Kin Two (Verizon Wireless)
For:
Gives easy access to social networking sites and contacts, integrated with Zune and Zune pass, all the phone’s data is backed up by Kin Studio
Against:
Doesn’t have IMclients or calendar app, user interface takes a time to get used to, photos cannot be uploaded to Twitter, image quality of the camera is sub par, you need a data plan,
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
Kin Two has a 3.4 inches capacitive touch screen with 320×480 pixels resolution. It has a full QWERTY keyboard, accelerometer, multi touch input method and proximity sensor. The handset comes with 3.5 mm headphones jack. For storing music, photos, etc, there is eight GB internal memory along with 256 MB RAM. Other features include WLAN, 3G, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth, and Infrared.
The handset has eight MP camera with maximum resolution of 3264×2448 pixels. It also has LED flash and autofocus. Other features include smile and face detection and geo tagging. The processor is 600MHz processor based on Nvidia Tegra platform. Supported music formats are eAAC+, WMA, WAV and MP3. Supported video formats are H.263, H.264, WMV and MP4. The phone offers Twitter and Facebook integration. MS Office (PDF viewer, OneNote, PowerPoint, Excel, and Word) and YouTube client are integrated.
The phone is based on 1390 mAh lithium ion battery with standby time of 232 hours.
Razzle Dazzle:
The design of Kin Two is quite similar to other touch slider phones in the market. There is some branding on the back but other than that, the phone is pretty much nondescript. The handset is 4.25 inches tall, 0.75 inch thick, 2.5 inches wide and weighs around 4.7 ounces. It does feel hefty but also adds to the sturdiness.
Inside Dope:
We have already reviewed Kin One here and the small size of the device did puzzle us a bit. This phone has standard design, but still is targeted only at youngsters. Both these phones give instant access to your favorite friends and you can constantly stay in touch with them through social networking integration. The user experience is also different than standard cell phones. Success of such phones depend largely on their pricing as well as data plans. Verizon Wireless is providing service for this phone and Kin Two was offered at $149.99 along with a two year contract and after $100 mail in rebate. Verizon announced a change in price; Kin Two now costs $99.99 (Kin One’s price, on the other hand, has come down from $79.99 to $49.99). Both these phones require a fee of $29.99 a month for unlimited data plan which is similar to other smartphones from Verizon Wireless. We are skeptical about the success of these phones in the market especially since these handsets are targeted at youngsters who might not have a stable income source.
Display
We really liked the big screen of the Kin Two, it has a 3.4 inch capacitive touch screen display which gives you more real estate than that of Kin One. The screen is also relatively sharper and comes with a built in accelerometer which gives you a landscape mode when you tilt the phone. The phone was quick in changing orientation and we didn’t have any performance issues.
Navigation array and keyboard
You can access the keyboard of the Kin Two by just sliding the screen to the right. The sliding of the phone is smooth and it locks securely at the ends. This keyboard is pretty much like that of Sidekick LX which doesn’t surprise us since both these phones are from Sharp. The buttons are circular and feel small but there is plenty of spacing between them for avoiding mishits. You get shortcut buttons for emoticons, search and phone app.
Scrolling experience on the Kin Two wasn’t as smooth as that of Kin One. Scrolling through long lists is a pain but you can pinch and zoom in just like iPhone. There is just one physical button below the display and it is used for going back to the previous screen. We would have appreciated a home button, just like that of iPhone since you will have to hit the back button repeatedly if you are deep in the menus.
Phone book and PIM features
The Kin Two’s phone book is limited only by the internal memory. A single entry can take multiple numbers, custom ringtones, e-mail addresses, birthdays, photos and more. If you friend have an account on MySpace or Facebook and if you have synced it, you can open individual entry and swipe to right for viewing info on the contact which is pulled from the networking sites.
Performance
Kin Two has a 600MHz Tegra APX2600 processor which didn’t live up to your expectation. The speed was much slow as compared to other smartphones; there were delays while launching apps and switching screens. We were also frustrated by the unnecessary transition screens while opening the apps. All these problems are small though, and they won’t be a deal breaker.
Camera
Kin One had a five megapixel camera, Kin Two has eight megapixel camera. The internal memory is also increased to 8 GB as compared to Kin One’s 4 GB. Kin Two can shoot HD video. Owing to the increased resolution, the quality of images is also much better. But it doesn’t live up to the eight MP tag. The image quality is soft and the colors look a bit washed out. HD video clips looked like SD ones.
Call quality
Call quality of this phone was quite decent. There was some background hissing but it wasn’t that disturbing. Our friend, on the other end, weren’t that impressed by the call quality and they said that a sound was muffled.
Battery life
Kin Two has a 1,390 mAh lithium ion battery we haven’t tested the phone for talk time yet but the rated standby time is 9.6 days. We will update this section as soon as we finish our battery tests.
Verdict:
Kin Two is a step up over Kin One in terms for features. But it is hard to recommend this phone especially since there are other smart phones, from the same service provider which give you a lot more at the same price.
