Good one for the texting craze
Sunday, April 1, 2007
DESPITE the recent trend toward touch screen phones such as the NEC N908 and the Apple iPhone, phones with actual buttons are not going away any time soon tactile feedback is still king in the cell phone world.
Handsets with a built-in QWERTY keyboard are especially desirable for many, a texting fanatic and the brand-new Samsung SCH-u740 for Verizon Wireless is one such example. Similar to Cingular's Samsung SGH-d307, the u740 features a cool, dual-flip design that lets you switch between portrait and landscape view for easy messaging.
The SCH-u740 is a huge improvement over its predecessor in almost every way not only does it have much better navigation controls, the SCH-u740 also comes packed with a camera, a music player and access to the full stable of Verizon Wireless multimedia services including V Cast Music and Video.
The SCH-u740 is quite a handsome phone. Its wide yet slim body is a subtle metallic-champagne colour, and simple black accents give it a sophisticated and stylish look. It's thin enough to slip into your pants pocket with ease but also has a nice heft when held in the hand, thanks to its 3.6-ounce weight, and it cradles nicely next to the ear when opened.
Located on the SCH-u740's front flap is a small yet bright 1.1-inch external display that shows the date, the time, signal and battery strength, and photo caller ID. We were impressed with its 65,000-colour display, especially because we could use it as a camera viewfinder for self-portraits.
Above the screen and the Samsung logo is the camera lens, while touch-sensitive music player controls are underneath the display.
The rest of the phone's exterior is pretty basic: The left spine is home to a Hold button to lock or unlock controls, a volume rocker, and the charger/accessory jack; the speakerphone key and a microSD card slot are on the right spine. We were disappointed that there wasn't a dedicated camera button on the phone's exterior, which meant we could only activate the camera with the phone open.
As we mentioned earlier, the u740 features the same dual-flip design as the SGH-d307. This innovative design lets you open the phone vertically like a traditional clamshell, or you could open the phone horizontally and rotate it so the orientation of the display changes to landscape mode. Speaking of the display, we were delighted to see a lovely 2.2-inch, 262,000-colour LCD inside.
Thankfully, Samsung appears to have learned its mistake from the d307's quirky navigation controls. While the d307's navigation controls did double duty with the QWERTY keyboard, the u740's navigation controls are decidedly separate from the rest of the keypad. There are two soft keys underneath the display when viewed in portrait mode, and a third soft key on the lower-left corner is for use when viewing in landscape mode.
The familiar circular navigation controls with a middle OK key is also present, and they double as shortcuts to four user-defined functions. Below the soft keys and the navigation controls are the Send and End/Power key, the camera/camcorder key, the Clear key, and the voice command key.
We were surprisingly pleased with the mini QWERTY keyboard and the button layout of the phone. All the keys were raised above the surface of the phone, and we found the keyboard to be spacious and tactile enough to type out text messages with ease.
Though u740's improved keyboard was notable by itself, it's the features that make the u740 really shine over its predecessor. The SGH-d307 lacked multimedia features, but the u740 ramps it up with a megapixel camera, a music player, and full access to Verizon's V Cast capabilities.
And its phone offerings are pretty good as well. The u740 comes with an address book including room in each entry for five phone numbers, two email addresses and a note. You can also save contacts to a group and pair each contact with a photo for caller ID or one of 10 polyphonic ringtones.
Other basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, email, voice commands and dialling, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, world clock, stop watch, notepad, speakerphone, wireless web browser and Bluetooth.
There's also an optional Wireless Sync email feature that lets you sync up with your business or personal email addresses.
The u740's EV-DO support comes in handy especially when it comes to accessing Verizon's multimedia broadband offerings like V Cast Music and V Cast Video. It's worth noting that you can only access the music player plus the V Cast services when the phone is in landscape mode.
The music player and V Cast interface is similar to that of other Verizon phones.You also have the option of purchasing and downloading other applications such as VZ Navigator, Chaperone Parent, and many more via Verizon's Get It Now service.
The 1.3-megapixel camera has a healthy array of settings, which include five different resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120, and a Picture ID setting), three quality settings (Fine, Normal, Economy), up to 4x zoom, colour effects, white balance, light metering, flash, timer, auto save, preview mode and multishot.
The camcorder has two recording modes: Clips meant for multimedia messages are limited to 15 seconds, but Normal mode lets you record for as long as the available memory permits. Of course, you always can use a microSD card for more space.
The quality of the photos was acceptable; though the images appeared a little blurry, they weren't as pixilated as that of a VGA camera, and colours remained bright and bold. The video quality on the other hand was pretty shoddy, especially in low-light conditions.
Personalisation options are plenty with the u740. Not only can you use the wide array of preloaded wallpapers and graphics, you can download more from Verizon's Get It Now service. The same goes for ringtones and alerts. The u740 doesn't come with any games, but you can download more Brew games from Verizon. We managed to download Pac-Man in a mere second, and playing it in the phone's landscape mode was quite fun.
We tested the dual-band Samsung SCH-u740 (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless service. We were impressed with the call quality, which was very good, and callers reported little to no static. The speakerphone quality was excellent as well; callers reported that we sounded loud and clear even though we placed the phone a couple of feet away.
We managed to pair the SCH-u740 with the Technocel T50 Bluetooth headset without a problem, and call quality from the headset was quite good too.
We downloaded music files via V Cast Music within seconds. Browsing the web was also quite speedy, and video streamed without buffering issues.
The video quality was pretty mediocre, however, with a lot of pixilation that was especially noticeable in action shots such as sports video clips. On the other hand, music quality was very good. It sounded loud and clear from the phone's speakers and through a headset.
