I have seen a lot of phones ending up with wrong names and the Samsung Intensity II is one of them. This phone has a full QWERTY keyboard but I would still call it entry level basic handset because of the features that it has to offer. There is nothing ‘intense’ on this handset. Maybe Samsung put in such a name in order to make a good first impression on the customers. The only ‘intense’ feature, in terms of design is the electric color which is quite good. I would recommend this phone to youngsters who are purchasing a handset for the first time. Samsung Intensity II has a 2.2 inches screen with good resolution. It would make no sense to ask for a really high resolution since this is an entry level phone and the screen size is small. The colors look bright and the text is readable too. The unique thing here is the menu interface which has pictures instead of standard list. Some might think this is a bit childish but for me, it makes the phone lively. Samsung  [...]

When I first saw this phone, I thought it was phone made exclusively for senior citizens. But then I went through it and saw that it had lots useful features. It is a basic phone but doesn’t have those typical boring looks of an entry level handset. This phone doesn’t have a camera but I won’t call this a deal breaker. This phone is made for people who just want to make phone calls and maybe send some text messages. The large font and the big dial pad keys are really cool, they make typing a lot easier. This phone is yours for $39.99 and you will have to sign a two year service agreement with the service provider. I won’t call this phone the perfect entry level gadget – there are some problems with call quality but it is still acceptable. Samsung Haven is 3.92 inches tall, 0.72 inch thick and 2 inches wide. The phone is not that heavy at 3.49 ounces. This handset looks quite attractive with the black pinstripe accents,  [...]

It has almost been a year since Samsung brought their first Android phone, Samsung Moment to the market. Since then, the company has been making a lot of Android phones. The display of this handset is 3.2 inches big but it is not AMOLED screen. The text seems a bit fuzzy but that is not a big issue. The phone has a responsive and smooth capacitive touch screen display and the pinch to zoom feature works really well, courtesy of Android 2.1. The gesture will be really useful when you will use the Web browser. The accelerometer is also there but you don't get it in all the applications. However, you will it for apps like photo gallery and browser. Beneath the display, there are Android sensor hot keys which are laid out in a row. They relate to search, back key, home and menu. Long press of the home button gets you the task manager and it shows you the apps that are running. You can also easily handle your multitasking work from here. But, I found that there was a lot of lag when I closed  [...]

When Samsung came up with Blue Earth, it became one of the few manufacturers to jump on eco friendly bandwagon. It had solar panels on the back. Then the company came out with Samsung Reclaim which was partially made up of recycled materials. Restore is Reclaim's successor but with a different look. This handset is made up of 27 percent recycled material and 77 percent of its parts can be recycled, if you decide to throw it. There are no hazardous materials used in this phone, like PVC and the packaging is made up of recycled paper. Finally, the charger is Energy Star certified. Apart from those 'green' features, this is a pretty normal handset made for messaging enthusiasts. It has stereo Bluetooth, 2.0 megapixel camera, music player, EV-Do, GPS and full sized QWERTY keyboard. The cost of this phone is $49.99 and you have to sign a two year contract  [...]

Samsung makes a lot of phones just for small service operators like MetroPCS and U.S. Cellular and this latest phone by this company is another example of that. Both this and the Messager II are entry level phones and the design is quite similar to Rant, also by the same company. Rant had a slide out QWERTY keyboard along with external number keypad. But Messager Touch does something different; it has a full sliding keyboard, touch screen coupled with the trademark Samsung TouchWiz feature. The look is sleek as compared to its predecessors. This is a pretty decent phone for people who message a lot. The cost of this handset is $49.99 with mail in rebate and after a two year contract. Samsung Messager Touch SCH-R630 has a 2.6 inch display with resolution of 240x320 pixels and supports 262,000 colors. You can change the dial font size, backlight time, lock screen font color. The phone has a resistive touch screen so don't expect an iPhone like experience on the screen. You will have to press  [...]

Touch screen is basically a high end or smart phone phenomenon but that doesn’t mean it cannot be offered on midrange phones. Samsung Sleek is an excellent example of this. It is more of a messaging phone made for social networking freaks. You have a full sized QWERTY keyboard for typing out those lengthy messages and the touch screen display too is good. The handset gives basic multimedia features like music player and 1.3 mega pixel camera. Apart from that, there are no advanced features on this cell phone. If you are looking for a mid range multimedia phone, this device will fit the bill perfectly. This gadget is yours for $79.99 and Sprint asks you to sign a two year contract. The 2.6 inch QVG display of the phone has a resolution of 240x320 pixels with 262k color support. You can adjust the screen’s touch sensitivity, brightness, and backlight time. This is not a capacitive display so you will need to press a bit harder. But the experience was still good and there  [...]

Samsung has made lots of touch screen phones featuring full sized QWERTY keyboards and not all of them have been successful in the market. Before this, we got the Samsung Glyde (also by Verizon) and it came with lots of drawbacks. We also got the Samsung Impression from AT&T in our labs for review and that phone was a bit better. Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 is better than the two aforementioned devices. It has a touch screen along with QWERTY keyboard but apart from that, you will love the gorgeous AMOLED touch screen. There are other goodies in the phone like voice dialing and 3.5 mm headphones jack. It also has lots of high end features like EV-DO Rev. A, full HTML browser along with Flash Lite support, GPS, etc. This phone costs $99.99 and you have to sign a two year contract after $100 mail in rebate. This means the phone is quite affordable. But this phone needs a data plan and you need to play separately for that, 75MB/month plan costs $19.99 and 25 MB/month plan costs $9.99.

There are not a lot of cell phones under U.S. Cellular’s repertoire but they are slowly starting to increase these days. Samsung Exec is the latest addition to its collection. This phone is available for $99.95 and you have to sign a two year contract after a mail in rebate of $70. This is a sleek smartphone made for people who message a lot, and it has an excellent keyboard and the multimedia and productivity features too are impressive. The performance of the phone doesn’t suffer due to the extensive feature set and the handset handles applications quite well. We will recommend this phone as an alternative to the RIM BlackBerry Tour 9630. Samsung Acclaim and HTC Desire are hitting the market soon and they these two will compete with this handset so it will be interesting to see what features they have to offer. Both these phones belong to U.S. Cellular and come with Android OS. The feature set is enhanced and there is more power so it will be worth waiting for those phones. Both the  [...]