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.

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.

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.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Admirable call quality, good camera, decent display, good battery life.

Thumbs down: Drab outdated design.

THE WHIZ KID SPEAKS: History repeats itself… and in the case of Samsung it keeps on happening so many times. LOL. Frankly I don’t understand whats the point in launching a phone which is similar to many that were launched three years ago again. I mean is it so tough for Sammy to move on?? Anyways all my lame wisecracks aside let’s move ahead with the review of this one…

Razzle-Dazzle: This one is BAH… again a slider… nothing new. No no, I aint saying this one is unattractive but then it’s like u get bored of seeing the same thing again n again. Anyways, this is a sleek silver one with a smooth slider mechanism. At 4.06 inches by 1.93 inches by 0.88 inch and weighing 3.28 ounces this one easily slips into the pocket.

Its got a 2.25 inch display with support for 262,000 colours and a resolution of  320×240 pixels. As such there isn’t any real drawback with the display, it’s a pretty much average plain jane display. Right below the display we have a navigation toggle, the talk and end buttons along with the clear key and two soft keys on each side of the navigation toggle. Pushing the slider reveals the keypad. The buttons on the keypad are pretty much flat and don’t offer much hindrance while dialing. They are pretty much well spaced, but speed texters might face a few problems getting used to the keypad.

The left spine houses the volume rocker and the micro SD slot and on the right side we have the camera shutter and the headphone jack. To click a photo you need to slide the phone as the camera lens and the self portrait mirror are located behind the slider.

Inside Dope: Like the other phones from Samsung even this one has a 1000 entry phonebook along with other features like the vibrate mode, alarm clock, calculator, timer, speakerphone, memo list, a unit and currency converter. Keeping the basic features aside this one also offers support for Bluetooth, GPS and PC syncing. This one also includes the POP3 email support.

This one also comes loaded with a 2 megapixel camera and lets the user take pictures in four resolutions ranging from 1,600×1,200 to 320×240. It also offers a few editing options. The camcorder offers a decent 176×144 resolution. The photo quality is pretty much decent and exhibits hardly any noise. The photos are also bright and quite vibrant. Once the user is done taking the pictures, the pictures can easily be transferred using the Bluetooth support or can be stored on the phone itself which offers an inbuilt memory of 80MB. However the memory is expandable so I would recommend using a separate memory card for storage.

Coming to the music player… it’s a basic simple music player with an user friendly menu. The songs are categorized according to artists, genres, albums and tracks. As in most of the phones the audio quality of the speakers ain’t all that great, it would better to use a pair of headphones while on the go.

The call quality… not that I wasn’t expecting it but then the call quality was excellent. No static or interference with strong signal. Also the callers on the other side could not tell that I was using a cellphone. Speakerphone quality was also pretty decent except for at crowded places.

The battery of this one offers a 5 hours talktime and 12.5 days on standby mode which is again decent enough for a phone like the T659.

Nitty-Gritty: I kind of totally understand the attachment that Sammy has towards the slider design because it didn’t launch one or two but a total bundle of such phones around 3 years back and now again its come out with the same design. For Pete sake’s Sammy move on… anyways this one is a decent basic phone. It’s almost got everything that a decent phone must have. I would recommend this one to anyone who is looking out for a decent phone for longterm use…

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Brilliant looks, great audio quality, decent call quality, impressive TouchFlo3D interface.

Thumbs down: Bad video streaming, exorbitant price, slow GPS acquisition.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: With the launch of this one, the best Windows mobile just got better. Finally after all the rumours doing the rounds Sprint and HTC Touch Pro2 have tied the knot. Like always Sprint always has something on offer for everyone and this time it’s the chance of power business users. This one comes loaded with features which are sure enough to satisfy the most fussy customers.