The Samsung SCH-u740 has a rated talk time of 3.5 hours and a rated standby time of 8.3 days. Our tests revealed an impressive talk time of four hours and 18 minutes. Reuters
Handsets with a built-in QWERTY keyboard are especially desirable for many, a texting fanatic and the brand-new Samsung SCH-u740 for Verizon Wireless is one such example. Similar to Cingular's Samsung SGH-d307, the u740 features a cool, dual-flip design that lets you switch between portrait and landscape view for easy messaging.
The SCH-u740 is a huge improvement over its predecessor in almost every way not only does it have much better navigation controls, the SCH-u740 also comes packed with a camera, a music player and access to the full stable of Verizon Wireless multimedia services including V Cast Music and Video.
The SCH-u740 is quite a handsome phone. Its wide yet slim body is a subtle metallic-champagne colour, and simple black accents give it a sophisticated and stylish look. It's thin enough to slip into your pants pocket with ease but also has a nice heft when held in the hand, thanks to its 3.6-ounce weight, and it cradles nicely next to the ear when opened.
Located on the SCH-u740's front flap is a small yet bright 1.1-inch external display that shows the date, the time, signal and battery strength, and photo caller ID. We were impressed with its 65,000-colour display, especially because we could use it as a camera viewfinder for self-portraits.
Above the screen and the Samsung logo is the camera lens, while touch-sensitive music player controls are underneath the display.
The rest of the phone's exterior is pretty basic: The left spine is home to a Hold button to lock or unlock controls, a volume rocker, and the charger/accessory jack; the speakerphone key and a microSD card slot are on the right spine. We were disappointed that there wasn't a dedicated camera button on the phone's exterior, which meant we could only activate the camera with the phone open.
As we mentioned earlier, the u740 features the same dual-flip design as the SGH-d307. This innovative design lets you open the phone vertically like a traditional clamshell, or you could open the phone horizontally and rotate it so the orientation of the display changes to landscape mode. Speaking of the display, we were delighted to see a lovely 2.2-inch, 262,000-colour LCD inside.
Thankfully, Samsung appears to have learned its mistake from the d307's quirky navigation controls. While the d307's navigation controls did double duty with the QWERTY keyboard, the u740's navigation controls are decidedly separate from the rest of the keypad. There are two soft keys underneath the display when viewed in portrait mode, and a third soft key on the lower-left corner is for use when viewing in landscape mode.
The familiar circular navigation controls with a middle OK key is also present, and they double as shortcuts to four user-defined functions. Below the soft keys and the navigation controls are the Send and End/Power key, the camera/camcorder key, the Clear key, and the voice command key.
We were surprisingly pleased with the mini QWERTY keyboard and the button layout of the phone. All the keys were raised above the surface of the phone, and we found the keyboard to be spacious and tactile enough to type out text messages with ease.
Though u740's improved keyboard was notable by itself, it's the features that make the u740 really shine over its predecessor. The SGH-d307 lacked multimedia features, but the u740 ramps it up with a megapixel camera, a music player, and full access to Verizon's V Cast capabilities.
And its phone offerings are pretty good as well. The u740 comes with an address book including room in each entry for five phone numbers, two email addresses and a note. You can also save contacts to a group and pair each contact with a photo for caller ID or one of 10 polyphonic ringtones.
Other basic features include a vibrate mode, text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, email, voice commands and dialling, calculator, calendar, alarm clock, world clock, stop watch, notepad, speakerphone, wireless web browser and Bluetooth.
There's also an optional Wireless Sync email feature that lets you sync up with your business or personal email addresses.
The u740's EV-DO support comes in handy especially when it comes to accessing Verizon's multimedia broadband offerings like V Cast Music and V Cast Video. It's worth noting that you can only access the music player plus the V Cast services when the phone is in landscape mode.
The music player and V Cast interface is similar to that of other Verizon phones.You also have the option of purchasing and downloading other applications such as VZ Navigator, Chaperone Parent, and many more via Verizon's Get It Now service.
The 1.3-megapixel camera has a healthy array of settings, which include five different resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 160x120, and a Picture ID setting), three quality settings (Fine, Normal, Economy), up to 4x zoom, colour effects, white balance, light metering, flash, timer, auto save, preview mode and multishot.
The camcorder has two recording modes: Clips meant for multimedia messages are limited to 15 seconds, but Normal mode lets you record for as long as the available memory permits. Of course, you always can use a microSD card for more space.
The quality of the photos was acceptable; though the images appeared a little blurry, they weren't as pixilated as that of a VGA camera, and colours remained bright and bold. The video quality on the other hand was pretty shoddy, especially in low-light conditions.
Personalisation options are plenty with the u740. Not only can you use the wide array of preloaded wallpapers and graphics, you can download more from Verizon's Get It Now service. The same goes for ringtones and alerts. The u740 doesn't come with any games, but you can download more Brew games from Verizon. We managed to download Pac-Man in a mere second, and playing it in the phone's landscape mode was quite fun.
We tested the dual-band Samsung SCH-u740 (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless service. We were impressed with the call quality, which was very good, and callers reported little to no static. The speakerphone quality was excellent as well; callers reported that we sounded loud and clear even though we placed the phone a couple of feet away.
We managed to pair the SCH-u740 with the Technocel T50 Bluetooth headset without a problem, and call quality from the headset was quite good too.
We downloaded music files via V Cast Music within seconds. Browsing the web was also quite speedy, and video streamed without buffering issues.
The video quality was pretty mediocre, however, with a lot of pixilation that was especially noticeable in action shots such as sports video clips. On the other hand, music quality was very good. It sounded loud and clear from the phone's speakers and through a headset.
The Samsung SCH-u740 has a rated talk time of 3.5 hours and a rated standby time of 8.3 days. Our tests revealed an impressive talk time of four hours and 18 minutes. Reuters
Business Besides Oil
