Motorola Crush Brings Quirky Design, Good Usability, Midrange Feature Set

motorola-crush-phone

Designing a different-looking phone is always a hit-or-miss proposition.  Fortunately for the Motorola Crush, the design quirks doesn't affect its usability all that much, although they would take some getting used to.

Physically, the aforementioned kookiness is glaringly obvious - it puts the lock and call buttons on the top, instead of the bottom.  Combined with the touchscreen shortcuts placed at the top of the display, you'd think the phone was playing some accelerometer trick on you.  It's not that big of an issue, but will take a couple of spins before becoming second nature.

The screen is a bit small at only 2.8 inches (400 x 240 resolution), but they do offer ample brightness, clear lines and good response - very, very acceptable for this price range.   It also boasts a solid build and a comfortable feel in hand.

As a phone, the Crush delivers a very positive calling experience, with clear sounds and no interference.   It could use a little more volume, though.  The speakerphone performed the same way - admirable but lacking more power.  It has a rated battery life of 4.3 hours of talk time,  which should be good for a day or more of moderate use.

Features are strictly midrange.  You get the basics, including a 1,000-entry phonebook, PIM tools and a full range of messaging capabilities.  Notable additions include a built-in GPS, stereo Bluetooth, a pedometer and a full HTML browser.   The phone supports the CDMA2000 1X 3G standard, but there's no Wi-Fi.

It comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera, with almost zero options (yep, nothing but digital zoom).  Resulting quality is decent for such a low-res module, though.  The media player is rather basic, but it does support a good range of formats.  You can load media onto the device via microSD card (up to 16GB).

Overall, the Motorola Crush isn't the kind of phone you'll develop an infatuation for.  At $249.99 without a contract, though, it's an incredibly affordable touchscreen with all the midrange features you need to make it a worthwhile purchase.


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Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 Brings Excellent Business Phone Hardware, Mixed Performance Results

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Samsung's naming conventions tend to get very confusing and the new Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 (formerly rumored as the Samsung Louvre) suffers from the same.  Like its namesake (the OmniaPRO B7320), the latest business-ready handset also comes with a QWERTY keyboard.  Unlike the former's candybar form-factor, however, this one's a side-slider with a full touchscreen in the front panel.

Physically, the B7610 looks like a standard Samsung touchscreen phone, with the side-popping QWERTY actually proving to be a surprise.  Oddly enough, the back panel (not seen in the photo) is more visually unique, decked with red, light-reflecting elements.  It's largely built of plastic and feels like it, although the construction does feel sturdy with a good sliding mechanism.

It sports a 3.5-inch AMOLED screen, which delivers gorgeous displays.  The QWERTY keyboard offers ample size and decent travel, but the sensitivity needs some getting used to.  Early in our use, many of our keypresses just weren't registering.

As a phone, the Omnia PRO B7610 makes for decent call quality.  You can have conversations clearly, but not without the occasional interference and muffled sound.  The speakerphone, however, is barely usable with very low volume.  Battery is rated for over six hours of talk time and it lasted us a good 1.5 days of very heavy use.

The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.5 and brings an 800MHz processor to make sure it handles the OS capably.  Unfortunately, TouchWiz 2.0 (which covers the entire phone) remains sluggish at times.  It's not terrible, but the lags are tough to swallow when you see guys like HTC doing Windows Mobile with acceptable speeds.

It comes with all the usual Windows Mobile features, from solid messaging support to a bevy of onboard apps.  Samsung's updates to the default WinMo PIM tools are very much welcome (large buttons, bigger menus), along with the inclusion of an onscreen keyboard.  As a business phone, it gets the job done handily.

For web access, the handset comes with both Wi-Fi and 3G, along with Opera Mobile 9.5.  It's as good an experience as you can expect from a Windows Mobile device, although the aforementioned sluggishness does rear its ugly head occasionally.   Media playback (both audio and video) is excellent, with native support for DivX, Xvid and H.264.  Other notables include a fast GPS and an average-performing 5.0 megapixel camera.

Overall, the Samsung OmniaPRO B7610 is a solid contender if you're in the market for a business phone with both a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard,  If Windows Mobile is indispensable to your daily work, then your high-end choice will likely have to be either this phone or the HTC Touch Pro2.  I tend to fall in favor of the latter, although this is a quality performer all the same.

Samsung S5560 Marvel Review: Mid-Range Touchscreen Feature Phone With Excellent Battery Life

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The Samsung S5560 Marvel is a mid-range touchscreen handset.  While it doesn't look all that much different from the Korean company's stockpile of models, it does set itself apart in terms of features, bringing a specs sheet that sits between the entry-level Samsung Star and the more high-end Samsung Jet.