Razzle-dazzle: Jaw dropping looks… oozes out a lot of oomph as far as looks are concerned. Available in charcoal gray it’s got a classic contoured look. At 4.56 inches tall by 2.33 inches wide by 0.68 inch thick and 6.3 ounces this one is quite a clunky one. But I guess all the bulk accounts for all the features that it comes loaded with.

The screen is a 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen with support for about 262,000 colors at 480×800 pixels making browsing through the web, word processing etc. a pleasant experience. This one was responsive enough for being a resistive one. Also it has an efficient inbuilt accelerometer using which the orientation of the phone can be easily switched by rotating the phone.

Coming to the QWERTY keyboard, using this one was quite a delight with its comfortable spacing and large buttons. At the bottom of the device is a 3.5mm headphone jack with the volume controls on the left side of the device. And for all those who love their music loud it has 2 dual speakers at the back. What I didn’t like is that the memory card slot is behind the battery door which means that every time the user needs the card he or she will have to open the battery door.

Inside dope: This one offers dual-mode functionality which means GSM and CDMA together. When using within the country it works on the CDMA network aand while on roaming it works on the GSM network. While on roaming Sprint offers voice coverage in 180 countries and Data coverage in 150 countries. The other functionality that the Sprint mobile offers are HTC’s Straight Talk Technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition.

Navigation through the Windows has been made more easier with the TouchFlo 3D interface. There are also a few other tabs that Sprint has added too make navigation easy. In my opinion the TouchFlo 3D interface is what has to be looked forward to.

Its got a 3.2 megapixel camera which has five resolution modes along with four quality settings. The only glitch here is that it doesn’t offer flash, though to make up for it there are several brightness control settings. The video mode supports video capturing in any of the four formats i.e. H.263, 3GPP2, MEPG4, or H.264. the internal memory it has to offer is 288MB which can be extended too 16GB using a memory card. I wasn’t quite impressed with the picture quality, though the objects were quite distinguishable in the photos they weren’t all that sharp and always exhibited some amount of haziness. The video quality was not that great either being choppy at times with some interruptions. Also viewing videos on Youtube was not cumbersome, just that it took some time for the videos to get buffered. And the Sprint TV was a huge disappointment with none of the clips being played accurately with heavy interruptions here and there.

Coming to the call quality I must say that I found it absolutely mind blowing. Crisp sound without any interference and hardly any static and absolutely no background sounds. However on the callers end they were not all that satisfied. They experienced a bit of an echo. And they also added that when I was talking through the speakerphones some parts of the conversation would get cut.

Web browsing hardly took any time and the pages loaded within seconds using the Sprint’s  EV-DO Rev. A network. Compared to this the speed of the GPS facility was not that great. It took quite some time to get through the exact location but once it is started tracking it was quite efficient with the spoken commands being pretty much loud and audible and helped me too my way through the traffic.

The battery life has a rated talktime of  4 hours and can run on the standby mode for as long as 14 hours.

Nitty-gritty: This one comes a huge price tag for sure but it balances the features that are being offered with it. Its got lots of stuff to offer as compared to the one launched by T-mobile and the best being the 3.5mm headphone being offered. If your looking for unique high end features wallet is ready to take the blow then probably you could go ahead and get this one…

Thumbs up: Pocket friendly price, excellent battery life, good call quality, decent touch screen performance.

Thumbs down: No 3.5 mm headphone jack, poor image quality, absence of 3G and Wi-Fi.

Inside the trunk:

• Price at launch £140.00
• Connectivity USB 2.0
• Dimensions 106 x 53.5 x 11.9
• Weight (g) 93.50
• Battery Type Standard battery, Li-Ion 1000 mAh
• Camera Resolution 3.15

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: This one is the youngest one from the Tocco family. After the Samsung Tocco F480 and the Tocco Ultra Edition S8300 comes in the Samsung Tocco Lite S5230. This latest one is peeled off a few features that its older siblings had to offer, but I guess this was done to make the price more pocket friendly as this one claims to give the user an affordable touchscreen experience.

