Smartphone Review

The Samsung Propel Pro from AT&T is a Windows Mobile 6.1 slider phone with a full QWERTY keyboard and a stylish exterior. It’s a quad band world phone with Wi-Fi and some extras.

BUILD AND DESIGN
The first word that comes to mind when I look at the Samsung Propel Pro is “sexy”. The device has an ultra-sleek exterior that looks like polished hematite. It’s really quite striking, and looks much cooler than a lot of the other cookie-cutter phones on the market.

Even though the exterior of the phone is plastic it looks like metal, and the device feels very solid in the hand. At 2.4 inches wide, especially in my relatively small hand, it is so wide that its sharp corners tend to dig into my palm if I’m trying to use it one-handed. The phone is a little on the heavy side, but not too heavy, and the weight is pretty well balanced between the top slider and the main portion of the phone.

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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.

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BY: AWright, Brighthand.com Contributor

The Nokia E63 is a Symbian S60 QWERTY smartphone. Most will look at it and easily mistake it for the Samsung BlackJack II, Palm Treo 755, or the BlackBerry Bold. All four devices are similar in their design, application, and approach. However, the E63 represents something of response from Nokia to bolster its appearance in the low and mid-range market segments, where most of the purchasing power with consumers lie. And so far in my impressions, I can say it nailed the target.

Build and Design
Though it looks similar to the Nokia E71, another QWERTY smartphone, the E63 is considerably thicker, and slightly underspecced. This is to ensure its marketing position below that of the E71, and at the same time to allow the E63 some distinction of its own.

In addition to the aforementioned keyboard, the E63 features a 320-by-240-pixel (QVGA) screen in the landscape view. Offering some striking colors and contrasts, it works well in office or direct sunlight.

There are not many buttons surrounding the E63. The top has a covered 3.5 mm headset jack — better than that of the E71 — and that’s it. The power button on the E71 has been moved to the End Call button. The sides are also bare of volume or voice recorder buttons, having only having two covered slots for the Micro-USB and microSDHC memory card slots.

The rear is likewise bare, featuring only a the 2.0 megapixel camera (with flash and auto-focus) to break up the one-piece battery cover. Read More »

BY: Jen Edwards, Brighthand.com Contributor

The HTC S740 is a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone with a slightly unusual design; it has a numberpad and display on the front, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

This review covers the HTC S740, a European device which is being sold unlocked. This GSM phone is virtually identical to the upcoming HTC S743, which will in essence be the U.S. version of the same model. The S740 doesn’t support the N. American 3G networks, while the S743 will.

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