Physically, it doesn't veer far away from Samsung's tried and tested designs.  There's a 3-inch WQVGA screen  (excellent quality indoors, terrible under sunlight, impressive touch response for a resistive panel) and three front buttons (send, end and home).  It's not much of a looker, but is adequately attractive with a good overall build.

As a phone, it only manages average quality calls.  There's a feeling of the caller being distant through the earpiece, which was odd.  Volume is fine, though, and people on the other end reported no issues.  Battery life is extremely impressive.  Rated at 9.5 hours, it lives up to the promise over regular use (three days and it's still alive).

It runs TouchWiz 2.0, which should be familiar to anyone who has handled one of the newer Samsung touchscreens.  As we've said before, this particular UI is highly-usable and allows for a good range of expansion in terms of widgets and apps.

You'll get the usual range of features, such as a few default apps (lots of social networking stuff), PIM tools and messaging capabilities.  The email setup isn't as brainless as it happens on Blackberry and Nokia phones, though, which is a tad disappointing.  Overall, the basic features work well, especially the highly-responsive keyboards (both orientations).

For online connectivity, you're stuck with either Wi-Fi or EDGE as the Marvel doesn't support 3G.  It's a shame since the Webkit-based browser is well-done, with decent loading speed, smooth scrolling and a useful zoom facility.

The 5.0 megapixel camera module is average, boasting excellent shutter speed, a good range of editing options and acceptable quality of images (a little oversaturated).  Video capture is bad, though.  Onboard music player is actually better than the one on the Samsung Jet, with the hardware managing good audio quality (provided you replace the bundled buds).  Video is decent, too, with support for MPEG-4 and H.264 encoding.

Overall, there's nothing about the Samsung S5560 Marvel that really sets it apart from the mass of feature phones in terms of functionality.  What it does bring is a solid touchscreen device with a good range of features and an extremely impressive battery life.  If the latter is a critical requirement for you, then it could well be worth the price (which sits at between $450 to $500 unlocked, depending on where you buy).

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Samsung Caliber Looks Like The Company’s Other Multimedia Touchscreen Phones, Performs Similarly

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The Samsung Caliber is a well-executed multimedia touchscreen phone.  It's no surprise, considering that the Korean company has been putting out non-stop releases in that category throughout the year.

Physically, the handset is slim and lightweight, with smooth curved corners and a general aesthetic that mirrors similar qualities as Samsung's other mid-range touchscreens.  The chassis is largely plastic, contributing to the lighter weight, with a sturdy and comfortable construction.

It has a good-looking 3.2-inch touchscreen display, with a 240 x 400 resolution, managing bright and vibrant colors and images.  Samsung probably has some of the best resistive touchscreens around and the one on the Caliber falls somewhere along the middle.  It responds well enough to taps, but a stylus will ensure best operation.  The well-worn TouchWiz UI rounds out the device's software.

As a phone, the Caliber manages clear and natural-sounding calls, with only a slight hint of distortion in the background.  The speakerphone was loud too, although it created a little more echo.  It supports 3G connectivity, making for fast-loading web pages.  Video streaming is supported, but, like most handsets, provide mostly pixelated results.  Battery is rated at 5 hours of talk time, making it good for at least a couple of days under normal use.

It comes with all the basic handset features, including a 500-entry phonebook, stereo Bluetooth and standard messaging capabilities (SMS, MMS, IM and web mail).   The 3.0-megapixel camera comes with a good set of editing options, but only produces very average photos.  Unfortunately for the Caliber, I've seen several 2.0 megapixel camera phones (including ones from Samsung) that managed better shots.

The full HTML browser was good, offering fairly accurate page rendering and a useful range of controls.  It also comes with Flash Lite and manages to play most online video services.  The onboard music player is similar to Samsung's other offerings.  Quality is good, but the lack of a standard 3.5mm audio jack is disappointing.  Other features include onboard GPS and Wi-Fi.

Overall, the Samsung Caliber is a nice-looking device that's really no different from the deluge of feature phones the company has put out this year.  It's available unlocked for $340 and with contract from US Cellular for $130.

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Blackberry Storm 2 Adds Wi-Fi, Faster Performance, Improved Touch Facility

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While the Blackberry Storm didn't exactly turn other touchscreen smartphones on their head, it wasn't all that bad.  With a series of software improvements and beefed-up hardware, though, there are high hopes for its successor, the Blackberry Storm 2.

