Smartphone Review

BY: Jen Edwards, Brighthand.com Contributor
The Samsung Impression, one of the latest from AT&T, has a large touch-screen display and a spacious keyboard, along with an excellent camera. It’s a quad-band GSM world phone with Bluetooth and GPS functionality, plus fun polyphonic ringtones and highly customizable vibrating alerts.

It’s an exceptional device that might make you decide you need a new phone — even if you like your current one.
Design & Build
My first impression of this device was a good one; it’s a substantial phone that nevertheless doesn’t feel heavy. It’s nicely designed in almost every respect — rounded in all the right places, with a slide-out keyboard that functions well.

At 4.48 inches it’s just a bit taller than other phones, but it’s also a little narrower at just a hair under 2.25 inches, and it feels great in my relatively small hand. It’s a bit large in the pocket, but it works.

Most of the buttons are located on the sides of the device, and they’re large enough to manipulate easily while still being small and unobtrusive as far as aesthetics are concerned. The call, back, and disconnect buttons underneath the screen are flush with the front of the device, but well designed and still easy to use — my fingers don’t have any trouble finding them.

I have only one small complaint about the overall physical design of the Impression, and that’s the location and use of the Lock key. It’s located on the right side of the device, on the lower portion (the keyboard slider, not the display). You have to press and hold it for a couple of seconds to unlock the device, and both my test subjects and I had the same problem with it.

When you try to press the button with your thumb, you tend to also press on the left side of the device as well, which can start opening the slider and causing the display to slide over to the right, making it harder to keep pressure on that lock button. I could be making way too much of this point, but I still find it annoying after using the device for a week now, and it’s the only real problem with the physical design of the Impression. I’m learning to adjust for it and hold the phone slightly differently, but I felt this should still be mentioned. Read More »

BY: Jen Edwards, Brighthand.com Contributor
The Pharos Traveler 127 may look like a BlackBerry at first glance, but it’s a Windows Mobile Professional smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity (in addition to GPRS), and a built-in GPS that can ensure that you never get lost, even if you don’t have phone coverage.

It’s a little larger than some of the mobile phones available today, but it packs in a lot of features that may make the trade-off worthwhile. Unfortunately it isn’t available directly from any carrier, and is currently being sold as an unlocked GSM smartphone for $530 — though you can get it from eXpansys for $480.
Build and Design
No matter what other issues the Traveler 127 may have, the device is very well made and exceptionally solid, though surprisingly lightweight for it size.

The design is somewhat boxy, with the corners being only slightly rounded at the top and bottom. The phone isn’t ugly, but it isn’t sexy–it’s obviously meant to be a productivity tool for a mobile professional, with no added frills.

The exterior case has been finished with a “soft touch” feel that is comfortable to hold and doesn’t catch fingerprints and smudges. That also means that the phone isn’t slippery at all, and feels good in the hand. It’s about as wide a device as is comfortable to use with one hand, unless you’re manipulating the power switch. This is a slider at the top left edge of the phone, and it’s a real pain to use.

Waking and sleeping the device are a quick slide of the button, which I can do with one hand, reaching up with my index finger. Turning the device on or off is a two-handed operation though, because you have to hold the switch for several seconds and the ridges on the switch tend to dig in a big painfully. I’d rather hold the phone with one hand and then use the edge of my fingernail to slide and hold the switch.

You must remove the back plate of the phone in order to access the microSD slot. It isn’t that hard to do, but this design choice does make trying to use multiple cards something of a hassle, It would likely be best to invest in the highest capacity card you can afford. Read More »

BY: AWright, Brighthand.com Contributor

When Nokia introduced the very thin and powerful Nokia E71 QWERTY smartphone, it probably had no clue that this would be such a popular model. So much so that they could keep it at a higher price point and release a sibling model, the E63, with a lower price and slightly reduced feature set.

The interesting thing is that the Nokia E63 doesn’t really feel like a cheaper device when you are using it. It’s that good.

Read More »

BY: Shaun Mahal, Brighthand.com Contributor

The Samsung Propel offers a sliding keyboard, camera, and 3G antenna in a compact form factor.

This AT&T-powered phone is web enabled with a full keyboard to make messaging easier, but there are some notable deficiencies in the Propel. The screen has an average resolution, and is small compared to the available space available.

Weighing the pros and the cons of the phone, it’s hard to say that the Propel significantly outshines its competition in the $50 price range in which it resides.

Design and Build
The Propel is more comfortable in your pocket than a deck of cards when the keyboard is hidden. The keyboard slides out easily, though not easy enough to do so accidentally.

Keyboard: The Propel’s keyboard features a dedicated letter per key, with most keys also serving as a function key. There are also shortcut keys for AT&T’s Cellular Video, the camera, and a toggle mode for vibration.

Users probably won’t feel comfortable typing at great lengths on this keyboard, but it is a big improvement over the traditional numeric keypad. The biggest problem with the keyboard is the lack of space between the top of the top row and the bottom of the sliding portion of the phone. A touch more space would make it more comfortable for the user to type using both hands at once.

Display: The display is larger than an average phone, but it could still be a little larger to really stand out. Though its resolution is average, some features look better than others. For example, AT&T’s Cellular Video provides full episodes of your favorite shows (read: Lost) that are actually good enough to watch. Read More »