Razzle- dazzle: This one doesn’t stand out to be any different from the basic design of the other members of the Tocco family. Its got the basic black glossy look with a bare to the bones classy design which almost of the touchscreens after the iPhone have been adhering to. For all those who are bored of the black, this one is being offered in flashy pink and pure white versions too. It’s got curved edges to add to its swish looks and at 92g this one is quite lightweight plus its got some texturing on the back which allows for some good grip. Also at 106(h) x 53.5(w) x 11.9(d) mm this one fits quite conveniently into the pocket or in any clutch.

With this one Samsung has surely gone minimal, on the front side it has the touchscreen display and below it there is the navigation toggle along with the talk and end buttons. The display is quite bright and clear though it faces a few problems when directly under the sun, but then again most of the touchscreens have this glitch. It works absolutely fine otherwise.

The right side houses the camera button and the lock/unlock key and the other side houses the volume/zoom rocker control, multi-connector socket for USB cable, charger and the earphones jacks. The lock/unlock facility functioned properly most of the times but on a few occasions got unlocked on its own in the pocket and also a few widgets were activated though no calls were made.

Inside dope: Though Samsung has compromised on quite a few features with this one it has retained the TouchWiz UI like in the others from the Tocco family and the Jet. The interface can easily be managed by swiping the finger over the screen. This one being more of a resistive display, doesnot have the smart multi-touch feature.

The 3 buttons on the standby screen are for stimulating the numberpad, the contact book and the main menu. The numbers on the numberpad have been comfortably placed to avoid any mispresses and it well quite succeeds in achieving this. The phonebook can be used to find a number in three ways. Either swiping down through the whole list or directly typing the name on the search bar. The other option that it offers is searching through sections letter by letter. It also has an option of photo contacts, using which all your recent contacts photos will pop up on the screen in a grid like fashion and all you have to do is click on the photo to make a call.

Coming to messaging… with the roomy virtual pad that this one has to offer, messaging is made a bit less harrowing an experience than most of the touchscreen phones. Though, most heavy texters might find this touchscreen a bit of a hassle compared to the conventional phones I guess this is the most Samsung could do to help them. The T9 option offered with this one does take some time to get used to. It also has a handwriting recognition mode which works just fine. One complain that I have with the Samsung phones is that when you are typing the text you do not come to know if you have crosses the on page limit, its only when you go ahead with sending the message do you come to know if you have crosses the limit. This offers an email service too, using the regular POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts.

The call quality that this one has to offer is pretty much impressive with hardly any static or interference. The sound quality was pretty much audible and clear with no echo effects. Even the callers on the other end had no complains with most of them not even coming to know that I was using a celllphone.

This one offers a nice comfortably big screen for browsing the web and using the internet but then again it does not support 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity for faster speeds. Using the GPRS or the EDGE services takes up a lot of time. The Samsung browser is also hassle free as compared to most of the competition that it faces.

This one comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera but by the looks of it, it looks like this one is surely not an imaging device. It lacks even the basic LED flash. The images appear to be a bit oversaturated at times and also with close ups, the quality of the photographs isn’t crisp enough. It’s got the fun frames and the smile detection feature along with a colourisation and timer effect. Its kind of shoot-and- wish kind of a scenario with this kind of a camera. I wish Samsung had come up with something better in this department.

The music player though not as high end as the  one offered by the iPhone is decent enough. The audio quality through the speakers is quite decent just with some added bass which could be avoided by using the earphone( yeah this one doesn’t have a 3.5mm  headphone jack). Video streaming can get grainy and discontinuity may occur because of the low speeds.

The Tocco lite battery life has been estimated to be around 10 hours of talktime and about 600 hours in standby mode which brilliant enough and this iss possible because of the absence of the 3G and Wi-Fi services.

Nitty- gritty: I would recommend this one to anyone to wants to be in touch control at a budget price. Though this one doesn’t have a lot of features, the price it is being offered for makes up for it.