Physically, RIM's new touchscreen device isn't a big departure from the original Storm.  It sports the exact same dimensions and similar weight, but adds a few subtle touches.  The capacitive touchscreen measures 3.2 inches with a 480 x 360 resolution.  It comes with a built-in accelerometer and a proximity sensor.  The latter feature detects when a face is close to the screen, automatically turning it off to avoid mispresses.

The biggest update here, by far, is the revamped SurePress touch interface.  Instead of a mechanical suspension system, like in the original Storm, the new handset uses electronic activators beneath the display to simulate clicks.  The result is basic multi-touch support, improved touch response, faster typing and key rollovers.  Along with some nifty UI enhancements, it makes for a touchscreen facility that can finally rival some of the best smartphones around.

As a phone, the Storm 2 manages excellent voice calls, with a rich and clear sound that's free from any background interference.  Speakerphone was similarly loud and clean-sounding.  Overall phone performance is pretty snappy, while the 3G facility makes for very good data transfer rates.   The onboard browser appears faster than on other Blackberry phones, but it could also be the increased memory assisting the speed.  Battery has a rated talk time of 5.5 hours, which makes it useful for about 2 to 3 days on normal use.

RIM thankfully decided to add Wi-Fi to the mix, making the Storm 2 one of the more interesting world phone (yes, it supports both quad-band CDMA and dual-band GSM) choices around.   It also comes preinstalled with OS 5.0, which adds numerous enhancements to the handset's various applications.  Messaging, of course, remains a major strength (it syncs with literally everything), while the browser (with Google Gears, Blackberry Widgets and streaming support) has received notable improvements.  They even threw in DataViz Documents To Go Standard Edition to supplement the attachments viewer.

The onboard 3.2 megapixel camera is pretty good, with plenty of additional niceties (image stabilization, flash, lots of settings) and decent quality.  Other features include aGPS (with Blackberry Maps), a media player with wide format support, stereo Bluetooth and microSDHC expansion.

Overall, the Blackberry Storm 2 is a serious touchscreen smartphone contender.  The world phone capabilities, wide range of connectivity options, improved OS and SurePress technology makes it an attractive device for jetsetting business users.

Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 Packs AMOLED Touchscreen, Excellent Camera, Awesome Value

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The Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 (released in the US by Verizon) is a touchscreen messaging phone with a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out of the side.  With so many handsets of the same configuration in the market, the Rogue manages to set itself apart by sheer quality - it's simply one of the best devices in its category.

While largely geared toward heavy messaging users, the Rogue manages to count several high-end features among its specs.  Things like an AMOLED screen and a full HTML browser with Flash support just don't come to this class of handsets all that often.

Physically, the phone is a bit on the bulky side.  That's understandable, considering the hardware it packs, along with the full QWERTY panel.  It bears sophisticated looks, though, thanks to the bronze-and-silver color scheme and slightly roundish form.

The 3.1-inch touchscreen, however, simply steals attention.  Display is gorgeous at a 480 x 800 resolution, with vibrant colors and extremely bright images.  It does suffer somewhat under direct sunlight, but it's beautiful nonetheless.  Boasting Samsung's well-worn TouchWiz interface, UI performance holds its own across the excellent screen.

As a phone, voice calls sounded natural and clear.  Speakerphone performance was very similar, although the voices sounded a tad robotic.  Rated battery life is 4.7 hours of talk time, which should be good enough to last you more than a day of use.

Like many of Samsung's touchscreen handsets, the Rogue offers plenty of niceties on the front end, beginning with numerous widgets across a sliding toolbar.  You get the whole works of basic phone capabilities, including stereo Bluetooth, onboard apps (document viewers and such) and more.  Messaging suite is naturally complete, with SMS, MMS, IM (AIM, Windows Live and YM), visual voicemail and email (via mobile e-mail, corporate e-mail and mobile Web e-mail).  Some of the services do cost extra, though, so check your plan before activating.    The four-row QWERTY keyboard is spacious and responsive, making for a great time typing out messages.

More premium features include a 3.0 megapixel camera module (very impressive photo quality), high-speed internet connectivity (allowing for fast downloads and streaming), full HTML browsing (Flash support is limited, but works with YouTube and a few other video sites) and GPS (with VZ Navigator).  Multimedia is a particular strength for the device, offering an excellent music player and a decent video app.  It can play H.264 clips, which look incredible on the AMOLED display.  Streaming video isn't the best quality, however.

Available for $99 on Verizon (after a $100 rebate), the Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 comes in as one of the best messaging feature phones around.  The AMOLED screen, great camera performance and well-designed keyboard guarantee that this handset will be well worth the price.

