friendly and the shortcut icons on the standby display are pretty useful.

What is impressive about the Messager is the nifty navigation array. It’s got a circular wheel which functions both as a four way toggle and a scrollwheel. Its got two soft keys, a clear button, a speakerphone shortcut and the talk and the end buttons on either side of the navigation toggle. Below the toggle is the keypad which is spacious enough with flush keys. Though the numbers on the phone are small, the keys make up for a nice pleasant typing experience.

On the left spine it houses the volume rocker and the microSd slot and on the right spine it houses the camera shutter and the Micro-USB port. The camera lens and the speaker rest on the back of the phone though this one lacks a flash and self  portrait mirror.

Sliding the phone on the left side reveals the keyboard. The slider mechanism is quite sturdy and the keyboard has a pleasant feel in the hand. The keys are nicely spaced out and though they are flat they make up for a comfortable typing experience. This one does not have an accelerometer though it flips to the landscape mode when the phone is rotated. The keys are backlit which make it easier to use in the dark.

Inside dope: This one has a 1000 entry phonebook which can store around five numbers and an email address per entry. Apart from the basic features like the vibrate mode, calculator, alarm clock, calendar and a tip calculator, this one has Bluetooth with file transfer protocol, voice dialing, USB support and a variety of other applications.

This one comes with an iinternal memory of 40 MB, but can be spruced up with an external memory card.

It comes loaded with a 2- megapixel camera which can be used to take pictures in almost five resolutions. The quality of the photos was pretty much impressive for a 2 megapixel camera. It didn’t display much noise and the photos were pretty much clear and vibrant. The multimedia videos removed with the help of the camcorder are capped at 30 secs. The quality of the videos is pretty much mediocre though.

It’s got the standard Samsung music player which is pretty much easy to use. The toggle can be used to scroll over the song lists. The audio quality over the speakers isn’t that great and that’s like nothing new for this kind of a phone. So I recommend using a headset.

Coming to the most important factor… the call quality. Its pretty satisfactory to say the least. The call volume is good with hardly any interference or static. There was also no echo exhibited. Quite contrary to my expectations, the quality of the sound over the speakerphone was loud and clear even in crowded places. On the other end the callers were pretty much satisfied with the voice quality and hardly had any problems except some background sound. This one paired up easily with Bluetooth headsets and the voice quality over the Bluetooth headsets was also pretty much decent.

The messager 2 has a battery life of  12 hours on standby and 4 hours of talktime which is again pretty much average.

Nitty- gritty: This one is definitely targeted at those who want IM, e-mail and MMS when on the move. Priced at $149 this one is definitely better than its predecessor and is also a solid accretion to both the Metro PCS and Cricket.

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