Sum n substance:

Thumbs up: Attractive design, dual- CDMA/GSM mode, slim lightweight, 2-megapixel camera, GPS and Bluetooth.

Thumbs down: No micro SD slot i.e. non expandable memory.

Inside the trunk:

• Technology CDMA
• Band CDMA 800/850/1800/1900 (Quadband)
• Phone Design Flip
• Caller ID Yes
• Wireless Interface Bluetooth.
• Additional Features TTY compatible , VZ Navigator , Speakerphone , Voice command , GPS , Voice recognition , GPRS support , Voice dialing.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: It’s a basic flip phone offering global roaming, and it can use CDMA and GSM simultaneously. The first non smartphone to offer this service was the Samsung Renown, and this one by Pantech PCD follows in its league. However the Escapade is aimed at the international traveler who just wants to stay connected by making a few calls here and there and doesn’t need much of the exquisite features.

Razzle- Dazzle: I ve always found the flip phone design pretty enticing, and I personally loved the design of this one too. Available in dark maroon, the construction of this one seems to be pretty good. Measuring 3.9 inches long by 1.9 inches wide by 0.9 inch thick, the Verizon Wireless Escapade is pretty much sleek and slim. At 3.4 ounces this one is quite lightweight and fits in almost as snug as a rug in a bug in your hand. Also since it’s not quite huge it can be easily slipped into your pocket.

It’s got a 1.1-inch 65,000 color external display which shows the date, battery life, signal strength, time and caller ID. The volume rocker  and the headset jack sit comfortably on the left spine whereas the charger jack, camera key, and voice command key are placed on the right. Flipping the phone open reveals a 2” diagonal 176×220 pixel TFT display, with a support for 262k colours. The only complain I had with the display was that it didn’t have any kind of brightness controls which only means that the display could easily black out when under direct sun. Also the low resolution does very less to add anything to the display resulting in grainy images and pictures.

Directly below the display is the keypad. As you can see the keys are pretty much flat, yeah they are comfortable but aren’t good enough to dial by feel. The navigation array is also pretty much roomy and offers a good dialing experience.

Inside dope: The Escapade comes along with a 500-entry phonebook. Each entry can store upto 5 numbers, two email addresses an IM screen name and a street address. The other key features offered by the Escapade are multimedia messaging, speakerphone, calculator, calendar, world clock, notepad, unit converter and a stopwatch.

Apart from the basic features this one also offers Bluetooth, instant messenger, a web browser and GPS for the advanced users. The GPS service is supported by services like Chaperone and VZ navigator.

Coming to the cult feature of the Escapade i.e. dual mode CDMA/ GSM compatibility. When  you are in the  country you can use the Verizon wireless service, and when you are out of the country you could use the preloaded SIM card with any GSM carrier.

It comes loaded with a 2 megapixel camera which lets you click pictures in four resolutions 1,600×1,200, 1,280×960, 640×480, 320×240. The images were much to my surprise pretty much vibrant and animated. The image quality was pretty decent with hardly any noise. This one doesn’t come loaded with a camcorder though.

Talking about the most important feature for a basic phone, i.e. call quality. Quite unsurprisingly the quality of calls in this one was pretty good. The voice clarity was high and it almost sounded like I was using a landline telephone displaying hardly any amount of static or interference. On the callers end too, they were pretty much satisfied with the sound quality and hardly had any issues with it. The surprising difference that this one displayed in comparision to the other basic phones was that the sound quality over the speakerphones was also decent enough and did not sound much different from the sound heard from the headset.

The battery life that the escapade offers is not bad either with 3.8 hours talktime and 13.2 days on standby.

Nitty-gritty: The Verizon wireless escapade has some tough competition in the form of the Samsung Renown. Though this one is comparatively cheaper, the feature of the Samsung one is better. But as I said earlier this one is basically aimed at the traveler who just wants to make a few calls. So if you are one of them and you need a phone at good reasonable price then this should surely be your pick.