Samsung Galaxy i7500 Sports Gorgeous AMOLED Screen And 5MP Camera, Leaves Android Untouched

i7500

Samsung has always been an equal opportunity handset maker.  If you build the OS, they'll probably make a phone for it.  Adding to their roster of Symbian and Windows Mobile devices is a new Android handset called the Samsung Galaxy i7500.

What Samsung did here, in a nutshell, is put together a beefy hardware set, all while leaving the core OS alone.  That's right - Android gets neither modifications nor a skinning, making the whole thing feel like a half-hearted effort at best.

The Galaxy's crowning feature here is not Google's smartphone OS at all, but the gorgeous AMOLED touchscreen display.  Images are sharp, bright and vivid, making it a joy to use the device.  Overall physical appearance is more toned down (bordering on boring, in fact), compared to the current crop of Android phones, but build is solid.

As a phone, the Galaxy manages very good quality of voice calls, although the speakerphone is a tad lacking.  Battery is a little disappointing, though, as you'll have to recharge almost everyday if you use your phone a lot.  The onscreen keyboard, by the way, is a little daunting, due to the poor design.  Once you get used to it (and I'm guessing it will take a week minimum), however, it should be tolerable, as the facility is very responsive.

Like we said, Samsung spruced up the hardware somewhat here, as evidenced by both the AMOLED display and the excellent camera module.  Sporting 5.0 megapixels and a LED photo light, it manages very good outdoor photos.  Indoor shots could work too using the LED, but you'll need to inch closer to your subjects for decent stills.  Camcorder feature is forgettable.  Other features here include HSPA connectivity, 8GB of onboard storage and microSDHC expansion (up to 32GB).

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy i7500 is made attractive, in large part, by the beautiful screen and the camera module.  The Android implementation, however, is a bit disappointing, receiving no extra accouterment whatsoever.  As Samsung's first effort, though, it likely makes more sense to pass up on this one and wait for future releases on the platform instead (a TouchWiz for Android sounds mighty nice).

Samsung S3650 Corby: Low Price, Fresh Looks, Great Value

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There's little question who the Samsung  S3650 Corby is geared to, clad in a rounded shape and interchangeable, colorful back panels. As an entry-level touchscreen, there isn't anything fancy to look forward to, but the feature set is decidedly complete for its purposes.

Chief on the Corby's list of capabilities is a number of integrated social talents, along with the usual set of standard touchscreen phone goodness.  To get a clearer idea of what's inside, it offers a good number of software innovations you can find in the more expensive Samsung Jet, giving it a small leg up over other devices that  it directly competes with.

Physically, the S3650 offers an odd design that many have dismissed as less than stylish, compared to Samsung's other efforts.  Personally, I found it good-looking, despite the obvious likeness to a bar of soap (which, in all fairness, it really does resemble).

A 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen dominates the front panel, featuring standard QVGA resolution.  Quality is decent, but performance dips heavily under sunlight.  Hardware build feels a little too much on the plastic side and weight is a tad too light, although it offers a good feel in the hand.

As a phone, the Corby comes with excellent quality voice calls, along with above average speakerphone performance.  It comes with the usual set of basic phone features including a terrific messaging suite, but does without any smart dialing.  Being the smallest TouchWiz phone around, the interface remains surprisingly robust.  In fact, I enjoyed it more than many of Samsung's phones because of the finger-friendly response (most of the company's handsets sport a resistive display).   It comes with all of the modern touches available from the UI, including multi-tasking, tabbed browsing and smart unlock, except for an onscreen QWERTY (which is a pretty glaring omission).

On the features end, the phone sports a 2.0 megapixel camera (average quality shots, no autofocus), excellent music capabilities (both on the audio player and FM radio) and decent video playback.  While it fits in the excellent Dolfin web browser, you'll hardly want to use it, as the S3650 is restricted to EDGE connectivity (no 3G and no Wi-Fi).  Do note there's no microUSB support here, as Samsung reverts back to their old proprietary data connections.

Overall, the Samsung  S3650 Corby still offers plenty for the ridiculously low cost it commands.  Priced at around $250 unlocked (or more, depending on where you purchase), it's an excellent and attractive phone for those shopping on a budget.

LG GW520 : The Cookie Gets A QWERTY, Becomes A Messaging Phone

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The LG GW520 takes the Cookie's highly-acclaimed look and feel, throwing in a full QWERTY keyboard for a more complete messaging experience.  It's a brilliant move for the company, bringing all the great things we've previously seen from the mid-range touchscreen device, while marketing it to a completely new crowd.

Like the handset that spawned it, the GW520 touts a minimalist yet attractive design.  The color combinations are fresh without going overboard - something that even young people (its likely targets) can appreciate.  Handling is near-perfect, slide action is smooth and the overall build is sturdy.  It's a bit on the thick side, but that can easily be forgiven with everything else it brings to the table.

The 2.8-inch TFT touch display (400 x 240 pixels) is good, although sunlight performance is just average.  We've seen better.  Thankfully, the QWERTY keypad is commendable, with good spacing and nice response.

As a phone, the GW520 fits in all the basic phone features and manages great voice calls. Speakerphone was particularly impressive, packing one of the best we've used on a mid-range touchscreen handset.  It uses LG's latest Flash-based UI, which is very fast and responsive.  One downside here is the lack of expansion for the homescreen widgets - you're stuck with whatever's onboard till eternity (or until you buy a new phone, which will probably be in a year or two).

On the features end, we'll start with what's missing: Wi-Fi and GPS.  If you can live without those two, it fits in enough to satisfy most of what you could be looking for in your next feature phone.

Messaging, for one, is great.  It comes with support for the usual suspects, namely SMS, MMS, IM and email.  You can use the onscreen T9-style keypad for typing or go horizontal with the QWERTY panel.  Email is particularly robust, offering support for POP3 and IMAP4, SSL, document attachments (no archive files, sorry) and push email.

Multimedia is something we weren't expecting to be a particularly strong suit, but it turned out great.  In fact, I'd say the quality is on par with some of LG's more expensive touchscreen phones.  The music player sports a gorgeous interface with a good amount of settings, while the phone offered great audio quality (excellent loudspeaker too).  Video playback was not as notable, although it's about average for a mid-ranger.  It's also got an FM tuner with RDS.  Just a note, there's a feature to capture screenshots of videos you're playing, which was particularly entertaining.

The 3.0 megapixel camera is just average (with a moderate amount of editing options), especially since it doesn't come with any sort of flash.  It also shoots QVGA video with regular quality.  For web connectivity, the phone supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA, along with a good browser that comes with zoom controls, landscape mode, dual tabs and offline saving.  There's no embedded Flash support, so you'll have to make do with the streaming mobile version of your favorite video sites.

Overall, the LG GW520 easily comes in as one of the most enticing mid-range touchscreen phones today.  The inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard, along with heavy messaging support, makes it one of the more versatile handsets at its price (around $350 unlocked, depending on where you buy).

LG Chocolate BL40 Is A Gorgeous Phone With Excellent Multimedia

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Tall and slim, the LG Chocolate BL40 is one of the most surprising cell phone releases of the year.  Who would have thought that anyone was actually releasing a handset with an ultra-wide 21:9 aspect ratio display?

On its own, the huge 4-inch screen is enough to pique anyone's interest.  Combined with the unusually tall shape, slim lines and stylish black profile, it's easily one of the most eye catching phones of recent times.  To our surprise, the BL40 isn't uncomfortable to use at all.  In fact, it feels good in the hand, a testament to LG's impressive design effort.

The capacitive touchscreen (800 x 345 pixels), being the centerpiece of the phone, is stunning.  It's very good news, considering that it's being touted as the ultimate movie viewing handset, able to display a full cinematic image without cropping, like every other multimedia phone does.

For regular use, you'll probably end up loving it too, especially with the built-in multi-touch support.  The  S-Class UI is a bit too busy to my liking (too much going on), but has definitely improved from previous versions (like from the KM900 Arena, for instance).  While portrait viewing isn't the best (it's very narrow) for some applications (such as web browsing), the landscape mode creates some very interesting interface conveniences (such as the split screen messaging screen, with contacts on one side and messages on the other, just like desktop software).  Of course, bringing up the QWERTY panel on landscape also provides instant problems as they take up a huge chunk of the vertical screen space.

As a phone, the Chocolate BL40 offers excellent call quality, along with around six hours of talk time.  Expect to charge it every night or two, depending on how much you abuse media viewing (it's a gorgeous screen, so you should).

Features are packed heavily on the phone.  Users get full quad-band support, together with HSDPA and Wi-Fi internet access.  Both audio and video playback are topnotch, with wide file support (including DivX and Xvid), making this arguably one of the best multimedia handsets today.

The 5.0 megapixel camera is decidedly better than most cell phone optics, with excellent image quality and a good range of settings.  Other features include aGPS, stereo Bluetooth, an FM radio and an optional TV out.

Gorgeous and powerful, the LG Chocolate BL40 is an excellent handset.  While S-Class UI still suffers from some weaknesses (including occasional sluggishness), overall phone experience is very positive.  If you don't mind the extra length, which makes it impossible to carry in most front pockets, you'll probably find this to be a satisfying purchase.